Bottom Feeder starts as scientist Dr. Nathaniel Leech (James Binkley) meets up with his rich billionaire benefactor Charles Deaver (Richard Fitzpatrick) who has been funding his experiments into a serum called A12 which is supposed to regenerate dead cells. Deaver is desperate for the miracle serum since he was badly burnt in a car accident & is dying, Leech wants the serum to work because his wife Miranda is dying of leukaemia. Leech says he has perfected it but Deaver wants proof & gets his people to beat him badly while his ruthless female associate (Wendy Anderson) breaks his hand under her foot & shoots him in the legs. She then locks Leech in some underground tunnels after injecting him with the A12 serum to see whether it works & his body regenerates. Unfortunately Leech mutates into a mutant deformed half man half rat creature that has an appetite for human flesh...
This Canadian production was written & directed by Randy Daudlin & one has to say I rather enjoyed Bottom Feeder in a simple run of the mill Creature Feature sort of way. I mean it's not original in any way, anyone who is familiar with the Creature Feature sub genre will be able to predict what happens fairly easily, it's clichéd & generally speaking it feels rather unadventurous but for what it is & what it tries to be it's an entertaining example of a Creature Feature. The basic storyline is the usual 21st Century genetic & scientific experiments gone wrong & some sort of monster is created which then decides to kill & eat every human being it comes across, there's the dark isolated location where a group of people are trapped & stalked by the monster, the whole thing about the US military wanting it as some sort of ultimate soldier/weapon is here & there's even the obligatory twist ending which leaves things wide open for a sequel. Once Bottom Feeder gets going it's an enjoyable Creature Feature, the character's are better than usual with some decent dialogue & I especially liked the way that no-one split up & their main priority was to stick together until they escape to safety although the self sacrificing villain at the end who decides to give up their life to rectify a wrong is the only time I felt the character's went into groan inducing cliché. It takes a while to get started but once it does it's a good solid horror flick that I enjoyed much, much more than I had expected.
Director Daudlin does alright, he keeps things moving along & it actually looks like a proper film rather. A lot of low budget horror films look like they were shot on camcorders with shaky hand held cinematography but Bottom Feeder is really well shot where you can see whats going on & whats happening at all times. It's also edited properly as well with no 'blink & you'll miss it' quick fire cuts. A lot of low budget horror films these days use horrible CGI computer effects which look awful but Bottom Feeder uses good old fashioned on set special effects, fake blood, prosthetics & an impressive rubber monster suit. The creature looks good but it's long sticking out ears do look a little silly & to my eyes with it's humanoid shape, pointed ears & snout it looked more like a Werewolf than a rat but that doesn't really matter. There's some decent gore, heads are pulled off, jaws ripped off, ripped apart bodies are seen & there's a pleasing amount of blood splatter.
Technically the film is very good & seems to have had high production values. Shot in Hamilton in Ontario in Canada. According to the 'Trivia' section on the IMDb for Bottom Feeder star Tom Sizemore quit the film after two days but eventually returned & finished it with the entire situation covered in Sizemore's reality show Shooting Sizemore (2007) which I would actually be interested in seeing but have no means to do so. It's very surprising that a quality well known actor like Sizemore would appear in such a film as Bottom Feeder but he could have picked worse films to be in that's for sure. The acting is fine with decent performances from all involved.
Bottom Feeder is maybe the best Creature Feature I have seen in a while, it's not Shakespeare or Oscar worthy but for most horror fans it'll pass 90 odd minutes. Not to be confused with another film called Bottom Feeder (2006) which is a comedy made the same year, it's just typical isn't it? You wait a lifetime for a film called Bottom Feeder to be made & then two come along at once!
This Canadian production was written & directed by Randy Daudlin & one has to say I rather enjoyed Bottom Feeder in a simple run of the mill Creature Feature sort of way. I mean it's not original in any way, anyone who is familiar with the Creature Feature sub genre will be able to predict what happens fairly easily, it's clichéd & generally speaking it feels rather unadventurous but for what it is & what it tries to be it's an entertaining example of a Creature Feature. The basic storyline is the usual 21st Century genetic & scientific experiments gone wrong & some sort of monster is created which then decides to kill & eat every human being it comes across, there's the dark isolated location where a group of people are trapped & stalked by the monster, the whole thing about the US military wanting it as some sort of ultimate soldier/weapon is here & there's even the obligatory twist ending which leaves things wide open for a sequel. Once Bottom Feeder gets going it's an enjoyable Creature Feature, the character's are better than usual with some decent dialogue & I especially liked the way that no-one split up & their main priority was to stick together until they escape to safety although the self sacrificing villain at the end who decides to give up their life to rectify a wrong is the only time I felt the character's went into groan inducing cliché. It takes a while to get started but once it does it's a good solid horror flick that I enjoyed much, much more than I had expected.
Director Daudlin does alright, he keeps things moving along & it actually looks like a proper film rather. A lot of low budget horror films look like they were shot on camcorders with shaky hand held cinematography but Bottom Feeder is really well shot where you can see whats going on & whats happening at all times. It's also edited properly as well with no 'blink & you'll miss it' quick fire cuts. A lot of low budget horror films these days use horrible CGI computer effects which look awful but Bottom Feeder uses good old fashioned on set special effects, fake blood, prosthetics & an impressive rubber monster suit. The creature looks good but it's long sticking out ears do look a little silly & to my eyes with it's humanoid shape, pointed ears & snout it looked more like a Werewolf than a rat but that doesn't really matter. There's some decent gore, heads are pulled off, jaws ripped off, ripped apart bodies are seen & there's a pleasing amount of blood splatter.
Technically the film is very good & seems to have had high production values. Shot in Hamilton in Ontario in Canada. According to the 'Trivia' section on the IMDb for Bottom Feeder star Tom Sizemore quit the film after two days but eventually returned & finished it with the entire situation covered in Sizemore's reality show Shooting Sizemore (2007) which I would actually be interested in seeing but have no means to do so. It's very surprising that a quality well known actor like Sizemore would appear in such a film as Bottom Feeder but he could have picked worse films to be in that's for sure. The acting is fine with decent performances from all involved.
Bottom Feeder is maybe the best Creature Feature I have seen in a while, it's not Shakespeare or Oscar worthy but for most horror fans it'll pass 90 odd minutes. Not to be confused with another film called Bottom Feeder (2006) which is a comedy made the same year, it's just typical isn't it? You wait a lifetime for a film called Bottom Feeder to be made & then two come along at once!