Bog Creatures

Rating:
Summary: A pleasant surprise.
Review: "Bog Creatures" is obviously a low budget effort, yet, despite these limitations, the filmmakers have managed to craft a charming and often frightening little movie that isn't afraid to be cheerfully cheesy at times. Plusses are a lot of character-driven humor (actual characters being a rarity in the genre), a well-crafted atmosphere of escalating fear, some genuine scare moments, one of the most shocking twists in recent memory and a surprisingly poignant ending. Production values are decent overall, with the usual trouble you'd expect from a low budget picture. There are problems - acting is uneven, with some standout performances and some less so, and there's some clunky editing in the first third that smacks of last minute "fixes." The film takes a while to get going, but once it does, it's a great ride. The movie actually takes you on a journey, modest as it is, and the filmmakers should be credited for trying to make a picture in the "classic" vein, that is relying on character and story, as opposed to just presenting a string of gory murders. A pleasant surprise that should work for both the horror buff and general viewer alike.

Rating:
Summary: Glorified Home Movie
Review: Bog Creatures shows exactly what can happen when very enthusiastic people get together with a little cash, some knowledge of movie making, a mixed bag of aspiring actors, and a lot of determination, yet all without the necessary knowledge and skills to pull off anything more than a fairly poor looking After School Special (in a bad way, not a nostalgic good way). I mean this is so-so quality home movie / student film stuff if you want to pass it around to family and friends for free. Thankfully, I found it in a discount bin somewhere. Sure, there may be some sort of market out there for this kind of thing, but it is a market that seems to only exist by default because there are so many poor B movies out there. Even more so now in this day and age.

The only people I would recommend this move to is aspiring guerrilla filmmakers. First, I would recommend that they watch the special feature MAKING OF thing included on the disc. See the film crews enthusiasm, their hard work, joy, and very high opinions of their own product. THEN watch the movie. Within a few frames you will hopefully understand what went wrong. Bored, I went through the whole thing and clearly the director and cinematographer tried, but just don't know enough about what they are doing. They knew enough to have fun, but in the long run, without necessary skills, this interprets to: They knew enough to be dangerous. This is like a bad Nickelodeon movie (as apposed to a more decent one I guess). A couple of the actors did ok, and the cool stoner looking dude with the tattoo (real or fake tattoo I know not) was probably the best and most natural and I hope he makes it. But their natural acting talent was what was coming through despite the bad movie, bad script, and so-so directing principles. If the director had spent more time helping these aspiring actors to develop their characters, studying successfully proven camera techniques and lighting principles to direct his crew better, and if the script had been actually worked on instead of written in a week or so (according to the very indulgent documentary) then maybe this could have been more of a film. Instead, it's a film that has a feeling of some potential, and has a few moments in it (due more to the genre than the film itself), but ends up showing nearly every frame, WHAT NOT TO DO. If you want to see what a decent low budget horror movie can really look like, watch Phantasm or even Laserblast. If you want a glorified home movie (no joke), get Bog Creatures.

Rating:
Summary: Holy Crap.....
Review: Holy crap, I mean seriously, what the hell? Any time you make a movie, especially one with a budget (this movie supposedly had one...), you should never walk onto the set and say to yourself, OH MY GOD... THIS IS GONNA BE THE BEST SHOT IN THE WHOLE MOVIE, maybe once would be understandable, but with every shot?!?!?!?! These people thought to themselves, you know what?, that whole pre-production thing is pretty lame and I'm guessing it's useless as well, lets skip it and figure out everything on the set. I swear, the movie combined with the documentary on making the movie makes for one the biggest laughs I have ever seen. These people are dead serious too, you couldn't write better comedy than what they were so proud of. This movie comes close to matching the level of crapness Lost In Lamancha was able to get to. If you want to see a low budget horror movie, see a low budget horror movie. If you don't have the time to watch both this movie and its documentary, don't see it. If you do, see it for the laughs. Never before have I ever wanted to tear the eyeballs out of their sockets and feed them to my dog while playing the fiddle naked on a hot stove, than while I was watching thhis movie. Nuff Said.

Rating:
Summary: BOGgie Nights
Review: I checked out this DVD knowing nothing of it in advance, and it turned out to be quite a little gem. I thought it was a real throwback to the monster movies of old. And that may have to do with the lack of a hollywood budget to CGI the hell out of the "bog creatures" and everything else. The attractive cast does a good job of adding a unique flavor into what could've otherwise been yet another portrayal of the staple characters that we see time and again. Although there isn't an extreme amount of gore that really defines most other movies of this genre... cult status is a definite possibility.

Rating:
Summary: Bogma
Review: I went into this flick expecting run-of-the-mill low budget fare and came out exceedingly surprised! This is not your standard horror movie of today. The movie harkens back to an earlier form... it really is a traditional monster movie with all the delight that entails. The "Bog Creatures" in question are Medieval Danish Vikings who have been preserved as mummies in a peat-bog. When some American Archeology students begin to dig up the bog they awaken an ancient conflict... Now, doesn't that sound like a delicious plotline?! The characters are great. The students are a band of misfits and they are lead by a wacko professor who shares a rather - shall we say "odd"? - relationship with his prodigy sister. This is truly an engaging film, steeped in horror tradition yet packing plenty of surprises and "treats" for the viewer.

Rating:
Summary: Old-fashioned Horror Fun!
Review: I went into this flick expecting run-of-the-mill low budget fare and came out exceedingly surprised! This is not your standard horror movie of today. The movie harkens back to an earlier form... it really is a traditional monster movie with all the delight that entails. The "Bog Creatures" in question are Medieval Danish Vikings who have been preserved as mummies in a peat-bog. When some American Archeology students begin to dig up the bog they awaken an ancient conflict... Now, doesn't that sound like a delicious plotline?! The characters are great. The students are a band of misfits and they are lead by a wacko professor who shares a rather - shall we say "odd"? - relationship with his prodigy sister. This is truly an engaging film, steeped in horror tradition yet packing plenty of surprises and "treats" for the viewer.

Rating:
Summary: Bogma
Review: If your a fan of "B" movie horror, put this gem on your rental list. It has its problems (which are usually budget related with this genre), but it's a neat little quirky throwback of a horror movie. If you pick up the DVD, check out the making of documentary (which I almost didn't notice). Seeing what these guys suffered through made the movie that much more enjoyable.

C. Brown
Pinellas Park, FL

Rating:
Summary: Bogma
Review: If your a fan of "B" movie horror, put this gem on your rental list. It has its problems (which are usually budget related with this genre), but it's a neat little quirky throwback of a horror movie. If you pick up the DVD, check out the making of documentary (which I almost didn't notice). Seeing what these guys suffered through made the movie that much more enjoyable.

C. Brown
Pinellas Park, FL

Rating:
Summary: Looks Like An After School Special
Review: This review pertains to a straight to video release called "Bog Creatures". Honestly, I knew better than to watch it for some reason, but I thought a stupid grade B horror film could be fun tonight!
OY was I wrong!
The movie is about some viking warriors that were thrown into a bog, therefore preserving their bodies for thousands of years. Flash forward to the present time. A sexy young group of archeaologists (sp?) are recruited to dig up the preserved bodies from the swamps. Well, you guessed it, the rotting bodies come back to life, rise from the swamps and start stalking and killing the students. Ala a cross between Friday the 13th and a Zombie flick.
Sounds good huh?
The cover art on the DVD case is awesome, very misleading. This movie is sooo cheaply done, it looks like a camcorder. The acting is sooo bad that one of the students has to swallow a pair of underwear after he is caught sniffing them, this scene is sooo bad it is enough to almost make me turn off the film. There is even a scene where a woodsman is leading the students to their campsite, and he points at it, but even the way he points looks "acted".
I won't be a total film snob (hee hee), so I can say if I were 10 years old I would have liked this film in the ways I liked "Saturday The 14th" and "Funeral Home".
The makeup on the Bog creatures themselves looks like the only way the director spent his budget.

Rating:
Summary: Looks Like An After School Special
Review: This review pertains to a straight to video release called "Bog Creatures". Honestly, I knew better than to watch it for some reason, but I thought a stupid grade B horror film could be fun tonight!
OY was I wrong!
The movie is about some viking warriors that were thrown into a bog, therefore preserving their bodies for thousands of years. Flash forward to the present time. A sexy young group of archeaologists (sp?) are recruited to dig up the preserved bodies from the swamps. Well, you guessed it, the rotting bodies come back to life, rise from the swamps and start stalking and killing the students. Ala a cross between Friday the 13th and a Zombie flick.
Sounds good huh?
The cover art on the DVD case is awesome, very misleading. This movie is sooo cheaply done, it looks like a camcorder. The acting is sooo bad that one of the students has to swallow a pair of underwear after he is caught sniffing them, this scene is sooo bad it is enough to almost make me turn off the film. There is even a scene where a woodsman is leading the students to their campsite, and he points at it, but even the way he points looks "acted".
I won't be a total film snob (hee hee), so I can say if I were 10 years old I would have liked this film in the ways I liked "Saturday The 14th" and "Funeral Home".
The makeup on the Bog creatures themselves looks like the only way the director spent his budget.