La mine de l'angoisse

I used to love lightweight horror comedies like "Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein." Those movies while funny, had just enough dread to scare me as a kid. Some SyFy movies appeal to me in the same way, only the acting and effects often suck, to a certain extent.

How does one rate these types of movies fairly? None are masterpieces, but some, like Heebie Jeebies, can keep you watching to the end.

This is one of those movies. The characters meet satisfying ends and several are actually likeable. If it wasn't so dang gory, it might even be fin to watch with your 9 or 10 year old, and seeing how they react to that horrible, but original monster. So I gave it a 6, because the ending satisfied me very much, and I left feeling a certain way. A "6" is about as high as I can go with SyFy movies.

Could be the worst movie monster ever. And some of the worst acting ever. But the cheesiness of it made me stick around until the end.

Surprisingly enough, then "Heebie Jeebies" actually turned out to be rather entertaining - campy and cheesy, yes, but entertaining still.

The story is about some kind of mutated creature fused of several dead gold miners that becomes freed from its entrapment in the mine by accident when someone mine through a wall to it. The creature sets out to kill people in search for gold, and the town of Golderton is in dire peril. It is up to the local police to put an end to the monstrosity.

Sure, this was textbook material, but it was fun to watch and enjoyable. The storyline was predictable, as it usually is with these type of monster movies.

Aside from being poorly animated and comprised of questionable CGI, then the creature was nice in concept and interesting enough to look at on the screen. Although one does wonder if two strikes with a mining pick axe could free it from behind the wall, why didn't the creature just slam down the wall itself to begin with?

And if you are purchasing gold, why would you set up store at an old, abandoned mine outside of town? That just didn't make any sense for Billy Butler (played by Michael Badalucco) to have his business out there.

For an officer of the law, then sheriff Tatum (played by Carl Savering) wasn't particularly bright. I mean, when they picked up the video camera from the carnage scene at the gold mine (tinkering with a crime scene here in the worst way possible) and they looked through the footage, even though the image was blurred, you could still see a man-like creature with multiple heads. Then just how in the name of all that is unholy, could the sheriff say to the hunters that it was either a bear or massive feral boar? That was just the most stupid comment in the entire movie.

I will say that the creature design was really one of the most interesting and promising aspects of the movie. And I thoroughly enjoyed this particular monster on the screen. Great design and appearance, just a shame that the CGI effects were a bit shoddy at times. With a bigger CGI budget, then "Heebie Jeebies" could really have excelled and been that much more interesting.

The people on the cast list were doing good jobs with their given roles and characters, and it seemed that people had fun making this movie. And this level of acting really helped the movie along quite nicely.

Despite its predictability, questionable CGI and obvious plot and story holes, then "Heebie Jeebies" is actually worth sitting down to watch, especially if you enjoy low budget monster movies.

Released to TV in 2013 and directed by Thomas L. Callaway, "Heebie Jeebies" chronicles events in a Louisiana town when an abomination is unleashed from cursed gold mine that was recently reopened by a greedy descendant (Michael Badalucco in a decidedly over-the-top performance). Carl Savering & Robert Belushi play the Sheriff and his deputy while Dave Davis & Evie Thompson appear as their teenaged kin. Cathy Shim, Lucille Soong and Olivia Ku are on hand as an Asian family with insights about the creature.

This is a half-serious/half-campy Grade B horror flick with several amusing moments. It generally works for what it is and has a few highlights, like the imaginative, but cartoonish CGI monster, which looks like five corpses mashed together with a huge malevolent maw for a torso. Evie plays a winsome cutie, albeit overtly tart-y; and Belushi is likable as her cop brother, the main protagonist, not to mention Shim as his sweet girlfriend.

Despite the obvious low-budget, the movie has gusto and I cared about the 2-3 main characters. Unfortunately, there are glaring flaws that force me to lower my rating. For instance, the deputy discovers video-proof of the monstrosity, but then refers to it as some type of animal to others, including his sister.

The film runs 85 minutes and was shot in St. Francisville & Baton Rouge, Louisiana. WRITER: Trent Haaga. Marion Ross & Jennifer Rubin have small roles.

GRADE: C+

This doesn't seem to be a "SyFy Original" but it aired on the SyFy channel's Most Dangerous Night on Television. I have to say, it's yet another stupid horror movie filled with lame dialog, mediocre acting and a creature that had to be one of the worst monsters I've seen since the flood of CGI creatures into the film industry.

Still, for some reason, I enjoyed it. Yeah, there, I said it... I actually enjoyed it... I can't explain why but it made me laugh. While most of the performances and dialog in general was pretty bad, there were a few "one liners" that I thought were funny. One other "plus" was one of the female characters. Cathy Shim's character "Theresa Lim" was pretty hot.

If you're really, Really, REALLY BORED, you might enjoy this movie. If not, load up the NetFlix and find something decent.