Cortechba Overrated

Huievest Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Roy Hart If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

GL84 Arriving in a small town, a woman attempting to help clear her father's name who's accused of murder finds the real culprit is a lot more monstrous than she figured and tries to stop it's revenge-fueled rampage.This was an overall decent creature feature. One of its better features here is the rather fine action scenes here which are quite enjoyable for how frequent they appear in this as the rapid pace becomes very important to these scenes. The opening attack in the forest is highly enjoyable, as the foot chase through the area provides some nice action before the creature emerges for a fine shock kill and eventual discovery, the shots of the posse stalking after the creature in the woods, a series of early attacks with the different parts of the creature come into play with all the vines and tree roots attacking cars and pulling victims along to their deaths in quite graphic fashion all come off rather nicely as these set-up the longer, more involved scenes rather well. The woodland encounter that shows off the creatures' true identity is a big reason for that as it's a truly enjoyable a scene with the triple stand-off, the transformation sequence is stellar as it leads into the frantic firefight and tense stalking of the creature around the forest which is quite fun and a later attack on their cabin features tons of action with the vines crashing through the dilapidated house and chasing them through the house with a flurry of gunshots before leading them away for another great encounter through the woods makes for a great highlight. The finale is another good one, presented as a high- speed chase to put the rather unique weakness into effect for a lengthy action scene as it tries it's tactics to stop them which is quite fun, and all of these action scenes are what move the film along. Given the unique design for the creature as it's a walking tree with plenty of roots and branches sticking out all over so it literally looks like a walking tree and the pretty graphics kills from the high body-count, these are what hold off the few flaws here. The film's biggest factor here is the main plot-point of getting the girl to come out, which makes no sense. There's little reason to believe that having her come out because her father is charged with murdering a local as that doesn't seem all that likely to occur in real-life. That this also leads to plenty of time driving around the town meeting up with the locals who are none too interesting spilling further information about the back- story, or she's interacting at the cabin doing even more investigations which aren't all that enjoyable or make the story any clearer. The last flaw here is the ever-present and continually below-average CGI for the creature. It never looks good, rarely interacts normally within the scene and looks really stilted and quite fake. However, this is to be expected and isn't as big a deal as is normal. These here are what hold this one down.Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence and Language.

jlthornb51 The gifted David Winning directed veteran actor Bruce Dern to one of his finest performances in the deeply effecting horror film Swamp Devil. Dern gives his character a depth and humanity seldom seen in such film and his presence in this motion picture gives a great deal of gravitas. A truly excellent supporting cast also does some outstanding work here and one can sense their devotion to this project. With special effects that astound and make-up artistry of sheer genius. the touch of dedicated craft people can also be clearly viewed. The terror is intense as the director creates an environment of stunning dread and overwhelming fear. With a standout lead performance, unrelenting horror, and superior production values, no one who sees this film can ever deny the crushing horror that is Swamp Devil.

TheLittleSongbird Swamp Devil was not a good movie, but it is not a terrible one either and it could have been much worse. It is decently shot, has some good scenery, has an eerie score and the cast are above average particularly from Bruce Dern and Nicholas Wright. However, the effects are very poor, often crude above all else and the transformation sequences are just as bad. The monster does lack any kind of menace, you know nothing about why it behaves like it does and it is over-used which dilutes any sense of tension. The dialogue is very clunky, while the story rarely does engage often coming across as predictable with no sense of tense atmosphere and any lack of suspense in any scenes featuring the monster and the characters are little more than underdeveloped cardboard cut-outs. All in all, could have been worse, but is lacking in a lot of areas. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Woodyanders Sweet young Melanie Blaine (winningly played by foxy brunette Cindy Sampson) returns to her small backwoods country hometown of Gibbington to check on her estranged ex-lawman father Howard (splendidly essayed with edgy intensity by Bruce Dern), who's the prime suspect in a series of grisly murders. Nice guy local Jimmy Fuller (an excellent and likable performance by Nicolas Wright) helps Melanie out. Melanie eventually discovers that a vicious monster is behind the killings. Director David Winning relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, offers a vivid and flavorsome evocation of the remote rural setting, maintains an admirably serious tone throughout, stages the attack scenes with flair, and develops a good deal of tension which culminates in a rousing climax. Moreover, the main characters are exceptionally well-drawn and engaging, with Wright a stand-out as the affable Jimmy. Sampson and the always reliable Dern do sterling work with their roles; they receive sound support from Robert Higden as the vengeful, hot-tempered Jones, Allison Graham as eager, scrappy Deputy Jolene Harris, James Kidnie as earnest, upright Sheriff Nelson Bois, and Bronwen Mantel as folksy diner owner Shelly. The gnarly bayou beast that's made up of twigs and mud qualifies as a very cool creature; the CGI effects used to bring it to life are above average and overall acceptable. The smart and compact script by Gary L. Dauberman and Ethlie Ann Vare has an interesting central theme about the fine line between justice and revenge. Daniel Vincelette's crisp cinematography makes nifty occasional use of a gliding Steadicam. James Gelford's shuddery score hits the shivery spot. A really enjoyable fright flick.