A Creature Was Stirring

I had fun watching this one. All of the performances were decent. The first 90% of the movie was straight up campy holiday horror fun. Trapped in a blizzard with a porcupine creature. We've all been there. I actually didn't see the twist coming until well into the second half. That being said, this is partly because the story telling didn't really put in the work. The flood of flashbacks right at the end seemed a bit lazy. I didn't think the ending was terrible but also think the movie would have been much better without it. Turn it off at the breakfast scene and the movie is a 7. Side note, does Connor Paolo not age?

So, trying to be spoiler free, the movie is just strange. The acting leaves a lot to be desired. The lighting reminds me of the George Clooney Batman. Some of the effects are fun, as I really do like practical effects over CGI. There are just too many holes in the end. There's an attempt to wrap it all up, but it just can't make up for all the questions. Some of the questions were happening as I watched. Others came at the end. I'm not trying to blast the movie, as it does have a fun quality, but it certainly isn't one I'll be watching again. Also, I feel compelled to do a review, because with the rating currently an 8/10 at the time of me writing, I think I'm trying to set some realistic expectations for future watchers.

A middle aged mother and her teenage daughter have shut themselves in their home- over Christmas- to ride out a blizzard...when two home invaders break in.

The brother and sister claim they were just trying to escape the cold...and convince the woman to let them stay.

However, little do they know what they've walked in upon.

Though...they're about to find out.

And, I assure you, it's not going to be anything you, they, or anyone else is suspecting.

Because it's quite the trip.

And not one of the good kinds, either.

The whole thing is super weird.

And plays out rather cryptically.

Leaving you to wonder if it's just an incredibly bizarre situation...or actually some sort of psychedelic odyssey into the absurd.

Either way...it's quite twisted.

Not to mention wholly and completely original.

But I must say...I loved every minute of it.

If only because it's super friggin' weird.

I won't give away what the "creature" is in this particular case...because you'll never guess (even though the poster hints at it)...and finding out is half the fun.

So just give it a watch.

And get ready to get weird.

6 out of 10.

Plot

A nurse taking care of her daughter's mysterious affliction struggles to hide her secrets when uninvited strangers take shelter in her house during a lethal blizzard.

Cast

Created by a first time writer and starring the always excellent Annalise Basso and Chrissy Metz! I was excited to see these two and what they'd bring to the table here.

Verdict

I'll be honest when I looked at the cast list I was quite surprised to see Annalise Basso, she's an actress I always thought was on the rise and yet this suggests perhaps I was mistaken and she's rather gone the route of AnnaSophia Robb.

A Creature Was Stirring immediately hits you with fantastic style, a claustrophobic feel, great tension and solid performances. It then adds two additional characters who despite being bland are unable to bring the quality down, then it gradually all begins to go terribly wrong.

It delves into the usual tropes and cliches, some writing decisions become rather head scratching, the religious rhetoric becomes tiresome and then it hits you with a frantic finale with another trope and one that I'm so very very very very stupidly sick of. It's seems like an "Out" for writers when they don't have any ideas how to end the thing and it has the habit of outright killing the entire film.

Had they come up with a better finale this could have actually been an unexpectedly great film, alas it didn't.

Rants

If you don't have the budget to create a monster, don't do a monster movie. It's that simple! I'm all for the logic of keeping it in the shadows to save money but even that needs to be done correctly, look at Alien and Aliens for example! Here they do a combination of keeping it in the shadows in a poor manner and trying to present it but making it looking decidedly awful in the process. If you don't have the money to pull something off, don't try.

The Good

Annalise Basso and Chrissy Metz Brilliant style Some decent ideas

The Bad

Scout Taylor-Compton and Connor Paolo were mediocre Falls apart the further in it goes Poor finale.

A Creature Was Stirring had a mysterious and interesting premise. The colorful lighting was a fitting addition for the Christmas season and also gave the movie a stylish and unique look. I love creature features, and I was really curious to see what kind of creature it was and how well they would be able to integrate it into the story. From the look of the cover, it reminded me a little of the creature from Splinter (2008) or The Monster (2016), both of which I really like. In fact, in retrospect, the movie had quite a few similarities to Bryan Bertino's The Monster.

The movie has a message and serves as an overall metaphor. While I don't think movies always need a message, I felt it was relatively fitting in this case. There is a lot of dialogue, which caused the story progression to drag a bit and made me feel a little bored at times. At first, you only catch glimpses of the creature, which didn't make the whole scenario feel particularly threatening or believable. However, toward the end, you get a better look at the design, and I thought it was awesome. I really appreciated the practical effects used.

By that point, the movie was fine for me, but in the end, there is a full exposition dump that explains every little detail in great depth, even though it was quite obvious beforehand what had happened. As the audience, these kinds of explanations give you the impression that the filmmakers think their viewers are incapable of piecing things together, which is not the case most of the time. Good movies leave the ending somewhat vague and trust the audience to understand the message and events. This massive exposition dump at the end felt unnecessary and poorly executed.

The movie has some nice elements, and it's overall definitely not terrible. However, it failed to reach its full potential, which is disappointing because it could have been so much more than a slightly below-average creature feature. [4.9/10]