User Reviews

Maneater is set in a small rural peaceful US town where ex-FBI profiler Harry Bailey (executive producer Dean Cain) is the Sheriff, one morning the peace is shattered when a badly burnt body of a man is found & just chunks of ripped apart flesh of what used to be his girlfriend. Harry is on the case but the coroner (Conrad Janis) says that a sample taken from the crime scene has him puzzled as it's not human but not animal either, in fact he describes it as almost human. Various towns people go missing as panic spreads, then Harry's daughter Pearl's (Lacy Phillips) slutty best friend Kay (Nicole Moore) goes missing & Pearl decides to look for whatever took her which causes Harry all sorts of problems as he can't control the towns people who want answers & he can't quite believe what the evidence suggests as ancient legends of shape-shifting monsters seem to be the only thing that makes sense...

Co-written, co-produced & directed by Michael Emanuel this is yet another Sci-Fi Channel style 'Creature Feature' that is maybe a touch better then the average example, at the time of writing this comment there are no other comments or external reviews on the IMDb so maybe this has not been widely released yet & in fact I wouldn't be surprised if the Sci-Fi Channel snapped it up & aired it as it's right up their street. Right, where to start? Well firstly a lot of the running time of Maneater is spent on domestic dramas as Harry & his daughter Pearl have the usual parent child arguments going on & then there's Harry's missing wife, Pearl's new boyfriend & her best friend going missing & as such at times Maneater relegates it's creature feature elements to merely a side issue which is not good since the only reason anyone is likely to want to watch this is because of the monsters. The plot is alright, there's not a whole lot of explanation behind the creatures except for the dull Native American Indian legend cliché & there's a reasonable twist ending that while not exactly Earth shattering show's a little more effort than the usual 'Creature Feature'. Of course Maneater does have it's problems like there not being enough monster action & Harry manages to solve the entire case by doing an internet search from which he finds out everything about the Maneater he needs to & is a lazy way for the writers to wrap the film up.

The one thing that stands out about Maneater is that it has quite a lot of nudity & sex in it, the first half an hour or so has two sex scenes & four pairs of exposed breast's which is pretty good going. Unfortunately the gore factor isn't as high, there's a ripped off head, a ripped off arm, a badly burned man, a chunk of flesh & some blood splatter but little else although the actual monsters here look pretty good & the make-up effects are good too. Shot in full 2:35:1 widescreen not many horror films are so it's nice to see & it's filmed with a very natural colour scheme as the majority of scenes seem to be lit by the sun with shafts of light coming in log cabins through windows & the like. Maneater looks pretty good & doesn't look as low budget as it might have.

The production values are good although forgettable, the acting is alright if not exactly great with Dean Cain the only name in the cast of any interest.

Maneater isn't a bad little 'Creature Feature' style horror film although it's not any sort of masterpiece, there's some gore, some nudity & the odd twist which should keep most happy for an hour & a half if they know what they are going in to. Not to be confused with Maneater (2007) the made-for-telly 'Creature Feature' with Gary Busey about a killer tiger.

Harry Baily (Dean cain) is a profiler who is almost like a psychic detective. He lives in the small California town of Blackwood with his daughter Pearl (Lacy Phillips) and his wife (Shea Curry) who he is still waiting for her to come back from the store. A series of killings in town causes one to believe a Wendingo shapeshifter (looks like a Morlock) in on the loose.

This is a basic 80's style horror film, a little humor, a little teen sex, a bad looking monster, and three minimum nude scenes. Guide: F-word, sex, nudity (Nikki Moore, Allison Kyler, Mercy Malick)

Former FBI profiler turned small town sheriff Harry Bailey (a solid and likeable performance by Dean Cain) investigates a grisly series of cannibalistic murders that turn out to be the work of a legendary Native American monster known as the wendigo.

Director/co-writer Michael Emanuel keeps the familiar, but still enjoyable and engrossing story moving along at a snappy pace, presents a nice sleepy small country hamlet atmosphere, manages to create a decent creepy mood, and delivers a handy helping of bloody and gory violence along with some super tasty gratuitous female nudity (the beast often attacks folks while they are doing the deed). The sound acting by the capable cast helps a lot, with especially praiseworthy contributions from Lacy Phillips as Bailey's sweet, but fed-up teen daughter Pearl, Stephen Ford as hunky new guy Todd, Christopher Darga as bumbling deputy Zeus, Nikki Moore as the saucy Kay, Ellie Gerber as the perky Buckly, Saginaw Grant as the easygoing Stanley Hipp, Conrad Janis as the folksy Doc Gramm, and Damara Reilly as the gruff Marcy. The monster looks pretty gnarly, too. A fun little fright flick.

I probably wouldn't recommend this for general moviegoers, but this is an above-average production from the world of low-budget horror which displays some genuine effort and a refreshing level of creativity. The monster is an unusual one, drawn from Indian folklore and given an interesting motivation, with a grisly appearance that is used sparingly but to impressive effect. The mystery behind the killings includes a number of red herrings, and the ultimate revelation is the most sensible one. The plot isn't air tight, but this is fantasy, and overall the script is rather well-constructed compared to your typical genre entry. Acting quality varies, with star Dean Cain as the standout. Cain plays the troubled small-town police chief with conviction and makes the character's inner struggle not only believable but involving. The rest of the cast is good enough, though the story does suffer a bit due to several of the main characters frankly not being very likable, despite the fact I think the scriptwriter took some paints to make them more than the typical monster fodder. The director does well by emphasizing the eerie forest where several of the killings take place, creating several highly atmospheric moments. The climax could have been amped up a bit, but it still brings everything to a satisfying conclusion. An epilogue leaves an opening for a sequel which will probably never come, and while this is as bad an idea here as it always is it's not enough to spoil the rest of the picture. Maneater may not be the next horror classic, but it's not bad, and in many respects outshines most of its competitors. Fans of the genre who can appreciate this type of movie's strengths and forgive its minor weaknesses should enjoy it.