The Hatching
November. 22,2014On the death of his father, Tim Webber returns to his childhood village in Somerset to find something sinister is disturbing the idyllic peace of the villagers.
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Crappy film
Admirable film.
A Disappointing Continuation
It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.
Three boys escape on their bikes on the backdrop of a full moon to take an unauthorized tour and crocodile egg robbery at the Zoolyard Garden.Similar to Thunderdome, 3 kids enter, 2 kids leave. Tim, one of the boys moves out of town and leaves his eggs behind. 15 years later Tim (Andrew Lee Potts) returns to town and reunites with his friend Baghi (Muzz Khan).The town has some quirky characters including Uncle Stan (Justin Lee Collins) who likes snakes. The first hour of the film, things go slow. At an hour we get a twist and a change in direction. These regular crocs lived for 15 years in the moors of Somerset Levels...in warm water, although not once did anyone espy them sunning themselves. These are regular crocs and not Lake Placid genetically modified dinosaur crocs. Once you get past that, the scene on the cover is not in the film either.Four real crocs and two fake ones (and it is sooo easy to tell the difference) were used for the film. This is a horror comedy and was a bit light on both. Certainly would have more appeal to a British audience who enjoy subtleties than an American audience who feast on blood and action.Guide: F-word, sex. No nudity. Soft 3 stars
Returning back to his hometown, a young man who accidentally unleashed a vicious man-eating crocodile with his friends when he was a kid has started attacking and eating the villagers yet once they realize the crocodile isn't the only threat they head out to stop it.When this one works, it's due mainly to the fact that there's quite a lot to like here with the creature on the loose and stalking people. The opening sequence in the croc farm where it accidentally gets loose and turns on the kids in graphic fashion starts this off on a fine note, the creatures' rampage on the friends in the swamplands around town makes for a stellar series of chilling stalking scenes that delivers solidly and the group going out to first tackle the creature in the river gives this a solid outing that includes some fine action moments of them trying to use their plan to attack the creature which makes this one quite an enjoyable time. It also managed to have a great bit of fun afterward with the celebration at the town hall which keeps this one in a rather light and jovial setting, and once there keep on rolling through the second half where it gets the plot switchover into the cannibal slasher. This here picks up nicely in the final half due to the fine confrontations with the psychopathic duo in the swamplands where they all must break free to battle the new threat brought out at that time. Beyond the gore for the few kills, though, these here are all that work for this one since it does have some big problems. One of the main issues is the fact that there's just so little croc action throughout here that it really feels like a backseat character in its own film with the ease with which it's captured and then summarily dismissed for the cannibal duo. That storyline takes over the final half hour of the film without having the croc at all involved which does affect this one enough that it really lowers the film by really downplaying the central aspect it had spent so long establishing and throwing this side-plot that only had a few minor mentions beforehand into the main closing section of the film in its place. That limits the croc to even less screen time in an already cramped section here as this one hardly ever features the creature when it's the main point anyway as the slack pacing keeps it off- screen for long sections of time with only those few brief lively attacks to punctuate the time until that switchover which drops off even more, especially with the laughable duo brought to bear here which lowers that story even more. Lastly, the film's other problem is the special effects for the croc, which is so rubbery and lifeless that it really takes a lot of fear out of the creature with its fake creation quite prominent throughout here. These really hold this one back overall.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language, Brief Nudity, violence against animals and graphic scenes of violence against children.
It's a bit tame in parts, (the humour)... and the characters, apart from Lard and his mate, are too weak, but essentially, the people who produced the prosthetic gore and effects, were lazy, not just because of the budget, but careless. One could do a lot better with no budget. Apart from that, the directing and photography was perfect and refreshing. Not to be taken seriously, so it's fine. Some of the really subtle parts were the most hilarious, so you can't blink, or you'd miss them!
As a lover of B-Movie Monster Movies, I really was looking forward to this one as it's set in England in Somerset and stars Andrew Lee Potts, Thomas Turgoose, and Justin Lee Collins.On paper, this sounds like it would have been brilliant, however, what we get are an unfunny comedy and a rubber crocodile monster movie. In this day and age, we should be able to do better with the special effects. Even if you have to resort to creating an artificial creature, that is pivotal to the plot, at least do it right. The croc looks like it was built out of leftover Wellingtons and if it took a bite out of you all you would do was laugh, as there's no skull and no jawbones... it's all loose and floppy.There are also some dismembered body parts that also suffer from the no bone syndrome, I've never seen a floppier leg. These atrocious effects are the only thing that's funny in this movie as writers, Michael Anderson and Nick Squire, aren't the best at writing comedy and it really shows in this movie. Apart from the laughable effects, the comedy falls flat on its face - and not in a good way like slapstick.Michael Anderson who also directed this picture doesn't seem to be able to get the best out of his cast. Potts and Turgoose are very good actors and I would watch anything they are in but this proves that under poor direction even good actors can come off weak and insincere.If you like comedic monster movies then stay away from this film.