Animal

Animal

Starring Keke Palmer, Jeremy Sumpter, Elizabeth Gillies, Joey Lauren Adams

Directed by Brett Simmons

Synopsis:
In the woods, an unknown animal attacks two couples, killing one woman.  Some time later, five friends travel to the same woods for a day of exploring, when they come upon the same animal and hide in a cabin with the three who survived the attack before.  As the animal stalks the survivors, they plot their escape, in hopes they'll all make it out of the woods alive, but there's more to the animal that meets the eye.

Review:
"Animal," if it were done by your average inexpensive horror groups, would've been a film securely situated for a Friday night SyFy Original.  Thankfully, "Animal" was produced by Drew Barrymore's company, and featured an impressive pedigree of actors, including Keke Palmer ("Akeelah and the Bee"), Jeremy Sumpter ("Peter Pan"), Joey Lauren Adams ("The Break-Up"), Elizabeth Gillies ("Victorious") and Thorsten Kane ("All My Children").  Coupling these two talents, along with a surprisingly decent non-CGI monster, and you've got the makings of a surprisingly decent low-budget horror movie filmed as if it were a mega-budget film.

Unfortunately, the story itself is very linear.  You know most people will die, and you're just waiting for it to happen.  Thankfully the pace is pretty quick, with the first surprising death coming at around twenty minutes into the film.  The remainder of the movie focuses on the group of survivors, and gives a much-appreciated depth to them, so you're left actually rooting for their survival (or in one person's case, their demise), and you actually remember them after the film ends.  That is due in large part to the acting caliber brought into the film, and the story that was told.

The creature, as I said before, is done very well.  "Animal" did something I really like, and something rarely seen - it reverted back to the tried-and-true method of creating an actual creature, instead of relying on computer effects and CGI that gives the creature an almost comical motif.  Sure, the creature looks VERY similar to the one in another great low-budget creature film "Feast," but "Feast" was amazing, and "Animal" comes in a close second.

Summary:
With shocking deaths, depth of characters and a true creature to boot, "Animal" is a great low-budget horror film with high-production values.

My Rating: B+