Creature of Darkness (Region 1 Edition)   Starring: Devon Sawa, Sanoe Lake, Matthew Lawrence and Fernanda Romero MTI Home Video RRP: $24.95 039414521382 Certificate: R Available 13 April 2010

Since early childhood Andrew has been having the same recurring dream of a green skinned alien who comes to Earth to collect specimens for an off world museum. Convinced that the only way that Andrew is going to move on, his friends take him on a road trip, unfortunately, to the place which forms the backdrop to his nightmare. The problem is Andrew's dreams are not a fiction created by his brain, the group have walked straight into the jaws of death...

Creature of Darkness (2009 - 1 hr, 20 min, 36 sec) is an old style science fiction horror movie in Corman style: cheap, bloody and a lot of fun. The film was written, directed and produced by Mark Stouffer. It’s not the deepest film you will ever see, but it is pretty enjoyable.

Initially I didn’t hold out much hope for the movie, after all films about a bunch of kids being picked off, one by one, in the woods are ten a penny and for a film like this to work the creature has to be believable. In this the film makers sensibly decided to cover most of the creature except for a single hand and a pretty convincing prosthetic head. Ok, so some of the transitions between prosthetics and the CGI work isn’t as smooth as a big budget film, but given how little they had to spend the results are pretty impressive.

So we’re not looking for a deep plot, just another bunch of kids being offed one at a time and, as in most of these films, their own stupidity makes the aliens jobs so much easier. The acting is fine and the cast throw a lot of enthusiasm into running through the woods screaming their heads off.

The film, I’m sure, wouldn’t pretend that it hasn’t borrowed from others, and there is a lot of the Predator at the start of the movie before it heads straight towards teen slasher territory. To continue with the slasher movie motif, the group, rather than pulling together, are quickly at each other’s throats, which makes it easier for the catcher to... well... catch them.

Devon Sawa does his best to carry the movie as Andrew, but the truth is that this is a beer and pretzels no brainer flick. It's designed to be attractive to young males, hence the semi nudity which has nothing to do with the plot, a plot with a number of serious holes and dialogue which must have looked good on paper but often is a little embarrassing to listen to.

The film is presented in 16:9 and the finished disc should have a 5.1 soundtrack as well as extras, but I can’t really comment as my disc was a screener.

5

Charles Packer