Customer Reviews

Mutant Monsters Triple Feature (The Dark / The Being / Creatures From the Abyss)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What a great boxed set of low-budget sci-fi/horror films, ranging from the late 70's to the mid 90's. It was put out by Media Blasters/Shriek Show, and features decent to fine prints of all three movies, with a few extras thrown in to boot.

The Dark (1979) was the film for which I primarily bought this three pack of DVDs. I had great memories of seeing it on cable TV back in the early 80's, and don't believe I had seen it since. By the admission of the director himself during the included interview and commentary, it started out as more of a slasher horror flick that somehow evolved into an evil alien visitor from another world horror flick. And that evolution must have been pretty rocky, as it is glaringly obvious the two incongruous elements don't mesh particularly well. But that in itself is partly what makes the film so appealing to us lovers of cinematic cheese. By today's standards the action is sparse, the script is a bit all over the place, and the film does get bogged down at times with all the talking going on. But when the evil alien attacks, watch out! Great stuff, indeed.

The Being (1983) is another film I had seen on videotape very long ago, and frankly did not remember much about it. I was pleasantly surprised at how good it actually was. I found it to be more than a little reminiscient of some of those creature features from the 1950's (which I love), only with considerably more blood. Not done as a spoof, but as what seemed as sort of an homage to the genre, it was fast paced, well acted, and great fun. In many ways, it was probably the "best" of the three movies contained herein. It certainly appreared to have the best production values. And to top it off, a buddy of mine from school (Hi Ron!) did the sound on it (though I don't know if he cares to remember it) before moving on to considerably bigger things.

Creatures From the Abyss (1994) (aka Plankton) is by far the weirdest and wackiest of the three movies. More than once I found myself wondering what the film makers must have been smoking when they came up with this crap. I say crap, but the truth is, once I realized that it was going to be something totally different than the other two movies in this set (I watched this one last), and tossed all reason and logic out the window, I started having a ton of fun with it. It has bad acting, terrible dubbing, atrocious special effects, and the storyline, such as it is, is totally ridiculous. Toss in a healthy dose of T&A, and you've got yourself the perfect B-movie! Definitely check your brain at the door on this one and just try to run with it. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Three totally different movies - three great ways to have a fun night in on a Saturday night. For the price, I would have to say this triple feature is a steal. The great value here will even allow you to afford some popcorn. Just don't choose cheese flavored popcorn, unless you're looking to OD on cheese. Pick this up and watch - if you dare.

None of these are great films, they are mindless monster popcorn fare, 2 of the films The Dark and The Being, were made in 79, although the latter was shelved until 83. Creatures from the Abyss is a straight to video flick from 94. Despite the budget and age of the films, for me they are all fun light fare, and you have to love the care that Shriek Show/ Media Blasters puts into their product, I've been really impressed with the effort this company puts forth with all the low budget trash they release, the prints and transfers are always exceptional, and there is often fun extras as well. So if you are into drive in movies from the late 70's you won't find any that look any better than these, though you can likely find better films, but all and all not a bad escape from a rainy day.

These movies are very entertaining considering they are very low budget. They are however in great shape, and well worth the money if you're into enjoyable trash. They all have their comic moments and really when you get down to it, they make no sense whatsoever. But, that just adds to the charm. ^_^

Both THE BEING and CREATURE FROM THE ABYSS are a complete waste of time and money. The latter is so bad I was forced to fast forward it just to get through it. THE DARK, however, has merit and a good cast with William Devane, Kathy Lee Crosby, Keenan Wynn etc and is worth giving it a watch. Save money and buy THE DARK instead of being saddled with the other two losers.

These films are fair but lack special features
The Dark- A decent movie certainly not the worst. It does get a little boring and the plot is kind of confusing. I almost fell asleep while watching. The alien is shown only at the end and is just a guy with a real big acne problem and shoots lasers from his eyes. Special features include Shriek Show trailers and that is it. 3 stars
The Being- This a fairly well film with a cool looking monster. This film does have nudity, sex, violence, and gore unlike The Dark. Another thing about this film is the ending (which I won't give away) which is pretty scary and suspenseful. Special features include Shriek Show trailers. 3.5 stars
Creatures from the Abyss- This is propably the wierdest film in history. It starts with some teenagers going out to sea in a small boat and getting stuck in a storm. They find a body drifting around and then come across an abandoned yacht with wierd experiments onboard. The next 20 minutes is just them having dinner, searching around, and finding a survivor who didn't even need to be in the movie. Finally something important happens: a sex scene which ends with the man having a mutant fish bursting out of his mouth. Overall the stupidest movie ever. Special featu... never mind you know. 2 stars

Hello,

I bought these because I remember them as teenager. I wish that I had passed them over. Cheesy and pretty laim. This is only my opinion, but that is what these things are for.

Thanks.

From what I saw I can say the movies must of been low budget. I guess all that can be said is that they were great to kill a few hours. There were times of suspense, Times of biting your nails, And a few scary times in these movies. But thats just my own feelings. Im sure the reviews will vary from person to person.