Troglodyte

Screened on SyFy as Sea Beast (Trogolodyte on IMDb), probably because it's a hybrid of so many other creatures, both sea beasts and land beasts. Look for elements of Jaws, Alien, Jurassic Park, Lake Placid, and Predator, among others.

It's fun, and just what you expect from a SyFy original offering (at least it's free). Low budget, loosely jointed, questionable acting, cheap CGI effects, and unresolved items at the end. But the creatures are pretty well designed, and the lead actor, the fisherman guy, does pretty well. There's actually urgency in his voice. Not so his daughter and her paper thin character friends. Drama 1 drop outs. The one-on-one fights between the teens and baby creatures are absolutely hilarious--in particular the one where the sea beast pulls himself into a rock, lol. That single moment is worth the price of admission. The siege on the cabin has some great visuals, too.

Most important for a movie is to entertain, and this one does. It holds your attention, and some scary scenes manage to sprinkle in amongst all the craziness. Yes, it resorts to some horror clichés like the blood spurting out of a neck bit when somebody gets decapped. Also, you never quite know what spawned these things. But it's good enough for at least for a few laughs.

SEA BEAST is a rip-roaring little B-movie that shamelessly rips off the likes of PREDATOR in its tale of a marauding sea monster that comes up on land to stalk and eat hapless human prey, utilising its ability to make its invisible in the meantime. Hell, at one point the hero even says "It bleeds..." and you can almost see the scriptwriters winking at the viewers.

Like most B-movies, this film has its problems. The direction is slightly meandering, but at least the director avoids that annoying and pointless shaky-cam so beloved of B-flick helmers in recent years. The script is hardly polished; we're subjected to padded lines like "If we lose our heads, we're dead" and "I saw it...with my own eyes" and the no-name cast hardly give remarkable performances.

And yet, and yet, SEA BEAST is a lot of fun, it's hard to deny. The pacing is spot on, with the viewer thrown straight into the monster action - none of that slow build up nonsense here, just mayhem and death. The CGI effects are pretty poor, yes, but you feel the animators have at least tried to do what they can with the technology available.

And it's GORY, damn it! Entrails are strewn asunder and heads torn loose, all captured with loving relish. It's hard to dislike this stuff. At one point, the chief critter gives birth to lots of little critters, like in a scene from Emmerich's ill-advised GODZILLA, but SEA BEAST definitely has the edge on that movie, as unlike GODZILLA it's a real hoot!

The fishing vessel Solita crosses a storm during the night and the Skipper Will McKenna (Corin Nemec) witnesses a weird creature attacking the crewman Joey. They return to the dock and Will has difficulties to pay the amount he owes to the former owner of the boat, Roy (Roman Podhara). The fish population is reducing in the area and the biologist Arden (Camille Sullivan) is investigating the possible causes. Meanwhile, Will's daughter Carly (Miriam McDonald) steals the keys of her father's cottage in a nearby island and plans to travel with her boyfriend Danny (Daniel James Wisler) and their friends Erin (Christie Laing) and Drew (Brandon Jay McLaren) to spend the weekend in the island. However, Drew is murdered by a deep sea predator on the dock and his pieces are found by Will and Arden. Carly, Danny and Erin do not have any news from their friend and travel to the island without Drew. Sooner Erin is murdered by the creature and Danny is bitten by a newborn reptile. Danny and Erin seek shelter in the cabin but they are trapped there by the creatures. In the continent, Will and Arden learn that the deep sea predator is a very dangerous species, after a series of lethal attacks, and they head to the island to rescue Carly.

"Troglodyte" is an unoriginal but pretty decent B-movie for television. The plot blends "Lake Placid" and Predator" and the result is a cheesy and forgettable action film with the usual clichés. The town seems to be empty and the conclusion has the usual nonsense, with Will, Carly and Arden happy and forgetting that Danny, Jay and many of their friends are dead. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Feras do Mar" ("Sea Beasts")

Being a fisherman is a difficult job, particularly during a rough storm. But things can only get worse when a sea beast decides to make your crew its meal. In this small fishing town, the sea beast and his family follow the seamen ashore... to destroy every living thing in their path. How do you stop a creature that you cannot see?

This happens to be another film in the "Maneater" series of films, which started off with vicious animals (blood monkeys, crocs, and more) and has ventured into some strange territory. They recently came out with "Yeti", for example (you can read the review for this on Killer Reviews). And now, the sea beast, formerly titled "Troglodyte" (which is grossly misleading). It's "Jaws" meets science fiction meets "Raptor Island", which is either awesome or horrible depending on how you feel about those three things.

Personally, I love "Jaws" and science fiction has its good points, but "Raptor Island" is a CG piece of offal. Now, to be fair, "Sea Beast" isn't as poorly animated as "Raptor Island", but they fit in the same category. But we've come to expect that from the Maneater series. Cheesy plot, minimal gore (though this one does alright), little or no nudity or cursing. Your basic TV-ready film. And don't get me wrong, if you want an hour and a half of beer-swilling entertainment, this film will fir your needs. But if you try to dissect it, you'll claw your eyes out. It simply doesn't make much sense.

If you want to watch this film, my best recommendation is that you try to catch it on TV or borrow it from a friend or rent it. There is no reason to purchase this film. It doesn't have a lot of replay value, and there are literally no special features (unless you count scene selection). No subtitles, no languages, no audio commentary, nothing. It's about as bare bones as DVDs come, which is rare these days.

Bottom line: cheap, cheesy entertainment. If that's what you're into (and I guess some people are because they keep making these movies), go for it. If you want more substance or a good scare, this is not the film for you. Seriously, watch "Jaws" for the tenth time before you see this if you want a quality man versus fish story.

The design of the monsters is cool, besides the dodgy CGI, and Corin Nemec is doing his best, but other then that its a fairly generic by the numbers SyFy horror movie. Good in the backgound movie.