Creature made a lot of headlines this year; not because of how good it was, but because of how awful it did at the box office. In two weeks, Creature managed to pull in just $509,000, despite being released on over 1,500 movie screens. This, mixed with bad reviews, made critics and horror fans ask – Is Creature the worst film ever? Well, two things are for certain. 1) Creature had the #2 worst opening weekend in box office history and 2) it had the #5 worst opening ever. But, is it the worst film ever? Hardly…
In Creature, six friends head on a road trip for some vacation time in New Orleans. On their way to the destination they decide to stop at a local urban legend spot – Grimley’s House, the home of a supposed half man-half alligator creature. As if you couldn’t figure out where it goes from there… The group then decides they’d rather camp out in front of the abandoned house instead of returning to their vehicle. Ok, really, do I need to keep describing the plot? I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now.
Now, cinematically Creature is right up there with Hatchet production-wise. Their filming is similar, at least in my opinion, and the quality is the same. One thing Creature doesn’t have is the outstanding gore that Hatchet does. The gore in Creature is very uncreative and quite minimal. You would think with a half man-half gator creature and a bunch of incest loving hillbillies there would be some sort of awesome carnage. But, alas, at least there are a couple chase scenes to keep the slasher type fans amused.
The acting here is pretty good, too. I mean, it’s an indie horror film so was anyone expecting Oscar worthy material? Everyone pulls their own weight so there really isn’t a stand out; just some actors with more screen time than others. Horror actor Sig Haig (House of 1000 Corpses and Devil’s Rejects) is a main character in Creature. Another notable appearance includes Mehcad Brooks, who was a main character in Desperate Housewives, The Game, True Blood, and Necessary Roughness. Serinda Swan is another main character who looks a lot like Lindsey Lohan and appeared in Beyond Loch Ness, Lightning Thief, and Tron. Aaron Hill plays a marine in the film and has appeared in Greek, Transformers, and Lost At Home.
Just to summarize my notes real quick… The first girl to die in the film does so because she goes swimming in an open bayou. Take away the creature for a second, who does that anyway knowing alligators are real? Oh! Yeah, this reminds me… The script is a little dicey! There’s a plot point where one of the characters is clearly a villain, but then she gets kidnapped and becomes a new victim. I didn’t get what was happening so maybe someone who reads this would be kind enough to comment and let me know.
At the end of the day, the only reason I saw Creature was because I got my hands on a screener. Currently, I don’t believe Creature has been released in any other form since being ripped out of theaters. When it comes out, will I buy it? No. Was it worth watching once? Yes. But I’d recommend buying it for cheap on RedBox or Amazon, if it ever comes out again that is. Was it the worst film ever? No. Was it a decent creature feature? Yes.
