animal

The horror genre demands a constant influx of new blood. From writers, directors, cast and special effects crew, the genre is a springboard to bigger and better things. But, like working at McDonalds, no one is really expected to make a career out of it. So you have to give those continue to stay scary by choice a bit of grudging respect…if might be the last they ever get.

Director Brett Simmons had momentum on his side after turning his short film Husk into a feature in 2011, debuting as part of the AfterDark Film HorrorFest. His fast-paced, slick story about killer scarecrows made an impact with fans and proved he had a talent for making the familiar frightening. Three years and two films later, Simmons is still working in familiar territory with Animal (2014), an old-fashioned body count monster movie, but has a more difficult time upping the fear factor.

Alissa (Keke Palmer) and her closest pals hike to their secret family campground but lose track of the trail and wind up running for their lives from a mutant rat/bear/opossum who traps them in an old cabin with three other mismatched survivors. As the animal circles their not-so-sturdy sanctuary, the humans inside bicker about whose plan has the best chance of keeping them alive until morning.

That’s really all there is to this simplistic creature feature. But movies like this succeed or fail based on their execution, not originality. Simmons starts things off with a John Carpenter shout-out, mimicking the director’s signature font for the credits as well as a minimalist keyboard score, and includes a few shot compositions straight out of claustrophobic classics like Assault on Precinct 13 and The Thing.

But homage isn’t enough to overcome Animal’s tediously predictable parade of victims. Both KeKe Palmer and co-star Elizabeth Gillies are veterans of long-running Nickelodeon TV shows (True Jackson, VP and Victorious respectively). Only Gillies manages to shake off the kid-friendly vibe, but maybe that’s because she’s squeezed into Catherine Bach’s tight-fitting Dukes of Hazzard costume. The rest of the cast, including a cameo-length appearance by Joey Lauren Adams, is simply monster chow.

However, you’ve got to give the film credit for keeping things real in regards to the monster. There doesn’t seem to be a frame of CGI to be seen anywhere in the creation of this piece-meal Pumpkinhead rip-off. Simmons tries to keep things mysterious as long as possible, but with the creature design plastered on the front of the Blu-ray cover and all, it’s really a moot point. Animal doesn’t innovate, it doesn’t inspire, it simply sacrifices the required amount of new blood into an insatiable genre. As the tag line says, “It’s feeding time.”

Scream Factory’s hi-def presentation is wonderfully clear and colorful, looking far better than the film’s premiere on the Chiller Network. Simmons and cinematographer Scott Winig’s nighttime forest scenes are awash in deep reds and greens that standard-def just couldn’t handle. Extras include a director’s commentary track and two quick (under three minute) promo pieces along with the theatrical trailer.