Maneater (2007 TV Movie) User Reviews (32)

Maneater: Standard Scyfy original type stuff

[Platypuschow · 4/10 · 17 March 2019]

Gary Busey leads in this, no don't go!

Anyway if you're still there Gary Busey leads in this Scyfy channel-esque movie about a small town that falls under siege from an escaped Bengal tiger.

You know drill, a panicked Sherriff, an authority figure who wants it all kept quiet because they're up for re-election and over confident rednecks looking to make a name for themselves.

Every cliche in the book can be found right here in Maneater, but despite this it's not actually the worst.

Don't get me wrong this is hardly enjoyable viewing but I've seen considerably worse. Busey is a lot less manic than usual and is more bearable, the sfx for the tiger are better than you'd assume and though the plot has facets that make little to no sense it has its redeeming features if you look carefully enough.

Dumb fun? Meh, honestly it's just dumb but it's essentially what you should expect going in. Want a decent tiger movie? Watch Burning Bright (2010) instead.

The Good:

Visually better than you'd expect

The Bad:

Cliched to hell and back

Certain elements don't make a vast amount of sense

Big cat thrills from Winnipeg

[montysmith-slp · 5/10 · 11 July 2007]

An escaped Bengal tiger is loose in a backwoods rural community (Selkirk, Winnipeg posing as Taruga County, USA). Local sheriff Gary Busey's more usual small town duties involve permits for frontlawn quilt sales. And the odd missing persons case. The latest is a jogger reported missing in the woods. The tracker dog is spooked, with good reason. There's body parts in them thar hills. And this cat's so efficient at making people disappear it could get a gig in Las Vegas. "Ma! I think there's a lion out here!" says brave little Ty Wood, hearing a growl in the dark. "None of your make believe," says Ma, telling him to get on with his Bible studies. Busey thinks it's maybe a bear. The mayor's more concerned about the annual corn and apple festival. Thank goodness for big-game hunter Ian D. Clark: "For the inexperienced, stalking a maneating tiger is an exotic form of suicide." The hunters are the hunted in a neatly scripted, straight-forward big-cat adventure that earns points for staying away from fake CGI tricks. This cat's for real. And he's not voting for the mayor.

I gave it 4 out 10, just because this film have Gary Busey and big as* tiger.

[swedzin · 4/10 · 17 October 2010]

Nothing to say about this film actually... It is boring, slow, predictable and so on and so on with negativity. The story is very lame, a tiger escapes his cage, due to road accident and he "befriended" with a little loser kid with imaginary friends... whose mother is a religious fanatic, I don't find this interesting. The killings in the film... well... well done! As expected, because filmmakers wanted to show that only. But fat sheriff's (Gary Busey) question "How come that tiger take out two heavily armed men?" Really! How?!?! How the f*ck he did that!??!?! The only thing I like about this film is Gary Busey, I really like that guy... even here, as a slow, monotone, gruff voiced sheriff, who looks like he don't give a flying f**k about his little town. And of course, I love tigers and that's because I gave it 4 out of 10. However... don't watch it, or better watch it... just to put you out of your insomnia.

Should have been called "Claws"

[giffunes · 1/10 · 10 December 2007]

Think "Jaws" with four legs and stripes, right down to the "explosive" ending. At first nobody thinks there is a problem and thinks the police chief is paranoid. Until a town bigwig's offspring gets killed, then it's real and he is told to "just kill it". Substitute the chief's fear of the dark for Chief Brody's fear of water. Substitute the town's Corn & Apple Festival for Fourth of July. Substitute gun-toting hunters in SUVs for fisherman in rowboats trying for the reward. Substitute a "British" big-game hunter who has a tiger fixation for Quint (complete with a tiger version of Quint's Indianapolis story). There was even a shark cage and a roast on a hook for bait, for crying out loud! My son and I sat through the whole thing simply so we could shout out what was so obviously going to happen next and laugh at how it was accomplished. And Gary Busey either needed a larger suit coat or a better tailor (or corset).

Great movie , Bad ending

[atinder · 5/10 · 15 April 2008]

This is one the descent Sci Fi original i have see.

The plot: The hunter becomes the hunted when the forested shadows of the Appalachian Trail are stalked by a wild animal out of its element, hungry and born to ravage. After Sheriff Grady finds a dismembered body in the area, he quickly discovers a print near the scene that identifies the predator as a Bengal tiger. Six hundred pounds, twelve feet from nose to tail, it's one of the most powerful cats on Earth. Now it's loose -- and there's no man on the Appalachian Trail with the skill, or the courage, to take it down.

As i am huge fan of Killer Animals movies, There is no surprise that i liked this movie. What i liked about this movies was fact that it had boy who had Connection with Killer Tiger , Was such Great Idea and other Great idea was the boy Also had a religious nut of a mother keeps him out of school and has him memorize Bible chapters all day in their trailer while she's at work. When he tells her about the tiger, she dismisses it as an imaginative lie. Believing that the only useful information is that found in the Good Book, she avoids television and is thus completely unaware of the local attacks. Roy is also unaware, and when he discovers that the police are hunting it, he believes it is his responsibility to save the tiger and protect it from harm.

They use an actual real tiger so there were no CGI in this movie at all.

There are some good death scene in here more Bloody then Gory.

The Biggest problem i had with this movie was the ending, i hated as the ending felt to rushed, it kinda of ruined the whole movie for me.

If you liked the movie Prey (2007) should give this a watch. i rate this movie a 5/10

Not your average creature feature, but not a great one either

[firstruleofmethclub · 4/10 · 14 March 2015]

So yes, it's called Maneater, which is dodgy, and yes it looks as if it was shot with a budget of about $12.50, and yes it's clichéd and cheesy, but it was about a million times better than I was expecting it to be.

Gary Busey plays Sheriff Grady Barnes, who is the main main character (yeah, double "main", there's a few, they can't decide which to follow). There's a tiger (just a regular tiger, which surprised me, not like, 500 kilo, 10 metre long killing machine, just a Bengal) loose in his hick-town, and they don't take too kindly to tigers 'round these parts. Seriously though, it's an actual tiger, no CG, not even a puppet, it's a genuine freaking tiger. The acting was much better than I thought it'd be, the most terrible was just from the red-shirts, who basically don't even count. The setting was believable and the characters were bearable.

That is not however to say, that the movie was good, or even remotely interesting for that matter. I say it was about a million times better than I thought it was, but I had it pegged as bad as it was, then a whole lot worse. At the end of the day it's just another film that seemed to have been made for the sake of being made. Gary Busey's usual wild charisma was noticeable, literally in only a single line. And that's pretty much it.

There's an evil Christian mother, but she's not that evil. I mean, compare her to the bitch from Carrie and she's like mother-of-the-year award material, she just doesn't let her son go to school or play make-believe games, they had room to make her big-bad, but didn't. Then there was her son, who has some bizarre connection to the tiger, he sleep walks, he's a traumatised little kid, so of course he must be twisted, right? No wrong, no Michael Myers secreted away here. Ah, and that British hunter, a foreigner! Surely he is the human menace! No? He's not? Oh, just another guy who gets a whole lot of screen time but does nothing? Yeah, figured.

So, if someone told me they wanted to watch it, I probably wouldn't go so far as to kill them for even suggesting such a thing, but I'd probably leave the room.

-Gimly

Decent

[Michael_Elliott · 27 February 2008]

Maneater (2007)

** (out of 4)

Sci-Fi Channel movie is yet another Jaws rip, although this one has a few things going for it. A giant tiger is eating people in an Appalachian Mountains town so the sheriff (Gary Busey) and a bounty hunter (Ian D. Clark) try to track it down and kill it. Both of these characters are directly out of the Jaws handbook but thankfully both actors give very good performances so this weakness is the script can be overlooked. The story itself is another story as it's very weak and doesn't really offer anything new that we haven't seen countless times before. The one added storyline is a young boy who seems to have a connection with this tiger but this here comes off very forced and silly. The tiger used was real except for a few scenes where a CGI one was used.

Gary Busey stars in Predator too...

[FlashCallahan · 5/10 · 25 January 2022]

A man-eating Bengal tiger escapes from a carnival and hides in the mountains.

As the death toll rises, Gary Busey, a legendary hunter and an isolated mountain boy join forces to catch it before it kills again.

This TV movie would be nothing to write home about if it was not for Busey.

Here, he is at his most restraint as a small time Sheriff who has to struggle with a man eater, and the local mayor, who does not want to cancel a traditional festival which is held every year.

Sounds familiar? Of course it does, it's riffing on Jaws....... Paws if you would.

Other than that, it's a totally perfunctory creature feature that has very shoddy special effects, and predictable kills, which just make it all the more endearing.

But even when he is in cruise control, Busey still seems a little bit, you know, not the full ticket, and this is why the film elevates whenever he is on screen, which is thankfully, the majority of the time.

I suppose most will hate this film, but there are fans of really silly creature features starring someone who will do any movie.

Just ask Gary.....

Gary Busey vs. Tiger Woods!

[Coventry · 5/10 · 14 November 2023]

Well, technically and grammatically speaking, a more accurate review title would be: "Gary Busy vs. A tiger IN THE woods", but I think we can all agree that wouldn't be as eye-catching, right? "Maneater" was released - in my country, at least - in a DVD series together with a bunch of other creature-features. This one is about a tiger, but there's an entire zoo appearing in the complete collection, including an octopus, bees, spiders, a crocodile, a bear, snakes, and monkeys. None of them are truly great, obviously, but I have yet to encounter a title in the series that didn't entertain me.

Same goes for "Maneater", in fact, as it provided me with an hour and a half of undemanding and straightforward fun; - nothing more but also nothing less. The plot is as standard as can be. Gary Busy is the sheriff of a quiet little town where normally nothing ever happens, except for now, since there's a big hungry Bengal tiger on the loose in the nearby woods. The animal escaped from its cage after a transporting accident, and four half-eaten bodies and a whole lot of "That's impossible" dialogues later, the town is overrun by media clowns, overly confident hunters, and military men. Ah yes, in good old "Jaws" tradition, there's also the annual town parade taking place!

Busey carries the film without any effort, the tiger looks realistic enough (although it appears to be sometimes massive and sometimes normal-sized), and there aren't too many dull moments. The sub plot suggesting a spiritual connection between the tiger and a strict Catholic raised boy was totally unnecessary, though. The attack-sequences are rather weak, and so is the ending. Don't expect an extended or spectacularly heroic "man vs animal" end-battle, is all I'm saying.

One of the Better Sci Fi Channel Films

[bobwildhorror · 6/10 · 9 September 2007]

With all the beatings I've dished out to the Sci Fi Channel for its horrible movies, I felt the need to finally post something a little upbeat.

Granted, MANEATER is no classic. But it's not a stinker in the typical Sci Fi Channel sense, either. There's a reasonable script. A few eccentric performances. And a director, Gary Yates, who realizes that CGI is not the best way to convey tension. In fact, he uses a real tiger to play...are you ready for it?...a real tiger. Sheer genius, especially when he has the good sense to hide it for the majority of the picture.

Of course, there's also Gary Busey, looking like he wandered off an accident scene, his hair askew, his suite ill-fitting (the same suit he wears for the entire film). He is truly a wonder to behold. It seems like he's The film, however, belongs to Ian D. Clark, who plays a big game hunter on the trail of the titular beast. He creeps through the underbrush spouting gibberish that wouldn't sound out of place in a martial arts movie, a Buddhist monk with a shotgun bloodlust.

Goofy fun.

Terrible Sy-Fy Channel creature feature.

[poolandrews · 2/10 · 14 March 2011]

Maneater is set in thew small US town of where a truck crashes late one night, the truck happened to be carrying a large Tiger in a wooden box. The box is smashed open & the huge Tiger is set free to roam the woods near the town. The next morning starts like any other for local Sheriff Grady Barnes (Gary Busey) but that soon changes when several missing persons report come in, investigating these reports Sheriff Barnes & his deputies discover several mutilated dead bodies in the woods surrounding . The local coroner says that the victims were killed by a large animal & it's not long before there are sightings of the Tiger as the body-count continues to grow. The national guard is called in but they can't handle the situation so English big game hunter Colonel Graham (Ian D Clark) volunteers his services to track down the Tiger & kill it...

Not to be confused with the monster film Maneater (2009) starring Dean Cain this made for television American & Canadian co-production was directed by Gary Yates, yet another in a very long line of killer creature feature flicks from the Sy-Fy Channel this is yet another truly terrible film that almost becomes painful to watch. To be honest there really isn't any sci-fi aspect here, the Tiger is just a normal escaped Tiger that starts to kill & eat the locals rather than some genetic experiment or mutation. In fact little background about the Tiger is given, there's some vague opening sequence as a truck crashes but where the truck came from or where it was going or what it was doing with a live Tiger in a wooden crate strapped to the back is anyone's guess. At almost 90 minutes long Maneater drags badly, the majority of the boring running time is just people wandering through th woods for various reasons (reporters reporting the story, people trying to hunt & kill the Tiger, various victims whose job it is to get killed) & little else, there's some crap about a boy who has some sort of link with the Tiger but is never explained in any great detail or to any satisfaction. Then there's the English hunter with a strange moustache & accent that pushes Maneater into the realms of camp even though it's script is deadly serious. Generally speaking I think I could organise a better hunt for the Tiger, the national guard just randomly walk through the woods looking for it rather than laying a trap with some bait for instance. The character's are awful, the dialogue is awful & the plot is awful. The whole film is awful.

Even the attack scenes are awful, we never really see the Tiger attack anyone because they couldn't afford decent special effects & all the attacks happen off-screen with lots of severed body parts & splattered blood left. Actually this was gorier than i thought it was going to be, while most of the gore is after the event mutilated body type stuff at least there's plenty of it here. The real Tiger the makers use during several shots is obviously tame & never bares it's teeth, never acts threatening & is obviously just playing as it rolls around with it's 'victim'.

Filmed in Manitoba in Canada this has decent production values but looks bland & lacks any visual style at all, the effects are alright I suppose & it's competently made. The acting is bad, Gary Busey looks really bad in this & can't even be bothered to button his jacket up properly let alone wear a proper uniform. Busey looks like he's slumming it here big time.

Maneater is a terrible Sy-Fy Channel creature feature that doesn't actually have any sci-fi or fantasy aspects, it's just a normal Tiger killing people. Boring. If you want to see a decent film about killer Tiger's/Lion's then watch The Ghost and the Darkness (1996) again instead.

GlAD I IGNORED THE HATERS AND WATCHED THIS!

[marcilindeen · 8/10 · 12 April 2020]

Me and my husband are huge movie fans! We watch one every chance we get and thank goodness we decided to give this one a chance. I never do reviews but I felt compelled to since so many people were hating on this movie. I don't really understand why some people expect Academy Award winners everytime? Gary Busey was incredible and he did not disappoint. I've always loved him as an actor. The little boy in this movie was so much fun to watch and his relationship with the tiger was beautiful. It reminded me of an adult jungle book and I thought the English gentlemen from South Africa with the ridiculous mustache was perfect for this movie. We loved the cast, the story, and what a great ending. I've already watched it again with my girlfriends and we had so much fun. Jump scares are the best and we all were on pins and needles from beginning to end! The haters should just relax a bit and not take life or movies so seriously.

Better than Decent

[gray1937-1 · 6/10 · 31 March 2008]

Okay, so there were no gorgeous chicks (we could have used a hottie as the female deputy), but there was also no silly, unnecessary love affair, no tension building count-down timer, and almost no "Jawstraneous" reference to economic disaster caused by interference with the coming tourist event (the Apple-Corn Festival, huh?).

The acting was competent, assuming Busey (who is definitely showing his age and scars) was acting the part of a tired, worn-out sheriff, and not just being a tired, worn-out actor. Ty Wood was really good as the kid with the soul of a tiger. I also liked Ian Clark as the white hunter (shades of Jim Corbett, "Man-Eaters of Kumaon", which I read in high school before any of you were born).

The ending kinda sucks. I'm not sure roast tiger is really fit for consumption. I suppose the hero (Sheriff Busey) had to do the deed, but I think a couple of rounds from the colonel's 400 express would have been a sounder send-off. Other than that, I liked it -- much improved for Sci Fi Channel fare, although lacking much sci.

Not Busey's best 'predator' movie...

[paul_haakonsen · 3/10 · 15 January 2024]

I knew about this movie existing, because I had stumbled upon movies in the 'Maneater Series' before, I just never had the opportunity to sit down and watch this 2007 movie titled "Maneater" before now in 2024.

The storyline was pretty straightforward, and something that would would expect from a TV movie. So writer Philip Morton didn't exactly fail to deliver here. However, nor did he deliver anything outstanding or spectacular for director Gary Yates to bring to life on the screen. There are two storylines running in the movie, the one with the sheriff trying to protect the town against a wild tiger near the town, and the story of a strange wonder kid who turned into a 'Tiger Whisperer'. The latter felt so out of place with the tone of the movie.

"Maneater" wasn't exactly a movie that was crammed with big names and familiar faces. Of the entire cast ensemble, I was actually only familiar with Gary Busey. And you know what you get with that guy, so enough said. Actually, I do enjoy watching new faces and unfamiliar talents on the screen when I watch movies, so "Maneater" was not losing any points on that account.

There is a fair amount of people being mauled and killed by the tiger, except we don't get to see it. We always get to see what is left behind after the attack. It worked okay, but I mean it would have been nice to have had some exciting and thrilling scenes where we see a tiger attacking people. But with "Maneater" being a TV movie, then of course that was just two things that didn't go hand-in-hand.

It should be noted, however, that the prosthetics and props of the mauled body parts were actually fairly good and came off as being somewhat passable for realistic. And that, at least, counted for something when we were deprived of the scenes where the tiger was mauling its prey.

My rating of "Maneater" lands on a generous three out of ten stars.

If you liked Jaws, this movie will blow your mind

[charlesttaylor · 17 October 2011]

This movie has everything from sweet tiger sounds to old timey mustaches. Plus you get to learn a lot about tiger facts! Fact #1...tigers eat skulls, and hate arm and leg meat. Fact #2 Tigers love little boys (the true pedophile of the jungle). Fact #3 Tigers hate seeing their leftovers in the woods, so they throw them in trees! Fact #4, sometimes they fly and are not fans of pb & j.

Aside from the zoology lesson, this move is pretty awesome to watch. My favorite part is any scene including the expert tiger hunter, as his mustache steals the scene! I also enjoyed his safari wardrobe and great one-liners. Gary Busey puts on a performance for the ages.

This movie gets a 10 out of 10 for me, though I highly recommend watching it with a few beers and a can-do attitude.

An extraordinary feat of cinematic drivel

[I_Ailurophile · 1/10 · 28 June 2021]

It says a lot that one can watch a SyFy creature feature, entering with low expectations, and still be awfully disappointed. Even in a niche genre built on the reputation of subpar film-making, 'Maneater' is slovenly.

The acting is the first thing to catch our attention, because from the moment he appears on screen, Gary Busey's performance is so strained and underwhelming that one wonders if he wasn't suffering from indigestion throughout the production. Moreover, while it seems unfair to the rest of the cast to call what Busey is doing "acting," no one else fares much better, as every characterization and line of dialogue feels very perfunctory and by the numbers. What is anyone supposed to do with that?

So it goes with Philip Morton's writing in every instance. Characters are so one-dimensional that they're not interesting, only annoying, and one wishes fervently for each one to be the next to be mauled. Individual scenes and story beats are so thin, incomplete, and unconvincing that it's not unreasonable to think director Gary Yates was working with a sketched outline instead of a full screenplay. "Action scenes" are altogether bereft - owing to, accordingly, the use of a live tiger for filming instead of CGI, to say nothing of the rank production quality generally.

And then there's the young boy, Roy, who even from the opening scene is shown to have some undefined special connection with the tiger. Terms like "wishy-washy," "hogwash," "flim flam," and simply "nonsense" immediately come to mind, and there's just nothing more to be said about this entire aspect of the movie. Just as fantastical is the appearance of the experienced English big game hunter, who in his first scene holds promise of giving the picture at least a small hint of personality - but that turns out to be a false hope.

Yet I'm not letting Yates off easy, either. His involvement seems to have been to follow his writer's bent to the haphazard letter. In fact, rather than guiding the production with a unified vision, one would be forgiven for thinking he deferred to Morton. It truly feels like the director was uninterested in his own film.

Even for all the blood and gore we see after the fact, 'Maneater' is a horror-thriller with no horror, and no thrills. For such lack, one would hope it's at least worth a good laugh, but the entirety is so wooden and subdued that it becomes a chore to watch; it feels inescapably longer than 90 minutes. It's rather incredible the movie ever successfully wrapped production, as everyone involved seems so unexcited and nonplussed that I can't believe no one just walked off the set and went home.

The only circumstance in which I could possibly recommend 'Maneater' would be for those viewers with the most morbid, unyielding curiosity. Otherwise, even for audiences who generally enjoy cheesy B-movies and creature features, this should get a hard pass.

Not as tacky as one would think.

[Hey_Sweden · 6/10 · 17 August 2019]

A Bengal tiger is on the loose in the woods near a North American community. The local authorities can't seem to do much to stop its rampage, and the National Guardsmen don't look like they'll be much use. A young boy (Ty Wood) feels a connection to the beast, and feels some sympathy for it; meanwhile, a veteran tiger hunter (Ian D. Clark) would appear to be the most knowledgeable and capable person on the scene. The local sheriff (Gary Busey, the movies' one name actor) tries to warn citizens of the danger.

'Maneater' earns some points for not being the usual ultra-cheesy creature feature that this viewer was expecting. We do occasionally see the tiger attack, but kills are often performed off screen; we only see the gory aftermath. Plus, these filmmakers look like they used an actual animal much of the time (on the few occasions when we see the beast); there's no ropey CGI to turn the story into a live-action cartoon. Plus, the scenario is treated with some gravity. The viewer won't see any self-aware or self-referential humour here. The actors put on their best poker faces in this thriller that is therefore a bit more nuanced than what one is used to if they've seen a lot of made-to-order monster movies, whether done for TV or home video.

The performances are generally decent. Nothing spectacular, but they get the job done. The hunter, the kid, and the sheriff are the three roles that get fleshed out to any degree. The kid, in particular, is amusing because he's the product of an isolated existence, home-schooled in a trailer in the woods by a deeply religious mother. But he has no fear of constantly traipsing through these woods and possibly being mauled by the big cat. He also possesses great tracking abilities.

Overall, this is very passable stuff. Hardly inspired, but it's not nearly as goofy as this viewer thought it might be. It was filmed on location in my home province of Manitoba (Canada).

Six out of 10.

Good movie and Very similar to a true story......

[rkowalski1 · 9/10 · 17 September 2007]

.....that was written by the humble hunter of man eating tigers named Jim Corbett from a book called "the man eaters of Kumaon" or "maneaters" from the early 1900's. Except that the Champawatt man eating tiger had killed between 300-400 Indians in Northern India. Corbett also hunted a tiger called the Thak man eater that had so terrified a section of India that one village was almost abandoned.These man eating tigers were also was able to kill and take away one person for food within 10 feet of another person without them realizing it. I found it fantastic that the writers picked an English man named Jim who was born in India as the hunter (like Jim Corbett). Corbett loved nature and spent most of his free time in the jungles and forests of India He was a true hero in the grandest sense of the word. A very realistic film story line that shows what a man eating tiger is capable of.

"Maneater" is no pussycat of a movie ...........

[merklekranz · 6/10 · 27 September 2010]

Sheriff Gary Busey, in a restrained performance, gets right down to business, trying to protect his small Appalachian town from a menacing escaped Bengal tiger. As locals, National Guardsmen, and deputies, become cat food, the situation rapidly deteriorates, until a self appointed British tiger hunter arrives on the scene. Ian D. Clark is quite good in this role, and along with Busey, gives the movie some above the norm acting. The little boy and his religious nut-bag Mother are nothing but damn annoyances, as are all of the news media. "Maneater may not be a work of art, but for it's intended audience, it is totally acceptable. ............... MERK

Rip! Tear! Shred! Burp!...

[azathothpwiggins · 13 January 2022]

MANEATER concerns a small town with a big cat problem when a truck crashes, unleashing a Bengal tiger to hunt for local prey. Several human snacks later, the sheriff (Gary Busey) is on the case.

Alas, the killer kitty isn't so easy to catch. Many lives are lost, including an entire national guard unit!

While there are a few bloody extremities on display, the actual violence is mostly offscreen. There's no real profanity or nudity either. Busey is quite good in his role, and the low-budget CGI is kept to a blessed minimum...

Bengal tiger

[kairingler · 6/10 · 12 December 2009]

Gary Busey stars as the sheriff of a small town in the Applachian Mountains where a series of tiger attacks has the community in an uproar. With the upcoming festival drawing near the mayor is worried about all of the visitors abandoning his town because they are scared of the tiger, the little boy in this movie has a problem with sleepwalking which involves him with the tiger , but i won't ruin it for those of you who haven't seen this movie yet. Gary Busey seems kinda stiff cardboard like in his acting, but it is a real performance , very character driven, after the national guard and the townspeople can't handle the tiger, a tiger hunter from India comes to help the sheriff track down the manheater in hopes of killing it,, it is laughable with how the guardsmen handle the whole tiger dealings,, and watching the media is hilarious,, not a bad movie for sci-fi.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

[mr_pivac1985 · 10/10 · 16 April 2011]

In the Appalachian Mountains, Sheriff Grady Barnes, (Gary Busey) is inundated with a plethora of calls about missing people, and after finding the remains of one of them, it's decided that a wild animal is responsible. After another attack produces some evidence, they point to a Bengal Tiger as the culprit, and announcing it to the press, Mayor Earl Hunt, (Blake Taylor) is irate over it being leaked. When the National Guard is called in, Sargent Winshiser, (Aleks Paunovic) comes in to take charge of the situation only to have no success with hunting it down either. Esteemed hunter Colonel Graham, (Ian D. Clark) hearing of the rampage, offers his expert help with the animal, and soon makes a remarkable discovery about the creature. Using this to his advantage, he tries to take it down before it kills more townspeople.

The Good News: This here was a pretty pleasant surprise. This is especially important in that it's the first time that the Sci-Fi Channel's original films doesn't have a negative mark against it for it's creature. This one's got an actual creature that's not CGI, and that itself is a huge plus, since it eliminates most of their flaws right from the start. That it's seen rarely also works for it as well, as featuring it throughout the film would've lessened it's impact. The fact that it's also a really vicious creature helps, as it's got some really great gore in here. It's all in the mutilation and severing of limbs, half-eaten body parts and finding of devoured parts, as most of it is off-screen and the showing of what it did to them results in all the gore. They all look quite good and messy, with a partially eaten skull, including down to the bone in certain areas, and a lower-half of a body found being the big ones here. There's even some nice action in the film, as it's got some great moments in the second half. The involvement of the armed troops livens it up substantially, as it gets some great stalking going on with the creature in the jungle, and it's certainly suspenseful enough. That also helps to get the film going, as there's some nice kills and stalking, provided by flashback where it goes on the rampage that gets in on-screen kills as well as putting some life into it. That is one of the film's best qualities, and helps to make it really watchable.

The Bad News: There really isn't a whole lot wrong with this one. Perhaps the most grievous one is that there's way too much time spent on the subplot with the kid. It's clichéd to start with, having the ignorant kid believe that the outside force is actually friendly despite everyone in town knowing otherwise, yet the fact that it comes to play here and takes up the majority of the second half means that it gets a lot of time. It's incredibly irritating to have to be forced through these scenes since they're quite obviously based on the mentality rather than anything else, and it really makes it a struggle at times. These here make it the hardest part to get through, as well as it's other noticeable flaw. That is the film's annoying habit of cutting away from the gore scenes and instead showing the aftermath. Very rarely is the actual viciousness of the attacks displayed, but rather the attack occurs where it's impossible to determine what happened or just off- screen entirely. That it leaves the others mainly done in flashback at least offers up some, but most is still off camera, and is also something that can harm the film.

The Final Verdict: Without a whole lot of real problems, this is a really nice and enjoyable entry for those who go for this kind of film. Recommended to those who have a particular like for the Sci-Fi Channel Creature Features or those in general, while those who aren't won't really find much new with this one.

Gary Busey makes the film

[Leofwine_draca · 6/10 · 21 August 2016]

Out of all of the diabolical Sci-Fi channel TV movies I've had the misfortune to sit through, MANEATER emerges as the best so far. It's not a brilliant film by any means, but it is fitfully entertaining and well paced, made with a level of skill and intelligence usually missing from such productions. Cast your mind back to the abominable BLOOD MONKEY, for instance. MANEATER works because it's straightforward: a tiger is menacing a small community and the sheriff has to do something about it. Along the way, soldiers are killed, victims are stalked, and a big game hunter shows up to tackle the menace, and it's all fairly engaging. There's no rubbishy CGI here, just a real tiger going about and eating people. Simplicity works, big time.

Anyway, the script throws up no real surprises, but there are some meaty gore effects involving severed body parts and a few mildly suspenseful stalking sequences. A whole sub-plot involving a wayward kid with some kind of telepathic link to the beast is a bore, though, and should have been excised in favour of more big cat thrills. Still, the low budget is handled adroitly, and director Gary Yates deserves kudos for at least making his film look good. Cast-wise, we get the usual level of performances, excepting two leads: Ian D. Clark, having a ball as an OTT game hunter, and Gary Busey as the sheriff hero. Busey is exceptional, in this, a modern day Klaus Kinski, a guy the camera can't shy away from. Stuck in an ill-fitting suit for the entire film and gnashing away at his weird lines, he's worth a star in his own right and adds plenty to the entertainment value. Go, Gary!

Were hunting a tiger not a terrorist

[sol1218 · 6/10 · 21 October 2009]

**SPOILERS** Much along the lines of the 1975 blockbuster "Jaws" the made for TV movie "Maneater" has to do with an escaped 600 pound Bengal Tiger who turns the sleepy and almost crime free, it doesn't even have a county jail, Taruga County into its personal hunting and feeding grounds.

After the tiger's first three kills both the county Sheriff Grady Barnes, Gary Busey, and it's very reluctant Mayor Earl Hunt, Blake Taylor, finally throw in the towel and let the "cat" out of the bag in asking the State Governor to sent in the National Guard to either capture or gun down the wild beast. As we all soon find out even the National Guard with its state of the art equipment and dead-eye sharpshooters are no match against the ferocious feline. For all its ferocity the killer cat seemed to have developed some kind of friendship with little 12 year-old Roy Satterly, Ty Wood, which the film never goes into or explains! This together with the films very confusing and almost mythical-like ending makes you wounder if the killer tiger has supernatural powers or we, the audience, are being set up for a sequel to "Maneater" the soon to be released, on TV or DVD,"Maneater II"!

Using no special effect the movie has an actual tiger who's anything but full grown, he looks like he weighs between 80 to 100 not 600 pounds, do the dirty or bloody work in it. Taking down most of his his victims by ambushing them from behind, the big cat's favorite hunting tactic, we very rarely get to see him the movie. Still even without the big cat being in the frame it's brutal attacks, by just playing with the audience's imagination, are just as effective as if the cat was actually in them!

With the National Guard and local police just about giving up in tracking down and killing the rampaging killer tiger in comes British Big Game hunter Colonel Graham, Ian D.Clark, offering his services! looked by everyone as an eccentric The Colonel proves to be the real McCoy in him having documented evidence that he hunted down and killed 12 man eating tigers back in India. What the Colonel failed to bring out, in his resume, is that the last man eating tiger he tried to hunt down, who killed and ate some 200 people, made a monkey out of him by always giving the Colonel, when he was about to gun him down, the slip!

***SPOILERS*** It's at the very end of the movie that the killer cat comes out of hiding and that's when things get a bit confusing. Changing his very successful attack mode from the ambush to a frontal attack makes the tiger a sitting duck for the Colonel's, whom the tiger already badly mauled, double barreled elephant gun! Still it took a lot more then the Colonel, and his howitzer, to put an end to the man-eating tigers reign of terror! Or did it!

Average Sci-Fi Channel Creature Feature

[slayrrr666 · 8/10 · 10 September 2007]

"Maneater" is really good for those who love the Sci-Fi Channel's Creature Features.

**SPOILERS**

In the Appalachian Mountains, Sheriff Grady Barnes, (Gary Busey) is inundated with a plethora of calls about missing people, and after finding the remains of one of them, it's decided that a wild animal is responsible. After another attack produces some evidence, they point to a Bengal Tiger as the culprit, and announcing it to the press, Mayor Earl Hunt, (Blake Taylor) is irate over it being leaked. When the National Guard is called in, Sargent Winshiser, (Aleks Paunovic) comes in to take charge of the situation only to have no success with hunting it down either. Esteemed hunter Colonel Graham, (Ian D. Clark) hearing of the rampage, offers his expert help with the animal, and soon makes a remarkable discovery about the creature. Using this to his advantage, he tries to take it down before it kills more townspeople.

The Good News: This here was a pretty pleasant surprise. This is especially important in that it's the first time that the Sci-Fi Channel's original films doesn't have a negative mark against it for it's creature. This one's got an actual creature that's not CGI, and that itself is a huge plus, since it eliminates most of their flaws right from the start. That it's seen rarely also works for it as well, as featuring it throughout the film would've lessened it's impact. The fact that it's also a really vicious creature helps, as it's got some really great gore in here. It's all in the mutilation and severing of limbs, half-eaten body parts and finding of devoured parts, as most of it is off-screen and the showing of what it did to them results in all the gore. They all look quite good and messy, with a partially eaten skull, including down to the bone in certain areas, and a lower-half of a body found being the big ones here. There's even some nice action in the film, as it's got some great moments in the second half. The involvement of the armed troops livens it up substantially, as it gets some great stalking going on with the creature in the jungle, and it's certainly suspenseful enough. That also helps to get the film going, as there's some nice kills and stalking, provided by flashback where it goes on the rampage that gets in on-screen kills as well as putting some life into it. That is one of the film's best qualities, and helps to make it really watchable.

The Bad News: There really isn't a whole lot wrong with this one. Perhaps the most grievous one is that there's way too much time spent on the subplot with the kid. It's clichéd to start with, having the ignorant kid believe that the outside force is actually friendly despite everyone in town knowing otherwise, yet the fact that it comes to play here and takes up the majority of the second half means that it gets a lot of time. It's incredibly irritating to have to be forced through these scenes since they're quite obviously based on the mentality rather than anything else, and it really makes it a struggle at times. These here make it the hardest part to get through, as well as it's other noticeable flaw. That is the film's annoying habit of cutting away from the gore scenes and instead showing the aftermath. Very rarely is the actual viciousness of the attacks displayed, but rather the attack occurs where it's impossible to determine what happened or just off-screen entirely. That it leaves the others mainly done in flashback at least offers up some, but most is still off camera, and is also something that can harm the film.

The Final Verdict: Without a whole lot of real problems, this is a really nice and enjoyable entry for those who go for this kind of film. Recommended to those who have a particular like for the Sci-Fi Channel Creature Features or those in general, while those who aren't won't really find much new with this one.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language