After a strange series of deaths around a small Michigan lake, the discovery of the culprit being mutated lamprey fish forces the animal control agents to take action against the creatures and the mayor who doesn't want the information getting out.
This turned out to be quite surprisingly enjoyable creature feature that has quite a bit going for it. One of the biggest pluses here is the fact that the creatures are a threat from the very beginning, with the actual attempts to coral the creatures constituting the opening moments which brings up the fact that this was an ongoing problem before we joined the story and makes for a nice change-of-pace over the usual cliché of them springing up out of nowhere and forcing the characters to deal with a suddenly-emerged threat. Here, the fact that this has been going on for awhile and there's a time limit to keep makes for a nice bit of suspense in the first half as well as the rather impressive amount of kills this one dishes out. Since the creatures are known for awhile yet their actual danger is still very much a mystery yet the creatures are loose, there's a lot of fun to be had with the multitude of amazing swarming and attack scenes here as the various creatures emerge from out of nowhere and becomes quite cheesy with the CGI creatures getting on the attack. While this in effect does give the film a lot of rather fun action scenes, especially in the later half with the house sequence coming up from every hole and drain as the continually-growing number descended upon the victims or the absolutely enjoyable and cheesy assault in the lake that manages to become far more entertaining as it goes along with the swarming creatures and disassembled bodies, the fact that the CGI done for the creatures still looks terrible is a major hurdle to overcome. Even when they're quite decent-looking, they're out-of-scale to the scene and rarely interact well with the matching plate for the human action, which really hampers it somewhat. The last thing bugging this one is the reliance on clichés to deliver the goods, for there's the reluctant mayor more obsessed with the money-making events in town than keeping people from being injured, the scientist who knows more than he's letting on despite being willing to help with the containment efforts and the family drama about just moving to the suburb away from everyone that gets old quite fast. Otherwise, there's a lot to like in this one.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.
This turned out to be quite surprisingly enjoyable creature feature that has quite a bit going for it. One of the biggest pluses here is the fact that the creatures are a threat from the very beginning, with the actual attempts to coral the creatures constituting the opening moments which brings up the fact that this was an ongoing problem before we joined the story and makes for a nice change-of-pace over the usual cliché of them springing up out of nowhere and forcing the characters to deal with a suddenly-emerged threat. Here, the fact that this has been going on for awhile and there's a time limit to keep makes for a nice bit of suspense in the first half as well as the rather impressive amount of kills this one dishes out. Since the creatures are known for awhile yet their actual danger is still very much a mystery yet the creatures are loose, there's a lot of fun to be had with the multitude of amazing swarming and attack scenes here as the various creatures emerge from out of nowhere and becomes quite cheesy with the CGI creatures getting on the attack. While this in effect does give the film a lot of rather fun action scenes, especially in the later half with the house sequence coming up from every hole and drain as the continually-growing number descended upon the victims or the absolutely enjoyable and cheesy assault in the lake that manages to become far more entertaining as it goes along with the swarming creatures and disassembled bodies, the fact that the CGI done for the creatures still looks terrible is a major hurdle to overcome. Even when they're quite decent-looking, they're out-of-scale to the scene and rarely interact well with the matching plate for the human action, which really hampers it somewhat. The last thing bugging this one is the reliance on clichés to deliver the goods, for there's the reluctant mayor more obsessed with the money-making events in town than keeping people from being injured, the scientist who knows more than he's letting on despite being willing to help with the containment efforts and the family drama about just moving to the suburb away from everyone that gets old quite fast. Otherwise, there's a lot to like in this one.
Rated Unrated/R: Violence and Language.