A Creature Was Stirring [Blu-Ray]

Director: Damien LeVeck

Cast: Chrissy Metz, Scout Taylor-Compton, Annalise Basso

Release Date: February 13, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 4/10
Disc Rating: 6/10

Synopsis:

Faith (Chrissy Metz) keeps her troubled teenage daughter (Annalise Basso) on a tightly controlled regimen of experimental drugs, their only means of fending off a mysterious, terrifying affliction. But after two burglars (Scout Taylor-Compton, Connor Paolo) attempt to rob the home on Christmas, they stumble upon a long-kept family secret—with monstrous consequences.

Please Note: Well Go USA provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

THE MOVIE / REVIEW:

‘A Creature Was Stirring’ tells the story of struggling mother Faith and her troubled daughter Charm as the two settle in over the holidays amid a massive blizzard that leaves them trapped together. In order to try and combat a mysterious affliction that Charm suffers from, Faith attempts to keep her in line thanks to a questionable combination of drugs. But when two strangers break into the house in search of a warm place to ride out the storm, they become engulfed in the family drama occurring, but in this curious situation very little is what it initially appears to be.

Directed by Damien LeVeck (The Cleansing Hour), from a screenplay written by Shannon Wells, LeVeck does a capable job at the helm of ‘A Creature Was Stirring’ guiding along the tale with gorgeous lighting and a fitting tone that works for most of the tale, but even his solid work behind the camera can’t save this one from itself once everything falls apart. The film’s cast includes Chrissy Metz (TV’s This is Us), Scout Taylor-Compton (Rob Zombie’s Halloween), Annalise Basso (TV’s Snowpiercer) and Connor Paolo (Stake Land) who each deliver quite decent performances for the most part in their respective roles, but still not quite enough to save this one.

‘A Creature Was Stirring’ is a curious and beautifully filmed tale that is in part a monster movie while also a look at the repercussions and struggles arising from addiction. The film initially shows some real promise and benefits greatly from solid performances by the limited cast and a filming style that fully utilizes bright, almost neon colors throughout that help to match the eerie tone of the tale, while there is also some rather impressive practical effects that shine paired with a unique monster that’s quite unlike the typical beasts often populating such films. The tale quickly pulls you in and keeps you engaged as you try to piece together the reality of what’s occurring and as we are provided one small piece of the puzzle followed by another throughout.

Unfortunately, everything here falls easily and completely apart by its conclusion due to some ridiculous twists that eradicate any promise shown prior. While I won’t go into the details in order to avoid spoiling it for those who are still interested in giving it a chance, let’s just say that I’m always a fan of a well-constructed twist that changes up a film when least expected, but in the case of ‘A Creature Was Stirring’ the twist is far too drastic and illogical for the viewer to simply accept. It also contradicts numerous earlier sequences and adds countless plot holes to the film that cannot be ignored and many viewers including myself are sure to be left with a sour aftertaste due to the sloppy and nonsensical conclusion.

OVERALL:

‘A Creature Was Stirring’ shows some real promise from the onset and has a lot of positives in its favor such as a great cast that delivers solid performances, along with a beautifully shot look and style that is a treat in its own right throughout, and even further boosted by some delightfully nasty practical effects and a monster that’s refreshingly unique and clever. But sadly a few twists and a blatantly ridiculous conclusion causes the entire film to fall apart as the convoluted reveal only results in almost everything occurring beforehand becoming illogical and confusing with far too many plot holes to simply disregard. If you’re a fan of the key cast or just really intrigued by this one already then you may still want to give ‘A Creature Was Stirring’ a whirl, but if you’re already on the fence about it you would probably be wise to just go ahead and skip this altogether quite disappointing holiday horror film.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘A Creature Was Stirring’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the film’s original 2.39:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty good as a whole and provides a relatively sharp, smooth and detailed presentation from start to finish. The detail is largely solid throughout and character faces, clothing and the various gloomy interiors of the house look decent even amid the consistent darkness, although some minor details and edges almost seem to be overwhelmed by the rich, heavy colors on display which can blend with the other content occasionally, although never in a manner that’s excessive or results in the viewer being unable to ascertain what’s occurring at any given moment. Overall, this is a mostly solid high definition video presentation that holds up nicely for the most part.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack delivers a clean, crisp and at times somewhat aggressive audio presentation throughout. It takes advantage of all five available channels on multiple occasions in order to send music, some creature effects and weather elements, along with more throughout the various speakers whenever fitting, all while never allowing any dialogue or other audio elements which might be occurring simultaneously to become distorted or rendered problematic. Overall, this is a capable and quite nice 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtrack that does its job well and should please viewers.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘A Creature Was Stirring’ does not include any bonus content aside from the film’s ‘Trailer’ (running approximately 2 minutes in length).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Film Rating: 4/10
Disc Rating: 6/10

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‘A Creature Was Stirring’ Arrives on Blu-ray & DVD February 13, 2024 & is Now Available on Digital from Well Go USA

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You can purchase your copy of the ‘A Creature Was Stirring’ Blu-ray on Amazon Right Here!

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