The multitude of TV creature features produced and premiered by The Sci-Fi Channel (later renamed Syfy) during the past two decades are often denigrated by critics because their monsters are not as awesome as those in blockbuster films. However, this is grossly unfair, overlooking as it does the crucial, telling fact that this company simply doesn't have blockbuster budgets to draw upon, and does very well imho with the much more modest budgets that it does have. Certainly, if these movies had been around when I was growing up I would have revelled in them, just as I did with those of Ray Harryhausen way back then (and still do today, for that matter).
In particular, I am impressed that rather than remaining with the tried and trusted monster catalogue of aquatic monsters, gargantuan insects, enormous apes, and radiation-transformed mutant beasts, SyFy is not afraid to present its audience with a much more varied array of examples, often lesser known or more curious, but no less interesting or exciting. On 4 November 2022, I watched two such movies, and here they are:
MANTICORE
My first Sci-Fi Channel/Syfy monster movie watch of 4 November 2022 was the 2005 creature feature Manticore.
Directed by Tripp Reed (who also appeared on-screen, playing Sgt Henderson), and originally broadcast by the then-named Sci-Fi Channel in 2005, Manticore focuses upon a pair of those eponymous mythical monsters that combine the body of an enormous lion with the sting-tipped tail of a scorpion and sometimes the wings of an eagle too – they were winged in this movie.
A platoon of US soldiers in war-torn northern Iraq, already striving to contain local insurrections and ambushes, is sent to a remote town to rescue a foolhardy news reporter and her cameraman, wholly unaware that these two have encountered a ferocious manticore, one which has already slain almost the entire town's population.
It turns out that a pair of huge stone manticores – the Sacred Twins – have been secretly animated by a crazed Iraqi terrorist who claims descent from the ancient kings of Babylon and plans to use the manticores to take back and rule Iraq, being uniquely protected from their ferocity by the magical amulet that he used in the ceremony that brought them to life.
There duly follows a lot of bloodshed and gore as one by one the platoon's members experience grisly deaths in the town at the teeth, talons, and sting of the rampaging, rapacious manticore lurking there. Eventually, it is killed by the US military dropping a major bomb upon the town, but the other one still survives. And guess what?
According to this movie, the only way for the two manticores to be turned back to stone was for them to stare directly at each other – which of course can no longer happen now that one of them is dead. This plot device owes more to basilisk and cockatrice mythology than it does to anything manticorean, but it provides an interesting twist within the film's storyline.
It takes a long time for the CGI-created manticores to be clearly seen (and never together), but when they are finally and fully revealed they are certainly impressive. The two most famous stars of Manticore are Robert Beltran (as platoon leader Sgt Tony Baxter) and Heather Donahue (Corporal Keats), and it made thrilling watching after I finally obtained it as a Region 1 DVD following a long but worthwhile wait to procure one.
Manticore is exactly the kind of movie that I'd have loved watching on TV on a rainy Saturday afternoon as a youngster, but I derived just as much enjoyment from it now, with its fast pace and unusual, far from run of the mill monsters.
And if you'd like a taster of what to expect from it, be sure to click here to watch an official Manticore trailer on YouTube that shows how the manticores were brought to life.
MANDRAKE
Some hours later on 4 November 2022, putting away my now-watched DVD of the Sci Fi Channel's monster movie Manticore in the Monsters section of my DVD/video collection, I noticed that the DVD immediately next to it was another Sci Fi Channel (now renamed SyFy) movie that I'd long promised myself to watch – the monster plant movie Mandrake, so that's what I watched.
Directed once again by Tripp Read (who also edited it and co-wrote its screenplay), and originally broadcast by SyFy in 2010, the title of this movie, Mandrake, is misleading, as the plot has nothing to do with the real Mandragora plant that according to legend (but not reality) screams when it is uprooted.
Instead, the botanical antagonist is a supernatural killer tree, armed (so to speak!) with coiling and constricting tentacular tendrils reminiscent of those reported for the fabled Madagascan man-eating tree (click here to read all about that herbaceous horror on my ShukerNature blog).
The story, set in the tropical jungle of an unnamed Latin American country (but actually filmed in Shreveport, Louisiana), is all about a very rich but crazed modern-day conquistador descendant named Harry Vargas (played by Benito Martinez) who is determined at any cost, financial or human, to get his hands on a legendary dagger buried with one of his conquistador ancestors in said jungle.
So he sends out a couple of anthropological/archaeological expeditions to find his ancestor's tomb and retrieve the dagger, which the second expedition succeeds in doing, thanks to being led by no-nonsense jungle survival expert Sgt Darren McCall (Max Martini).
In so doing, however, they also succeed in unleashing a deadly curse upon themselves, as the dagger's removal awakens its supernatural guardian, the killer tree. Not only that, a highly inimical, supposedly long-extinct native tribe, the (fictitious) Yamballi, who seek to placate the tree with human sacrifices, is also on their trail, in order to use them as sacrifices. The CGI tree is not seen in its entirety very often, but when it is seen it is truly a sight to behold, which I mean in a good way.
The plot itself is a very formulaic adventure/thriller – the team's members get picked off one by one, meeting a variety of grisly ends, as the villain becomes ever more unhinged in his relentless pursuit of his goal, in this case the dagger, but it still provides a thrilling ride along the way.
Less gory overall, nonetheless, than Manticore, Mandrake includes characters that you actually root for – not that this saves most of them from the grasping roots of the killer tree! (Relatively) famous names among the cast include the afore-mentioned Max Martini as McCall and Betsy Russell as archaeologist Dr Felicia.
To venture boldly but safely through the cursed jungle of the killer tree, be sure to click here to view the entire Mandrake movie currently free of on YouTube.
Finally: to view a complete chronological listing of all of my Shuker In MovieLand blog's other film reviews and articles (each one instantly accessible via a direct clickable link), please click HERE, and please click HERE to view a complete fully-clickable alphabetical listing of them.
As a fellow enthusiast of low budget often direct-to-video genre films, something about the plot summary for "Manticore" strikes me as familiar. Never heard of "Mandrake" however. One thing I appreciate your blog for is providing a handy treasure map to buried gems in this area.
ReplyDeleteThanks Simon! Just as I enjoy seeking out little-known mystery beast reports when researching cryptozoology, so too do I enjoy seeking out little-known movies when selecting something entertaining to watch.
Delete