By Geno McGahee
You can’t go wrong with Bruce Dern. He can do just about any role. He was great in THE BURBS, DIGGSTOWN and MONSTER. He can deliver dialogue and he does it very well again in the 2008 horror/monster movie “SWAMP DEVIL.” Written by Gary Dauberman, a writer that has also the recent horror hit “ANNABELLE,” and directed by David Winning, who has worked primarily on TV but also directed the TURBO POWER RANGERS movie, SWAMP DEVIL has a rather good team and cast and we get a rather decent horror movie out of it.
Melanie Blaime (Cindy Sampson) has not seen her father in years. She gets a call from an old friend from her hometown stating that her father is dying. Jimmy Fuller (Nicolas Wright) convinces her to come down to help her dad, but when she makes it to town, she learns that she was misled. Fuller tells her that her dad is actually accused of murder, not dying, and needs help. Despite her problems with her father and lack of trust for Fuller, she proceeds to look for him.
Howard Blaime (Bruce Dern) is believed to have killed Lisa Jones (Mary-Pier Gaudet), a woman with the world ahead of her. Her father, Jones (Robert Higden), with shotgun in hand, has been searching in the woods to kill Howard, but there is a big problem that the town has that only one is aware of. Howard knows the truth. There is a huge monster that is responsible for the death of Lisa, and despite it being a product of CGI, it was rather impressive. Obviously, this film didn’t have the biggest budget in the world, but the monster gets a pass. I enjoyed the time it had on the screen.
The reunion happens and we get a surprise. (Spoiler) Howard, Jones, and many other townies have blood on their hands and have created this monster. Dern does a great job telling the story of the incident where a man died and the monster was born. It was very compelling stuff and his quest to kill it and solve the problem that he was partially responsible for was done very well. The final showdown is satisfying and fun.
SWAMP DEVIL is a fun film with some very good performances. As I mentioned, Dern is can’t miss and does very well in this film. It was impressive to see Sampson and Wright hold their own across from Dern. They were both very believable and gave good performances as well as they pushed this movie forward. Considering that Dern is only in about twenty percent of this film, the pressure is on Sampson and Wright to keep the audience and they do so. The film has this overall ominous feel as well that adds to it. In a lot of these sorts of films, there isn’t much focus on creating an atmosphere and focusing on the story and dialogue. We usually see a reliance on the CGI creature to keep the film going, but SWAMP DEVIL was a few steps above the majority. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 7/10
