B-movies hold a substantial place in cinema, especially when it comes to the horror genre many of them are made on extremely small budgets and have a wide varied spectrum of entertainment. The scope can be defined by when and where these movies air, for example, if a movie is on basic cable, you can find it on a late Saturday afternoon or during the 9 p.m. hour, although sometimes this category of films lean to exploitation side hence scheduling them in the midnight hours extending to streaming networks. Randy Daudlin, who both directed and wrote the production, and lists this as his directorial credit is not unfamiliar with horror genre, as he holds a primary career in makeup department personnel. Nevertheless, he made a film about a man in a monster suit and stalking in the sewers, created from a faulty chemical compound that was made to battle cancer. These movies often use the Steven Spielberg’s conceptual design of hiding the monster, namely the technique found in Jaws [1975] in essence this is a balance of how much and when do you show your monster especially when it’s not working correctly, or it doesn’t live up to the scare factor. Therefore, that rule is often left to keep it in the shadows, deploy creative editing cuts and fearful character driven shots though this of course relies on your actor’s ability to convey their complete fear of the monster. Aiding in this production is actor Tom Sizemore who lends more than just his name to the box art of the DVD but takes up a main lead role in the film which was released by Genius Products in April of 2007.
Dr. Nathaniel Leach (James Binkley (Heartstopper [2006])) is striving to have one of his theories work to regenerate dying cells, namely to help his cancer-stricken wife, his serums aren’t working and it’s becoming expensive and troublesome to eccentric billionaire Charles Deaver (Charles Fitzpatrick (Bitten [2008])) who was burned and able to return to a normal life. He believes he’s obtained the cure and tries to sell it, however his backer has other plans, such as his two hench personnel Krendal (Wendy Anderson (The Risen [2003])) and Wilkes (Simon Birchwood (Random Acts of Violence [2019])), gravely assault the scientist, shoot him twice for good measure and then inject him with his ‘cure’ to see if it works; which of curse it doesn’t. These two are part of a smaller subplot that isn’t well-defined or explored but links that to a secret government agency, just think of an amateur Scully and Mulder. They take the opportunity to place him in the sewer of an old, abandoned hospital watching him slowly deform and change over to a hideous monster, which is slightly out of sight for the audience, as he begins to feed upon all both humans and animals, namely rats. Meanwhile, a city maintenance crew headed by Vince (Tom Sizemore (The Relic [2007])) who gets all the groovy and oddball one-liners that fans love of these b-movies, surrounded by some carnage, blood loss and sheer bonkers-plot adjustments. As Vince, constantly speaks about his ‘Nam experiences his niece Sam (Amber Cull) and Otis (Martin Roach (The Prodigy [2019])) round out his crew, soon enough caught in survive or die peril against both scurry little rats, and one oversize rat-creature. It allows for the mayhem to be unleashed over 45 minutes later into the film filled with beheadings, butchery, knife-fights, thoroughly horrible dialogue. All concluding with a cliffhanger scene that is reminiscent of a Resident Evil [2002] ending.
Often creature features nowadays have CGI beasts solely created on a screen to cut on practical effects, however, while not ideal the filmmakers decided to go in another direction by having an actor wear a suit, sadly the fear factor does lack. In addition, and purely sidenote, actors of these b-movies need to really understand what kind of production they’re involved in, for example the one-liners or silly dialogue just simply roll with it, Sizemore clearly understood the type of film Bottom Feeder was and the marketing-directed audience. However, their acting skill set varies greatly from stiff and wooden to outrageously disproportion responses to the scene.
First, I like this movie, truly unsure why, perhaps my love for creature features, or that it entertains, while never penetrating too cerebral it’s just a popcorn munching fun little movie. Granted the first 40 minutes are dull, nothing much happens, it’s more just moving the set-pieces into their proper spots. It shows how to present a low-budget in the similar fashion like Cute Little Buggers [2017], uttering a few comedic lines, and deliver tissue paper thin characters with a storyline that skips over numerous plot holes and yet for all the faults it does what it needs to do, give enjoyment but with a low body count.
TAGLINES:
- Evil lies beneath the surface…
- Hunger Pains have a whole new meaning….
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0872314/
IMDb Rating – 4.2/10
Baron’s Rating: 4.0/10
For Fans of Tom Sizemore, you can purchase the DVD:
https://www.amazon.com/Bottom-Feeder-Unrated-Tom-Sizemore/dp/B000ION758/