Bring your hip waders for Snakehead Swamp on SyFy!
I think I saw this dude riding the bus last week…
This year is the 10th anniversary of when SyFy (then known as SciFi Channel) aired two separate snakehead fish original movies in the same year: Frankenfish and Snakehead Terror. What better way to celebrate this anniversary than with another SyFy snakehead film, Snakehead Swamp!
Snakehead Swamp stars Ayla Kell(Make It or Break It), Antonio Fargas(Starsky and Hutch), Terri Garber(As the World Turns), Dave Randolph-Mayhem Davis (Heebie Jeebies and Ghost Shark), and Sloane Coe (Ghost Shark). It’s directed by cinematographer Don E. FauntLeRoy, who also directed Anaconda 3 and 4 and Bering Sea Beast. Writer Greg Mitchell (Official site) has only one other film credit, Amazing Love, but has several books for sale.
The plot:
The Big Easy gets a shake up when snakehead fish terrorize Louisiana’s swamp
Yep. Okay. As this is another Louisiana film, it will be packed with local actors you’ll recognize from all sorts of recent productions taking advantage of tax benefits. Perhaps the snakehead fish will be trying to devour that, in a metacommentary on film production. Or more likely they’ll just eat a bunch of random people, and that will be fun, too!
Snakehead Swamp premieres June 28th on SyFy!
via SyFy
Categories: Movie News Tags: Antonio Fargas, Ayla Kell, Dave Randolph-Mayhem Davis, Don E. FauntLeRoy, Greg Mitchell, SciFi Channel, Sloane Coe, snakehead fish, SyFy, Terri Garber
Ghost Shark
Ghost Shark
2013
Written by Eric Forsberg and Griff Furst
Screenplay by Paul A. Birkett
Directed by Griff Furst
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Great, another fun toy banned because of some dumb kid…
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G-G-G-G-G-G-Ghost Shark???! Yes, it’s true, a murdered shark returns to life via magic, become a spectral terror that haunts all bodies of water, from the ocean to your cup of coffee. Ghost Shark can manifest anywhere there is wet stuff about, allowing for an array of amazing and ridiculous kill scenes. Slip-n-slides, fire hydrants, the rain, and water coolers all become home for the Ghost Shark.
Finally a legitimate time to use KFC’s terrible “I ate the bones” slogan complete with a bucket!
Though Ghost Shark was made independently of Sharknado, it premiered soon after, and features many crazy shark antics. Thus, comparisons are inevitable. I liked Ghost Shark slightly better, as I feel the story outside of the crazy shark antics is better. While Sharknado deals with a man trying to protect his family in the midst of chaos, Ghost Shark is a revenge tale where teens deal with a problem the authorities think is too crazy to be real. But we’re in the world of SyFy, baby, and Ghost Sharks are just icing on the cake of carnage.
Ghost Shark features one of the best female leads in a monster movie ever. Mackenzie Rosman’s Ava doesn’t just sit around and get into trouble, she’s actively attempting to solve the problem of the ghost shark that claimed her father’s life, saving her sister, and relegating the male lead to also ran status. Ava gets stuff done. Ava is never in a point where she needs to be “rescued” by the male lead in an attempt to shows that strong women always need a guy around. In fact, Ava actively dismisses Blaise, assigning him to watch over her sister. Blaise fails in so many things that he does do, it’s a wonder he manages to keep Cicely from being eaten (heck, Ghost Shark does eat her…then spits her out!) Ava figures out that there is something supernatural at work, that Finch knows something about Ghost Shark’s secret, that the authority figures in town are dumb as a baby’s bottom, and that if anything is going to get done, it’s going to require her to step up and bust this Ghost Shark! She’s also not victim to some false feminism where she kicks butt, but has to do so in skintight leather or torn outfits. After the initial beach encounter, she ditches the bikini for sensible attire.
Once news came out that Ghost Shark was written and directed by Griff Furst, it became a must watch regardless of the premise. Furst’s films for SyFy (Arachnoquake, Swamp Shark, Ragin Cajun Redneck Gators ) are always inventive and fun, filled with crazy scenarios that unfold in ways you don’t expect, and often taking real world issues as inspiration. While ghost carnivores are not a real world issue any place I am familiar with is deal with at this time, places whitewashing their histories and incompetent authority figures are an actual problem.
Reverse Pac-Man!
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Our dad is dead, his cap is red (with blood) Who we gonna call?
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Heebie Jeebies
Heebie Jeebies
2013
Written by Trent Haaga
Directed by Thomas L. Callaway
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Gold prices skyrocket as the fear monster eats world gold supplies, mocks bitcoins
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“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself—and also mining accident fear monsters out for revenge!” — Franklin Delano Roosevelt, shortly before battling the mining accident fear monster that cost him the use of his legs.
Fear. Nothing is more scary, except maybe terror. Now, it is hard to have a concept such as fear attacking people on a SyFy creature feature, so we have the next best thing, a creature that attacks by causing fear. Heebie Jeebies is not just a goofy title, it’s a concept that extends to the plot. To drive the whole fear thing home, the main character even gets panic attacks!
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The Man with the Golden Gun? We ate him!
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Heebie Jeebies gets points for having an innovative monster design and concept, and being a parable about how greed is bad and ultimately destructive. It also gives us a glimpse of the history of exploited immigrant miners. The Asian-American family’s dynamic is similar to actual Asian-American families I know, it’s cool to see characters jumping back and forth between languages. It does lose points for having the only black character be a criminal.
What is weird is I watched Heebie Jeebies back to back with Flying Monkeys, and Tyler Forrest is in both of them. In Flying Monkeys, he plays a creepy guy, while in Heebie Jeebies, he plays a terrible boyfriend. As Louisiana seems to be the new it location for filming SyFy films (at least as long as the tax breaks last!) I expect Tyler Forrest will be showing up a lot!
Director Thomas L. Callaway has had an insanely awesome cinematography career (Critters 3 and 4, Road House 2, Who’s Your Caddy?), but has only helmed one other film, 2007’s Broke Sky. Writer Trent Haaga is a hardworking actor/writer/producer who has some Troma roots.
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A terrible Mr. T costume…
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How about a little fire, Scarecrow!
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