RG
Roberto Giacomelli
•At the dawn of humanity, a meteorite fell to Earth and inside it was a green emerald stone that was worshipped as a deity. After millions of years, an archaeological excavation brought the stone to light, which was immediately taken into custody by the United States government. Inside the stone is contained a precious alien DNA that, extracted and mixed with human DNA, gives life to a monstrous hybrid being, the ancestor of a new future race of humanoids that Dr. Woodman has created to use in war. The creature breaks free and causes a massacre in the laboratories, leaving only Dr. Woodman and his assistant Charlie alive. Rita Talon and her military team are sent to the disaster site to destroy the creature and the survivors, so that this story is covered up forever.
Produced by Sci-fi Channel and distributed directly to the home video market, "Creature" ("Alien Lookdown" in the original) is the classic poor imitation product that is barely worth watching and then quickly forgetting. In this case, we are dealing with a little film that borrows as much as possible from all the successful fantasy-horror products of the last 25 years; indeed, in the melting pot of "Creature" are mixed, without any inventiveness, elements from "Alien" and "Aliens – Scontro finale", "Species", "The Fifth Element" and "Alien vs. Predator"; moreover, in many cases, similarities are also noticed with the recent "Doom", although the latter is posterior to "Creature".
If the story starts, precisely, with an introduction in the style of "Species", the course of the film heavily reflects "Alien vs. Predator", with corridors and laboratories in the scenery, adding the classic and well-known expedient of the degenerated experiment and government intrigues in the style of "X-files". If all this were not enough, at the appearance of the alien creature there is a deep and discreditable sense of déjà-vu, since we are faced with a shameless copy of the famous humanoid alien from "Alien" which, by chance, when it reproduces and appears in the "baby" form is a little too similar to the xenomorphs of the aforementioned film by Scott.
Therefore, if you go looking for something original in "Creature" you will be greatly disappointed. But it is not only the element of originality that is lacking in this feature film, because everything that usually makes a fantasy-horror a good fantasy-horror is missing here. The pace is far too television-like for a product of this kind (but it could not be otherwise, given the nature of the project) and the spectacularity is completely absent: for the entire film we see a small group of soldiers wandering the corridors of the laboratory and, one by one, are killed by the monster, naturally without the slightest hint of suspense.
The special effects alternate the use of latex prosthetics and mechanical models (especially for the "mother" monster) and poor computer graphic effects for the realization of the "baby" monsters. It is useless to look for talents among the cast members, as one only encounters monosexpressive and rough actors from series Z, although, in such a cast, the face of a now decayed John Savage (The Deer Hunter) is timidly glimpsed, here in the role of Dr. Woodman. The only anomalous, and therefore positive, element in so much sloppiness is a rather well-crafted photography for a television product.
In conclusion, "Creature" is a useless and sterile third-rate entertainment product, not at all original and shoddy in its realization. If you are die-hard fans of the "Alien" saga and its derivatives... well, it is better to rewatch "Alien" and its more successful clones; "Creature" definitely does not deserve too much attention.