Search - Creature from the Hillbilly Lagoon on DVD

Not Even as Tasty as Bubba's Pork Rinds

Michael R Gates | Nampa, ID United States | 06/01/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"With curvy, big-bosomed babes, a rubber-suited monster that both improves upon and pays homage to a particular 1954 horror classic, a stereotypical depiction of inbred hillbillies, and a connection to a popular horror-cinema rag, you'd think that CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON would be a fairly entertaining B-grade horror flick. But just as with the pet project of the proverbial mad scientist, something went horribly wrong. And unfortunately, the result is so malformed that it doesn't even fall into the category of the so-bad-it's-good guilty pleasure. It's just soooo bad.



One of the primary problems with CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON is that the characters are so unsympathetic, unbelievable, and...well...stupid. The protagonists are supposed to be college students who are assisting a professor in evaluating the extent to which industrial waste has contaminated the waters near a backwoodsy town. Yet, in spite of their awareness of the level of toxins in the water, these academic geniuses go skinny-dipping in said waters and--you guessed it--cross currents with the film's eponymous monster in not-so-pleasant ways.



Originally released under the moniker SEEPAGE!, this film not only has unlikable protagonists and a hard-to-swallow plotline, the acting is also egregiously unpalatable, the lighting is frequently too harsh and only serves to enhance the flaws in the digital cinematography, and the deplorable depiction of rural hillbillies makes Jethro Bodine and the Clampett clan look like they deserve to rub elbows with brain surgeons and double-naught spies!



The one near-redeeming aspect of CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON is the eponymous monster itself. Obviously a visual homage to 1954's CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON, this rubber-suit beastie looks like the radio-actively deformed offspring of Universal's classic creature. But unlike it's '50s-era kin, you can't see the actor inside through the costume's facial orifices, and with its gnarly teeth and slimy, frog-like skin, it's simultaneously repulsive and creep-show cool.



CREATURE FROM THE HILLBILLY LAGOON had potential. Pretty girls, cynical college boys, toxic industrial waste, a genuinely mad scientist, a cool monster, and hillbillies--all damned good ingredients for fun, campy, B-grade horror. But the amateurish result is a mishmash of bad acting, atrocious characterizations, low-end production value, and a downright silly plot that is essentially unpalatable. These circumstances just make it too difficult to suspend one's disbelief and sit through the flick from start to finish. In short, genre fans should pass over this one."