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Movie Review by The Gravedigger
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06.14.06
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Reggie Bannister (PHANTASM movies) as a scientist whose experiment, "Preshus", is freed by some animal rights activists. They have no idea that they have a giant, mutated Tasmanian Devil-that is, until it rips them to shreds. It escapes to a nearby park and then takes residence beneath an old graveyard, where, by coincidence, the scientist's son is videotaping a student film about zombies.
This is one of those movies in which the filmmakers know they have a goofy monster-and go with it. For the most part it works. We don't see what the creature looks like in its entirety until we're halfway into the movie-and by that time the viewer is able to take the "man-in-a-bear-suit creature" in stride. Some of the characters are stereotypical, many are just victims waiting to happen-and Bannister's scientist is sort of clueless, not only about the creature but about how to talk to his estranged son.
The monster effects aside, this is one of the bloodiest movies I've seen in a long time-when someone gets attack they're like corpuscle fountains. The N and the B of KNB Effects (Greg Nicotero and Howard Berger) portray two stoners who get knocked off. In one of the film's funniest scenes we get a POV shot from Nicotero, who is hallucinating from taking peyote. Instead of seeing a a hulking, ferocious monster he sees a children's cartoon animal-and goes to embrace it, thinking it's his "spirit animal".
The thing I like best about CEMETARY GATES is that it has a sense of humor, unlike a lot of recent "giant animal on the loose" movies.
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Rating: 7.5 out of 10.0 - 8 votes cast total
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