Animal

Animal doesn't have much substance as a horror movie. It's your typical "teenagers lost in the woods and are getting picked off one by one" story, except instead of a machete wielding maniac chasing them it's an Alien-Predator-hybrid animal that has a taste for human meat. For what it is, it's a fun watch - it's exactly what you'd expect from a B-movie called "Animal".

I can't score it any higher because it gets zero points for originality and I can't score it lower because it doesn't try to be anything more than a schlocky monster movie. It's surprisingly cohesive writing-wise, and is definitely more watchable than half the F13 entries. Elizabeth Gillies' ear-piercing screams are annoying yet hilarious and add some extra zest once her friends become fodder to this unstoppable beast.

Overall Animal achieves exactly what it sets out to, but its sights weren't aimed high in the first place. It's a clear homage to old-fashioned monster movies with lots of campiness, cheesy special effects, blood and guts aplenty, and a handful of scares that catch you off-guard. All you can ever want in a B-movie romp-fest.

They're in the house not holding ANY weapons in their hands whatsoever when the creature is scoping it the first time. Not even a sharpened stick. How totally stupid and unrealistic. Only later on did they grab anything. So you're telling me in that house there's no kitchen with knives or anything? The tiny boards on the windows look 100 years old and don't look like they'd hold out a five year old.

Passable acting, passable action, passable script. Plot... well, it is a predatory animal in the forest survival horror, and how much of a plot would you usually expect? As usual the heroes (fodder) are a little on the dim side, forgoing (as is too often the case) arming themselves and trusting far too much in defense, defense, DEFENSE as they get picked off, but while there is nothing exceptional here there is also nothing that is a total deal breaker for the genre. The only really redeeming thing is there is a decent job of effects. Considering the low budget they did not do a bad job with that. All in all it is worthy of a watch if you are bored and have nothing better to do, but don't take that as a recommendation either... in the end it is still just passable.

I didn't expect much from "Animal" and pretty much knew from beforehand that it was going to be a derivative and unoriginal backwoods creature-feature. And yet I still very much wanted to see it. Why? Because I previously watched writer/director Brett Simmons' 2011 horror film "Husk" and, even though that one was derivative and unoriginal as well, it was also an unpretentious and incredibly fast-paced horror throwback with some good moments of suspense and many grisly images. And guess what? "Animal" is exactly the same! I've rarely seen a more clichéd plot or more stereotypical characters, but at least the film is never boring and contains several good action sequences. A bunch of twenty-something friends head out for a weekend in the woods, in a remote area where one of them used to spent her summer vacations with her parents. Whilst still hiking, they are confronted with an unknown but extremely aggressive and ravenous type of predator that chases them into a ramshackle cabin. There, they are united with three others that are hiding from the monster. Various plans to outsmart the monster fail and meanwhile the intrigues between the dwindling group of survivors inside the cabin pile up. The script never bothers to explain what of monster/animal these poor suckers are up against. The beginning briefly hints at military involvement, when the group finds a soldier's backpack in the woods. The predator could be an experiment gone wrong, but it could also mean that someone had already tried to destroy it through military force but failed. We don't know and, frankly, I don't care because the creature is nicely gruesome and bloodthirsty. The kills could have been more rancid and gory as far as I'm concerned, though. I must also be getting very old, because I'm reading a lot of praising comments about the famous cast members, particularly the two leading ladies (Keke Palmer and Elizabeth Gillies) and some girl that has a very brief cameo at the very beginning, yet I don't know any of them. The only familiar face that I spotted was that of Joey Lauren Adams, and I know her because she starred in Kevin Smith's comedies back in the '90s… Yep, I must be getting very old.

"Animal" is actually a fairly decent creature feature. Sure, the movie doesn't offer anything new to the genre. In fact, everything here has been seen before in other similar creature features.

But still, the movie was entertaining and thrilling. And when the movie offers nothing new and is essentially fully a movie much similar to every other creature feature, then what makes it stand out? Well, because the movie follows the "how to make a creature feature" to the point. But it is the creature itself that makes the movie so interesting.

The creature in the movie is unique in appearance and the special effects team did manage to pull it off quite nicely. The creature looked like a strange mutation between a rodent and human of sorts. It did look realistic and was adding a great sense of terror to the movie.

While the creature alone would make for a boring movie, then the people on the cast were doing great jobs with their given roles and characters. And it is especially great that no one is safe and out of harms way. The movie does offer that sense of unpredictability, which adds to the suspense of the movie.

The movie is visually great, but also audibly great. The score is nice and very appropriate to the movie. But the sounds that the creature was making proved to be quite interesting, not to mention unnerving.

It would be great to have another movie made with this particular breed of creature. I can recommend "Animal" if you enjoy a good old fashioned styled creature feature horror movie.