It Waits (2005)

A lone female park ranger tries to track down a vicious creature killing various people and terrorizing her at a remote national park.

Director:

Steven R. Monroe

Writers:

Richard Christian Matheson (story), Tom Szollosi (story) (as Thomas Szollosi)

Stars:

Cerina Vincent, Dominic Zamprogna, Greg Kean

Cast

Cast overview:
Cerina Vincent	...	Danielle 'Danny' St. Claire
Dominic Zamprogna	...	Justin Rawley
Greg Kean	...	Rick Bailey
Eric Schweig	...	Joseph Riverwind
Matt Jordon	...	Wakinyah Creature (as Austin Jordon)
Miranda Frigon	...	Julie Cassidy
Sean Wei Mah	...	Ben Wheelock
Tinsel Korey	...	Lark Rainwater
Fred Henderson	...	Carl Nash
Chilton Crane	...	Evelyn Nash
Sean Campbell	...	Lt. Morris Black
Michael Bell	...	Voice of Hoppy (voice)

Storyline

"It Waits" is a suspenseful, horrifying tale of a Native American legend come to life. A creature trapped in the bowels of hell has been awoken and unleashed on the world. It prowls the wilderness, hunting a young, willful ranger named Danielle. Danielle is experiencing her own personal turmoil, having recently been responsible for the death of her best friend. Things go from bad to worse as Danielle realizes that she is not alone in the wilderness. There is a creature slowly stalking and hunting her. The creature claims the lives of the few people that may have been able to help Danielle, and all hope seems lost. She waits as the creature comes for here and desperately struggles for her life, but will her struggle be enough to ensure her survival?

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Plot Keywords:

psychotronic film | creature | student | native american | cave | 

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Taglines:

It lurks... It prowls...

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Genres:

Horror

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 May 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Al acecho

Filming Locations:

British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$1,200,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cannell Films, Centaurus Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

After appearing in Cabin Fever in 2002, Vincent was not eager to do another horror film. After reading the script, however, she was immediately attracted to the character and the acting challenges it presented.

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Goofs

When Cerina Vincent's character meets a Native American that knows about the creature she is told that the creature does not like water and therefore stays in its cave when it rains. In a scene just previous to this the creature stalks and kills another character when it is obviously raining quite hard.

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Connections

References Jeepers Creepers (2001)

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Soundtracks

My Rescue
Written by Melanie Monroe & Sharon Jackson
Performed by Melanie Monroe

User Reviews

It is waiting... but it will get you.

For some reason while watching IT WAITS it occurred to me that this movie looks and feels a bit like some sort of 90 minutes long stand alone episode of THE X-FILES (but only without Scully and Mulder running around in it and it's not about aliens either). So that already hints that IT WAITS isn't that bad at all. But as far as 'look & feel' goes, that's where the comparison ends. While on the surface IT WAITS looks like your standard run-of-the-mill creature-in-the-woods feature, it does have a little more to offer. The drama-aspects, predominant in the first half of the movie and coming back with a final twitch in the end, were something you wouldn't exactly expect in the first place from a movie like this and they were even well-developed too. So what am I talking about exactly? I'll keep it vague, so no spoilers. Cerina Vincent (looking good as ever) plays a troubled young ranger, Danielle, coming to terms with her personal demons from the past regarding a traumatic experience and her on-going issues with her boyfriend Justin (played by Dominic Zamprogna, who has a pleasant on-screen charisma). Her location of choice to do all that (and get wasted on alcohol during the process too) is a remote forest outpost. Like I said, the dramatic subplot is interesting, told in a decent fashion and very well portrayed by Miss Vincent. I could only appreciate it, even though I think they over-used the inappropriate tragic/romantic rock songs on the soundtrack.

What about the creature? You very soon learn that it's some demon from a Native American legend. But only later in the movie you learn a bit more about its history and characteristics. The sequence where you learn all that information really felt a bit easy and out-of-place. But I agree that it was necessary to flesh out the character of the creature. The demon-beast itself is a nice creation by Tony Gardner (check out his resumé and you'll find out that the guy always does a good job). It might remind you of The Creeper from JEEPERS CREEPERS mixed with a little bit of PUMPKINHEAD and a face ten times more vicious than any possible demon from the BUFFY series. But it still looks pretty unique. Some of the CGI shots of the creature where a bit less convincing. The kills in this movie are pretty good and gory, and the fun stuff includes that some of the corpses tend to pop up here and there, because our demonoid creature is just a bit more cunning and devious than your average beast.

Another nice touch about IT WAITS is that it's not about a bunch of people (whether it be teenagers or military folks or whatever) fighting some creature in the woods. From the second half of the movie onward, it's Danielle who has to battle it out on her own with the creature. It's Woman vs. Beast here, where the beast could easily be a metaphor for her own dark demons she has got to come to terms with before the movie's closure. And then there's also a nice little supporting role for… a parrot! Now if you want to know how all that works out, you'll just have to watch the movie. I liked IT WAITS more than I expected, but I'll try to temper my enthusiasm in my final rating. Because it still remains just an above average creature feature with a few extra merits going for it (the nice cinematography and the beautiful, mist-laden Canadian forests as scenery being two I haven't even mentioned yet).