Bottom Feeder

I watched this movie a while back and when it came to an end I was puzzled. Usually, I have a pretty strong reaction to a movie: I know if I've liked it or not, or if I've been bored with it, or if I've been bothered by it. I know something about my reaction to it. When I watched this a while back, I had - honestly - no reaction. I didn't know if I had liked it or not. So it faded into the distant past and I moved on, until the opportunity came up to watch it again. I decided to watch it again. Sometimes a movie that doesn't really strike a chord with you will do so on a second viewing. So I watched it again. And I have exactly the same reaction - I'm not really sure if I liked it or not.

It's a schlocky monster story, where a scientist invents some sort of cure for a disease that a multi-millionaire wants, but he forces the scientist to try it out first - with really bad results. The mutated scientist then encounters a maintenance crew in underground tunnels where he was forced to try the cure, there's a lot of blood and gore and death. What else is there? Really - not much.

It wasn't horrible. I'll say that. It's a basic, run of the mill monster story - and those can be OK as time wasters. Aside from Tom Sizemore, who played the head of the maintenance crew, the cast was pretty anonymous. And, as far as Vince (played by Sizemore) was concerned - how in the world could he have been a POW in Vietnam? Sizemore is nowhere near old enough to play a guy who would have been a POW in Vietnam. That grated on me a bit, even though it's a throwaway part of the story.

I guess I'll give it a 5. Right in the middle. Because I honestly don't know if I liked it or not.

I have actually watched this 2007 movie once before, but I have to admit that I have entirely forgotten about the movie, aside from remembering the movie's cover, the title and the fact that it had Tom Sizemore in the leading role.

When I had the opportunity to revisit the movie here in 2025, I did so, as I couldn't remember the storyline in the movie. And I am a sucker for horror movies and creature features in general.

Writer and director Randy Daudlin put together a script that was rather generic for a creature feature. So yeah, there really isn't a particular reason why you should opt to sit down and watch "Bottom Feeder" when there are far better and more enjoyable creature features available. Sure, this 2007 movie was watchable, but it wasn't a memorable viewing experience by any means. And I suppose that is why the movie has vanished from my memory from the first time I watched it.

The acting performances in the movie were fair. I am not really a fan of Tom Sizemore, but he is an adequate enough actor from time to time. The movie also has Martin Roach on the cast list, which sums up the two only familiar faces on the cast ensemble for me.

Visually then you're not in for a grand horror experience. The creature design was simplistic, and it was obviously just a dude in a latex suit, and not a particularly good latex suit at that. But hey, there are way more lousy special effects in many other horror movies, so that at least counts for something that the effects in "Bottom Feeder" weren't rock bottom.

Watchable if you really have a craving for creature features and have 86 minutes to spare on a generic one. But otherwise this is not really a movie that I would recommend to the average horror fan.

My rating of writer and director Randy Daudlin's 2007 movie "Bottom Feeder" lands on a four out of ten stars.

I guess they could have shown something far worse than this, and for that I'll give it an extra credit. But bare in mind, there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to watch Bottom Feeder.

So, if you're into creature movies, look elsewhere, if you're into low budgets, or indie projects, again, nothing to see here, try elsewhere, you are bound to find something, anything, better than this.

But if you do decide to play it, just lower your expectations, as much as you can, and watch it at your own peril. Some moments you will have to question your decision, others, perhaps acknowledge that you did a bad thing and probably there is no way out. I mean if you do get halfway, I guess there is nothing more to do but endure.

Cheers!

It's amazing to me that Tom Sizemore has been in two of the best movies in recent history and then ends up being in crap like this. (Heat, Saving Private Ryan)

But this movie, is not very good at all. Reminds me of Mimic , underground tunnel thing going on, but no where near as good. 3/10

Tom Sizemore lends his name to a schlocky, midnight-monster movie that is exactly as good as it looks and sounds. Not to say it is necessarily a GOOD movie, far from it, but take it for what its worth and you will enjoy it.

A group of utility workers are trapped in a series of tunnels which, unfortunately, contain a scientist mutated by his own creation. The creature feeds instantly on a rat, becoming what it has eaten.

The effects leave something to be desired, although it IS refreshing to see them returning to the monster in the suit instead of leaning on shoddy CGI. The entire film has a cheesy, low-budget horror/sci-fi feel to it. So if you're a fan of monster movies, you could do worse. See it for free but I would hesitate to recommend spending cash on it.