The Bottom Line
Pros
- Action-packed
- Nice special effects
- Good creature design
- Plentiful gore
Cons
- Predictable story
- Shallow characters
Description
- Starring Corin Nemec, Miriam McDonald, Daniel Wisler, Camille Sullivan, Gary Hudson, Christie Laing, Brandon Jay McLaren
- Directed by Paul Ziller
- Not Rated
- DVD Release Date: June 30, 2009
Guide Review - 'Sea Beast' DVD Review
It was bound to happen: after more than a dozen entries in the Sci Fi Channel fodder Maneater Series (Yeti, Vipers, Swamp Devil, etc.), it's finally stumbled into a pretty good movie. OK, so Sea Beast isn't exactly Schindler's List, but for this sort of low-brow, modestly budgeted creature feature, it pushes all the right buttons.Former teen star Corin Nemec is Will McKenna, a fisherman who swears he saw a semi-invisible creature take one of his men overboard during a fishing trip. Returning to his small seaside town, he keeps his theory to himself, going along with the story that the guy was washed overboard -- that is, until people around town start turning up half-eaten. It seems the sea beast, which paralyzes its victims with a venom before killing them, has followed his boat back to the mainland.
Unfortunately for Will, his teenaged daughter Carly has stolen the keys to his vacation cabin on a nearby island and has secretly gone out there with her boyfriend Danny and two other friends. Her two friends quickly catch a fatal case of B.S.S. (Black Sidekick Syndrome), leaving Carly and Danny to fight off the creature and its spawn. Will and his sheriff brother and marine biologist love interest thus have to battle their way through to rescue them.
Sea Beast is by-the-numbers monster movie fare, but it knows its role and it plays it well. It's quick-paced and loaded with action, eschewing much of the annoying "hero tries to convince dubious townspeople of danger" angle that so many of these films take. (Also, there's no easy loophole for killing the beasts, like they melt in sunlight or something.) The creature CGI effects are good for this level of flick, and the gore is ample and gruesome.
If only more Sci Fi Channel pics were this entertaining, they wouldn't get such a bad rap.
The DVD
No special features.
Movie: B-
DVD: F
