Search - It Waits on DVD

Lifetime network tries its hand at a horror movie

Bud Bundy | MN USA | 07/17/2006

(2 out of 5 stars)

"Some monster chases some girl around in the woods. The scenery is gorgeous and the setting excellent; one of those ranger towers way up above the forest canopy. Unfortunately, all the other reviewers are dead on when they say this thing is a Lifetime movie of the week. The main character spends the first half of the movie wallowing in a pool of self pity over causing the accidental death of her friend in a drunk driving accident. We get numerous flashbacks. All this crap has absolutely nothing to do with the plot of the movie, it's just filler and tedius dreck filler at that. The theme music absolutely sucks - it would be more appropriate for a movie about a heroine addict slowly spiraling into oblivion.



The movie gets better in the last half, but by then it's way too late. The dialogue has a real TV show quality about it as well, witless and not at all realistic. I give it two stars for the setting and the hot babe, but it's a complete failure as a horror movie. These people have no clue what they're doing in this genre."

It lurks, it prowls...it reaks

N. Durham | Philadelphia, PA | 11/04/2006

(1 out of 5 stars)

"It Waits is one of those modern day, low budget horror snooze fests that we've been getting a lot of lately, and it's abysmal from start to finish. Cerina Vincent (from Cabin Fever, whose large "attractions" are the only thing that'll keep your eyes on the screen) stars as an alcoholic forest ranger (yes, you read that right) who gets stalked by a murderous, blood thirsty creature (because there are no other kinds) from Native American mythology that makes short work of her boyfriend and a few hikers. Normally, under the right circumstances, I try to be understanding of a low budget horror flick of this type, but everything about it so bad from the wooden acting, creaky attempt at giving Vincent a weak backstory, and the poppy soft-rock is about as welcome here as a claw in the guts. The gore and makeup are halfway decent, but that's it. Beyond bad, avoid."

A good monster movie

P. Mann | Los Angeles | 04/04/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

""It Waits" begins with a group exploring a cave and unleashing the titular "It," which promptly kills them all (off screen). Fast forward a bit, and we meet Forest Ranger Danielle St. Claire (Cerina Vincent), who is the sole tenant of a Ranger station deep in the forest. Having survived a car accident that killed her friend, Danielle is trying to find solace in the bottle to assuage the guilt that she feels because she was the one driving. Her boyfriend arrives, and Danielle confesses her role in the accident to him. Before the night is over, though, the tower is attacked by an unseen creature that destroys the sole transportation from the tower, a Jeep, and sabotages the communications. Before long, the creature kills two campers and turns its attention to Danielle and her boyfriend.



This film is hard to assess. On the negative side, it is entirely predictable, so much so that I felt as if I had the script in hand and were reading ten pages ahead. The disparate aspects of the plot (i.e., Danielle's grief and the creature's murderous spree) do not mesh well or indeed much at all. There is also an attempt to link the creature to a vague, apparently Native American, mythology, but this attempt falls flat--very flat, in fact. Danielle comes upon someone who seems to know about the creature, lectures her, and provides her with something to read so that she can defeat the thing. As it happens, though, these elements play almost no role in the film's resolution, and they seem pointless as a result.



On the other hand, there are a great number of things that work well in "It Waits." Foremost among the positives is Cerina Vincent, who must carry a large part of the film since she is the only human on screen for long periods of time. The scenes with her boyfriend (Dominic Zamprogna) seem genuine, and both actors make their relationship thoroughly believable. Vincent's vulnerability and Zamprogna's support amply convey an implicit longstanding relationship and a back story that make the characters seem much more real. Their scenes are accompanied by a couple very nice songs (especially "Believe in Me" by Melanie Monroe, who was previously unknown to me).



Danielle's vulnerability early in the film contrasts nicely with her strength in the second half of the film. Determined to stop the creature, Danielle finds the strength to fight, but this strength is not so over-the-top that her past is forgotten.



The strengths of "It Waits" outweighed the flaws for me. The beautiful scenery, the masterful performance by Vincent, and the good, old-fashioned sense of suspense here made the eighty minutes enjoyable. As I write this, though, I am aware that there are several negative reviews here. I am not entirely sure why those who wrote the reviews were so unimpressed by the film, but I wonder whether they expected something more like most contemporary horror films. In trying to come up with a similar film, I kept thinking of Creature from the Black Lagoon. For those who enjoy that type of monster movie, "It Waits" should prove enjoyable."

The possible prequel to Jeepers Creepers...but don't let tha

Jason | Backwater, Alabama | 04/30/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"A sexy but unstable forest ranger named Danny (Cerina Vincent - the naked chick from Not Another Teen Movie) who recently lost a friend seeks refuge within a Smirnoff bottle. Along with a hilariously prophetic and verbose parrot named Hoppy (who steals every scene), and an underdeveloped love interest with a barely post-pubescent pseudo Jake Gyllenhal, she has various responsibilities, to include searching for lost hikers or the bodies of a massacred archaelogical dig. Little does Danny know - mostly because she's a morally loose, easy, drunk emotional wreck - that the college archaeologists unearthed an alien, skeleton zombie (ASZ) of some kind. In the words of Hoppy before every tense scene, "Uh oh."



With a complex understanding of electronics, engines, and a rudimentary concept of pulley-based booby traps, ASZ is a formidable foe. Factor in the strength to lift a jeep, the ability to jump 20+ feet, and claws that make Freddy's knives look like a fresh manicure, and there's a guaranteed gutting on the horizon. Oh, it gets better. My boy FASZ (Freddy Alien Skeleton Zombie) alos likes to leave mangled and decapitated body parts for survivors to discover, and voyeuristically watches their shock from behind a row of trees (think flaming bag of poo on the doorstep, but for psychopathic monsters). Playful AND murderous! Look for the corpse dinner table and the anal Indian impalement scenes; they're a hoot.



I won't ruin the ending, or spoil the surprise, but the lead up to the final battle involves a rural alarm system of tin cans on a string, some of the worst marksmanship in cinema history, and a ridiculous Native American mumbo-jumbo lecture about cross-dimensional demons or something.



Overall the production, music, sets, scenes, and gore are fairly well done. Nothing spectacular, but nothing incompetent. Cerina Vincent is beautiful throughout. The only downside of the movie is final unveiling of the monster, which looks so much like the Jeepers Creepers beast that this may as well have been the prequel. Overall, it's lacking true scare, and most of the typical horror fare, but it's still enjoyable enough for sadistic horror fans to cheer for FASZ."