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Overall Rating : 6/10
Directed By : Richard Griffin
Andrew Vellenoweth (Raving Maniacs)
Tanith Fiedler (The Stink of Flesh)
William DeCoff (Feeding The Masses)
V. Orion Delwaterman (Raving Maniacs)
Date Reviewed : October. 24, 2007
Supplied By : Shock-O-Rama Cinema
Film Reviewed By : Rick L. Blalock
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| PLOT Following a toxic spill, science students from the state university are sent in to test the waters for contamination. They are immediately set upon by insane and inbred locals, who don't take kindly to strangers nosing about their town and beloved lagoon. But that's the least of their worries when a hulking humanoid borne of radioactive mutation ascends from the inky blackness to fill in lungs with air and its stomach with human bait. |
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| THE REVIEW the plot in Richard Griffin's CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON is simple, a lagoon in the south in unknowingly contaminated, and in these waters lurks a freakish creature looking for a kill. So when a group of Biology students from a local University show up to conduct a water contamination test, they find that the water is indeed tempered with, all the the while awaking the water's Creature whom has already attacked a few locals. A paper-thin plot(one that combines several ideas into one) stereotypical characters, questionable acting and terribly put-on southern drawls, are all present in Writer/Director Richard Griffin's campy homage to creature features of old. The film which is titled CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON(once titled SEEPAGE!) recklessly blends elements of Zombie Horror with that of a CREATURE FEATURE, to create a film that at times is surprisingly effective and even humorous. This is a film that knows it's limits and subject matter, and does not try to make the film better than it's budget will allow it to be - it is aware that the plotline can't for one second be taken serious, so it never tries to be serious. Most of the film's entertainment value comes at the expense of itself as it exploits it's campy style, I found it to to be just as much a spoof as it is a true to form homage to the films in which it was inspired. Rednecks in Horror films is not a new concept by any means, as a matter of fact, the stereotypical redneck as always been sort of an easy target for a little mindless fun. Some films that come to mind as films like THE ASYLUM's HIDE AND CREEP, one of my favorite Horror films, MADMAN(in which the killer is a "Hillbilly") and also I film that more closely resembles HILLBILLY LAGOON, TROMA's REDNECK ZOMBIES. I was really entertained by all of the redneck humor in this, from the mention of inbreeding, and the suggesting that one family in the film actually is inbred(what redneck film would be complete without inbreeding?), to good 'ol southern domestic squabbles between Husband and Wife....basically all of the imaginable cliches are covered - just when you thought it possibly couldn't get any funnier the Horror angle adds even more. The plot introduces the generic plot of a Corporation conducting an experiment that eventually goes all wrong. When the Corporation decides to dump their leftovers from the said experiments into the waters of a hick town to easily dispose of them it creates a monstrous fish-like Creature, that spreads it's plague around to all attacked by it. To me, this immediately reminded me of films like ALLIGATOR, and CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON(which this film seems to have derived it's title from - it also mentions the film, as a possible nod perhaps), and it ends in the most predictable way you could imagine, much like a number of campy film - I won't reveal the conclusion her in my review, but i'm sure you can find it in some else's, whatever the case it's not a big shock when you see the film anyway. It may be predictable, and the acting may not even be that of an average level, but there is just something fun about it. The portrayal of a "redneck" in CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON is just as generic as it's plot, but the tongue-in-cheek humor, feel and, the effects(which happen to be really good for the film's budget - especially the Creature suits), make this one enjoyable - minus a few slow moments. |
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| GORE
METER 3.5/10 The effects are campy and one, I remember various attacks by fish-like Creatures which resulted in "defleshed" skeletons, in one instance a victim gets a hand through the chest from behind. The only thing else that I recall are a few gunshot wounds, |
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| MUSICAL
SCORE 4/10 The score was up-tempo and had a few rock sounding tunes along with more traditional sounding ones. |
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| OVERALL
IMPRESSION OF THE FILM Prior to reviewing this one, I had reviewed two of Richard Griffin's films prior; RAVING MANIACS and FEEDING THE MASSES(another SHOCK-O-RAMA release). I didn't really like RAVING MANIACS much, but FEEDING THE MASSES was actually pretty good. And while CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON is the least technical of the three, I found it to be the most entertaining. If you like low budget campy fun, this one is worth a shot! This DVD will be released on November 13, 2007 |
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