{"id":9417,"date":"2011-01-14T17:35:51","date_gmt":"2011-01-14T06:35:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/?p=9417"},"modified":"2011-08-31T19:28:42","modified_gmt":"2011-08-31T08:28:42","slug":"the-muckman-cometh","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roberthood.net\/blog\/index.php\/2011\/01\/14\/the-muckman-cometh\/","title":{"rendered":"The Muckman Cometh"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Muckman (US-2010; dir. Brett Piper)<\/strong>
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Low-budget independent B-film maven, Brett Piper’s new cryptozoological comedy-thriller, Muckman<\/strong><\/em>, is a satirical excursion into a backwater wilderness inhabited by more than mosquitoes and alligators. Featuring a plotline churning with deception, false identities and self-serving exploitation, the film chronicles the experiences of a rather hapless reality TV crew who have ostensibly come to seek out the elusive Muckman and to make a TV film documenting the search — but who do, in fact, harbour diverse individual agendas.<\/p>\n

I don’t think I’m dropping any spoilers by revealing that though few if any of them really believe that the legendary creature actually exists, they soon discover that it most emphatically does.<\/p>\n

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Piper’s witty script (written with B-film comrade Mark Polonia)<\/span><\/span> plays the increasingly tangled scenario for all it’s worth, pursuing stereotypical male\/female interaction, TV-industry satire, hillbilly humour, false expectations, thrills, comedy and comeuppance directed at the bad guys with admirable aplomb.<\/p>\n

Piper has gone on record as saying that Muckman<\/em> is the cheapest film he’s made. Cheap though it may be, Muckman<\/em> delivers its B-film aesthetic with style. The cheapness shows mainly in its lack of the sort of full hyperactive cinematic processing we’re used to from big-budget Hollywood films, especially in regards to editing style, on-location lighting and sound. Meanwhile, however, good comedic performances from its cast (especially lead actresses Anju McIntyre and Alison Whitney) and decent old-school SFX by Piper and his crew raise it above the norm for such things. Piper’s old-school FX techniques may not be overly familiar to contemporary multiplex audiences, but the full creature suit itself is excellent and the climactic attack of a gigantic tentacled swamp creature guaranteed to bring a gleeful smile to the face of stop-motion fans everywhere.<\/p>\n

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Basically, Muckman<\/em> is a fun monster flick, with effectively created characters, a decent critter and enough spirit and originality to make its B-film homage much more than a simple uninspired re-hash.<\/p>\n

Piper has just finalised a deal for distribution of the film on DVD and expects it to be available from his website<\/a> soon. Look out for it.<\/p>\n