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[Creature Of Darkness]
Plot:Centers on a man who dreams that he and friends will die at the hands of a brutal, otherworldly creature.
Cast:Devon Sawa,
Fernanda Romero,
Dan White,
Siena Goines,
Kevin Alejandro,
Jennifer Howie,
Ryan Judd,
Matthew Lawrence,
Sanoe Lake.
My Thoughts:Decent creature-feature indie.
Review:"Creature Of Darkness" stars Devon Sawa, a guy pretty familiar with the horror genre. Sawa starred in "Final Destination", and after that, appeared in ''Devil's Den" with Ken Foree and Kelly Hu. In this film, he plays a young man who has recurring nightmares of a vicious alien creature. His friends, who are into the dirt-biking dune-buggy all-terrain thing, take him out for a camping trip to help him get over his issues.
However, the trip turns bad when the very creature he's been having nightmares about, actually shows up. This movie could've easily been a SyFy original, as it involves a monster from outerspace, preying upon humans, but the film actually uses creature fx (rubber suit, etc.), for it's monster, so that right there lends it some seriously needed credibility. Then there's the monster itself. It has all the markings of a killer alien beast.
And it would've been really easy to make the movie about an alien beast ripping apart teenagers who were in the wrong place at the wrong time. But "Creature Of Darkness" takes a different tack with it's story, the monster itself, the big end twist, and the revelation as to why the monster is on earth, and is pursuing this particular group of young people. The twist at times can seem cheesy, but I found it moreso clever and atleast unique.
I mean, it beats another horror film where the alien is just here to wreak havoc, shred, kill, and devour people. I mean how many times have we seen that before? And the best thing this movie does, is not heavily involve the U.S. military or the U.S. government. I don't think I could stand another sci-fi/horror film where shady old white guys speak in "covert" terminology, and dispatch some cold, calculating soldier to make sure those pesky kids don't tell the world about aliens.
Again, this is another route the movie could've gone, but thankfully, chose not to. There's not much blood and gore in this film, it's not a movie where the alien rips people apart, kills without reason, etc. But, the movies setting, which is the rocky terrain of a mountainous part of Arizona, coupled with a lot of night time scenes, make the film a modestly entertaining and overall likeable viewing experience.
The acting is pretty decent also, and Sawa does a good job in his role, but the cast is nicely backed up up by a cast of young and mostly unknown actors. Sawa is the only familiar face in this movie when it comes to mainstream movie-watchers, but he's certainly not relegated to carrying the entire movie on his own. Always a disasterous scenario, especially with an indie production. But luckily in this films case, they found Sawa some decent talent with the supporting cast.
The characters themselves are also pretty well developed, and tolerable, and smart even. These kids don't just run around and get picked off one by one, but rather try and figure out what they're dealing with, and then come up with various plans, ways, and ideas to ultimately defeat it. So if you're worried about seeing a movie where the teens are as dumb as a box of rocks, and easy prey for the alien hunter, well then you're in luck. Because this isn't one of those kinds of movies.
The films finale is not extremely intense, nor is it as intense as it could've/should've been, but nonetheless, it works within the structure of the overall movie. Albeit the films leaves a lot of questions unanswered with it's ambiguous final scene. Overall though, it's definitely an indie B-horror/sci-fi film worth renting for a Saturday night or afternoon even.
Positives:Sawa's performance is good, as is the performances of most of the supporting cast. The alien is an interesting creature with some ultra-interesting motives. The desert-like terrain was a different kind of setting for a movie of this nature, and it worked really well. The characters were tolerable, likeable, and smart. And the film was pretty well directed.
Negatives:Needed atleast two or three gory scenes to add an edge to things, and the ending leaves the viewer hanging a bit too much.
Overall:Three out of four stars.
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