Troglodyte

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")

Believe it or not, "Sea Beast" originally appeared as "Troglodyte" on Syfy in 2008. It goes without saying that it was a good call to change the name seeing as how there are no troglodytes in sight.

As the cover of the DVD would suggest, "Sea Beast" is another take on the well-worn "Jaws" theme. This one takes place in the Vancouver, BC, area (big surprise). The creature has the ability to appear nigh invisible and render its prey immobile. This may sound cartoonish, but the way it's explained by the requisite scientist makes it semi-believable.

Other than "Jaws," the plot borrows from other creature flicks like "Predator," "Gremlins" and "Godzilla ('98)." It's reminiscent of the latter film in that there's a mommy monster and a bunch of little tykes, just as ferocious.

What makes "Sea Beast" work is that the material is taken seriously and it has a quality cast, not to mention solid locations. The cast is highlighted by a strong male protagonist, Corin Nemec as Will Mckenna, Will's ditzy daughter, Carla, who can be ultra-violent when necessary (Miriam McDonald) and Will's female sidekick scientist, Arden (Camille Sullivan). Miriam possesses such a cuteness she's somehow just enjoyable to look at. Also, the creature effects (CGI) are well done. Not to mention it's very gory, if you're into that.

There's not much else to say. If you like well-done creatures-on-the-loose TV flicks, "Sea Beast" provides well enough to satisfy. It's far from great but it delivers just enough to grant it a marginal thumbs up.

GRADE: B-

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.

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.

I don't mind low-budget movies, some of them are bottom-of-the-barrel quality but some are entertaining. Troglodyte is sort of watchable and entertaining, but it does have a lot wrong with it. I give it credit for a great idea, quite nice locations, a decent soundtrack and a good performance from Corin Nemic. However, Miriam McDonald is absolutely awful, consisting of forced line delivery and more annoying than anything else. She's not the only asset that doesn't work. The stereotypical characters also don't work, and neither do the choppy editing, abysmally rendered CGI effects, a meandering, cheesy and predictable script and a story that gets stupider and stupider from one scene to the next. Overall, not bad but far from good. 4/10 Bethany Cox