The Creature Below

source: The Creature Below

THE CREATURE BELOW is a British indie horror flick with some mildly interesting touches, but in the end the experience is soured by an air of tired predictability and a willingness to take the story in a very ordinary direction. The young female protagonist is a diver who brings something back from the depths; it turns out to be a bloodsucking squid monster which she keeps in a tank. Eventually, she feeds a few people to it. The story is as mundane as that, not helped by indifferent performances and direction that screams "first time". I'm a massive fan of Lovecraft and I was hoping this would be more along that line, but aside from the cheesy final scene this never rises above the ordinary.

leaving all the scientific biological flaws aside, this little underground flick was surprisingly pleasant to watch. the plot start off pretty fast, no extended foreplay, like most movies that manage to catch the spirit of HPL. it also lacks unnerving soundtracks and insane screaming like, for example, the well-known 'Possession' delivers. without ever breaking the bonds of tolerability, it still provides a good amount of blood. although the characters and their relations could've used a little more development, the acting is solid. from the first few minutes on, the atmosphere is dense and calm at the same time. not many dialogues, not much sound at all - just that subtle, uncanny music and the sounds of the creature. lighting and camera sometimes are a bit rigid and once in a while one wishes to see more of what's happening and of the creature itself. then, on the other hand, a loyal Lovecraft adaptation doesn't live off the things the viewer actually can see. the ending really got me and earned my rating another star. just when one would think all is over, not satisfying, but understandable, the horror, seemingly defeated, rises again and reveals itself to the sole survivor after her escape from the asylum. the brood mother emerges from the sea and shows itself just long enough to release those typical HPL shivers going down the spine before the credits begin.

The movie is basically an attempt of making dark brooding version of Little Shop of horrors. The more you watch the more the similarities are going to come to light. From the creatures first feeding attempts to its reaction to blood. The lead character even shares a suckling seen similar to Rick morranis and audry. I will give it is sufficiently changed from the source material to not call it a copy it does fit in line as far as plot development

A good concept, not an original one but with a real potential to be both fun and scary, and a creepy-looking DVD cover were what drew me into seeing 'The Creature Below' in the first place. Also have gotten some entertainment out of low-budget creature films, though there are too many weak or less ones. 'The Creature Below' is not good, let alone great. It is also not terrible, let alone a complete shambles, and has good points that make it semi-watchable. There are certainly far worse films in the genre, of similar creature films and overall and it didn't leave me angry or cringing, just that it is very underwhelming that doesn't do a good job with its objectives of being fun or scary. Starting with the positives, the monster does have some creepiness. There are moments where 'The Creature Below' is moderately scary and fun, and it doesn't take things too seriously or go overboard on the camp factor. It's effectively lit and shot too sometimes. The soundtrack has eeriness when it isn't being intrusive or obvious. Michaela Longden tries. Conversely, a lot of things bring 'The Creature Below' down. The acting is generally not good, Anna Dawson being especially terrible in the lead and it does kill the film. The characters are dull and sometimes annoying, meaning there is never much of a reason to make one care for them. Some of the decision making as such bordered on silly. Although the creature was not bad in personality, the creature effects are very cheap-looking. Even for low-budget, 'The Creature Below' is pretty slapdash, especially in the editing. Excitement, thrills, creepiness and suspense are too far and between. The scares are generally not enough and suffer from predictability and lack of tension. The story is far too minimal, another thing that affects the pacing with the padding and over-stretching, bland and often ridiculous. Overall, semi-watchable at best and mostly mediocre. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Talking about The Creature Below, 2016 Directed by Stewart Sparke, who co wrote it with Paul Butler. Spoiler Alert, I will be talking about the plot and give spoiler details, so best advice, watch it, and then come back and see if I am on Target. Where to begin, Great Procuction values. The modest budget produced satisfactory effects, Lots of naked woman, and buckets of blood, Whats not to like? About the story, it starts with Anna Dawson, playing Olive Crown. A work obsessed explorer, virtually selling her soul to explore dark realms. She's going down, with some neat helmet effects, There she meets" it". What is it? the unnamed, but I suspect Cthulhu. Things go amok, and that's the first ten minutes. Next thing you know we see the same woman in a completely different light, Her loving boyfriend Matt Gardiner, played with charm by Daniel Thrace. She has a visit from her dear sister, Ellie, played by Michaela Longden. Her Pal shipmate who saved her life, and the Brutal Lead Wronged captain Dr Fletcher, ,played by Zachary lee. Fine acting all around, well and good, until, It turns out to be a Monster in the basement movie,, with violence murder and Madness above all. The film vexed me, It follows plot lines we have seen before, the "simple experiment goes awry". Throw in the "Morphing blood Sucking baby to grown up" monster. A bit of raped by a monster, and a touch of Rosemarys Baby. The poor actors had to make the best of sometimes inane plot turns, As it turns out, it ended better then I expected. About the monster, since that is what makes or breaks a film, Either for budget concerns, or plot points, we seldom get a glance of the monster, we see a inky egg, and after that, the terrible cliché of rubber tentacles pulled behind objects when spotted, all the while a cooing with baby monster sounds. Then there are the Feed Me scenes, I swear its true, that is exactly a tip of the hat to Mushnick. The Ten Little Indian plot device was wearing thin, when her sister, who heard all and saw all, saves the film. Entertaining, gore with discretion, over the top At the expense of some actors who gave it their all. Eight out of Ten black inky Stars.

I actually enjoyed this low budget horror flick. The story line is great and was developed very well........as the little creature from the depths of the ocean is metamorphosing into a hideous creature, the smart biologist who found the creature is also struggling with her sanity as she bonds with the creature There is no established actor in the film. The quality of acting is not the best. But the main character (Anne Dawson) played her role very well. Over all, it is a nice film!

While Olive (Anna Dawson) is diving at 1500 feet a sea creature lodges an egg in her suit. She takes it home and nurtures it in a what becomes a combination of "Alien" and "Little Shop of Horrors." They attempt to invoke HP Lovecraft with a "Mishatonic" (sic) diploma, but being misspelled (It should be Miskatonic) you have to wonder how knowledgeable these guys were. There are weak connections to the ancient world and gods with a ton of plot holes like, it they can live at both 1500 feet and in surface air, why are they just returning now? The film uses CG for some sea scenes. Olive's descent into what appears to be madness and mindless ramblings was poorly done with an explanation left in pieces, something that could have made the feature better using real flashback reenactments of the past instead of something that looked like an Egyptian kid's refrigerator art. Guide: F-word and nudity (Anna Dawson)

Despite the awful acting Zero budget Weak story Uninspired direction Awful special effects And did I mention just how terrible the lead 'actress' is? I somehow made it to the end! There is nothing to recommend this film and it has few redeeming qualities. But it is watchable (just), and the premise could be interesting if ALL the above faults were fixed. I've not seen a good Lovecraft inspired film for a long time - and this does not change that!

First, the bad, and it is pretty bad. The CGI and green-screen work is simply atrocious. A lot of it does seriously remind one of a decade old video game, and not a good video game. The first ten minutes of the movie is dominated by it but if you hang in there, what you will find is something very surprising. Now the good, and there is a substantial amount of good to be found here. I'll start with a nod to the score which kept reminding me of something John Carpenter would have done and, to me, that is a very good thing. As the movie moves from its start as an action adventure/monster flick to a somber melodrama following our leads decent into madness, the score continues to keep the energy up through what I would term as very patient pacing. As a bit of balance to the poor CGI much of the practical effects were good. With some unabashed blood and various levels of body horror as well as a satisfactory rendering, it has plenty of payoff if blood and guts are your sort of thing. The monster was left largely unseen, another nod to Lovecraft as were it actually shown correctly, we the viewers would be driven mad by the sight of it. Nudge nudge wink wink. I found the acting and its direction to be solid, and at times quite good. While the somewhat dingy sister and the milquetoast boyfriend were a bit on the cliché eventual monster food variety the roles were played well and I found them to be believable enough. The story, ahhhh the story. For me this is where the movie is really a bit special. It has proved to be very very difficult to correctly put together a movie that captures the essence of the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. This one, I think, rather nailed it. It is not a tale of us verses it where, in the end, the monster is slain and the heroine gets away. It is a tale of a person who, unwittingly, pokes at something vast and terrible and pays the price with first their sanity and then their life. It is the story of a decent into madness brought about by contact with something that is beyond reason. When watching it one knows that this is not going to end well for anyone pretty early on and this is all part of the way Lovecraft wove his tales. Again, to reuse a phrase from earlier, all of this is told, as Lovecraft told his tales, with a horrific patience that draws one in to the mounting madness. I think for all fans of Lovecraft there was a complete geek out when the lead finally sinks deep into madness and starts describing the experience using entire passages of Lovecraft's work to do so. Placing Lovecraft's prose directly on to film is not an easy thing to pull off but here it was done quite well. All in all what we end up with is a movie that works very well if one is a fan of Lovecraft as the "mythos" part of the movie is, in my opinion, some of the best ever done which makes it much easier to forgive the terrible special effects. For those that are not already a fan of Lovecraft, however, there may be more of a disconnect as it is a patiently paced horror/drama book ended by some bad special effects. I would love to see those who were involved creatively on this project to be given the chance to bring what they seem to be able to do in a larger way. I would actually love to see this movie having been made with a substantial budget. Actually "getting" Lovecraft in a movie is a terrific thing, and not an easy thing to do. I would love to see it done in a more spectacular way.