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It's pretty hard to make a
Creature Feature movie nowadays -- or at least, a
good one. Mind you, most filmmakers don't even
bother with the "good one" part, as can
be attested to by the swarm of cheaply made
Creature Features that take up space at your local
Blockbusters. Or just look at the daily dose of
junk films by the Sci Fi Channel, who have
practically cornered the market on schlock cinema.
As well, the tropes of the Creature Feature genre
are so strongly established that filmmakers don't
even bother to vary from the formula even just a
little bit, which makes the whole situation even
less palatable to fans of the genre. And yes, we
are out there, otherwise the Sci Fi Channel would
be out of business.
Although Steven Monroe's
"It Waits" falls into the Creature
Feature genre, and indeed seems unconcern about
treading the same familiar grounds as its
umpteenth predecessors and would-be successors,
it's still surprisingly good. Of course this isn't
to say that the movie couldn't have been better,
because surely it could -- by miles. For one,
killing off Forest Ranger Justin (Dominic
Zamprogna) halfway through the film was a terrible
decision. Granted, the film's central idea is that
traumatized Forest Ranger Danny St. Claire (Cerina
Vincent) has to come to grips with her haunted
past and learn to survive once again. Even so,
that Justin guy is just so darn affable…
"It Waits" stars
Vincent as Danny, a Forest ranger who has sealed
herself off from the world in a Ranger Tower deep
in the forest after a deadly car accident claimed
the life of her best friend two months earlier.
Boyfriend Justin is concerned, and rightly so, as
the first time we see Danny, she's chugging cheap
booze like she was a Russian miner on his lunch
break. As the two lovers commiserate in an attempt
to help Danny get rid of her guilt (a justifiable
guilt, as it turns out), a dangerous creature,
released from its slumber by some college
students, is on the loose and currently going
through a bad phase that involves gutting,
decapitating, and mocking its victims with severed
heads of loved ones. Now that's just wrong.
Killing the creature is of
course difficult, but luckily for Danny, she soon
runs into an Old Man Who Knows Stuff, and if
you've been watching enough horror movies (or read
enough of my horror movie reviews), you know that
the Old Man Who Knows Stuff -- well, he's the guy
to go to when you need 10 pages of exposition
delivered in 2 minutes of screentime. In this
case, the Old Man Who Knows Stuff turns out to be
a Native American Professor whose students were
the ones to unleash the creature in the first
place. The Professor has a pretty wild theory on
what the creature is and what it wants, but
really, does anyone care? The thing looks cool and
it can pile up the bodycount pretty high, and
that's really all that matters to anyone who'll
take a shot with "It Waits".
And make no mistake -- while
"It Waits" is not the most original
horror film you'll find, it is worth a shot, if
for no other reason save its obvious quality in
the face of such a deluge of mediocrity that
currently exists within the genre. Director Steven
Monroe ("House
of 9") has a firm grip on what his
audience wants, and delivers more than enough to
satisfy. The gore is most definitely graphic,
including post-death mutilations of the corpses
that are, quite frankly, pretty disgusting and
kind of cool at the same time. As for the creature
itself, it's a combination of a stuntman in latex
and brief CGI, usually whenever the creature is
required to fly. Yes, it can fly. With wings and
everything. Go figure.
If one were to give the writers full credit, you could
say that making Native Americans the culprit that
unleashed the creature is the writers' way of
winking at their audience, as it's usually the
Evil White Man (or the Evil White Corporate Man)
who unleashes death upon the land. Also, genre
tropes usually assign Native American characters
halo duty, so it's worth a chuckle or two when the
White Man turns out not to be the harbinger of
death as is usually the case, but instead it's the
Native Americans who, as it were, did it this
time.
The
script also stands out from the parade of bad
Creature Features, most notably in its
presentation of its two main characters. Although
Vincent is a Forest Ranger, she's no Ellen Ripley,
which makes her character all the more believable
when she's battling the creature to the death. The
Justin character is also very well fleshed out,
helped by some good work from Dominic Zamprogna.
In fact, the film's first 30 minutes, which is
mostly devoid of creature action, is by no means a
lost cause, thanks to excellent work by Vincent
and Zamprogna. I know, better than average acting
in a Creature Feature film, right? What a novelty!
If movies about unstoppable
creatures that kill people in a brutal fashion for
some unfathomable reason beyond logic or, indeed,
any point, are your cup of tea, then "It
Waits" is an excellent offering. The film is
relatively short but nicely paced, and if you can
survive past the talky, character-driven first act
(some of you Creature Feature vets may have
trouble with this part), then the second and third
act is all action. Want gore? There's plenty of it
here. Want T&A? Cerina Vincent has never been
shy. Although it's very much an overall good deal
for fans, "It Waits" could have used a
little tweaking in the script -- such as not
killing off Justin, but maybe that's just me. |
