which sits on the outskirts of the fictional town of Boggy Creek, Texas. Surrounded by a beautifully haunting swamp with a horrifying history, the cast quickly multiplies until we have a tidy group of five teens ready for action. They inevitably meet a local boy who fills them in on a Native American leg- end that suggests that a clan of local sasquatch are stealing nubile human fe-
males for the purpose of mating, even if this means gutting their boyfriends or husbands in the process. Teenage drama and death scenes proceed to inter- twine with sappy flashbacks to Jennifer’s childhood until she realizes she’s got more to worry about than her deceased dad. The creatures are menacing, the directing is fine,
the scenery is superbly spooky, and it’s gory without being ridiculous. The problem is that Boggy Creek lets a few off-putting elements drag down the whole hairy beast, most notably the soundtrack and already tiresome drama. To underscore Jen- nifer’s loss, we must endure a heartfelt emo bal- lad that continually interrupts any building suspense. At one point, the song’s lyrics even go head-to-head with dialogue! These overly senti- mental detours, along with extended boyfriend/girlfriend bickering, end up outweighing the solid scenes of suspense and horror. With a spookier score, less weeping and more
exploration of the sasquatches’ evil scheme, Boggy Creek would’ve rocked. But as it stands, you’ll need a box of tissues to help you through the touching scenes between the opening Bigfoot brutality and the admittedly awesome ending.
LYLE BLACKBURN
THE BETTER TO BORE YOU WITH
MEDIUM RAW: NIGHT OF THE WOLF Starring William B. Davis, John Rhys-Davies
and Andrew Cymek Written and directed by Andrew Cymek Anchor Bay
Something feels oddly manipulative about Medium
Raw, but not in a pleasantly nostalgic faux exploitation movie way. No, it falls more into a category I’ll call geeksploitation. Combining myriad genre influences, from serial killer movies to fairy tales, video games and comic books, the filmmakers unfortunately don’t know how to combine their collective inspirations into anything new. Instead writer/director/star Andrew Cymek (the man behind the Dark Rising films and TV series) crams in scenes, ideas and characters from other, better movies seemingly to try to trick audiences into liking Medium Raw by association. You wouldn’t think that a movie featuring super-powered cannibals could possibly be boring, but it is. The opening sequence of the film – a bleached-out
flashback of a young girl being kidnapped and killed by a Big Bad Wolf-inspired killer – is both stylish and effective, but then the movie immediately splits into two parallel clichéd plots. One involves a young cop
The Task: Lives up to its title.
who is invited by an old vet (John Rhys-Davies, who must have had a week to kill and decided to take this on) to investigate a murder that seems to involve the Wolf Killer; and the other is about an impossibly beautiful psy- chiatrist (Brigitte Kingsley) in a futuristic, electrified insane asylum (run by a character played by William B. Davis,
who was the Smoking Man in The X-Files and is there- fore evil here as well). It all builds to a night of mayhem when the prisoners break loose and generically attrac- tive actors in suits get bumped off one by one. There’s also some stuff about corruption in the asylum and personal revenge going on, but who cares? Medium Raw’s few jump scares and creepy scenes
simply aren’t enough to counter all of the reheated cheese and community theatre-quality acting. It’s only worth watching if you suffer from amnesia and have forgotten every movie made in the last twenty years. PHIL BROWN
JAIL FAIL
THE TASK Starring Tom Payne, Alexandra Staden and Victor McGuire
Directed by Alex Orwell Written by Kenny Yakel After Dark Originals
The thing about film criticism is you have to have
an opinion – a conclusion much easier to form when a film is good or bad, but surprisingly difficult when the film leaves you feeling absolutely nothing. Such is the problem with The Task. A group of shallow twentysomethings end up as
contestants on a Survivor-like reality show set in an abandoned prison – the former site of horrible atroci- ties that were committed by a sadistic warden. It’s not too long before the show’s pre-planned spooks and scares are replaced by the real supernatural deal and our little fame-whores are stalked by the warden’s ghost, back to finish what he started. Sounds decent
RAGTAG HAG
SCREAM OF THE BANSHEE Starring Lauren Holly, Todd Haberkorn
and Lance Henriksen Directed by Steven C. Miller Written by Anthony C. Ferrante and Jacob Hair After Dark Films
As you’ve probably gleaned from watching Jen-
nifer’s Body or The Slammin’ Salmon, as awesome as Lance Henriksen is, his presence in a film doesn’t
39RM
enough. Hell, even the cover (a creepy clown- masked figure peering through a camera) holds the hope of a Hostel-like torture flick, at the very least. So how did this become such a soulless chore to sit through? For starters, the characters manage to find a new
level of tedium that goes beyond cardboard. Each is introduced via a fifteen-second “interview” clip, which is pretty much limited to: “I’m the gay one,” ”I’m the vapid one,” “I’m the black guy,” etc. The tasks alluded to in the film’s title consist of wandering the far-too- dark halls of the prison and participating in uneventful challenges that end in zero payoff. Often the success or failure of a film like this rests on the shoulders of its boogeyman. Here it’s the spectral Warden: a paunchy, pasty bald guy with a pedostache, who ap- parently left all of his shirts in the afterlife. His weapon of choice? A shiv. Yes, death by one-
and-done shanking is his M.O., so even the promise of gore – the sole redeemer of many a bad film – falls short. Additionally, the movie’s last-minute “twist” is so ham-handed and pointless that one suspects no- body involved gave half-a-shit about how this turned out. This lazy, narcoleptic and bloodless slog doesn’t
even pass as mindless entertainment. It does, how- ever, live up to the definition of its title: “a specific piece of work required to be done as a duty or chore.” And that duty’s been done for you now. You’re wel- come.
RON MCKENZIE
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