Shallow Creek Cult

Two brothers - Jessie and Getty Carmichael - take a drive out to the remote Shallow Creek Pond to scatter their Gramps ashes but encounter some weird looking (read "crap") cannibalistic creatures that appear to be of alien origin. They take refuge in a house which has CCTV cameras all over the place, which comes in handy as this is a Found Footage (FF) movie. Even when they aren't filming themselves then the CCTV covers the rest. They do film themselves doing the most mundane things, such as checking their car over before they depart, and why is it in so many of these FF movies that they still manage to hold a camera and carry on filming when they are fighting for their very lives??!! The acting is terrible, the brothers mumble so badly that I often found it hard to understand what was being said/mumbled. The picture quality is awful. As I have also mentioned the creature make-up is very poor, and the attempt to pass this nonsense off as real is laughable. The running time may only be 70 minutes but very little happens in this yawn-fest and it is a very boring and painful 70 minutes, Watching a clock for the same amount of time would probably be more fun. I have seen many bad FF movies but this stinker is a strong contender for the worst one so far. Absolutely abysmal.

There are many different subgenres of found footage horror films, but one which is definitely and regrettably under-represented is what might be called "action-horror".

These are found footage movies which trade slow burn and mystery for a fast pace and lots of action. The best of these also happens to be in my opinion the best found footage horror film I know of, REC(2008), but more recent examples include the "Ride in the Park" and "Safe Haven" segments in the found footage anthology V/H/S 2 (2013) (which are also its best segments) and DASHCAM (2021).

I find fast-paced found footage movies to be a lot of fun and wished there were many more of these. SHALLOW CREEK CULT has a script that could have easily lent itself for that. There is not much of a build-up, there are several "action scenes", and it could have been adopted to have a fast pace.

Yet, nothing much was done with this. We have an almost cliche horror scenario of a couple guys holding out in a house and surrounded by some kind of monsters, but this has to be one of the lamest treatments of this scenario ever. The effects and costumes are bottom fare, and the "action scenes" where the characters end up fighting with the monsters, are often painfully dull.

The movie does have a few funny scenes, and the dialogue, while not top notch, helps make the characters relatable. There is, however, one scene which raises ethical issues the movie refuses to engage with in any meaningful manner.

So much more could have been done with this. What a pity.

This could be the worst horror movie I have ever seen . The only reason I gave it 3 stars was the cheesiness of the special effects. The whole movie is like something my friends would have made in high school.

I found this on Amazon Prime and I hate to say it, but it's the worst film I've ever seen. It's the sort of film I would have made with a video camera when I was 12. It's got 28 ratings on IMDb and 2 reviews. I've never seen so few. Sorry King Jeff but I won't be recommending this to anyone in a great hurry... You can't hear the dialogue, nothing happens in the entire film, the characters are not likable and the introduction section of people discussing the cult is one of the most embarrassing things I've had the misfortune to clap my eyes upon. The other review on here refers to this as 'bottom of the barrel' and I couldn't say I agree more.

When I happen to tune into a 'found footage' flick, I typically use the 'back button' within seconds, but for some reason, this one snagged my attention, and then I was quickly hooked right to the end. For lack of a better word, the entire thing had a natural cadence that is lacking in many films with far greater resources than these guys were working with. The dialog was well done, as was the acting. They were totally believable, and I repeatedly found myself thinking that I and my brother could have been saying the same thing and acting the same way. The story was, well, almost secondary, and the effects were comical, but none of that detracted from the character study of two older brothers dealing with a threatening situation while retaining their love and devotion to each other. I give it 8 stars not by of comparison with any other movies, but because I believe these guys are capable of even better, and hopefully this will spur them on to shoot for a 10.