Shrieker

The creature? Yeah, it and the movie it stars in. Hell would seem infinitely more frightening if the damned were forced to watch this for all eternity. Six college students shack up in a condemned hospital to save money and end up victims of an ancient monster who must claim five victims before it returns to "the shadowy world from which it came!" Other than having major logic and coherence problems (plus the fact it appears to be unfinished), this disaster is terribly acted, written, edited (by J.R. Bookwalter) and directed, and the make-up FX are almost nonexistent. It's also significantly shorter than it claims (at only 80 minutes), but I'm not complaining. It's the worst movie I've seen from executive producer Charles Band's Full Moon productions and boy is that BAD!

To note, I almost didn't bother with a review, but this has gotten inexplicably good reviews on here and I figured a varying opinion was in order. Proceed with caution!

I have to say, not the greatest horror film out there. However, well worth a viewing if only to see Jamie Gannon in his first horror film. That boy is gonna be a big star. Not only is he extremely talented (working with a completely implausible script and a monster that looks like it was made out of paper mache), but he has to be the hottest young actor out there - yum!!! His second horror film (Final Stab, also a Full Moon picture) is infinetly better and well worth renting. He is certainly an actor whose career I will be sure to follow.

Typically, I am not a fan of Director David Decoteau. However, under one of his many alias names, he does a good job with this film. Editing by JR Bookwalter probably helped alot, too. All the movies that have come out of Full Moon since their departure from Paramount have been made on extremely low, low budgets..and the product is normally crap! This is especially true since 2000....However, this film is different...Okay, corny dialouge, bad acting, or overacting tend to be very evident in this film...But it still tells a story...

To much surprise, the guy that played the homophobic jock, was actually one of the best characters, and actors in the whole film. Though killed off, he was able to maintain a presence in the film, and delivered his lines well, and with professionalism. The Psycho-Lesbian militant woman was just suck! I hated her character!

The Special effect are very amateurish, but compared to most Full Moon pictures being cranked out now...this is a 10 in that department. Something to check out...Would have liked to seen a sequel to this one...

8 out of 10

The best thing about Shrieker is the dialogue. Like Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer, this movie is cognizant of the conventions of this type of horror movie and manages to come up with a few good lines and scenes that play on those conventions. Unfortunately, Shrieker is just boring. The plot is your basic Ten Little Indians whodunnit with a monster controlled by one of the suspects/victims. You know from the beginning that each of the characters will get bumped off until only the hero(ine) is left to defeat the evil. And this is exactly what happens. Absolutely no surprises and no tension. Production values and acting were ok, but I had no motivation to watch to the end (although I did) because I already knew how the end scene would play out. The ending did surprise me a bit, because it managed to fizzle out, literally, instead of throwing out a bucket of special effects. Maybe the special effects budget had been spent up by the end.

Three couples take up residence in an abandoned hospital, only to find themselves stalked by the hideous demon of the title.

SHRIEKER is another goofy, yet fun movie from the golden age of Full Moon Productions. The monster isn't bad, though it's certainly not frightening either. Thankfully, it's screen time is scant.

The characters are generic, but passable monster fodder. As Full Moon movies go, this one is more "serious" than others of its era, and at only 72 minutes it flies right by!

If you enjoy movies about demons, black magic, or bickering squatters, then this should make your night...