MUCKMAN (2009)
Low-budget horror extraordinaire Brett Piper is an old soul. He swears off CGI, and all of his fright flicks exhibit practical special effects (rubber suits are all the rage). Some of his endeavors flaunt stop-motion critters, including Muckman. You heard me correctly. The muskeg-born brushwood beast that pops up at the tail end of this b-fop was manipulated frame by frame. It's killer! The actual Muckman could win a Man-Thing lookalike contest, but I won't hold that against him. A TV crew searches for the fabled cryptid. They stage a fake sighting, but naturally, they stumble upon an honest-to-Pete living monstrosity. Hey, that's a Death song! Anyhow, the storyline isn't gold (shades of The Blair Witch Project), but...I need to hit enter twice.
There we go. Piper is smart to stymie "found footage" pratfalls. Muckman never becomes a full-blown trend chaser; instead, it topples familiar banalities and surrounds them with quirky characters. Hmm, I may be overselling the product. Truth be told, I didn't smile much in the first half. Muckman picks up the pace as it approaches the home stretch like a chemically imbalanced racehorse. If I were you, I'd eyeball Piper's filmography (especially 2000's Drainiac and 1996's They Bite).
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