Unnatural

I saw this boring B-movie under the title MANEATER and whichever title you give it, it's a real dog of a film. And that's coming from a reviewer who can gain mild enjoyment from the usual kind of monster nonsense churned out by the likes of both the SyFy Channel and Asylum, so I feel like I've got some experience with the genre.

The story is about a group of researchers in Alaska who uncover a nefarious government conspiracy style plot involving genetic testing on polar bears, of all things. What this boils down to, somewhat inevitably, is seeing a bunch of has-been actors being chased by a polar bear. Said actors include the likes of James Remar, Sherilyn Fenn, Graham Greene, and Ray Wise, all of whom look very tired and bored by the production. It's probably only the thought of their slim pay-cheque getting them through this.

By B-movie standards, MANEATER is a dull film. There's little in the way of genuine tension or horror and the action scenes are very badly staged. The special effects are really poor as well so it's little surprise that the actors are menaced by the unseen for the most part. This is a truly terrible film though and even with a decent monster it would have been poor.

This is an attempt at a classic creature feature. And it has all the Grade B elements to make it successful: hybrid alpha animal, secret machinations, vapid and ignorant characters, and the locals with intelligence trying to stop damage. Plus, there is some cultural referencing given actors appearing together from cult classic shows.

What is missing is greater plotting and character development to give Unnatural any sense of structure that compells the viewer to care about any characters or plot points.

Acting is decent from most of the people minus the "trapped in a stereotype" male fashion photographer. Production looks good, but once the animal starts attacking, we are in the deep night of an Alaskan winter. We can't see much of anything. It was easier to listen only to the film. In fact, maybe it was easier to listen to the film than watch it overall.

Unnatural,or Maneater which is the title I saw it under, is a fun nature-runs-amok horror movie.

Some of the reviews here made this movie out to be a statement on the ecological effects of global warming. I completely disagree. Although the subject gets its mention, its pretty much isolated to the final reels of the film; the audience is not beaten over the head with it. Like cooking with bourbon, the alcohol is in there, but not anywhere near enough to get you drunk. This is not an ecological thriller. Its a killer bear movie.

Although this film is not as effective as The Edge (probably the best movie dealing with a rampaging bear) or as the gore-soaked guilty pleasure Grizzly, its the better of the killer bear movies as of late.

Thanks to the a great cast of character actors who play this story straight, truly gorgeous photography & a high body count, Unnatural is entertaining movie junk food. No heavy thinking required here. Just some horror movie-loving buddies who brought beer & wings.

Saw this on a rented dvd. The poster was very convincing n so was the Alaska set up but the movie wasnt good. Period. The creature was pathetic but i will still forgive that coz of the budget. The poster had a menacing bear though. A low budget creature film without any good kills, nudity n tension zero. Two female models r doing a bikini photo shoot in the snowy Alaska n we dont even get to see good tits. There is a lousy sex scene that too without any nudity. Most of the kills r offscreen n the grizzly violence is pathetic. In fact some of the old bear movies has better kills. Grizzly made in the 70s, n among the new ones, Backcountry n Grizzly park were decent too. I hav yet to see Into the grizzly maze. Since imdb has allowed shorter reviews, so from now on i will make a shorter review for bad horror films. Yeehaw!

Every winter I gather together some christmas/winter/snow themed horror flicks to watch. "Unnatural" had been on my radar for the 3rd winter already, so I finally watched it. Now I don't understand how could I think that there was something good behind the bad ratings & unpopularity. I'd like to note that I do enjoy a good b-horror flick, practical fx creatures features & all that stuff, but "Unnatural" falls below many b-horror movie standarts.

"Unnatural" a.k.a. "Maneater" is an utterly bad and cringy piece of horror. I'm guessing they spent all the money on James Remar, because this was cheap as hell. James did not save anything trying to act out an underdeveloped, badly written main character. Firstly, the story can be told in one sentence, it generates literally no interest in the viewer and has a very high predictability factor. Secondly, do not expect great gore, action or dope looking killer bear - "Unnatural" is seriously lacking all of those things. You're gonna get a shady looking bear that you can see maybe 3 minutes in total & a few dark, shaky & blurry action sequences. There's also the awesome snowy setting of which's potential the filmmakers used about 5%. Even the things that cost nothing were not used efficiently. The characters were probably the worst. Annoying, unrealistic, cringe-worthy writing.

"Maneater" is 80 minutes of pure boredom that can maybe be saved by a few beers & a friend or two. I'm giving it a well deserved 2/10 & that's only because of James Remar and his bear killing tactics.