You have to give the writers and producers at least some credit for daring to release a horror movie that is called "It Waits". That's like openly claiming: our movie will be boring and don't pretend we didn't warn you in the title. The good news, however, is that "IT" (which is this time a mythological Indian demon instead of Pennywise the Clown) only waits for a good half hour until the inevitable dramatic sub plot and dull character drawings are over and done with before going on its outrageous murderous rampage. I even daresay "It Waits" is a fairly enjoyable creature feature as long as you manage to look past all the dreadful genre clichés and nonsensical plot elements. The central character is a young and hot Canadian ranger stationed in a tower post somewhere in the middle of an extensive forest. Poor Danielle St. Claire drinks a lot of Vodka because she can't deal with being responsible for the death of her best friend in a car accident. This means that for the first half hour, "It Waits" only features dull guilty speeches and a forced dramatic atmosphere. Danielle's traumas all become meaningless when she and her boyfriend Justin face the bloody battle with a demon that accidentally got unleashed from its prison cave and now runs amok in the woods. There's a terribly lame sub plot trying to trick us into believing the mythological creature actually feeds and strengthens on misery and sadness (and thus Danielle herself attracts it), but I strongly advise you to disregard the ludicrous dialogs and fully focus on the special effects and gory massacres. "It Waits" borrows ideas and elements from at least a dozen of other (and more successful) horror movies, but hey, you've surely seen a lot worse already and at least the second half provides plenty of carnage and the creature's design is reasonably horrific. The filming location is stupendous and reminded me of those glorious early 80's slasher movies that also entirely took place in forestry regions, like "Just before Dawn" and "The Final Terror". Cerina Vincent isn't very believable as a park ranger heroine, but she has obvious other qualities like her incredible good look and an impressive rack. Yes, I am aware that's a shallow remark but it had to be said! Besides, her tight ranger outfit as well as the smooth cinematography leave no opportunity untaken to emphasize her yummy boobs, neither.
Add a Review
-
Coventry14 September 2008
-
dr-andreas4 November 2006Casual channel surfing this morning-and ended up watching this On SciFi Channel. I was kind of impressed- The main character's angst and predicament and her guts in confronting the bad stuff reminded me of Siggy Weaver's Ripley character. I liked the setting and the Ranger stuff. I liked Dr Riverwind(for all of 5 minutes). The character parts of the story were more interesting than the actual "horror movie" stuff. Actually made me care enough to sweat out the action sequences. I was curious who the writer was and when I saw Richard Matheson it confirmed my suspicions that this script was not dreamed up in a frat house over a vat of vodka jello shots but was the work of a decent writer. I thought Cerina did a great job in her portrayal.
And Hoppy ROCKS! He and Jonesie from Alien should get together someday( over vodka jello shots) and trade war-stories. -
Phillemos21 September 2006Simply put, there are only two reasons why I got to see this to the end. One, it's one of those flicks where they purposely don't show the creature until the very end (we're talking, 20 minutes left in the movie). And two, Cerina Vincent has great legs. Other than that, this is a REALLY weird movie. It's very disarticulated, there are scenes that just seem completely random -- Cerina having flashbacks about the car accident in which she killed her friend Jules, the Native American professor dude who seems to know everything about the creature, the scenes with Cerina's boy-toy who tries to take her mind off Jules (and who promptly gets decapitated by the creature about halfway through the movie). The movie moves very slowly, which made my mind wander (did I mention Cerina Vincent has great legs?) And the monster looks like the younger sister of the monster from "Jeepers Creepers." "It Waits" is not a horrible movie, but don't expect to be scared out of your wits, or glued to your TV. Only Cerina brings this movie up to a 4.
-
efetler30 October 2006Okay - I realize this movie belongs to a genre that is, for the most part, immune to scrutiny. Nevertheless, it is always disappointing to see the same ridiculous clichés about stupid people doing stupid things in order to give the unseen monster easy pickings (not to mention to keep the writer, director, and producer from exerting themselves by actually trying to think up a fresh idea.) How many times do we need to see someone skipping out into the woods in the middle of the night when they know there's a monster bumping people off? Or the contrived love scene (after a bloody discovery) designed to show off the lead actress's exquisite breasts? And the talking bird sidekick? Bottom line: bad acting, worse script - would have been more satisfying to see everyone killed in the first five minutes and then watch the monster wander around aimlessly in the woods for a few hours.
-
gtc8311 September 2006This is about a girl who takes a job as a forest ranger up in some remote area. She spends the whole first half of the movie wallowing in a pool of alcohol and self pity because she caused the death of her best friend in a drunk driving accident. We don't know originally that she caused the accident, but it's a "big revelation" when it's finally discovered. Like we didn't see that coming. If you like watching a girl walk around in drunken anguish feeling sorry for herself for what seems like endless hours, you'll love this. We're also lucky enough to get flashbacks - numerous, uncountable flashbacks - of the accident. We get a whole pile of them at the beginning of the movie, then when she's whining and crying and relating the whole story to her boyfriend, we get a whole pile of them again.
Oh, wait, is there supposed to be some horror aspect to this thing? Yes, there's some critter who likes to play pranks on her by climbing up on the roof of her ranger station and conveniently wrecking the radio antenna. It generally makes a lot of noise but never attacks her. Funny, it kills all the miscellaneous folks out in the woods, but chooses just to pull pranks on her. Oh wait, that's because, as is explained by the requisite secondary character who conveniently appears just to tell her "the secret", she's "at the center" of this thing. How is she at the center? What special connection does she have to the beast? Your guess is as good as mine.
It's unfortunate, because there's some really beautiful scenery in this thing, and the setting, up high in the air in a ranger tower, could have been very effective - if it weren't housing someone who spent the whole movie whining and crying and having flashbacks to something utterly unrelated to the story at hand.
The second half of the movie picks up a bit as the monster chases the girl around the woods. This at least stops her from wallowing in her pool of self pity for a few minutes. Unfortunately just when things seem to be picking up, we get this truly awful theme music, enough to completely ruin this part of the movie. Think Joan Baez on whiskey and tranquilizers. Even though the girl doesn't have time to cry and whine, the theme music does it for her. This kills any possibility of excitement or suspense and shifts your attention to wondering what the director could possibly have been thinking when he chose this crap.
The ending, where the girl comes to grips with her guilt; oh good grief. It's so predictable and so stupid I just had to laugh. Overall, I couldn't watch more than a few minutes of this thing at a time. It's like they had no idea what direction they wanted to go with this. An atmospheric thriller, a teen sex romp, a Lifetime Movie of the Week, a killer critter in the woods movie; they just tossed all the elements in a blender and the mangled remains is what appears on screen. -
ledragonquidort26 October 2005Okay, if this contains any spoilers at all they won't be too extensive since I have to admit that I could only stomach just over 30 minutes of this dross. The first 20 minutes plays out like a weakly dramatised infomercial on the dangers of drink driving, the two characters we have a handle on by this time are about as deep as a cookie tray, seem to have an almost fatal case of the clichés and just as "she" confesses to "he" that she was responsible for her best friend's (and his girl friend's) death - what do they do? They jump into the sack for some well covered soft core, that's what! - the creature is basically introduced as someone with a breathing problem running around with a shaky camera, hiding in the scrub and generally exuding bad attitude... when it gives our "heroes" a scare naturally they reach for the bottle of booze. At this point I switched off and for a few seconds I thought about making it my purpose in life to warn everyone off buying or renting this movie - I gave it a rating of 1 for the nice forest scenery and the silly parrot with the fake voice. Avoid!
-
claudio_carvalho9 August 2007The lonely forest ranger Danielle St. Claire (Cerina Vincent) works alone in Tower 19 of the Forestry Department of a remote National Park. Danny is grieving the loss of her best friend Julie Cassidy (Miranda Frigon) and is tormented by the feeling of guilty, since she was responsible for the death of her girlfriend. While driving Julie's car after drinking in a bar, she had an accident but she did not assume that she was driving. When a group of students releases a demon trapped in a mystical cave, the creature attacks tourists nearby her tower and later her boyfriend Justin Rawley (Dominic Zamprogna). Without communication or means of transportation, Danny fights to survive while the monster is attracted by her sadness.
"It Waits" is a reasonable low budget movie that gives the sensation of déjà vu since it uses many clichés of the horror genre. Further, the demon is a rip-off of The Creeper of "Jeepers Creepers" and when the creature attacks Danny, it recalls the famous scene of "Alien" and Lt. Ripper. Cerina Vincent is extremely sexy and has a good performance, attracting the creature not because of her beauty but her pain and misery for the loss of her close friend. My vote is five.
Title (Brazil): "À Espera do Mal" ("Waiting for the Evil") -
theverydarkestangel2 November 2006I am a HUGE Horror Buff...and always hope the next horror flick in my NETFLIX queue will scare the hell outta me! Ha. Jeepers Creepers scared the hell outta me. 'It Waits' did not! Sigh!
*** THE FOLLOWING SYNOPSIS MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS ***
Cerina Vincent reminded (reminds?) me of Eliza Dushku of Wrong Turn/Tru Calling fame...or maybe Gina Philips--of Jeepers Creepers (JC) fame. The 'boyfriend' reminded me of Justin Long (as Gina Philips brother in JC). The Winged Monster reminded me of the monster in JC--but not as scary, when fully viewed....about two-thirds into the somewhat silly and wayyyy toooo l-o-n-g of a movie.
It was very s-l-o-w, almost painfully so, the first hour--but when the Native American professor appeared AND explained where the monster came from, etc...the movie picked up pace. Sure, much of who the monster killed AND didn't kill made no sense. Sure, Cerina Vincent didn't seem plausible as a Park Ranger. Sure the bird was a stupid aside. But, the Canadian scenery made the entire movie viewable--for me, anyway!
Certainly NOT the worst Horror flick I've watched, but I believe it had unexplored/unimplemented possibilities which could have made it great! 5 stars for trying hard. -
KillerCadugen8 June 2006This movie is the reason why I scour the video store shelves for low budget horror flicks. Most of the time, of course, I am sadly disappointed but other times - like this - I am pleasantly surprised. Considering Richard Christian Matheson wrote the story I was fairly confident, although it is a rather pedestrian story about an ancient Indian demon, inadvertently released from a cave, wreaking havoc on a mountainside. A female park ranger, wrestling with her own demons, has to find the ability to battle this monster and save herself. The horror elements were standard and fairly well done and the script, while spotty, was okay. "It Waits" is decent horror fare, better than some of the dreck that is getting released in movie theaters.
-
OK, but basically an average horror movie.
The most-excellent Cerina Vincent makes this better than it has any right to be.
I was not aware that US Forest Service rangers regularly operate hydroelectric generation plants. I also thought that they were armed, but apparently not.
The idea of a ladder-climbing elk is pretty good, though. But I didn't know that elk could turn vehicles over with their antlers. Guess you learn something new every day.
Very non-scary beast/demon/creature. Fortunately, they hold off showing it until a good way into the film.
Again, Cerina Vincent rescues this from the ho-hum. -
maddutchy31 January 2007I finally got to watch this movie in one sitting. I was impressed both with the movie overall and with the actress. The plot kept things moving along at a bearable pace. People acted like real people not like the artificially dumb bunnies that are in most 'horror' films. Cerina Vincent really carried the movie and made her character both believable and sympathetic. "It Waits" is more of a 'character' and love story than a pure 'horror' movie. The same story idea could have worked with a rogue bear besieging the Forest Service employee in the tower rather than an ancient demon. The demon was just more 'fun'. The love scene was very tastefully done. It was probably better on the actors too that there wasn't full nudity considering it was cold enough on set to have their breath fogging every time they spoke! My only technical gripe was with the choice of scoped rifle for the protagonists' firearm. Those were very dense woods but her rifle had an obviously high-powered telescopic sight on it. That would actually hinder shooting at the close ranges in the forest. Couple that with the fact that the Forest Service employee would only need the rifle for defense against rogue animals which would only be taken at close range and one must conclude that the rifle should have had open sights rather than a telescope. I think this comes from most movie people knowing close to nothing about guns and having the idea in their heads that a 'hunting rifle' is a bolt-action with 'scope type. Sorry that I am so picky but it is this way in so many movies. Of course the pre-fused and capped dynamite she used was a stretch too as anyone who handles explosives will tell you. You don't cap and fuse any explosive until just prior to use. Otherwise you risk an unplanned 'loud noise'.
I am glad I got the DVD both for the movie and the extra features on it. -
Vomitron_G15 November 2007For some reason while watching IT WAITS it occurred to me that this movie looks and feels a bit like some sort of 90 minutes long stand alone episode of THE X-FILES (but only without Scully and Mulder running around in it and it's not about aliens either). So that already hints that IT WAITS isn't that bad at all. But as far as 'look & feel' goes, that's where the comparison ends. While on the surface IT WAITS looks like your standard run-of-the-mill creature-in-the-woods feature, it does have a little more to offer. The drama-aspects, predominant in the first half of the movie and coming back with a final twitch in the end, were something you wouldn't exactly expect in the first place from a movie like this and they were even well-developed too. So what am I talking about exactly? I'll keep it vague, so no spoilers. Cerina Vincent (looking good as ever) plays a troubled young ranger, Danielle, coming to terms with her personal demons from the past regarding a traumatic experience and her on-going issues with her boyfriend Justin (played by Dominic Zamprogna, who has a pleasant on-screen charisma). Her location of choice to do all that (and get wasted on alcohol during the process too) is a remote forest outpost. Like I said, the dramatic subplot is interesting, told in a decent fashion and very well portrayed by Miss Vincent. I could only appreciate it, even though I think they over-used the inappropriate tragic/romantic rock songs on the soundtrack.
What about the creature? You very soon learn that it's some demon from a Native American legend. But only later in the movie you learn a bit more about its history and characteristics. The sequence where you learn all that information really felt a bit easy and out-of-place. But I agree that it was necessary to flesh out the character of the creature. The demon-beast itself is a nice creation by Tony Gardner (check out his resumé and you'll find out that the guy always does a good job). It might remind you of The Creeper from JEEPERS CREEPERS mixed with a little bit of PUMPKINHEAD and a face ten times more vicious than any possible demon from the BUFFY series. But it still looks pretty unique. Some of the CGI shots of the creature where a bit less convincing. The kills in this movie are pretty good and gory, and the fun stuff includes that some of the corpses tend to pop up here and there, because our demonoid creature is just a bit more cunning and devious than your average beast.
Another nice touch about IT WAITS is that it's not about a bunch of people (whether it be teenagers or military folks or whatever) fighting some creature in the woods. From the second half of the movie onward, it's Danielle who has to battle it out on her own with the creature. It's Woman vs. Beast here, where the beast could easily be a metaphor for her own dark demons she has got to come to terms with before the movie's closure. And then there's also a nice little supporting role for a parrot! Now if you want to know how all that works out, you'll just have to watch the movie. I liked IT WAITS more than I expected, but I'll try to temper my enthusiasm in my final rating. Because it still remains just an above average creature feature with a few extra merits going for it (the nice cinematography and the beautiful, mist-laden Canadian forests as scenery being two I haven't even mentioned yet). -
poolandrews18 November 2006It Waits starts in the Canadian wilderness deep in some forest where some cavers discover something nasty inside a newly found cave... Jump forward 'Two Months Later' where forest ranger Danielle St. Claire (Cerina Vincent) is stuck in a watch tower on her own grieving for her dead friend who recently died in a car accident which she blames herself for, her friend & fellow forest ranger Justin Rawley (Dominic Zamprogna) joins her in an attempt to cheer her up & get into her bed. However they are not alone as an ancient winged creature terrorises them for reasons I have no idea about other than it's an evil creature & that's what evil creatures do for a living...
Directed by Steven R. Monroe I thought It Waits was average at best. The script by Richard Christian Matheson, Thomas E. Szollosi & Stephen J. Cannell is rather ponderous & pedestrian, in fact the first 20 odd minutes absolutely nothing of merit happens & is a total snooze-fest. Once the creature turns up things begin to pick up although it seems to want to play games with the forest rangers & scare them although it could just as easily kill them & be done with it. We never really learn about the creature, what it is or where it came from. The character's are clichéd & dull, the dialogue isn't anything to write home about & I'll have forgotten everything about them by the end of today & I hated the boring back-story surrounding Danielle & her dead friend. This is also one of those films that spends a lot of time showing people running through a forest doing noting in particular, or that's how it felt. During the final 20 minutes the pace picks up & it becomes a half decent film although I thought it was too little too late. I don't know, I thought it was all very average, it could have been worse but it could have been better.
Director Monroe does a decent job, the scenery is quite nice but but as I said there's too many shots of people walking around. There isn't much atmosphere probably because we know so little about the creature & barely see it until the end & there's no tension or proper scares either. One thing I can say about It Waits is that it has some decent if minor gore effects, while there isn't buckets of blood in it what's here is pretty good including an impalement where someone has a huge branch stuck up their bum in a scene that I'd imagine is a rip-off/homage/reference to Cannibal Holocaust (1980), a decapitated head & their headless body & a couple of mutilated corpses. I think the gore could have been more plentiful but whats here is quite impressive.
With a supposed budget of about $1,200,000 It Waits was a pretty well funded film, I have to say I'd have liked to have seen more for that sort of money. There's barely any actors in it, the special effects are used sparingly, there's no action scenes or explosions & it takes place in exactly the same location throughout so where did the money go? I personally thought the acting was poor from everyone involved & the only character to stand out for me was Hoppy the Parrott, enough said.
It Waits was average at best & a boring repetitive waste of time at worst, in reality I thought it was somewhere between the two. It's an OK way to pass the time but it's utterly forgettable & a tad dull if I'm honest. -
michaelRokeefe14 June 2006A young forest ranger Danielle(Cerina Vincent)uses her lonely outpost to grieve the death of her best friend. In a cave in the forest, a Native American legend comes to life from years of slumber. The creature has already slaughtered campers and hikers and attacks the ranger outpost. The creature slowly stalks and makes her life more miserable. Danielle's boyfriend Justin(Dominic Zamprogna) tries to help to no avail. She must face the wrath of the ruthless monster and destroy the flesh-ripping creature from hell...alone.
This horror flick is better than expected and is given some credibility by being produced by Stephen J. Cannell. Also in the cast: Greg Kean, Miranda Frigon and Eric Schweig. -
Carrigon22 September 2006Is this a horror movie or a soap opera? I don't know. It seems to want to be both, and it fails miserably at both. The movie starts off with some promise. A bunch of college students get killed by a daemon in a cave. But then......so much drama and angst and just bore. Sadly, it could have been good. But the focus was on the lead character being miserable over the accidental death of her best friend, which really had nothing to do with the monster in the woods. There are a few basic horror moments, bodies ripped to pieces and such by the creature. But you don't really care because the movie is so boring and so drawn out, it feels like it takes a hundred years to watch it. It's like the soap opera version of Jeepers Creepers only less interesting, more drawn out. And the ending is horribly unsatisfying. I don't recommend this movie. It's only redeeming quality is the actors were good, but they had such garbage to work with that it just didn't matter in the end. And what a waste of Native American mythology. It's like they only threw it in to get a few more movie goers. That story dies quickly and we never really get into much of it. The movie is a long drawn out waste of time.
-
stoob0t16 October 2020The first 25 minutes plays out like a 'backstory' episode of Greys Anatomy. Corny music curation. Poorly acted out heartfelt confession. Unneccessary candle lit sex scene. You get the idea.
The acting is, and i honestly can't overstate this, absolute crap!
The fx and the creature design are decent enough. Very clearly 'inspired by' Jeepers Creepers, but nothing wrong with that.
If you're after a slasher type creature feature where the bodies pile up and the film hops from gruesome kill to kill, thats not what you're going to get here. The budget just doesnt allow for it.
While the pacing is okay, it never builds any real tension or suspense, and the characters are so wafer-thin that you never remotely care what happens to them either way. What you get is 90 minutes of standard 'running away from monster' film tropes and cliches with no discernible payoff.
Oh, and there's a talking parrot. -
wandernn1-81-68327410 October 2020Okay so at the beginning of this one some people blast an opening to some cave where they find some glyphs / 'ancient markings' .
then we meet Danielle, who apparently works as some Engineer monitoring some dam or something, she has a parrot and loves to drink vodka right out of the bottle.
and JUSTIN, her BF? he has a couple of great lines when they speak
+1 Star for California Elk Pi$$ line
Wait is she not an engineer? She's some forest Ranger? Little bit of huge responsibility for a Forest Ranger to be draining a dam? And I can tell that the way Danielle talks she has no business being a forest ranger anyway. She sounds like a nutter.
-1 Star for Forest Ranger Danny being a nutter......
Apparently Danny's best friend Julie died in a car accident that was Danny's fault and Danny blames herself for her friends death. And Danny is obviously not dykey enough to be a forest ranger either. Anyways at least we get past all the mushy stuff and we get to Justin and Danny doin' it. Will they break the rule??? Yes it appears they will!!!!
-1 Star for a sex scene with absolutely no nudity. We don't approve!
Then somehow all their clothes got back on . There's some creature outside making noise. Justin says that ain't no bear!! He tells Danny to call for help and he gets his rifle!!!
Anyways that crisis passes. Then they meet the token couple hiking in the woods. They warn this couple of the creature that might be out there. Male hiker he doesn't like being warned! And he has a great line!!!
+1 Star for a great line!
Then that couple they run into that creature in the WOODS!!! And they both get a GREAT DEATH!!! And then RANGER TEAM they find their JEEP ripped apart,. And the camper bodies have been stsashed on top of their RANGER TOWER!!! Oh dear this creature is smart too!!! How it hung up that dead couple in the ranger TOWER!!! Wow really they bury this couple?? They got time to dig 2 graves? That's just really dumb. This creature could be anywhere.
-1 Star for not worrying about creature at all who just ripped 2 hikers up hung them up and skinned them
Then it's a good time for flirting and kissing. Danny and Justin just can't keep their hands off each other, despite being in TREMENDOUS FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES!!! IT IS TIME FOR SOME TONGUE HOCKEY!!!
-1 sTAR AGAIN!!!
THEN It appears that JUSTIN runs into the creature in the WOODS. I don't think he's gonna walk away from that one. Then Danny finds Justin's body on top of the TOWER. Danny has time for digging a grave for him too!!!! REally weird how much time she has to spend digging graves, with this creature out there who could appear ANYTIME!!!
oKAY now RANGER DANNY IS ON THE CASE!!! SHE STARTS opening cans of corn and beans and making a giant pile of......well OF CORN AND BEANS.....!! What is that supposed to be?? Bait???
So something shows up and Danny blasts that thing!! But there is no body!!! And Danny decides to escape with the PARROT!!! wAIT she's gonna track this thing?? LOL too far to walk to get the heck out of there?? But I can go track this creature to 'where it lives'. Oh dear.
Oh she finds that Justin's head was put on display also!!! And she digs a grave for Justins head!!! Oh and while she's wandering through everything she meets UNCAS, and UNCAS just happens to be living in some trailer nearby and tells her all about the CAVE SPIRIT that his students uncovered!!
But then she doesn't give up!! She continues her hunt!!!! She is rewarded!!!! She meets the creature and it doesn't kill her!!! It takes a bite of flesh out of her and flies off!!! Why?? Why does it fly off?? Why didn't it kill her????
-1 STar because it killed everyone else it met, except her.....
Okay so she finds the hiker's phone and calls her BOSS. HER BOSS comes and picks her up and on the way back they find A BODY MOUNTED ON A POLE!!!!
+1 STAR FOR THAT BODY MOUNTED ON THAT POLE RIGHT UP HIS COLO!!! Man you cannot unsee that lol
But BOSS he gets crushed!!! And Danny she's driving the JEEP now and she's on the run!!! Creature can fly and it's chasing her a$$!! Omg she craftily kills it with dynamite???? Wow is she smart!!!
So now she can walk out of there. Then she's talking to a COP? She says there's bodies up there somewhere, and she doesn't know who killed them!!! And then...THE PARROT shows up at her HOUSE?? How did the Parrot find her HOUSE? Okay what is the final score for this stinker???
I guess it finished with a 3. Boy what a pile of crap. A couple of good lines but the rest of it, pretty damn bad. 3/10 -
bobwildhorror22 September 2007Really not a bad flick, but hardly a novel experience. We've got several clichéd main characters trapped in the deep Canadian woods. Great locations. A monster on the loose. A lead actress (Cerina Vincent) with a tank top. Good cinematography. Even a lovable parrot that somehow acts like a homing pigeon.
Oh, did I mention the MOR soundtrack? For some reason, this picture feels the need to break into song every so often. We get music by Melanie Monroe (?) designed to underline the poignancy of the moments...with a sledge hammer.
Meanwhile, the monster flies around making Predator-like sounds. Why, oh why, has that noise become such a horror movie staple? A passable time waster, but it with a little work it might have been so much more. -
Technically well made. Pretty scenery. A suspenseful horror flick. This is another "ancient Indian devil released" story to terrify kids sitting around a campfire on their first camp out. This would scare them. With one or two minor exceptions, the acting was OK. The characters were not real deep or rounded, but that is a "victim" in a horror flick issue. You did know the leading lady had personal problems and a terrible secret she was hiding. She had become a drunk for a reason. Story had the necessary shocker elements. The dead people had the appropriate gore. Some interesting twists and turns as everything and everyone who could help the heroine is stripped away. If you like horror flicks with conflicted people and a little romance, this one is good. If you don't like horror movies, then you won't like this one.
-
noworneverprod21 October 2006I was mainly curious to see this due to watching another Cannell-producer/Monroe-directed direct-to-video release with yet another busty babe as the star(Left In Darkness starring Monica Keena), and while neither of these films are great, they are enjoyable. I found this one to be a little weaker because: spoilers
The creature is everywhere doing all sorts of killing, even pushing a jeep over, yet it can't get into the flimsy little ranger's tower?
Likewise, the fact that it seemed to be toying with the main girl(Cerina Vincent of Cabin Fever fame) seemed a bit far fetched. It's not like the thing was anything more than a creature. How would it know that she's anguished over killing her friend in a drunk driving accident that she's lied about.
And funny how it waits to mess with her til right when her BF shows up, and right when they meet the missing hikers, and the enlightened Native shows up to explain everything to her, despite his RV being trashed(how did he survive) and then the next time she sees him he's dead.
A little too coincidental for my tastes. -
comeundone416231 October 2006I enjoyed the movie, but think there was more they could've done with it. I only saw it on TV so I'm sure there were parts cut that would've made it better. I wanted to see the creature sooner than they showed it. I also wanted more information on the creature, such as, did they have a name for it, where did it originate, how did it come into being, etc, not just what they thought it was. I found the "sex" scene to be too long and unnecessary and predictable. There also could've been some more insight as to the characters personal lives. The scenery was beautiful. I do have a question to one part of the movie, but I can't say what it is without giving away part of the movie.I would've liked to seen more of the person she met in the woods and more information from that person. I am going to rent the movie so I can see what I missed from just seeing on television and hopefully there will be deleted scenes to view as well. I was happy with the choice of actors/actresses, they did a good job. The dialog could've been better. My favorite, of course, was Hoppy. Who couldn't like him. I was very pleased with the ending.
-
Punk1924 April 2007The film opens up with a bunch of hikers walking into a cave, they open a stone slab and before each knows it, all are dead. In a nearby Ranger Station, Danielle 'Danny' St. Claire (Cerina Vincent) is still trying to cope with the pain of losing a friend in a car accident (we find out that Danielle was really the driver of the car a little later on) the year before. The only comfort she can get is from her boyfriend Justin Rawley (Dominic Zamprogna).
The film really gets going when the monster kills a number of Danielle's friends, her boyfriend among them. The monster is attracted to Danielle because she is in a miserable state. It is about this time that Danielle meets up with a camper that seems to know a little bit about the monster. The monsters name is Wakinyah (Austin Jordon) and that the monster was once a female. Danielle races back to the ranger station to wait out the night, when she goes to find the camper, she discovers that he had been killed.
The plot ends nicely, and it gives off enough questions that a sequel could clear up. Steven R. Monroe really brought this new idea into a really good focus. He lets us imagine what the monster is before showing us it in the last ten to fifteen minutes. I thought the movie was well portrayed, had good actors and had a consistent plot that kept us all at the edge of our seat. -
MartianOctocretr52 July 2007Better than average low budget horror movie from the Sci-Fi channel.
It's a good cat-and-mouse yarn in the vein of Jeepers Creepers, with the creature "feeding on" the terror of its prey before finishing them off. The two principals characters are developed pretty well, giving a clear notion of what the creature's obsession is with its intended victim. That would be a park ranger named Danielle (Cerina Vincent, who carries the film well), stationed at a secluded area of an unnamed national park (based on dialog, it's apparently the Grand Canyon area).
Danielle's angst, fear, suffering, and her resolve to turn the tables on her tormentor are all portrayed well, as is her pivotal back story. These tie in very well with what we learn about the monster. Further, the director wisely resists temptation to reveal what the thing looks like until near the end, which makes it all the more terrifying. It could strike at any moment, and often does, only seen in fleeting glances, partially hidden from view.
About the only pitfalls are the goofy boss ranger and the obnoxious lost hikers with "Monster meal" tattooed on their foreheads. Also, there's a predictable lingering question mark left open at the end. Not a sensational movie, but worth a watch. -
todbrowning200020 October 2006Pardon my adolescent summary, but it's accurate. I promise. This movie is only marginally watchable. I was completely unconvinced by the female lead who looks like a Playmate stuffed into a forest ranger's uniform (oh, and she's supposed to be a former Marine, too...I actually giggled when she said that). Obviously, Richard Christian Matheson and Thomas E. Szollosi have seen JEEPERS CREEPERS. Hmmm, let's see...a mysterious creature that can regenerate, has wings, and is seriously intelligent enough to mess with it's victims minds before killing them...? Yeah, okay. Movie rip-offs are only par for the course (especially in the horror genre), and I really don't mind someone else's idea expanded on, so to speak, but when your goal is no better than taking someone else's idea and regressing it to the same old, please don't bother. There's nothing new here, folks.
-
nogodnomasters10 May 2019Danielle (Cerina Vincent) is a bodacious forest ranger with demons, both personal and roaming the woods. It seems her drinking has lead to the death of her best friend in a jeep accident. There are two campers missing and the dam is about to break. Meanwhile some college kids using GPS find an underground cavern, blow it open, use their bare hands to scrape paint for a C-14 sample, then rightly get killed by a demon who was a science major and couldn't cope with their stupidity. Unfortunately for Danielle, the demon is a leg man. She must fight off her demon, while everyone else around her dies setting us up for the symbolic metaphor which didn't make the story any better. It was dry and boring. We do get a good look at the creature with 20 minutes left. Not a bad costume, just a lame story to go with it.
Parental Guide: F-bomb. sex. No nudity. Danielle goes to sleep without a top on, wakes up with a t-shirt.