Tasmanian Devils

I will admit it by saying that I do hate many of SyFy's movies with a passion. I'll also be honest in saying that I was expecting to hate Tasmanian Devils. So I was surprised at how surprisingly not bad it was. By all means it is not great but it is much more tolerable than most SyFy movies. I did find the first hour of Tasmanian Devils entertaining. The creature effects are fake(though not as bad as the horrid CGI helicopter at the start), which was more than less what I was anticipating, though I did find the creatures themselves quite creepy and fun. The gore wasn't excessive and didn't cheapen the death scenes, which were more inventive and suspenseful than the usual SyFy death scenes, which are usually toned-down and like going-through-the-motions. The editing isn't too choppy, the scenery is quite nice, the story does divert your attention(that is in the first hour) and the acting while not great is better than average for SyFy. There are entertaining moments as well(cheesy of course but more in a fun way than infuriating), such as the death of Apolo Ohno, Winnie Cooper attacking the creatures with a flame-thrower and the hilarious close-ups of Danika McKellar gnashing her teeth and wrinkling her nose.

For all the good things about Tasmanian Devils there do come a number of debits. The dialogue is terrible(hardly surprising, I don't think I have seen a SyFy movie where this wasn't a weak point) and the music is generic, but the biggest problem is how the movie really runs out of steam in the second half. Here the creatures are under-utilised which dilutes the tension and fun factor, and things get more serious. This wouldn't be a problem if it was a tone that was maintained throughout the movie and if SyFy were any good at trying to develop or humanise characters. Instead what happens is that the second half feels as though it belongs in a completely different movie altogether. The pacing is sluggish, and while there is an attempt to humanise and get to know the characters it just felt flat and lifeless, so despite these efforts we end up not caring or finding out enough about them. And unfortunately the fun and tension in this half is nowhere near as effective as it was in the first half, and the ending feels contrived and rushed through.

All in all, I was mixed on Tasmanian Devils. It was much better than I expected it to be and it is easily one of SyFy's more tolerable efforts, but at the end of the day it was a decent enough if not entirely memorable outing. 5/10 Bethany Cox

Three forest rangers in Tasmania stumble across a group of base jumpers who are in the park illegally . They frantically tell the rangers that one of their team has been killed in a cave by something and that something is still in the cave . What ever killed their colleague is hostile and it's not alone

If I'd seen TASMANIAN DEVILS a few weeks ago I would have dismissed it as yet more brainless clichéd fodder from the SyFy Channel but I still had a sense of disappointment from a recent trip to the cinema where I watched WORLD WAR Z which cost me £7.80 to watch and Paramount Studios $200 million to produce . I'm guessing in terms of production TD cost closer to the rice of my cinema ticket than WWZ . One very common and vocal criticism of the Pitt epic was the conspicuous lack of blood and gore , along with a lack of suspense . It says something that despite all the money thrown at it TD is slightly more effective as a suspense driven horror movie TD beats out the brain dead undead epic spectacle of WORLD WAR Z

Don't get me wrong I'm not for a second claiming TD is some sort of lost underlooked gem just waiting to be discovered by a wider audience because it's not . It's merely a low budget horror movie featuring sketchily drawn characters played by a journeyman cast hiding out in dark remote woodland and stalked by hostile viscous creatures . The clichés come thick and fast but what the film does it does relatively well . It also contains a bit more blood and guts you'd expect in this type of TVM and an early death with a character impaled is genuinely shocking . Perhaps if the production team of WWZ studied this film - which coincidentally features monsters attracted to sound - in depth their own film might have been better received by critics

As a resident of Tasmania, this is the biggest load of crap I've seen in a long time. Parks personnel may carry guns in Canada, but not here. Nor do they dress like a Dr. Hook wannabe. There are female rangers and most of them can find a shirt that fits. Don't get me started on the background of deciduous trees and what appear to be fake ferns, certainly not Man ferns or Dicksonia Antarctica appear commonly in the bush. If you're going to make a movie like this at least some of it should be believable. I don't know if anyone associated with this film has ever been to Tassie, but I doubt it. If they have, they should have paid more attention. I can't watch anymore as I fear for the safety of my TV.

I knew what sort of a film I was in for the moment I saw the CGI of the helicopter flying over what looks strangely looks like Canada, not Tasmania? LOW BUDGET B-GRADE?? My favorite!! My low budget suspicions were confirmed when I heard the first Australian accents.

It was at the 7 minute mark when I heard the Aussie accent. Awesome!! The tourists are briefed on the "Tasmanian Devil" by Danica McKellar. (That's Winnie Cooper of The Wonder Years..) The Australian teenage tourist girl (Julia Sarah Stone) sounds like she just stepped off the 1986 Crocodile Dundee film set and watched a lot of Crocodile Hunter episodes. Only to be topped off with Ranger Danz entry and his Aussie accent, yikes!! That was funny.. Thank-you for the laughs.. This film is turning into a comedy. Excellent, no harm in that..

If you are looking for a well made film with a crafted story of importance, you'll be disappointed. This is a low budget piece of B-Grade garbage. Most film makers would find that insulting, but these are the sort of films I love to watch. I was entertained for the evening, so Thank-you for your B-Grade film. Continuing on with my hunt for Low Budget B-Grade films..

This movie had some good points:

Good gore, Reasonably entertaining idea, Mostly good acting, Good casting of known actors.

That being said, the acting was pretty bad even from the actors who've done better acting. Namely Roger Cross' acting in this was overblown and terrible...

Mike Dopud and Kenneth Mitchell were the standouts in this film. Terry Chen and Rekha Sharma were decent in the roles they were given.

I've seen better acting from Danica McKellar in other movies, and she was mostly good in this but had some moments of badly delivered dialog. But, on the plus sign she spent the latter half of the movie in a white t-shirt.

The one-off Aussie actors were terrible.

All in all, if you like the actors in this movie and want to waste two hours you'll never get back on a Bad B-Movie then give this one ONE viewing ONLY. You'll regret if you revisit it a second time, probably.