Victor O
I’m becoming a fan of actress Cerina Vincent, and I noticed this movie in her filmography. Having watched a few of her movies I realized that she hasn’t done a great job, but she is easy on the eyes, so I felt that was good enough.
A group of students set off a discovery that turns into their doom, leading the police to believe its simply a spree killer out for blood. But all that changes for the park ranger Danny as she does what she can while grieving for the loss of a dear friend. Her grief is forgotten as she has to fight for her life against a dangerous creature that waits.
I have seen some of Cerina Vincent’s works and I admit I watch for her great looks, but this entry surprised me as she showed she can act. Great writing from Stephen Cannell helps, as well as modest budget. It still feels like a Cable TV movie than a high-end cinema, something that Vincent is more than worthy for. This was a decent watch.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
06/29/24
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Audience Member
The main actor is terrible, more focused on how she looks then her acting. The movie itself is putting me to sleep even with skipping through the slow parts.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/06/23
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Audience Member
It was so stupid I can't believe some one with any intelligence actually wrote this. Couldn't finish it, 20 min in I couldn't and stopped watching.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
02/27/23
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Audience Member
'I'm not sure how a guy wearing Ralph Lauren can buy into this crap'
'ow ow ow owwww'
The bloody gore in this movie looks very tasty, reminded me of sweet and sour chicken. The dialogue seems to have been written by someone from outer space, the plot makes very little if any sense.
Rated 0.5/5 Stars •
Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars
01/23/23
Full Review
Audience Member
Put simply, let this movie wait. It is a frustratingly tedious movie, plagued by bad writing and a complete misunderstanding of the US Forest Service and also apparently the Army Corps of Engineers. The acting is pretty terrible, but I think that is mostly due to the poor script. Carina Vincent did what she could, but there really wasn't much to work with. The dialogue is awful and there is a lot of over the top melodrama in it. The first half hour runs more like a Lifetime movie than a horror movie. I shut it off a few times, but it did leave me with just enough curiosity to bring me back to finish because I wanted to know what this creature was and what it waited for.
So, a group of students for some reason is in the forest and they blow up a rock face and finds a cavern. The professor with them states "We found it." So, they were looking for something, but they never really tell us what. They go in the cave, see disturbing cave drawings, something growls, and they are attacked and presumably all killed. So, early on we understand there is a creature and by blowing up the rock face it has been released. However, following the disappearance of the students and professor, there is apparently a search and investigation. There are no references to anything bad happening during the investigation, so the audience is left to infer that the creature left all the searchers alone and went back into hiding and somehow was not found. Maybe because they were all armed?
So…. fast forward two months.
The heroine in this movie, Danielle, played by Cerina Vincent, is an alcoholic. Based on flashbacks, we learn she feels guilty for the death of her friend. They were out drinking and got in a car accident and her friend, who was not wearing a seatbelt, flew through the windshield and died. Danielle's guilt centers around the fact that she was driving her friend's car when they got in the accident. The police assumed her friend was driving (because it was her car) and this didn't charge Danielle for vehicular manslaughter.
So, Danny feels guilty about not telling the police she was one driving drunk, and now spends her days in a fire lookout drinking all day. In the movie she works for the "US Forestry Department" and seems to have multiple significant full-time jobs, making her a bit of a Mary Sue character. Also, her boss knows she is an alcoholic and spends her day drinking, yet she seems to have multiple extremely safety sensitive jobs and could kill hundreds or thousands of people with a mistake. Not only is she a drunk fire lookout, she is also armed, so she is also apparently a drunk law enforcement officer, and talks about doing a manzanita survey, so she is also some kind botanist or timber technician. In addition, she has to operate the spillway on a substantial dam and let out 10 million gallons a day to keep the dam from collapsing (again, while drunk). So, in reality that dam would actually be operated by the US Army Corps of Engineers, so is she employed by them too? She is also apparently an explosives expert because she has access to dynamite at her lookout tower. What the heck?
So, obviously the lesson she learned from getting drunk and being an idiot is to actually drink even more, especially in a job that offers her the potential to kill hundreds or even thousands of people. If for example, if in her drunken state she does not release the 10 million gallons a day from the dam? What town might get wiped out?
Most of the movie she walks around with a moody expression in a white tank-top undershirt to show off her significant chest. Clearly the director wanted as many shots of her chest as possible. On the rare occasion she slips on a uniform shirt, she never buttons it and comes off as a slob. But, since the shirt is about 4 sizes too small for her, there is no way she could button it and thus shows off her massive bust some more. The movie takes place over a few days while she is in this tower. She has no shower but manages to look perfect in every scene.
She's involved with another employee who is also armed, making him some kind of law enforcement officer. However, neither one knows how to safely handle a rifle. In one scene, her boyfriend actually rests its butt on the ground and puts his hand over the front of the barrel and actually leans on it!
So, this creature starts playing with her and her boyfriend. It shakes her tower, flips over a Jeep, breaks into her supply cache, and climbs on top of her tower and sounds her alarm and destroys her radio. She and her boyfriend decide to walk to the dam to use the radio at the dam. However, the creature has already gone there and destroyed the radio equipment as well. So, this creature seems to have an understanding of modern technology and knows how to destroy communications equipment and vehicles. WTF?
So, Danielle's boyfriend decides he is going to walk out to get help. Right…. nothing bad can ever happen from splitting up ad leaving the safety of the structures you have. So, he walks off and in a very underwhelming scene is killed by the creature. The creature then plays with Danielle some more by strategically placing his body and the bodies of two hikers where she will run into them and scream. She does start shooting randomly and wounds the creature, which bleeds some kind of green slime. So, she tracks it to its cave intending to kill it. Then…. pop! In comes a new character, a professor that wants to know what happened to his colleague and their students. Also, he happens to be an American Indian and explains a legend about this creature to the audience. So, the creature is actually a demon from hell that the locals trapped in a cave hundreds of years ago. It is explained that the demon likes to toy with its victims, especially if they are deeply troubled in some way. Also, it doesn't like water. Why is never explained. So, the professor gives Danielle his briefcase to study up on the demon and then suggests they split up (What?). So, at that point we know the professor will die horribly. Instead of reading up on the creature, Danielle decides to hunt it that night because it is raining and it is already wounded. However, when she gets back to the cave it suddenly stops raining and the creature comes out and chases her back to her tower. It pulls a hunk of meat from her leg and eats it in front of her and then leaves. I assumed this was more of it "toying" with her to keep her negative energy flowing, which it apparently feeds off of.
Danielle finds a cell phone and calls her boss in hysterics. He assumes she is drunk but goes up to see her in the morning. She then grabs some of her handy dynamite and they begin to drive out. They are attacked but Danielle is able to use the vehicle to ram the creature back into the cave, blow up the entrance and seal it back up with her dynamite.
Then we jump to her at the police station. She is claiming she doesn't know who killed everyone, while not even looking at the officer (obviously lying). She then explains that she was the one driving the vehicle that killed her friend. End.
This is a movie that could benefit from being remade. However, you need some decent writers!
Rated 1.5/5 Stars •
Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
Audience Member
It has a few great scary moments, but the abysmal dialog ruins the movie.
Rated 2/5 Stars •
Rated 2 out of 5 stars
01/21/23
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