Attack of the Giant Leeches (2008)
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Remake of the 1959 drive-in cult classic has pretty much the same plot as giant leeches in the swamp are sucking the blood out of locals so a wildlife expert and his girlfriend try to figure out what's going on whenever they're not arguing. I guess I should start off by admitting that the original film is one of my favorite "B" movies. Yes, it's incredibly cheesy but I love bad or campy movies and I consider it one of the best out there. With that said, I was really looking forward to this remake just to see what they would try to come up with but this here is pretty much a scene for scene remake. Perhaps that's a bit too strong since this does run about sixteen-minutes longer than the previous film but while watching this you can't help but feel that the director made the entire cast watch the original and try to mimic it. If you're familiar with the earlier movie then you're going to notice that there are countless scenes here that have the same setting, the same build-up and even the same dialogue. I'm not sure if director Brett Kelly was doing this as some sort of homage or if they were just being lazy and not coming up with anything new. Either way, fans of the 1959 version will probably find it mildly amusing at first but others are going to probably want to blow their brains out. Yes, the production values here are incredibly cheap, the actors seem uncomfortable and there's really no point to this remake. I'm not sure what they were trying to do but it really doesn't work because this film never manages to get its own personality because every step of the way it's reminding you of the previous movie. Even if you're unfamiliar with that movie then you're probably going to hate this even worse as you're simply not going to understand anything going on.
* 1/2 (out of 4)
Remake of the 1959 drive-in cult classic has pretty much the same plot as giant leeches in the swamp are sucking the blood out of locals so a wildlife expert and his girlfriend try to figure out what's going on whenever they're not arguing. I guess I should start off by admitting that the original film is one of my favorite "B" movies. Yes, it's incredibly cheesy but I love bad or campy movies and I consider it one of the best out there. With that said, I was really looking forward to this remake just to see what they would try to come up with but this here is pretty much a scene for scene remake. Perhaps that's a bit too strong since this does run about sixteen-minutes longer than the previous film but while watching this you can't help but feel that the director made the entire cast watch the original and try to mimic it. If you're familiar with the earlier movie then you're going to notice that there are countless scenes here that have the same setting, the same build-up and even the same dialogue. I'm not sure if director Brett Kelly was doing this as some sort of homage or if they were just being lazy and not coming up with anything new. Either way, fans of the 1959 version will probably find it mildly amusing at first but others are going to probably want to blow their brains out. Yes, the production values here are incredibly cheap, the actors seem uncomfortable and there's really no point to this remake. I'm not sure what they were trying to do but it really doesn't work because this film never manages to get its own personality because every step of the way it's reminding you of the previous movie. Even if you're unfamiliar with that movie then you're probably going to hate this even worse as you're simply not going to understand anything going on.