Muckman

Horror Parody

Chemical Burn Entertainment

R1 DVD

Although it comes close, I can’t classify this film as schlock. It’s just too good at what it does. No matter that it takes on all the characteristics of the old Swamp Monster films and has all the stereotype characters. We can forgive the crude model work and the stop-motIon animation. We can even overlook the nighttime shots when we can see blue sky through the trees. It still stands as a good fun story with a lot of the old fashioned values that made this type of film so popular.

We have the local rednecks, the man-in-rubber-suit monster, the wisecracking half-stoned film crew and a few very attractive women so we can get the compulsory bikini and cleavage shots. We even get a bikini catfight in the river. What more do you need?

Mickey O”Hara produces a TV show based on tracking down monsters. He is not above faking the monsters if necessary, but his latest fakery of a monster called the Muckman is so blatant that his boss wonders if he is still up to the job. The man in the monkey suit playing the Muckman has run into a tree and knocked himself out. On camera. O’Hara’s main asset is his attractive presenter Asia Buchanan (played by the extremely pneumatic and sultry A. J. Khan aka Anju McIntyre) and without her the show will flop. He is given one last chance to film the Muckman. So it’s back to the swamp.

Mickey’s going to get the footage right this time, but it will still be of a man in a monkey suit. Whether he believes in the Muckman or not doesn’t matter, the crew are going to come back to the studio with the needed footage. Apart from Mickey, Asia is the only one in on the scam. The driver Billie (Allison Whitney) suspects something is going on and sets up a camera of her own.

Unknown to all, including Horace, Elmer and Cletus, the rednecks hired to help, there really is a Muckman. When Billie is caught filming the fakery she is pitched into the river to drown but is saved by the Muckman. Now what? Will she survive the monster? Will O’Hara get his just desserts? Will we get more of Asia’s cleavage?

The actors are all good at their jobs but the best role is A J Khan as Asia, known as “the princess” by the crew. The important thing about making the film work is that all the staff seem to have put their heart into it. They do not overact but their performances are so typical and perfect for this type of film.

B-grade, yes, but loads of fun.

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