It Waits

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Feature: C

 

 

Stephen J. Cannell has been trying to do feature length projects for a long time and none of them have clicked.  This time with Steven R. Monroe’s It Waits, he co-wrote the script with Richard Christian Matheson, the son of the often-brilliant Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, Night Stalker) whose footsteps he has decided to pursue.  Unfortunately, with bad would-be pop vocal music, a substandard monster, awkward direction and triviality sprinkled where character development should be, this owes more to Silk Stalkings than anything else.

 

This millionth Alien clone has a supposed Native American creature being reawakened and on the loose.  It becomes a boo movie without any “boo” to it and the female lead/final girl (Cerina Vincent) being an alcoholic actually makes her far less interesting than she would be otherwise.  The melodrama also hampers any possibilities of suspense and when all was said and done, The Manitou seemed very ambitious all of the sudden.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is soft and color limited in a way that suggests that it was shot on video of some sort.  That only increases the genericness of the result.  The Dolby Digital 5.1 mix is a little better than the 2.0 Stereo with Pro Logic surrounds, but both try to compensate for the script’s failures by adding punchy sound awkwardly.  Extras include the trailer for this and three other Anchor Bay horror titles, an audio commentary by the director & lead and a making-of featurette.  When all is said and done, wait for another title in the genre and skip this one.  If you want to see Native American monsters done right, see the Bad Medicine and Energy Eater episodes of Kolchak: The Night Stalker reviewed elsewhere on this site.  You know, the show Richard Christian Matheson’s father inspired but did not stay for.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo