Tag Archives: creature feature

“Creepy Crawlies and Small-Town Suspicion: They Nest Delivers Buggy B-Movie Thrills”

24 Thursday Jul 2025

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If you’re even slightly squeamish about insects, They Nest might push you into full-blown entomophobia. This made-for-TV creature feature from director Ellory Elkayem (Eight Legged Freaks) creeps along with familiar B-movie beats but manages to burrow under your skin with some genuinely unsettling bug-based horror. Think Arachnophobia meets The Thing, but with cockroaches—and far less prestige.

Thomas Calabro plays Dr. Cahill, a stressed-out surgeon escaping city burnout by retreating to a quaint island in Maine, only to be greeted by hostility from the locals and the rising threat of flesh-eating, mind-controlling cockroaches. The infestation is discovered via a waterlogged corpse, and as you’d expect, nobody believes Cahill until it’s far too late. Add Dean Stockwell to the mix as a cranky islander, and you’ve got a reliable genre face to anchor the mayhem when it hits.

Despite some low-rent production values and a fairly predictable plot, They Nest offers a few effective chills, especially when the critters start crawling into the more intimate spaces of the human body. The practical effects are modest but used cleverly, and Elkayem leans into the paranoia of small-town denial with just enough flair to keep it from feeling entirely by-the-numbers.

The Prognosis:

Where the film stumbles is in its uneven tone and forgettable characters, who mostly serve as bug fodder. But for fans of creature features who enjoy a slow buildup and a grotesque payoff, They Nest has enough squirmy moments to satisfy. It never reaches cult classic status, but it’s an enjoyable slice of early 2000s horror that earns its place in the insect invasion subgenre—just don’t watch it during dinner.

  • Saul Muerte

“Scars and Scales: Monster Island Delivers Heart with its Horror”

21 Monday Jul 2025

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Directed by: Mike Wiluan | Starring Dean Fujioka, Callum Woodhouse | Premieres on Shudder & AMC+ July 25

In Monster Island, Shudder’s latest exclusive creature feature, wartime survival collides with Southeast Asian myth in a film that smartly blends old-school monster thrills with an unexpected emotional core. Inspired by Creature from the Black Lagoon and rooted in Malay folklore, the story drops a Japanese soldier and a British POW onto a seemingly deserted island following a submarine attack. But peace is short-lived, as the island is home to the Orang Ikan — a fearsome aquatic predator who’s as territorial as it is terrifying.

What sets Monster Island apart from many of its creature feature contemporaries is its willingness to slow down and explore the human side of horror. Rather than lean solely on blood and beasts, the film builds tension from cultural divides and post-traumatic wounds, forcing its two leads into a fragile alliance. Dean Fujioka and Callum Woodhouse bring depth and vulnerability to roles that could have been flat archetypes. Their chemistry makes the film’s central theme — that survival often means facing not just monsters, but your own past — all the more resonant.

Admittedly, the film’s ambition sometimes outpaces its resources. Pyrotechnic effects and digital enhancements can look rough around the edges, and the pacing dips during some mid-island soul-searching. But the film’s practical effects — particularly the creature design — are strong, evoking a rubber-suited charm without feeling dated. There’s enough gore to keep horror hounds engaged, but it never overpowers the human drama, and that balance is key to its charm.

The Prognosis:

While it might not revolutionise the genre, Monster Island shows there’s still plenty of room for creature features with a conscience. By grounding its mythological terror in real-world history and emotional stakes, the film claws its way out of B-movie cliché and into something far more sincere. For fans of wartime horror, international folklore, or just old-school monster mayhem with a pulse, this island trip is worth the ferry.

  • Saul Muerte

Creature (1985): A Pale Echo from Saturn’s Shadows

07 Wednesday May 2025

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An icy moon, a forgotten monster, and a film still trapped in the shadow of its predecessors.

By 1985, the cinematic trail left by Alien had already spawned a legion of imitators, each trying to harness the same claustrophobic dread in cold, inhuman spaces. Creature, directed by William Malone, was one of those echoing attempts—big on promise, but undermined by budgetary constraints, pacing issues, and a story that always feels like it’s playing catch-up with better films.

Set on Titan, one of Saturn’s moons, the film follows a team of American explorers who stumble upon an ancient alien lifeform… one that’s been resting, quite undisturbed, for about 200,000 years—until now. But instead of unfurling as a fresh nightmare in the vein of Ridley Scott or John Carpenter, Creature quickly shows its hand as an awkward patchwork of sci-fi horror tropes, leaning on atmosphere it can’t fully conjure and characters we barely come to know.

The film does score points for its setting: the barren, icy terrain of Titan is a fitting stage for isolation and cosmic dread. There are moments—fleeting though they may be—where you can feel the weight of that space, the crushing silence, the desperate last gasps of human life under alien pressure. But these moments rarely evolve into anything more than background mood. The tension is never sustained.

Much of Creature’s legacy has survived in cult circles, owing partly to its practical effects and its modest but ambitious creature design, which—when shown sparingly—can deliver a jolt or two. Yet the creature itself, supposedly the film’s main draw, feels underutilised and poorly revealed. The mystery dies the moment we see too much, too soon. It’s less terrifying predator and more sluggish, rubbery reminder of what could have been.

Performances are serviceable, but thinly sketched. Klaus Kinski shows up as a wild card—naturally—but even his brand of manic energy can’t elevate a script that barely holds together under scrutiny. His presence, like the alien, feels like something stitched in for effect rather than organically grown from the narrative.

What Creature most sorely lacks is identity. It wants to be Alien, it wants to be The Thing, and it even wants to nod at Cold War paranoia with its American and German tensions, but never manages to settle into a rhythm of its own. The result is a film that feels more like a VHS relic than a true lost classic—better suited to playing in the background of a late-night sci-fi marathon than being revisited for serious chills.

That said, there’s still a strange charm to it all. The film is a product of its time—ambitious in scope, restricted in execution, and clearly crafted by filmmakers who loved the genre. William Malone would go on to prove himself more confidently in later works like House on Haunted Hill (1999), but here, he was still wading through derivative waters.

The Prognosis:

Forty years on, Creature remains a faint star in the vast constellation of 80s horror sci-fi. Not quite forgotten, not quite worth remembering—it lingers, orbiting obscurity, its promise still sleeping beneath the ice.

  • 40th Anniversary Retrospective by Saul Muerte

Revenge of the Creature (1955) – A Middling Sequel to a Classic Monster Tale

10 Monday Mar 2025

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Universal Pictures’ Revenge of the Creature (1955) sought to capitalise on the success of Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954) by bringing the Gill Man back for another round of aquatic terror. Directed by Jack Arnold, this second installment in the Creature trilogy expands the story by relocating the monstrous being from the Amazon to a Florida marine park. However, while it offers moments of intrigue and spectacle, it ultimately lacks the same impact as its predecessor.

One of the film’s primary draws is, of course, the return of the Gill Man, played once again with an impressive physicality by Ricou Browning (underwater) and Tom Hennesy (on land). The creature’s design remains striking, maintaining its eerie, prehistoric allure. However, rather than being an enigmatic force lurking in the Amazon, the Gill Man finds himself trapped and studied in captivity, a premise that introduces compelling, albeit underdeveloped, themes.

At its core, Revenge of the Creature grapples with themes of imprisonment and the struggle between nature and human control. The attempt to domesticate the Gill Man, reducing him to a mere specimen for observation, evokes a sense of tragedy. While the film teases a deeper exploration of humanity’s tendency to subjugate the natural world, it ultimately favours action and spectacle over introspection.

Despite its setting shifting away from the Amazon, Revenge of the Creature still plays with the idea of nature’s untamed power. The sequences featuring the Gill Man in captivity contrast his primal instincts with the artificiality of human-made enclosures. However, where the first film used its lush, atmospheric environment to heighten tension and mystery, this sequel often feels more sterile in comparison.

While Revenge of the Creature delivers moments of suspense and underwater thrills, it lacks the haunting originality that made Creature from the Black Lagoon an enduring classic. The pacing feels more formulaic, and the horror elements are less effective, making it a serviceable but ultimately forgettable continuation of the story.

The Prognosis:

As a follow-up to one of Universal’s most beloved monster films, Revenge of the Creature is a passable but uninspired sequel. The return of the Gill Man and its exploration of captivity add some intrigue, but the film struggles to break free from the shadow of its predecessor. For fans of classic creature features, it’s worth a watch, but it doesn’t leave a lasting impression.

  • Saul Muerte

Toilet Terrors and Occult Oddities: Celebrating 40 Years of Ghoulies

18 Saturday Jan 2025

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In the pantheon of 1980s horror, Ghoulies occupies a curious niche—a film that rode the wave of tiny terrors popularised by Gremlins yet found its own peculiar identity through campy occult shenanigans and low-budget charm. Directed by Luca Bercovici in his directorial debut and co-written with producer Jefery Levy, Ghoulies became a modest success and spawned an enduring, if uneven, franchise. Four decades later, the film remains a testament to the quirky appeal of 1980s horror.

The film centres on Jonathan Graves (Peter Liapis), a young man who inherits a sprawling estate once owned by his late father, Malcolm (Michael Des Barres). Discovering that his father was a satanic cult leader, Jonathan becomes seduced by the estate’s dark secrets, setting off a chain of supernatural events. The titular Ghoulies—miniature demons summoned through Jonathan’s occult experiments—quickly shift the tone from sinister to absurd, making for a movie that is equal parts horror and black comedy.

Bercovici makes the most of the film’s gothic setting, leaning heavily into occult iconography and eerie atmospherics. While the budgetary constraints are apparent, the film compensates with enthusiastic performances and a playful tone that doesn’t take itself too seriously. The practical effects used to bring the Ghoulies to life are delightfully kitschy, striking a balance between grotesque and endearing.

The film’s strength lies in its willingness to embrace the absurd. With a script that wavers between earnest supernatural horror and campy humour, Ghoulies often feels like it’s trying to be several movies at once. This tonal inconsistency can be jarring, but it also adds to the film’s charm. The standout moments involve the Ghoulies themselves—mischievous little creatures that provide both scares and laughs.

The cast delivers performances that range from serious to tongue-in-cheek. Peter Liapis brings an earnest intensity to Jonathan, while Lisa Pelikan offers a grounded presence as Rebecca, his increasingly concerned girlfriend. Michael Des Barres revels in his role as the sinister Malcolm, exuding an over-the-top malevolence befitting the film’s heightened tone. A young Mariska Hargitay makes her film debut here, hinting at the screen presence that would later make her a household name.

Released in the shadow of Gremlins, Ghoulies often drew comparisons to its higher-budget counterpart. However, it carved out its own legacy as a B-movie staple, thanks in part to its iconic marketing—a Ghoulie popping out of a toilet on the poster. This image alone cemented the film in the cultural memory of 1980s horror fans.

While Ghoulies lacks the polish or depth of its contemporaries, it embraces its B-movie identity with gusto. Its success spawned three sequels, each leaning further into comedy and absurdity, ensuring the Ghoulies would become a fixture in the horror-comedy subgenre.

The Prognosis:

Four decades on, Ghoulies remains a charmingly campy artifact of 1980s horror—a film that thrives on its eccentricities and its ability to entertain despite its flaws. While not a masterpiece, it’s a fun, nostalgic trip for fans of practical effects, occult-themed horror, and the quirky weirdness of 1980s genre cinema.

It might not have reached the cult status of Gremlins or Critters, but Ghoulies deserves its place in horror history as a delightfully offbeat entry into the world of pint-sized terror.

  • Saul Muerte

Zombie Kangaroo Rippy Takes a Bite Out of Aussie Horror in The Red

30 Wednesday Oct 2024

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Australia has long mastered the art of transforming its wild, often dangerous natural environment into the stuff of horror legend. From Razorback‘s ferocious wild boar to Rogue’s man-eating crocodile and The Reef‘s relentless shark, Aussie horror films have found a niche in turning the country’s flora and fauna into nightmare fuel. Now, The Red tries its luck with a new terror—Rippy, the giant zombie kangaroo, who’s taking the outback’s reputation for dangerous wildlife to absurd new heights.

While The Red is steeped in gimmickry, Rippy’s story has just enough originality and humor to keep it from feeling stale. The film leans hard into its outrageous premise, following the havoc-wreaking, undead kangaroo as it terrorises the tiny town of Axehead. The premise alone is undoubtedly outlandish, and director Rhys Chapman is well aware of the absurdity; he amps up the comedic horror elements, encouraging audiences to revel in Rippy’s carnage. Yet, beneath the zany concept, there’s a steady effort to elevate the story with strong character performances—something that makes The Red stand out among other Aussie creature features.

At the heart of The Red are performances that bring depth to an otherwise campy storyline. Aaron Pedersen shines as the stoic but increasingly exasperated local, adding gravitas to scenes that might otherwise be overwhelmed by the film’s over-the-top antics. His ability to balance seriousness with humour gives the movie its grounding force, making even the most ludicrous moments feel slightly more plausible. Michael Biehn, a beloved name from genre classics like The Terminator and Aliens, steps in with his signature ruggedness, adding weight to the film’s more intense sequences and elevating Rippy’s rampage from pure comedy to something a bit more sinister. Their presence and commitment to their roles help counterbalance the camp factor, giving The Red an unexpected sense of charm.

Yet for all its strengths, The Red doesn’t quite manage to claw its way out of mediocrity. The film’s relentless commitment to its zombie kangaroo premise may not appeal to everyone, with the comedy often overshadowing the horror. Rippy is memorable, if only for his sheer ridiculousness, but he lacks the lasting menace of some of Australia’s other cinematic creatures. Still, The Red will likely find a niche audience who appreciates the tongue-in-cheek approach and the thrill of watching another Australian animal wreak havoc.

The Prognosis:

The Red may not have the lasting power of Australia’s more fearsome horror creatures, but for fans of genre-bending horror and quirky creature features, it’s worth a watch. Pedersen and Biehn’s solid performances keep it engaging enough, and even if Rippy doesn’t become Australia’s next horror icon, he’s definitely unforgettable.

  • Saul Muerte

‘RIPPY’S GONE ROGUE’ AUSSIE ZOMBIE KANGAROO FILM ‘THE RED’ IN AUSTRALIAN CINEMAS OCTOBER 31

Movie Review: Infested (2024)

22 Monday Apr 2024

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Not only does Sébastien Vanicek’s debut feature impress to the point where you seriously take notice of his creature feature, but it did so to the point that a certain Sam Raimi and Robert Tapert have confidently placed him in the directorial chair for the next instalment of the Evil Dead franchise. 

Upon watching the film, you can see why as it places a group within the confines of a set location while they fend off beasties, left, right and centre.

In this instance, said beasties come in the form of a hostile and deadly species of desert spider. These arachnids are of a significant size and as they breed, which is frequent, their spawn increases in size and population to such a degree that they have quickly infested the block of flats that lays the setting of the movie.

We’re quickly introduced to the toxic, killing creatures from the beginning when three men capture the specimens, somewhere in the MIddle East, and come immediately under siege, proving that these creatures are going to be the headliners, and Vanicek doesn’t hold back, going bigger with every moment they arrive on screen.

The narrative picks up when Kaleb (Théo Christine) picks up one of the specimens from a Parisian pawn shop to add to his bug collection. Once home, though, he places the spider in a cardboard shoe box, before being embroiled in an on-going argument with his sister, Manon (Lisa Nyarko). This sibling confrontation is the heart of the movie, struggling to turnover their apartment since losing their parents and struggling to meet on agreed terms, but are forced to come together in order to find a way out of their diabolical situation. This in itself is a symbol for the detriment of their poverty stricken society, as both Kalen and Manon are a group of many citizens, trying to make ends meet, and making decisions along the way that they may regret, forcing a wedge amongst them. Can they put their differences aside and climb out of the infested rubble they call home?

Vanicek also does a superb job of crafting out the tension as the mismatch of misfits, wrangle their way through apartments and corridors, searching for the meaning behind the initial outbreak, cocooned inside by the police who have quarantined the area; to then searching their way out of the web of infiltration. 

The Prognosis:

There is a reason this movie has been the talk on Hollywood’s lips. Director Vanicek does an outstanding job for his directorial debut feature, building up the tension, placing the characters in a tightly, wound up situations and stretching the unbelievable arachnid feature, into one of jaw-dropping fun. Do yourself a favour and welcome the spider contagion, for it’s a cracker of a flick and will burrow into your mind and impregnate the cerebellum to become a hot contender for horror flick of the year.

  • Saul Muerte

Infested will be streaming Exclusively on Shudder and AMC+ from Friday 26 April

Movie review: The Tank (2023)

27 Tuesday Jun 2023

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Creature features are always a bold enterprise to undertake; reveal the beast to soon and you lose all suspension of disbelief; bring the creature into the fold too late, you may lose the interest of the viewer; and if once it is revealed, the monster has to satiate one’s desires or lose impact entirely. Thankfully writer, director Scott Walker (The Frozen Ground) is in good hands for his sophomore feature length outing, teaming up with Weta Workshop to bring the wretches to life on the screen. 

To harness his vision, Walker fuels the narrative with a small family unit, thrust into the wilderness against a dark presence to tie our interests and connect with them in their plight.

When we meet the trio of father, Ben (Matt Whelan – Narcos); mother, Jules (Lucianne Buchanan – The Night Agent); and daughter Reia (Zara Nausbaum) they are fighting to make ends meet in a rundown pet store, when they inherit an abandoned coastal property with its own secluded beachfront. What seems like an opportunity to reap from their new abode, the family look to fix it up and sell for a tidy profit, but there is something sinister lurking beneath them. As Ben sets to work repairing the water tank that is tied to the property and reconnecting the fresh water supply, Jules begins to unearth a disturbing past that is tied to the house and Ben’s family. What lies dormant, finds new life and begins to rise to the surface, stalking and laying claim to its territory. 

As Walker carves out a fairly satisfactory tale, building up atmosphere and introducing neighbouring characters that can be suitably killed off by the wee beastie, he also chooses the approach of saving the creature reveal until the characters on screen have time to be established. The indicators set up to the final climax are a little easy to spot however, including initiating Jules’ own strength and resilience earlier on when we witness her capturing a pet rat in the afore-mentioned pet store. Sure she can handle herself against smaller creatures but how will she fare when she comes face to face with a far greater foe? 

The Prognosis:

There is plenty to draw you in on the surface value, with strong performances, beautiful scenery, and decent creature effects, and the story weaves an ecological moral with greater depth than The Black Demon deigned to inflict upon us. The execution however, stays a little too close to predictability with some of the plot choices. It’s engaging enough however and sits nicely in the middle of the road. playing it safely, placing the family under threat, despite not offering anything new.

  • Saul Muerte

The Tank is currently streaming on Shudder.

Retrospective: Tarantula! (1955)

30 Saturday Jul 2022

Posted by in retrospective, Universal Horror

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Universal Pictures would follow up their 1955 science fiction feature This Island Earth, with another larger than life science horror tale.

This time the focus would be a monster creature feature and developing one of humanity’s greatest fears, the spider, more specifically the tarantula. It would take on one of the popular themes of the time, by increasing the size of creatures (or in some cases, shrinking the humans)  to maximise the threat factor on screen. 

Set in the fictional town of Desert Rock, Arizona, Tarantula! Is essentially your science gone wrong, film, and picks up with a deformed man emerging out from the vast landscape before dying. The man in question was biological research scientist Eric Jacobs, and we later find out that it was his research that was his own undoing. 

Our lead protagonist and local town doctor, Matt Hastings (John Agar) is intrigued by Jacobs’ strange deformity and is compelled to find out the truth. His investigations naturally lead him into danger when he finds out just how life threatening Jacobs’ research has gone. The research laboratory is in the back of beyond, where Jacob’s colleague Professor Gerald Deemer (Leo G. Carroll – Strangers on A Train, North By Northwest) resides and appears to be continuing with the experiments. It also turns out that part of the formula that is being tested on the animals in the lab, speeds up the growth rate, including the titular Tarantula who escapes following the initial fire outbreak and is now growing at an alarming rate and consuming all the local cattle… before taking a fancy to human flesh!

It’s all b-movie material with close ups of the victims as the tarantula descends upon them and they meet their end.

Of course it wouldn’t be a 50s sci fi horror without a love interest thrown into the mix, which is where lab assistant and student, Stephanie Clayton (Mara Corday) enters the scene and into the spider’s lair, so to speak, to become the damsel in distress but with smarts.

By the film’s conclusion, humanity has to resort to some heavy duty firepower to rid the world of this menacing creature, and it comes from the Air Force, carrying napalm and piloted by a certain cameo by Clint Eastwood.

  • Saul Muerte

Tarantula is currently available at Umbrella Entertainment as part of a double bill blu-ray with The Incredible Shrinking Man.

Movie review: Death Valley (2021)

11 Saturday Dec 2021

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When two mercenaries head out for one last gig with the promise that it will set them up for life, they soon find out that it may cost them their lives

Death Valley is about as formulaic a movie as they come but it is slightly elevated due to the time and dedication to its lead characters, in spite of how two dimensional that come across, they’re still entertaining with their odd couple buddy routine

There’s Mr. Serious, play things by the book and the soldier who comes up with the plans, James Beckett (Jeremy Nibaber), plus he’s a family man 

And there’s the joker, cowboy who is struggling to reach maturity and always resorts to wise cracks, Marshall (Ethan Mitchell). Thankfully he’s a crack shot sniper who delivers when things come to the crunch.

Their latest mission sees the duo answering the call from a female scientist who holds secret information which if it falls into the wrong hands will spell certain doom for mankind.

Naturally when they reach the remote laboratory bunker, they discover that all is not what it seems and several things are stalking them in the underground warren.

The creatures hold a pretty cool design and provide enough fear to instill a sense of dread and the desire to complete their mission and find freedom. This is amped even moreso wit the threat of a militia who will stop at nothing to bring the science experiments to an end.

The prognosis:

Death Valley may be prone to predictability and could easily fall foul as a result, but what is presented is mildly entertaining and ticks along at a descent pace.

Just don’t be surprised by the cheap choice ending and the dialogue which can be ropey at times.

  • Saul Muerte

Death Valley is currently streaming on ShudderANZ.