Roadkill

ROADKILL, a SyFy Channel-style giant monster flick complete with CGI beastie and some horrid acting, offers something a little different for B-movie fans. This one's set in Ireland for a change, and sees a group of American vacationers going on a road trip in their RV (or camper van for Brit viewers) and finding themselves at the mercy of an ancient curse.

It's all preposterous nonsense of course, and the film's cause is little helped by the cheesy, sloppy execution. The writing is equally poor: there's a fairly large cast and yet none of the main characters is in any way memorable or indeed stands out from the pack. When the token black guy shows up you know that the calibre of the writing is sub-par and totally clichéd to say the least.

And yet, and yet...ROADKILL has a certain atmosphere that I found highly charged and plenty of fun. The effects are cheesy, yes, but the giant bird creature is good fun, although more than a little out of place (I'd expect it in an Arabian Nights adventure, not a rural Irish horror). There's plenty of action, and Irish actor Ned Dennehy chews up the scenery with relish as the primary antagonist. Watch out for Stephen Rea's shame-faced cameo as a copper. ROADKILL may not be high art but it does offer plentiful amusement and, for me, that's what counts in a B-movie.

Yeah I gave it 7 of 10, what of it?! I enjoyed this movie the first time SyFy ran it a couple years ago and I've been looking for it ever since. I found it for free today on an online free movie site. (legal) I like B movies IF they are done with decent acting (this was) decent plot without too many holes ((check) and most importantly NO horrible CGI. The CGI in this movie was decently done for what it is and for the budget they probably had to work with. I didn't once roll my eyes at the monster bird. Honestly, who really knows what a truck sized bird would look like in real life? I imagine a bit unreal! I love B movies, I love creature features and I loved this movie. I offer no apologies, it was great!

If you can't handle bad CGI (and I mean the worst kind), than do yourself a favor and do not watch this movie. It actually has many things that would make me want to rate this 2/3 out of 10. But this is the Ned Dennehy show. You might have seen this man before in other movies and he always has some interesting characters. But he really shines in this crazy role right here.

So while most of the other actors (mostly the young ones) are not up to the task (e.g. might want to stick to their day job), Ned really goes all out. I really enjoyed him, he made the rest of the movie look better than it actually is ...

Score one for SyFy Channel and the generically titled "Roadkill." A bunch of good-looking your people are on a road trip in Ireland when they accidentally hit an old gypsy woman, who places a curse on them. They also run afoul of her peculiar hillbilly-like family. The curse comes in the form of a most unpleasant flying beast, a roc from ancient Greek mythology, which picks the youths off one by one. The roc is of course a CGI creation, but is several steps up from most other CGI creatures that populate SyFy-made flicks. The kids themselves are nothing special, but the film has the advantage of having been shot on location. Very reminiscent of "Jeepers Creepers II," and any film involving killer hillbillies ("Wrong Turn," for instance) and gypsy curses ("Thinner" comes to mind). Worth a look.

Before Johannes Roberts brought us 47 Meters Down or The Strangers sequel, he directed this SyFy movie named Roadkill. I have genuinely liked his movies before even though none of them were masterpieces but I thought they are mostly entertaining and fun little flicks. With this one being a sci-fi original you probably know what you're going to get. You will have bad acting, awful CGI effects and a dumb plot. However I think this is one of the better SyFy movies, the effects are bad but I have seen way worse, the acting was also not terrible and we even have some decent make-up effects. And as far as the story goes, I think it's quite original. A couple of teens driving around Ireland in an RV accidentally run over an old gypsy woman and are cursed with a giant flying creature chasing them down to kill them.

So basically just expect a typical sci-fi movie that is slightly above average for their content. [3,8/10]