Title:
Manticore & Locusts: The 8TH Plague: SCI FI Pictures Original
Films
Manticore
Stars: Robert Beltran, Heather Donahue, and Chase Masterson
Locusts:
The 8TH Plague Stars: Dan Cortese, Julie Benz, and Kirk B.R. Woller
Writers:
John Werner/D.R. Rosen
Directors:
Tripp Reed/Ian Gilmour
Producers:
Jeffrey Beach and Phillip Roth
Executive
Producer: TJ Sakasegawa
Respective
Running Times: 89 minutes without commercials/86 minutes without commercials
Media:
SCI FI Channel Pictures Original Films (NTSC DVD Screeners)
Manticore
World Premiere: Saturday, November 26, 2005, at 9pm (ET/PT)
Locusts:
The 8TH Plague World Premiere: Saturday: November 12, 2005, at 9pm
(ET/PT)
Network:
SCI FI Channel (Check your local cable/satellite listings for channel)
TV
Rating: TV-14 LV (For Both Films)
Reviewer:
Mark A. Rivera
This
November SCI FI in association with UFO Pictures has two new World Premiere
Original Motion Pictures. One of them, “Locusts: The 8TH Plague”
has already premiered, but I have no doubt that there are or will be encore
presentations so check your local cable and satellite listings or go to www.scifi.com
for additional information. The film premiered on Saturday, November 12, 2005,
and I am sorry to my readers as well as the filmmakers and network for not
having this review related to “Locusts: The 8TH Plague” online
sooner.
In an
attempt to genetically engineer an ecologically friendly pesticide, a new breed
of Locusts that feeds on other insects is created. Unfortunately these locusts
do not just eat insects, they eat animals too, including humans. Escaping from
the lab where they were created, the swarm quickly descends upon unsuspecting
farms and travelers across the countryside. Collectively they look like a dark
storm cloud approaching and when they leave, all that is left are meat on bones
corpses and dead blood red locusts that must have been so riled up that they
literally crawled within the flesh of their victims as they are eating them.
The
locusts were bread without the possibility to reproduce, but they quickly mutate
and grow in numbers creating a threat of biblical proportions. The film star Dan
Cortese, who I remember from MTV Sports, and Julie Benz (Steven Spielberg
Presents Taken), and Kirk B.R. Woller (The X-Files.) In addition David Keith
(Epoch) and Jeff Fahey (The Lawnmower Man) have guest starring appearances in
the film. The screener I viewed did not yet have a final music and sound effects
track so basically I was listening to the dialogue minus whatever audio
enhancements are used to heighten the experience. Thus I have to state that in
this respect, I cannot fully judge whether or not these elements would have made
the film better, but I’m sure it could not have been worse. The dialogue is
pretty bad with little bits and pieces that appear to have been inspired by
other popular and more polished genre films. I have no problem with that since
we live in a society that is very self-referential. It is just difficult to tell
in this unfinished form whether or not the soundtrack, even if it was temp music
and audio effects, would have somehow given me as a viewer and reviewer a better
sense of what the filmmakers were aiming at. My guess is some old-fashioned
nature run amuck b-movie action and fun, in which case the wooden dialogue might
actually be appropriate. Unfortunately in this area I cannot give a definitive
judgment.
Interestingly
the visual effects appear to be very complete and the reason why I state that as
being “interesting” is because usually if something is incomplete, it is the
visual effects while the soundtrack is very close to being final if not already
complete. This is true of television programs in just about any genre and from
just about every network I’ve ever worked with so please understand this is
not something that affects SCI FI as a network and sci-fi as a genre alone.
Actually in more cases now than ever before television programs released to the
press are usually the same as what ends up being broadcast. For a television
film, the effects are good. I was surprised at how much gore one can get away
with now on non-premium cable and satellite television not only with “Locusts:
The 8TH Plague,” but also with “Manticore.” Obviously everyone
has his or her own level of tolerance for gore, but there is nothing in either
film that I found objectionable in the context of the story being dramatized.
The makeup on both films is quite good too.
Both
“Locusts: The 8TH Plague” and “Manticore” were executive
produced by TJ Sakasegawa for UFO Films, which is part of the reason I have
decided to post this as a combined review rather than separately. “Manticore,”
which premieres on Saturday, November 26, 2005, at 9pm (ET/PT) is the better of
the two films with more action and a compelling script. Robert Betran (Star
Trek: Voyager) stars as the leader of an Army unit in post-liberated Iraq
assigned to find an opportunistic Journalist (Chase Masterson), who has gone out
into the desert and has disappeared. What they all soon discover is the
manticore, a creature that resembles a large beastly lion with wings and a dart
like tail that is virtually immortal. The manticore can eliminate an entire town
of people in one fatal sweep and the only way to possibly control it is to
posses a sacred talisman. Heather Donahue (The Blair Witch Project) costars and
Jeff Fahey (The Lawnmower Man) guest stars too.
“Manticore”
will make it’s world premiere as a SCI FI Pictures original film presentation
on Saturday, November 26, 2005, at 9pm (ET/PT) while “Locusts: The 8TH
Plague” already made it’s world premiere on Saturday, November 12, 2005, at
9pm (ET/PT). I liked “Manticore” better than “Locusts: The 8TH
Plague,” but both are acceptable popcorn television cinema. Check your locale
cable or satellite listings for additional programming scheduling and
information or go to SCIFI.com and learn all
about these programs and more sci-fi new and information on television, the big
screen, print, online, and other media.
©
Copyright 2005 By Mark A. Rivera
All Rights Reserved.