User Reviews

While Olive (Anna Dawson) is diving at 1500 feet a sea creature lodges an egg in her suit. She takes it home and nurtures it in a what becomes a combination of "Alien" and "Little Shop of Horrors." They attempt to invoke HP Lovecraft with a "Mishatonic" (sic) diploma, but being misspelled (It should be Miskatonic) you have to wonder how knowledgeable these guys were. There are weak connections to the ancient world and gods with a ton of plot holes like, it they can live at both 1500 feet and in surface air, why are they just returning now? The film uses CG for some sea scenes. Olive's descent into what appears to be madness and mindless ramblings was poorly done with an explanation left in pieces, something that could have made the feature better using real flashback reenactments of the past instead of something that looked like an Egyptian kid's refrigerator art.

Guide: F-word and nudity (Anna Dawson)

I read the reviews before watching this and was excited to watch it after reading them,only to be sadly disappointed. The 'creature' reminded me of those creatures you see in a 70's Doctor Who episode,cooked up in a bowl,then refrigerated until it gets wobbly,then painted with water colours. The acting was equally awful and really nothing at all likable about any of the dull as dishwater characters,even the appearance of the required horror movie boobies did nothing to liven this sad offering up,with the music score even duller and more monotonous than the movie. Avoid this lemon at all costs.

"The Creature Below" is a mish-mash of all sorts of "creature" movies poorly rolled into one. It is a story of a young marine biologist, Olive, who experiences a horrible diving accident while trying to test out a scientists latest diving suit. She sees "something," but when she comes to she cannot remember what she saw. While examining her diving gear, she discovers some sort of egg lodged in what was her oxygen tank, steals it, and returns home.

Face it, guys, we've already seen this about 20 times: Alien, Species, Species II, Grabbers, and Little Shop of Horrors, et al. The only difference is most of Creature's predecessor movies were much better. There was nothing original in here. What makes this movie even more unbearable is the stilted dialogue, characters complete obliviousness that something is wrong, characters which should wear signs that say "kill me next," and an ending which just helped the entire movie fall flat on its face.

"The Creature Below" is rated "R" for some violence, brief nudity, and language. Sorry guys, but I've already seen this movie.

THE CREATURE BELOW is a British indie horror flick with some mildly interesting touches, but in the end the experience is soured by an air of tired predictability and a willingness to take the story in a very ordinary direction. The young female protagonist is a diver who brings something back from the depths; it turns out to be a bloodsucking squid monster which she keeps in a tank. Eventually, she feeds a few people to it. The story is as mundane as that, not helped by indifferent performances and direction that screams "first time". I'm a massive fan of Lovecraft and I was hoping this would be more along that line, but aside from the cheesy final scene this never rises above the ordinary.

First, the bad, and it is pretty bad. The CGI and green-screen work is simply atrocious. A lot of it does seriously remind one of a decade old video game, and not a good video game. The first ten minutes of the movie is dominated by it but if you hang in there, what you will find is something very surprising.

Now the good, and there is a substantial amount of good to be found here.

I'll start with a nod to the score which kept reminding me of something John Carpenter would have done and, to me, that is a very good thing. As the movie moves from its start as an action adventure/monster flick to a somber melodrama following our leads decent into madness, the score continues to keep the energy up through what I would term as very patient pacing.

As a bit of balance to the poor CGI much of the practical effects were good. With some unabashed blood and various levels of body horror as well as a satisfactory rendering, it has plenty of payoff if blood and guts are your sort of thing. The monster was left largely unseen, another nod to Lovecraft as were it actually shown correctly, we the viewers would be driven mad by the sight of it. Nudge nudge wink wink.

I found the acting and its direction to be solid, and at times quite good. While the somewhat dingy sister and the milquetoast boyfriend were a bit on the cliché eventual monster food variety the roles were played well and I found them to be believable enough.

The story, ahhhh the story. For me this is where the movie is really a bit special. It has proved to be very very difficult to correctly put together a movie that captures the essence of the stories of H.P. Lovecraft. This one, I think, rather nailed it. It is not a tale of us verses it where, in the end, the monster is slain and the heroine gets away. It is a tale of a person who, unwittingly, pokes at something vast and terrible and pays the price with first their sanity and then their life. It is the story of a decent into madness brought about by contact with something that is beyond reason. When watching it one knows that this is not going to end well for anyone pretty early on and this is all part of the way Lovecraft wove his tales. Again, to reuse a phrase from earlier, all of this is told, as Lovecraft told his tales, with a horrific patience that draws one in to the mounting madness.

I think for all fans of Lovecraft there was a complete geek out when the lead finally sinks deep into madness and starts describing the experience using entire passages of Lovecraft's work to do so. Placing Lovecraft's prose directly on to film is not an easy thing to pull off but here it was done quite well.

All in all what we end up with is a movie that works very well if one is a fan of Lovecraft as the "mythos" part of the movie is, in my opinion, some of the best ever done which makes it much easier to forgive the terrible special effects. For those that are not already a fan of Lovecraft, however, there may be more of a disconnect as it is a patiently paced horror/drama book ended by some bad special effects.

I would love to see those who were involved creatively on this project to be given the chance to bring what they seem to be able to do in a larger way. I would actually love to see this movie having been made with a substantial budget. Actually "getting" Lovecraft in a movie is a terrific thing, and not an easy thing to do. I would love to see it done in a more spectacular way.

The movie is basically an attempt of making dark brooding version of Little Shop of horrors. The more you watch the more the similarities are going to come to light. From the creatures first feeding attempts to its reaction to blood. The lead character even shares a suckling seen similar to Rick morranis and audry.

I will give it is sufficiently changed from the source material to not call it a copy it does fit in line as far as plot development

leaving all the scientific biological flaws aside, this little underground flick was surprisingly pleasant to watch.

the plot start off pretty fast, no extended foreplay, like most movies that manage to catch the spirit of HPL. it also lacks unnerving soundtracks and insane screaming like, for example, the well-known 'Possession' delivers. without ever breaking the bonds of tolerability, it still provides a good amount of blood. although the characters and their relations could've used a little more development, the acting is solid.

from the first few minutes on, the atmosphere is dense and calm at the same time. not many dialogues, not much sound at all - just that subtle, uncanny music and the sounds of the creature. lighting and camera sometimes are a bit rigid and once in a while one wishes to see more of what's happening and of the creature itself. then, on the other hand, a loyal Lovecraft adaptation doesn't live off the things the viewer actually can see.

the ending really got me and earned my rating another star. just when one would think all is over, not satisfying, but understandable, the horror, seemingly defeated, rises again and reveals itself to the sole survivor after her escape from the asylum. the brood mother emerges from the sea and shows itself just long enough to release those typical HPL shivers going down the spine before the credits begin.

I actually enjoyed this low budget horror flick. The story line is great and was developed very well........as the little creature from the depths of the ocean is metamorphosing into a hideous creature, the smart biologist who found the creature is also struggling with her sanity as she bonds with the creature

There is no established actor in the film. The quality of acting is not the best. But the main character (Anne Dawson) played her role very well.

Over all, it is a nice film!

Viewed on Amazon Prime, I just had to watch it a second time to get a couple of fine points I might have missed the first time around.

I think one of the best ideas was to limit the visual contact we had with the creature (Lovecraftian and god-like). Additionally, the creature was given a childlike way of "speaking" that made me want to love it just as did the main character, Olive.

I just wish the ending had been given about one more full second in the ocean "reveal" scene for my eyeballs to love. Warning - I liked the ending.

When I saw the DVD cover for this film I was expecting a SyFy channel level production and whilst the opening 10 mins of CGI didn't convince me otherwise I was pleasantly surprised to find a very competently put together take on Lovecraftian horror. The film is certainly low budget and as the producers on the 'Making of' DVD bonus feature state, they worked with what they had, using their own houses as location. Any of these shortcomings are overcome by the great cast, all of whom I have not seen before but did a really good job with the script. Anna Dawson is very convincing as the lead character Olive, slowly loosing her mind to the creature which seems to have some kind of psychic control over her. The characters of Ellie & Matt are also well played and the chemistry between them seems very authentic. There are also some great supporting cast members in there like Doctor Fletcher and Olive's friend Dara. All of the cast play their roles with a straight face which I think was important considering the crazy script. Where the film truly shines is in the practical creature effects which are used sparingly but build up the mystery around the creature. There is plenty of blood and guts for gore fans but it isn't extreme in anyway so fans of more psychological horror films will also be satisfied. The ending of the film takes things to completely insane levels and also surprised me considering the small scope the film had shown thus far and there is potential for a sequel there. As I said before the film is slightly let down by the opening CGI which isn't very good but I don't think it lets it down too much there. For fans of H.P. Lovecraft this is a must see.

Some parts of this film are very reliant on fairly unconvincing CGI, giving some action scenes a cartoonish quality. This is a shame. So what do we do about this? Cry about it, because the budget clearly isn't generous - or look for other aspects of 'The Creature Beneath' worthy of praise?

I've always applauded ambition in these projects, even if it doesn't always pay off - but it is the quieter moments that impress here. The disintegrating relationship between Olive and her very decent boyfriend, her maternal feelings toward the titular creature and the increasingly extreme ways she goes to nourish it; the well-meaning sister's desire to solve everything with alcohol.

Anna Dawson is sometimes a little flat as Olive, but her performance improves immeasurably once she comes under the influence of the Lovecraftian creature.

I enjoyed this. I liked the idea of a new ruling species coming to life in an outwardly respectable suburban house surrounded by unsuspecting neighbours. Occasionally the budget threatens to bring things down, but never succeeds. My score is 7 out of 10.

This movie is not bad at all, I get what they wanted to do with it, they simply did not have the budget to show it on screen.

Therefore, you sort of have to extrapolate it.

This movie is still better than Underwater, which is more of a monster action oriented movie than a Lovecraftian one. This movie is more slow paced.

A career driven woman in the oceanic field wants to be chosen to be the diver for an eccentric Dr / Millionaire. She gets the job but wreck the equipment following an encounter with a Lovecraftian entity below the surface.

The experience is traumatic enough that she blanks this out of her memory, but the fact that she cannot explain what went wrong down there gnaw at her, so she investigate her suit.

She discovers an egg and decide to sneak it back home, to further study it and bounce back from this failure.

The creature ends up contaminating her with something, and she start feeling a connection to it, becoming oblivious to the the danger it represent, perceiving it like her child in need of protection.

As the creature grow, she keeps feeding it, her humanity always slipping. She can communicate with it a little bit.

I'm leaving stuff out, but I get what they were going for. You just can't make anything happen with no budget. For reference, this ~90 min was 12k£, and I have seen short movie with 4 times this budget.

It lack a little bit in the narrative department and would have beneficiate from 1 or 2 rewritting. For example, the movie sort off happen to the main characters as opposed to them taking action, but in a sense, it works ok in Cosmic Horror as we poor humans are completely oblivious to our lack of agency. But you get my point I hope.

So... go into this movie while managing your expectation and enjoy the ride.