jlthornb51 The gifted David Winning directed veteran actor Bruce Dern to one of his finest performances in the deeply effecting horror film Swamp Devil. Dern gives his character a depth and humanity seldom seen in such film and his presence in this motion picture gives a great deal of gravitas. A truly excellent supporting cast also does some outstanding work here and one can sense their devotion to this project. With special effects that astound and make-up artistry of sheer genius. the touch of dedicated craft people can also be clearly viewed. The terror is intense as the director creates an environment of stunning dread and overwhelming fear. With a standout lead performance, unrelenting horror, and superior production values, no one who sees this film can ever deny the crushing horror that is Swamp Devil.

ctomvelu1 Bruce Dern (!) gets top billing in this no-budget, made-for-cable clunker about a murderous swamp monster (looking suspiciously at times like Swamp Thing or Man-Thing). A young woman returns to her hometown to find out what happened to her missing dad, a former sheriff suspected in a series of gruesome killings. An odd fellow about her age pops up out of nowhere and befriends her, while the local constabulary and a gun-toting local almost kill her upon her arrival. She eventually finds her dad (Dern) hiding in the woods, and together they fight the creature. The creature is typical SyFy Channel CGI, and not particularly intimidating or scary-looking. The director shows way too much of it, and way too early on. Acting is par for the genre. A snoozer, ideal for those having trouble sleeping.

Woodyanders Sweet young Melanie Blaine (winningly played by foxy brunette Cindy Sampson) returns to her small backwoods country hometown of Gibbington to check on her estranged ex-lawman father Howard (splendidly essayed with edgy intensity by Bruce Dern), who's the prime suspect in a series of grisly murders. Nice guy local Jimmy Fuller (an excellent and likable performance by Nicolas Wright) helps Melanie out. Melanie eventually discovers that a vicious monster is behind the killings. Director David Winning relates the absorbing story at a steady pace, offers a vivid and flavorsome evocation of the remote rural setting, maintains an admirably serious tone throughout, stages the attack scenes with flair, and develops a good deal of tension which culminates in a rousing climax. Moreover, the main characters are exceptionally well-drawn and engaging, with Wright a stand-out as the affable Jimmy. Sampson and the always reliable Dern do sterling work with their roles; they receive sound support from Robert Higden as the vengeful, hot-tempered Jones, Allison Graham as eager, scrappy Deputy Jolene Harris, James Kidnie as earnest, upright Sheriff Nelson Bois, and Bronwen Mantel as folksy diner owner Shelly. The gnarly bayou beast that's made up of twigs and mud qualifies as a very cool creature; the CGI effects used to bring it to life are above average and overall acceptable. The smart and compact script by Gary L. Dauberman and Ethlie Ann Vare has an interesting central theme about the fine line between justice and revenge. Daniel Vincelette's crisp cinematography makes nifty occasional use of a gliding Steadicam. James Gelford's shuddery score hits the shivery spot. A really enjoyable fright flick.

Paul Andrews Swamp Devil starts as city girl Melanie Blaine (Cindy Sampson) gets a phone call from a guy named Jimmy Fuller (Nicolas Wright) who claims to have known her when they were young children in Melanie's home town of Gibbington, Jimmy pleads with Melanie to come back to Gibbington to see her father Howard (Bruce Dern) who is dying. Although Melanie hasn't been in Gibbington for twenty odd years she feels she should make the effort to be with her father so she drives up there where she discovers that her father Howard isn't dying at all & in fact he is wanted for the brutal murder of a teenage girl. The local Sheriff (James Kidnie) & a posse of local men are on the hunt for Howard who is hiding out somewhere in the vast local swamps & marshes, Melanie decides to stick around to find her father but there's more going on that at first appears. Was all the crazy talk of monsters living in the woods by Howard just trying to shift the blame from himself or is there more to it than that?This Canadian production was the third & to date final Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' directed by David Winning after he had previously directed the equally awful Something Beneath (2007) & Black Swarm (2007), unfortunately it's not so much a case of third time lucky as third time even worse than the first two. I suppose in broad terms one could say Swamp Devil is a cross between Swamp Thing (1982) with it's similar sounding title & similar looking monster made from swamp weed or branches or whatever it is & A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) with the central concept of a brutal child murderer being killed by vigilantes (including the local Sheriff) & coming back for revenge although one also has to say that Swamp Devil is as bad a cheap 'Creature Feature' as you can imagine. I have seen so many of these things I am beginning to wonder why I bother watching them as they are all generally awful from rubbish scripts that are very predictable & make no sense (there's absolutely no explanation whatsoever as to why or how the killer was resurrected as a Swamp Thing rip-off, there's no reason given as to why it can't cross the county boundary & there's no reason why it hasn't already killed Howard (I mean he's been running from this thing for twenty odd years? Why didn't he just move house?)) to clichéd cardboard cutout character's (a typical local Sheriff, one character who know's about the monster but no-one else believes them) to forgettable dialogue to yet more truly awful CGI computer effects work that render any of the scenes with the monster laughable. The pace is slow, the film is boring & apart from some dull mystery elements that are easy to work out Swamp Devil really doesn't have much, if anything, going for it.The one thing that might have saved Swamp Devil was some good solid exploitation but unfortunately this is pretty much PG rated stuff all the way with only one scene featuring any blood when someone has possessed vines poked through his leg & shoulder very briefly, otherwise Swamp Devil doesn't feature a single drop of blood. The CGI computer effects are mostly poor, the actual Swamp Devil creature itself when seen looks terrible & has very awkward stiff animation although I will say the possessed vines effects are quite good. The end is very poorly shot & edited with the viewer having to guess what is going on most of the time. There's nothing scary here & apart from the opening & closing sequences it's set entirely in the day which doesn't help the atmosphere, I mean a nice dark spooky swamp at night would be a perfect place to set a horror film but during the day it just doesn't have the same sort of ominous feel.With a supposed budget of about $2,000,000 one wonders where all the money went, there's an exploding pick-up truck at the end but apart from that nothing happens & you can't tell me those CGI effects cost that much. Although set in the deep south in the US this was filmed in Montréal in Québec in Canada. Most of these 'Creature Features' have at least one name actor & here it's the turn of the Oscar nominated Bruce Dern, Cindy Sampson as Melanie does alright & it helps that she's quite hot.Swamp Devil is another faceless Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' the likes of which sort of melt into one another, basically if you have seen a few of these 'Creature Features' before then you have seen Swamp Devil & the lack of any sort of gore or explanations for the events contained within doesn't help matters.