User reviews

It's a reasonable indepent film for what it is. It has good direction, decent acting, and the story was well done for being what it is.

It's really not got you on the edge of your seat but it does have some good creepy moments. The creature itself is ok for a low budget film, basically it could be better but it could absolutely have been worse.

I very much liked how they had all the "research" put into it for this being a cryptid story.

It was well thought out and you do get a bit attached to some of the characters, so it's got decent character development as well.

Overall its not amazing but I enjoyed it and would love to see a sequel to this film.

So monster movies in sleepy little remote towns are a staple of B movie land. And yeah - most hurt your head, even if you are a B movie afficionado like me. But - Cryptid was actually a decent little film.

Max is a freelance reporter for the local paper. And despite having all the skills of a good investigative journalist, he has been down on his luck and on brink of being fired. He comes upon an accident scene being overseen by Charlie the sheriff (with whom he has some history as he raised Max's deceased fiance). Charlie is a rock, and Max presses him about the accident - labeled as a presumed bear attack. Charlie is clearly bothered by the incident, but won't share with Max. As more people end up dead from the presumed bear attacks, Max smells the story of a lifetime and enlist help from his coworker and best friend Harriet. Together, the two dig and uncover ... well, that it's NOT a bear.

The acting was pretty solid. And there was some character development and emotional scenes and side stories, rather than just one bloodbath after another. The cinematography was decent, although the monster itself could have been done better. The movie is not scary and pretty predictable. But a decent watch .... So make some nachos and enjoy.

Not a fan. At first it opens up pretty intense and intriguing, but then the movies starts to drag. Def a makes you wonder what's going on kind of movie. The acting is not the greatest and in the middle of the movie i started To have a little hope it was going to get interesting but the acting just got worse. It's def a little creepy and mysterious but it's just too slow with nothing to hold onto until you actually find out what's going on. So with that said I honestly don't understand what the high rating is for. Film quality seems good. But I'm repeating myself now. The acting is super cheesy.

I'm not sure why this film is getting such a high rating. Maybe friends and family are bombarding the sight to up the rating. The film is filled with unlikable characters, especially the main protagonist. I was was hoping that the reptilian monster would get him so we'd all breathe a sigh of relief. The special effects are not retro, they're laughable. The editing is extremely choppy, especially when the monster shows up. How many dogs were killed in this movie? Isn't there a better way to move the story forward? Also, why is it raining every night. Every single night. Oh, brother. Sloppy and lazy writing.

Even if a brain cell short circuits, that's all you will need to figure out that the ratings were rigged for this movie. As time goes on and people WHO ARE NOT involved in this project (crew, actors, friends and family) watch this movie, the ratings will begin to drop down dramatically and will end up at 5 at best but will dip down to 4.

The creature was OK but the acting was overall pretty bad, some were better than others, though. The pace of the story really dragged and the dialogue was a bit cheesy. The movie could lose about 30 minutes of useless runtime as well.

Looks like a straight to streaming release.

Simply put, the acting is awful. The score is laughable. Pure cheese. And if you can't put those two things together, you don't have a watchable movie.

What you have is a below average high school media project. Don't waste your time or your money.

I'd rather watch Mystery Science Theater 3000. With a 6-year-old and a kazoo.

I seriously doubt the credibility of anyone who rated this over 5 stars, yet it sits here today at 7.7.

Are you kidding me?

3 stars because the folks involved made an effort regardless of how bad of an effort it was. And that's overly generous.

I recommend a hard pass on Cryptid.

But, if you really, really like schlock, have at it!

This low budget movie had serious potential. The cinematography is beautiful kudos to the DP. The image and frame looks better than most tv movies, really top notch, the problem is the story is ridiculous. We are never drawn into the characters. A reporter in a tiny town, is breaking the big story!!!?? There is no Big story to investigate. He happened across an accident and refuses to accept the police story, no reason why, he just needs a story to pay his bills!!!?? The acting isn't bad, the negative reviews on bad acting are wrong. The entire problem with this over dialogued movie is the bad story, my friends and i made it a drinking game, every time you hear "Bear" drink. Creature staying hidden is good idea keeps suspenseful. Again everything wrong with this is the story. It is meaningless. Also dialogue is just too much the writer must have thought he was writing Lawrence of Arabia, no one cares about the long drawn out dialogue, it was supposed to be a monster movie.

The climax of this movie is a major letdown, and makes the sequel bait ending a wet noodle. The buildup is done really well except for a few character-related points, like Max being too whiny and Harriet talking like a guy in his early 20s instead of a woman. She's unnecessarily foul-mouthed and I just found the expressions she used to be... not very woman-like. It's not much of a mystery, she was obviously supposed to out-man the man in the movie, but it didn't work for either. Interesting creature, but didn't get to see enough of it, and like I said... the ending was meh. Wasted potential.

I would've liked to see more focus on the research instead of just "I looked through 75 years of records and found exactly the thing I was looking for." Yeah, because that happens when you search old newspapers at the library. For a two-hour movie, it felt like there was more focus on the characters' unimportant backgrounds than necessary, when that time could've better been used to build up the monster, the legend, and giving us a satisfying climax.

Not sure what some of these reviewers are complaining about. For a low budget monster movie, the acting and cinematography are excellent.

The protagonist is very believable and, unless you only like idealized characters, is indeed likeable. His character is realistic. The other main character's acting is extraordinary. I say this considering they are relatively unknown! I found there performances easy to watch and they played off each other perfectly.

The premise is solid, and great supporting actors. The CGI is not great, but if you love solid stories and acting over big screen predictable canned action, you should enjoy this movie.

So yeah. If there's one thing i despise about hack writers and directors, it's when they have a genuinely interesting story and monster, but lack of intelligence prevents us from getting a decent film. I can go with the b level acting. I can go with a lower budget film. What I cannot abide is stupid writing. If as a novice hunter myself , I can see mistake after mistake after mistake of supposed seasoned hunters, then you really have to wonder what kind of person gets a job writing a film that deals with hunting. Nothing in a film is creepy or scary about an idiot getting him or herself eaten or put in intense situations. You spend more time yelling "WTF ARE YOU DOING!?" or shaking your head in frustration and disgust at what you are being presented with in a horror film. So. Idiot writer, idiot characters. What's worse is it sets up a sequel. God help us.

Decent but never actually saw the creature entirely! Darkness made it difficult to see anything. We watch a creature feature to see the creature. Don't count on that! The trailer was better than the movie! It had the potential to be much more entertaining. Regretfully I actually purchased this movie. No a total loss! There was some "edge of your seat" moments. Of course the discounted price of this movie was about the same as a matinee price at the theater. I should have waited to see it for free. I also should have read all of the reviews before I purchased. I'm thinking that this should mark the end of my movie purchases.

It felt like it was going somewhere, but just quite made it.

I was quite bored most of the time. The acting was ok. I think Nicholas Baroudi has a lot of potential to shine with the right role.

The characters were all pretty much unlikable overall. The writing felt lazy, something written on an afternoon out of boredom. It felt like the story was dragging on just to fill space and time.

The editing seemed really weak and was painfully noticeable. I wouldn't recommended this to anyone I like, and I don't feel it is even worth one viewing. I literally forgot about it after it ended. The high ratings are obviously film crew or something.

This movie is not worth your time or your money this movie. The only thing you've had good and it was the creature in fact that was it but the actors especially Max complete coward, complete idiot actor all he does is talk talk talk he never shuts up. He's an idiot actor to be cast in this movie then there's a sheriff complete. Idiot doesn't trust anybody. I don't know love interest of Max she was really good but then the mayor was an idiot to the funny thing is the ending of the movie just playing sucks leaves you at a cliffhanger. I hope they don't make a new one Cause if they do the next one on sack.

Now, I hadn't actually heard about this 2022 horror movie from writer and director Brad Rego, as I stumbled upon it by random luck here in 2023. And of course I opted to give the movie a fair chance on the account of it being a horror movie that I hadn't already seen.

However, the narrative in the storyline just sort of failed to entertain me. Why? Well, simply because it was too slow paced and uneventful. It was a whole lot of yapping and not much of any interesting scenes with the creature.

Sure, the production value of "Cryptid" was good and it was definitely a well-made movie. But the sheer lack of a properly interesting storyline just simply took away from the entertainment value and the enjoyment watching a horror movie.

Visually then "Cryptid" wasn't all that interesting, simply because you don't get to see much of anything aside from Nicholas Baroudi (playing Max) and Ellen Adair (playing Harriet) wandering around in the woods or sitting around and chatting.

If you enjoy horror movies, don't waste your time here, because it simply wasn't worth the effort.

My rating of writer and director Brad Rego's 2022 movie "Cryptid" lands on a three out of ten stars.

Loved watching this movie, right away it did a great job of introducing the main characters and getting you hooked into the story. It has a dark setting set in the woods with almost no CGI effects giving it a very immersive and rustic feel much like many old horror films from the classic age. Characters were relatable and did a great job in their roles but I enjoyed the building up of anticipation of seeing the monster more. You can tell a lot of heart and soul went into the making of this film from it's creators. Great, great low budget horror film for any kind of fan I would highly recommend.

Yeah this is certainly not going to be nominated for any awards, but it's decent enough. The creature design I have to admit I like, and from what I could tell the film wasn't overly reliant on CGI effects like everything that the Syfy channel or Asylum puts out now which was a bit refreshing.

That said it certainly has some drawbacks, mostly the pacing which as other reviewers pointed out drags considerably for a lot of the run time with most of the good stuff left for the last half hour. While the monster design is good, there are a few shots where it looks pretty goofy, though not terrible. The lackluster final fight with the creature does bring it down a few points too.

In all though, it's a decent enough movie to hold some of your interest and is worth checking out, if only once.

But the middle, the middle is the true horror. Your challenge will be to stay awake through the middle. Unfortunately, the middle is most of the movie. This could have been cut down to half an hour, and it would be a pretty good short. There's just a long stretch of talking and talking and talking, and more talking and talking and talking, then more talking, and talking and talking, and before that, some stuff actually happens, and after that, some stuff actually happens, but in the middle hour and a half it's just talking and talking and talking, and then more talking and talking and talking.

IN A NUTSHELL: Cryptid is a slow-burn "whodunit" where two journalists must figure out how to stop a deadly creature lurking in the shadows before it's too late. A small town in Maine is shocked as a mysterious animal leaves a local resident brutally ripped apart. Deemed to be a random bear attack by town officials, freelance journalist Max Frome suspects it might be something more.

The movie was written and directed by Brad Rego who already won Best Director at Shockfest.

The horror movie stars Nicholas Baroudi (The Hating Game, "Person of Interest"), Ellen Adair ("Homeland", "The Sinner"), Chopper Bernet, Kevin O'Rourke, Kate MacCluggage, and Jeanine Bartel.

The mystery film has already won Best Narrative Feature and Best of the Fest at the Adirondack Film Festival.

THINGS I LIKED:

There is some beautiful scenery that features small-town living in Maine. The movie was originally going to be filmed in the spring, but due to pandemic delays, they changed the season so we get to see some gorgeous fall leaves on the upper east coast. I got to visit Maine for the first time a few years ago just to see the fall leaves. So pretty and cozy.

The cast includes Nicholas Baroudi, Ellen Adair, Chopper Bernet, and Kevin O'Rourke.

The creepy forest and constant rain do a good job of setting the perfect tone for a monster mystery.

I really liked the chemistry between Nicholas Baroudi's character and that of Ellen Adair. Quite a few times, their faces would get really close to each other and I would wonder if they were going to kiss. (No spoilers!) The sound effects of rain and slimy creature effectively creep you out.

THINGS I DIDN'T LIKE: It's a slow burn with very little payoff.

It has some of the monster-movie cliches like a dog barking at a mysterious "something." Maybe the color on my screen was off, but the blush on the actresses looked heavy-handed.

Some of the dialogue is stiff.

There's a lot of talking with not nearly as much action as we'd like. All of the action scenes we do get to see are in the dark.

We have to wait almost an hour and 20 minutes before we get to see PART of the creature and it's in the dark. It kind of reminded me of how we hardly got to see the monster in the horror movie Cloverfield (the first one).

The run time could have been cut by about 30 minutes without negatively affecting the movie or the story at all.

None of the characters are very appealing. The main female character has a terrible potty mouth and sounds like a tough sailor.

The protagonist's refrigerator is disgustingly filthy. Yeah, he's a bachelor with issues, but still. Two of the characters even lean up against it for a long conversation. Gross.

The scenes that started to build delicious tension would end way too quickly.

Some of the special effects aren't that good.

TIPS FOR PARENTS: Profanity, including MANY F-bombs. The language gets worse as the movie progresses.

Monster goo and bloody gore People and animals get brutally attacked and eaten Lots of alcohol is consumed.

!

The best that this film should receive is a two rating .Acting is horrible, script is just unbearable to watch there really is no monster and the ending is ridiculous you hate all the characters just a disgraceful film all the friends and family gave it a 10 it's pretty obvious that the same person wrote 20 different reviews and gave it all the 10 rating I sat through the whole thing unfortunately hating every minute of it and it still gets an 8.8 rating oh well you will find out for yourself in the end when you're sitting there in the chair shaking your head why did I just watch this garbage oh well live and learn.