Mandrake

A really silly little movie that I might have liked more as a teenager I guess. It has the wife of Jigsaw in it, that's a plus, no? Of course it's not, although I really do like her. Another character is pretty neat (imho), but the whole plot is a mess. It doesn't make much sense, the CGI isn't helping either.

But since this is a Syfy production (and you probably know them from their other mostly creature feature ... features), you should know what to expect... and what not to expect! With that in mind, you can enjoy the silliness of it all or just stop watching after the first couple of minutes, because you ain't going to like it any better along the ride.

As far as these syfy movies, which range from adequate to terrible, go this is better than most. It does have an intriguing premise, and starts off very well. And for a syfy movie it actually looks quite good, with the scenery quite nice, the photography not looking completely slip-shod and the monster creepy-looking and giving an adequate sense of menace. As for the attacks, two or three were nail-biting and quite gory, but some of them are quite tame.

Despite the cool premise and twenty-five minutes of genuine atmosphere, Mandrake quickly becomes repetitive and predictable. The dialogue is fairly unimpressive mostly, with a number of cheesy moments that never ring true, and the direction while better than you would expect is patchy particularly towards the end where the film unravels in credibility. The film's pace is uneven, the beginning is very well-paced, but some of the middle drag and the end feels rushed. I didn't find myself connecting to any of Mandrake's characters, and in all honesty I don't think the actors did either.

In conclusion, better than expected but that's not saying very much. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I had no I idea if this movie would be worth watching or not, but me and my mom decided to get it. When she was reading to me what it was a bout at the Red Box I told her to get it.

The cast was amazing! Top notch acting I believe. They all had my attention and I found there characters all very likable, even the ones that I didn't think I would like eventually I found likable. Not to say there ain't ones you may not like.

You'll see the scenery in the movie is beautiful. It takes place about in mid South America, but was really shot in Louisiana. This creature you will see in the movie looks pretty amazing. This wasn't no typical SyFy movie. Give it a watch, its worth it!

After have seen a production from The Asylum, The Terminators, it was back again time to see a SyFy production. If you ever have seen a SyFy flick you will never forget it because they are mostly really bad. This one here was an average flick but again the cheap CGI teared it down.

As always the beginning is rather good and I thought, hell, this is going to be something in the Predator genre. But no, once the creature attacks it's just cheap CGI. The whole cocoon scene looked promising but of course they always did the killings off-camera. You do see some blood splattering here and there but it is never that frightening. Overall it looked like a flick to watch with the family on a Saturday night.

But this time they added a big name on the list, Max Martini from The Unit. The second main lead was by Betsy Russell, another big name from the Saw franchise but I was never involved with their characters. I couldn't care less if they were hurt or going to die. Storywise it was also a bit simple and you could see clearly what was going on.

I have seen worse, especially from SyFy but still, not a good movie.

Gore 1/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 2/5 Comedy 0/5

This film opens with a woman running through woods (being chased by a mainly unseen being). This is never a good sign. If you've watched pretty much any handful of random horror films, you'll know that 'woman running through woods' is possibly the most overused cliché of the genre (with perhaps the teenagers having sex and dying being a close second).

That opening is a kind of warning of things to come. Some films thrive on having a low budget. The lack of money behind the picture forces the film-makers to use new and more subtle techniques to tell the story. Not here. This film has no budget and it shows in every scene.

It's about a team of archaeologists, sent somewhere in South America (like the location really matters!) to retrieve something for someone (again, such details are kind of pointless in the scheme of things). However, this 'South American' jungle looks suspiciously like some nice grassy fields in America. Plus the 'natives' also look a little Caucasian, considering they are supposed to have lived in the hot jungle all their lives.

The acting isn't all bad, but the dialogue is. Just because the film is set in a wood (sorry, jungle), the writers seem to want to make the characters talk like they're out of Predator. Yes, there's something hunting them, but whereas Predator used a monster that was actually there, the makers of Mandrake spent the entire $2.50 budget on some 'creepy' CGI tentacles. Woo.

If you like cheesy monster-munching movies, then you probably know plenty out there which will amuse and entertain (try things like Deep Rising, Tremors, or Grabbers to name but a few). Mandrake is not one of them.