"Well, we'd be eatin' Bigfoot steaks by now if you hurry up and kill that big hairy monster runnin' around out there at Dale's place."
-Boss Man Jack Clem (William McBride)

Err… Don’t ask what possessed me to watch this, because I’m not entirely sure.
Okay, that’s a bit of a lie, I do know. It’s because I’ve made it my mission to watch every horror film on Netflix’s (admittedly piss poor in Britain) selection.

As always, I will try to rifle through the abundant flaws and find some positive attributes. So, firstly, It captures the 70’s aesthetic fairly well, much like a poor cousin of Ti West’s awesome House of the Devil (2009). It’s reminiscent of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in style, a comparison it sought to evoke, I believe. As a nostalgic throwback to those ‘70’s horror flicks, it works to an extent, capturing the essence quite well. It’s also got that same documentary style feel to it like the original TCM did.

However, most of the redeemable qualities end here. Now I’m all for independent, low-budget endeavours from aspiring directors. I can overlook chinks in terms of quality to a certain degree, but there still has to be enough to outweigh these flaws.
The acting from the lead, Justin Meeks (also one of the film’s directors) isn’t actually that bad, but most everyone else in the cast is horrendous, and the dialogue is awfully forced. The creature design, though nicely evocative of early monster designs like The Creature from the Black Lagoon, is obviously one restricted by a tight budget. The cinematography is fairly bog average for low-budget horrors, but horrible by any other scale.
The directors also missed a trick in regards to the atmosphere, as the tension is next to nil. It’s rather essential even on a shoestring budget horror flick to bring some suspense.

VERDICT; For about seven grand, it’s a more than worthy effort. I’m not going to slate it off, as I have (unfortunately) seen worse, but really unless you’re A) a horror completionist, or B) infatuated with anything to do with the Texas Chainsaw franchise (Kim Henkel, producer of the original TCM co-produced here; Graves and Meeks were also his film students), there won't be anything of worth.
2/5 or 4/10