A Creature Was Stirring review.
An unfocused attempt to meld divergent ideas, A Creature Was Stirring is elevated by a great cast and some cool effects.
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A Creature Was Stirring
Directed by Damien LeVeck
Written by Shannon Wells
Starring Chrissy Metz, Annalise Basso, Scout Taylor-Compton, Connor Paolo, Danielle Munday, Brisbyn Hood and George Schichtle
A Creature Was Stirring Review
There aren’t a lot of traditional Christmas elements in A Creature Was Stirring. Tis the season…but aside from the wintry weather explaining the (largely) one location setting…and some decorations around the house…you have to look outside the box to find holiday elements. Perhaps…” stretch to find them” would be a more fitting statement. This is a creature feature more than a holiday horror movie. Thankfully, there are some fun creature effects and a great cast to make up for much of what the narrative lacks. Or…appears to lack.
Something strange is happening with Charm (Annalise Basso). Her mother Faith (Chrissy Metz) continually regulates her temperature…but not to keep her normal…to keep her sick. She needs to be kept between 102-104.4 degrees or something evil will emerge. At least, that’s what Faith believes. She locks her daughter in her room behind a metal door and works away on a cure for her illness. When siblings Liz (Scout Taylor-Compton) and Kory (Connor Paolo) break into the home to escape a blizzard…everything threatens to come unglued
But not right away. A Creature Was Stirring is trying to keep a lot of balls in the air. Too many. The reason for the odd nature of the pacing and narrative issues will largely be solved by an unexpected ending. Watching it all unfold can be a bit of a headache. What feel like half-baked ideas eventually manage to add up enough…but that doesn’t make the hour and a half that preceded it any smoother. The movie gives us all the answers we need. They just don’t come early enough to smooth out the bulk of the movie.
Faith is a recovering drug addict. A fact that Charm is quick to use in anger when frustrated over her situation. Liz is devoutly religious. That’s about as many character traits as A Creature Was Stirring is willing to give us. Unless you count Charm (potentially) turning into a creature. Faith, ironically given her name, has no time for Liz’s beliefs. The siblings are only allowed to stay because Faith injures Kory during what she assumed was a home invasion. The discussions surrounding Charm’s situation are heated ones…Liz assumes she is being restrained against her will. Faith believes she is doing the right thing.
If you want to throw the religious discussion into the Christmas bucket…you can. They bring up Christmas in discussion even if the tropes of holiday horror are almost completely left out. Liz lights up a strange snow tunnel in the house with a candy cane decoration…but Santa Claus will not be making any appearances. What does make an appearance, however, is a transformation scene! We love transformation scenes and A Creature Was Stirring has a good one. The movie deploys fun effects. It makes for a memorable scene.
Given her religious background…Liz feels its her duty to vanquish the demon she sees emerge from the transformation. This is part of how A Creature Was Stirring loses its way. There is a reason for everything that is happening…but the movie can’t commit to anything for long enough to make it interesting or worthwhile.
The cast does everything they can with the purposely strange material. The actors overdeliver on what’s asked of them. It makes the movie more watchable than it probably should be. The problems lie in an unfocused script. We watch things unfold in the odd manner which they do…only to discover something that changes all meaning. As a twist…it’s great. It just can’t change what you’ve spent time trying to make sense of…even if it gives you an answer.
It might play better if the movie selling a mystery. Or…if the first hour was more engaging. A Creature Was Stirring too often feels directionless. Killing time until it can clue you in on what’s really happening. That will work for some. The third act is fun. The great cast and some fun effects do what they can to tide you over. If you are fine with a sloppy narrative with the promise it will make sense in the end…you could do worse than A Creature Was Stirring. If you’re looking for a Christmas horror treat…you could do better.
Scare Value
A Creature Was Stirring is a tale of ups and downs. Great performances elevate a movie that lacks the necessary urgency. Fun creature effects keep you engaged while the story struggles to figure out its point. Many of the issues are rectified by a late twist that you are unlikely to see coming…but it doesn’t change the act of watching the movie in some confusion. That’s without even getting into the logic holes the big twist opens up.
2.5/5
A Creature Was Stirring Links
Rent/Buy on VOD from Vudu
Buy on Blu-Ray from Amazon
