When the body of a man is found completely destroyed in the swamps in Louisiana, the medical investigator Sam Rivers is assigned to investigate the murder. He travels with the biologist ... See full summary »
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After a military plane crash near a small American town, a giant man-eating snake set off on a killing spree. The locals must find a way to eliminate the snake with the help of a scientist who knows about the snake and terminates it.
Director:
Richard Clabaugh
Stars:
Frayne Rosanoff,
Robert Englund,
Casper Van Dien
When an army of Graboids - giant, carnivorous underground worms - threaten the Petromaya oil refinery in Mexico, its owners call on Earl Bassett, who once helped kill four of the creatures ... See full summary »
Director:
S.S. Wilson
Stars:
Fred Ward,
Christopher Gartin,
Helen Shaver
After he's bitten by a scorpion carrying a zombie virus, a tough soldier survives the infection, becoming only half zombie. Once back in the US, he finds himself fighting his former comrades in arms, all of whom are turning into zombies!
On a hot summer afternoon in the sleepy town of Blackwater, Louisiana locals exiting a retro-fitted theater excitedly watch as a meteor streaks across the sky and crashes through the roof ... See full summary »
Director:
Tim Cox
Stars:
Vincent Ventresca,
Constantin Draganescu,
Summer Glau
A mild-mannered teacher and a hazmat specialist have to figure out how to stop an unstoppable creature who feeds on light and energy, and moves with exponential speed, before it destroys everything in its path.
Director:
Richard Jefferies
Stars:
Johnathon Schaech,
Erica Leerhsen,
James McDaniel
A virus breaks out at a University and people start to become zombies. After 29 days, a team of AMS scientists and soldiers are sent in to deal with the problem. But while they search, things go wrong.
Director:
Michael Hurst
Stars:
Emmanuelle Vaugier,
Ed Quinn,
Sticky Fingaz
Dr. Maddy Rierdon, an investigator for the Department of Agriculture, is the only person who can protect America from a deadly breed of bioengineered locusts.
Using fossilized DNA, a scientist resurrects one of nature's most fearsome predators, a sabretooth tiger. Scientific ambition turns deadly, however, when the creature escapes and begins ... See full summary »
Director:
James D.R. Hickox
Stars:
David Keith,
Vanessa Angel,
John Rhys-Davies
When the body of a man is found completely destroyed in the swamps in Louisiana, the medical investigator Sam Rivers is assigned to investigate the murder. He travels with the biologist Mary Callahan to the location where the victim lived in a floating house and he meets his family and friends. They find that Chinese snake-heads genetically engineered that belong to a wealthy hunter are attacking and killing the locals. While the group fights to survive, the hunter Jeff arrives with his team to hunt the predators. Written by
Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
The makers of Frankenfish, the title being derived from an outlandish nickname that's been attributed to the Snakehead breed, made a smart move by not just making another Jaws wannabe. Well, to be honest, for about the first 35 minutes, that's exactly what Frankenfish is. For the most part though, Frankenfish is Tremors on the bayou with big, smart, genetically engineered man-eating Snakehead fish in place of the Graboids and with people trapped on backwater houseboats instead of creaky homes out in the desert. With a bit more budget and one more rewrite, it could have been just as entertaining as Tremors, too. It doesn't quite succeed to that degree; but as far as low budget, made-for-video monster movies that are forced to premiere on a channel that seems hell bent on giving its namesake as bad a reputation as humanly possible, this one is surprisingly fun.
This isn't to say that the film is a complete success. Clichés are still abound, characters are mostly one-dimensional albeit likable, and it still takes about a half-hour before the movie really kicks into gear. The biggest problem I had with the movie was the explanation behind the enormous Snakeheads and how they got into this Southern bayou. It's one of the worst explanations I've ever heard in a b-movie. It's so moronic that I almost wonder why they even bothered to offer one. Perhaps with a bit more follow-up it could have been somewhat palpable, but when you hear it you're probably going to be appalled by the lameness. Even worse, this explanation leads to the introduction of a couple new characters that figure prominently in the third act, which is based around several people trying to capture alive a 25-foot killer Snakehead with a tranquilizer gun and their bare hands. I don't think so. Also, if you've just witnessed a person getting devoured by something in the water, I don't think you'd go back to tell their loved ones and stick around to have a casual dinner with them before notifying the proper authorities that there's something big and hungry on the loose.
So what is it that makes Frankenfish entertaining despite relying on a lot of clichés and one-dimensional characters? For me, I just liked the Snakeheads and the way they went after their victims. For one thing, they didn't just use cheap CGI, as everyone else seems to do these days. Yeah, there are numerous scenes of CGI Snakeheads, but most of those scenes are brief or are seen in quick blurs of fast action. The filmmakers wisely made the decision to mix the CGI with animatronics, making the illusion of these huge Snakeheads more believable by being more tangible than just a computer effect. I don't know about you but I've had it with 100% CGI movie monsters that look like escapees from a Playstation 2 video game. The Snakehead effects may not be as realistic looking as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, but at least when they appear on-screen they won't appear so fake looking that you're inclined to roll your eyes or begin groaning.
You got heads being bitten off, people being bitten in half, faces being blown off, and my personal favorite, let's just say people and airboat fans don't mix. There's a lot of red viscous on display here and I have a hard time believing much of it will get past the channel's censors. I'm not much of a gorehound myself but I do admit that there are movies where blood and guts can help matters and this is one of those movies. So many of the recent slate of killer animal movies have been so tame in that department that seeing some of the gore is actually refreshing, assuming one could describe a body exploding in an airboat fan using the word refreshing.
Hey, if nothing else, Frankenfish is still better than Anacondas.
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The makers of Frankenfish, the title being derived from an outlandish nickname that's been attributed to the Snakehead breed, made a smart move by not just making another Jaws wannabe. Well, to be honest, for about the first 35 minutes, that's exactly what Frankenfish is. For the most part though, Frankenfish is Tremors on the bayou with big, smart, genetically engineered man-eating Snakehead fish in place of the Graboids and with people trapped on backwater houseboats instead of creaky homes out in the desert. With a bit more budget and one more rewrite, it could have been just as entertaining as Tremors, too. It doesn't quite succeed to that degree; but as far as low budget, made-for-video monster movies that are forced to premiere on a channel that seems hell bent on giving its namesake as bad a reputation as humanly possible, this one is surprisingly fun.
This isn't to say that the film is a complete success. Clichés are still abound, characters are mostly one-dimensional albeit likable, and it still takes about a half-hour before the movie really kicks into gear. The biggest problem I had with the movie was the explanation behind the enormous Snakeheads and how they got into this Southern bayou. It's one of the worst explanations I've ever heard in a b-movie. It's so moronic that I almost wonder why they even bothered to offer one. Perhaps with a bit more follow-up it could have been somewhat palpable, but when you hear it you're probably going to be appalled by the lameness. Even worse, this explanation leads to the introduction of a couple new characters that figure prominently in the third act, which is based around several people trying to capture alive a 25-foot killer Snakehead with a tranquilizer gun and their bare hands. I don't think so. Also, if you've just witnessed a person getting devoured by something in the water, I don't think you'd go back to tell their loved ones and stick around to have a casual dinner with them before notifying the proper authorities that there's something big and hungry on the loose.
So what is it that makes Frankenfish entertaining despite relying on a lot of clichés and one-dimensional characters? For me, I just liked the Snakeheads and the way they went after their victims. For one thing, they didn't just use cheap CGI, as everyone else seems to do these days. Yeah, there are numerous scenes of CGI Snakeheads, but most of those scenes are brief or are seen in quick blurs of fast action. The filmmakers wisely made the decision to mix the CGI with animatronics, making the illusion of these huge Snakeheads more believable by being more tangible than just a computer effect. I don't know about you but I've had it with 100% CGI movie monsters that look like escapees from a Playstation 2 video game. The Snakehead effects may not be as realistic looking as the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, but at least when they appear on-screen they won't appear so fake looking that you're inclined to roll your eyes or begin groaning.
You got heads being bitten off, people being bitten in half, faces being blown off, and my personal favorite, let's just say people and airboat fans don't mix. There's a lot of red viscous on display here and I have a hard time believing much of it will get past the channel's censors. I'm not much of a gorehound myself but I do admit that there are movies where blood and guts can help matters and this is one of those movies. So many of the recent slate of killer animal movies have been so tame in that department that seeing some of the gore is actually refreshing, assuming one could describe a body exploding in an airboat fan using the word refreshing.
Hey, if nothing else, Frankenfish is still better than Anacondas.