Customer Reviews

Leeches

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Leeches is a horror movie of superleeches attacking and largely wiping out the Lakecrest College mens swim team.

Swimmer Stevo Robbins (played by Matt Twining of The Frightening) pushes steroids onto many other team members, partly to help the team win its competitions. Jason (played by Josh Henderson), Tony (played by Stephen Swan), Hank (played by Mark I. Miller), and Fish (played by Greg Lyczkowski) have all received drugs from Stevo. One day the team swims and parties at a lake. Stevo and Jason run back to the showers while carrying rather large leeches on their backs. The guys pluck off the steroid-engorged leeches and toss them onto the shower floor. Later, Tony kicks these leeches down a drainpipe, where they grow bigger and meaner.

The first leech attack is on an incapacitated showerer, Doug (played by Trevor Harris), who gets a mouthful. Doug goes home, vomits up a huge leech (the best effect of the movie), and dies. The leech goes on to the next victim, Brian (played by Mike Cole). The superleeches multiply and are soon all over the campus.

In general, the women are the consciences of the group. Girlfriends Sarah (played by Alexandra Westmore), Sabrina (played by Charity Rahmer), Casey (played by Stacey Nelson), and Angela (played by Maya Parish) resist the take-drugs-to-win positions of the men. Dr. Alice Manning (played by Julie Briggs) finds steroids in the blood of a dead swimmer and wants to test the whole team, but she doesnt live long enough. Sarah is especially brave about touching leeches and their slime.

The other counterpoint is science student/swimmer Steve (played by Michael Lutz) and his study-buddy (played by Tyler Sedustine). They hit the books while the others party.

Of the fifteen credited characters appearing onscreen, twelve die over the course of this 85 minute movie. Thats once every seven minutes, which suggests there is a lot of action but not a lot of character development. The early kills are people we hardly know. The later the kill, the more we tend to know and not respect the character. There is a surprise at the end.

At a higher level, the movie portrays the bad side effects of tinkering with our bodies and of putting the wrong chemicals out into nature. Booze and steroids figure in the ends of most. Steroids make the leeches larger and more aggressive. Being a studious scholar-athlete is not a complete answer either, as will be made clear.

At a lower level, the movie displays male skin galore in swimming, bondage, and sleeping situations. The girlfriends go no further than brief bikini shots at the lake. All the men, other than the study-buddy and Coach Foster (played by Tony Carroccio) have lots of time in their swim suits. There is no [alternative]angle; all relationships are straight.

Producer/Director David DeCoteau has created a rather good movie, much improved over Brotherhood III. The camerawork, lighting, and pacing are excellent. The leeches are acceptable, although some unnaturalness of motion is apparent. The acting is average overall, although I liked Matt Twinings Stevo, Julie Briggss Doctor Alice Manning, and Alexandra Westmores Sarah a bit more than the rest. The directors commentary is very good, filled with interesting points. There are various plot holes, but these come with the genre.

There are very few naturalistic horror films with lots of handsome, male college boy skin. This is as strong an entry as there is for that niche. 3.5 stars, call it 4 for daring.

This movie, which according to the director on the DvD's commentary was shot in a scant 6 days...and I believe it.

Dedicated to Doris Wishman, the purveyor of such dubious masterpieces as "Deadly Weapons", "Satan Was a Lady", "Double Agent 73", "A Night to Dismember" among others, this film certainly live up these standards, however low.

Basically some leeches (intentionally) mutated by steroids are stalking a college located conveniently next to the swamp where the leeches lived. Its choice victims are the hot looking cast, male and female.

And this is where this movie deviates from the usual cheapo screamathons. Instead of screaming half naked nubile female victims, this movie boasted tons of half naked guys in speedos and underwear. The director almost lovingly inserted lingering (and close up) shots of members of the hunky male cast taking showers (and caressing themselves),lying on beds and other suggestive poses. I was surprised that two of the guys didn't start kissing right there and then.

In the end, Leeches is standard fare in the world of horror movies, the effects are barely adequate. The attack scenes laughable..mainly of the victim holding onto the green rubbery leech, screaming his or her brains out...while trying to maintain a straight face.

It notched four stars from me for the scenes of the guys alone! For so long horror movies objectifies only women, it is time we look at the guys close up for once! Then again, director DeCoteau claims he is making horror films for women (like his previous efforts of The Brotherhood and Voodoo Academy) hence the half naked guys, but he is fooling no one with the homoerotic overtures and I for one, can't wait to see his next effort!

Thus for Leeches, two stars for the overall plot, and two more stars for the beefcake factor.

This is latest film from DavidDeCotau- the director of "The Brotherhood" and "Voodo Academy". The story cocerns a college swim team who is using steroids to improve their performance and end creating monster size leeches. The movie is an old fashion creature feauture but in the DeCoatau tradition feautures a cast of cute young men. The leeches attack are effectibly gruesome- so if you have a taste for speedo clad lads and monsters- this is for you.

This movie was a riot! I mean, it's pure crap, but you all know that. Just look at the Rapid Heart label. It should tell you two expect three things. 1) Predictible and yet Servicable Plot 2) Not So Great Special Effects and 3) Lots of Young Guys in Their Undies/Speedios/anything tight fitting. So if those three don't scare you away, than get this movie. I never stopped laughing the entire time. It's just so bad its good. It has a decent soundtrack, decenct cast (talent wise) and amazing cast (looks wise). Plus the leaches look pretty cool for being nothing more than hand puppets. Pick it up!

This is a nice addition to director David DeCoteau's collection of homoerotic horror films. It sports a much better DVD transfer than the films in his Brotherhood series. Nice and sharp, no obvious artifacts. Its widescreen letterbox.

This intensely homoerotic horror film is set at LAKECREST COLLEGE somewhere in California, which is apparently a Reform Mormon or Never-Nude institution: the hunks, er, male students never remove their speedos, not even to take showers or have sex. (Interestingly, they rarely take off their socks, either.) The plot, such as it is, revolves around the steroid-enhanced men's swim team and the steroid-enhanced leeches (!) that prey on them. LAKECREST COLLEGE is, strangely enough, near a lake, which the team likes to visit to go swimming. Presumably, they wouldn't get to go swimming much otherwise, what with being on the LAKECREST COLLEGE swim team and all. As other reviewers have amply pointed out, the dozen or so swimmers barely ever bother with shirts (which is actually one of the more realistic aspects of the film, relatively speaking), while their three or four girlfriends go through the whole film completely clothed. Yes, that's right, all of these handsome young men are presented as intensely heterosexual, despite the fond, lingering body close-ups, the fact that they stand surprisingly close together to hold conversations, their predilection for necklaces, bracelets and earrings (not to mention steroids), the visibly forced kisses, and the actors' barely restrained laughter.

So the leeches piggyback on a couple of swimmers on steroids, and get into the LAKECREST COLLEGE drainage system, and soon the place is overrun with them. The steroids apparently enhance their intelligence as well as their size, since the little suckers mainly target victims who are alone, wet, and nearly naked. Actually, they also are all members of the swim team, or their girlfriends, oddly enough. We're left wondering whether LAKECREST COLLEGE actually has any other students, aside from the solitary black actor, who may be intended as three different characters in his three scenes -- it's hard to tell because he has no lines or significance to the story.

The androgynous resident medic at LAKECREST COLLEGE seems additionally to be a fully qualified police investigator, judging from the way she handles the first death anyone notices. (Two prior deaths go unacknowledged throughout the movie.) When she meets a non-leech-induced grisly end, we're led to believe that the murderer is the team's muscular, drama-queen coach, because he's secretly the one responsible for the team being on steroids, and because he's the only other staff member at LAKECREST COLLEGE. After a climax in which the only remaining girlfriend figures out, thanks no doubt to her huge shoes, that you can kill even the largest of leeches by *stepping* on them, a twist ending exonerates the coach, while curiously still failing to save the plot. It doesn't matter, because by this time the coach is dead anyway -- this is no surprise, though, because the manmeat portraying him couldn't act to save his life.

Other notes: an abortive side story shows a huge, bubbling cocoon in the equipment cage of the LAKECREST COLLEGE men's locker room, but we never find out what was growing in it. It looks empty. Also, the swimmer, named Stevo (really!), who's supposed to be the coach's proxy as steroid ringleader, is a lightweight who has clearly never tried a single steroid, which leads one to wonder why he wants so badly for all his teammates to take them. Hmmmm.

I had a hard time deciding what rating to give this movie, because I couldn't tell what the filmmakers' intention was. As a serious movie, it rates only one star; but as a parody or a soft-core gay porno -- or more appropriately, a parody *of* gay porn -- it merits four or five.

I love this movie, the guys are real hot, sexy and handsome and wear speedos most of the time,.. the girl is pretty, but wears this ugly clothes and the old lady shoes, the leeches are so nasty and big, the movie is a great find.

I got this movie for the eye candy alone. Ok, it's corney and at times very stupid, but it is very good for it's genre.

What a scream!!! The ultimate in campy teen horror, whether it is meant to be or not. Frankly, I cannot imagine the filmmakers did not know very well how funny and innocently erotic this film can be. The leeches virtually caress and enjoy their beautiful young scantily clad toy-boy victims before horribly devouring them. Ain't love grand!! A definite party piece.

Hottest guys of all DC's movies, hands down! (Don't even think about The Raven -- it has the worst.) Oh, and plot and all that, pretty good!