Written by: Michael Den Boer on September 18th, 2007
Theatrical Release Date: USA, 2005
Director: Richard Griffin
Writers: Richard Griffin, Lee Smith, Andrew Vellenoweth
Cast: Andrew Vellenoweth, William DeCoff, V. Orion Delwaterman, Patrick Pitu, Adam Brown, Leigh Radziwon, Sal Lizard, Salvatore Marchese, Tanith Fiedler, Ben Chester
DVD released: November 13th, 2007
Approximate running time: 86 minutes
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
Rating: NR
Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo English
Subtitles: N/A
DVD Release: Shock-O-Rama Cinema
Region Coding: Region 0 NTSC
Retail Price: $19.95
Synopsis:Students from the state university investigate the waters in an area where toxic spills happened a year before. Shortly after their arrival they come in contact with the inbred locals and some fish like creatures that were spawned from the toxic lagoon. Will they be able to escape the woods and warn everyone in town about the fish like creatures or will they fall prey to these toxic predators?
Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon is a low budget monster movie that is at times reminiscent of the classic creature features from the 1950’s. The story is simple fish like creatures under the guidance of an evil scientist want to ride the world of all human life. The dialog is most definitely adult related humor with many jokes of sexual, homosexual or subject matter that is incest related like the local hillbillies. The pacing and look of the film is well done and it often exceeds the films limited budget. Richard Griffin’s direction is nearly flawless as he only shows you what you need to in and leaves some room, but not much for your imagination.
The majority of the characters are hillbillies and references to inbreeding do get old really quick. The acting is more than adequate with my favorite part being that of Adam Brown as Bubba. Brown is superb as a lazy hillbilly who wants to do nothing but drink beer all day. One minor complaint about the film is that they often play jokes like the ones about being gay or inbred into the ground thus losing most of their impact. Ultimately Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon is film that can be a lot of fun especially if you like crude humor and monsters in rubber suits.
The DVD:
Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon is presented in an anamorphic widescreen that preserves the film’s original aspect ratio. This is a solid release which comes with a really nice looking transfer that is sharp, colorful and free of any artifacts. The audio mix is free of any audio defects and the overall quality sounds robust.
The extras include Shock-O-Rama coming soon trailer vault, Shock-O-Rama available now trailer vault, 4 Deleted Scenes (3 1/2 minutes) and a Audio commentary with director Richard Griffin, producer Ted Marr, actor William DeCoff and Don Foley. The audio commentary is a entertaining and fact filled affair. Oddly enough the Behind the scenes extra promised was not on my DVD. Overall Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon gets a first rate release from Shock-O-Rama Cinema.