A movie that crept up on me and socked me in the stomach - warning, spoilers

Rating: 9/10 (13 February 2009)

What a surprising, powerful movie. We rented this thinking it would be a lighthearted beastie feastie movie - I read the novella YEARS ago and had a basic idea of the plot. The monsters are good substantial B-movie monsters, the situations are good substantial B-movie situations, but the acting in this film just lifts everything to another level. I really, really enjoyed every performance and I don't think I've ever seen such great work in a movie of the caliber I thought this was. Despite obviously exploring group dynamics and human relationships in the face of extraordinary situations, there was nothing I didn't expect to see in the first however-many minutes. Then the last maybe ten minutes of the film snuck up on me and knocked me off my feet. There's a marvellous, visually stunning shot of one of the creatures (and what a creature! Hats off to the creature designer! Wow!) and the atmosphere for those twenty seconds or so is incredible, and then that ending! Call me dopey but I really, really didn't see that coming, and it was made so tremendously powerful by the performances, especially of little Nathan Gamble and Thomas Jane. Billy said whoa and so do I. What I would have given maybe 7 stars, suddenly became a 9-star movie in the final ten minutes. I thought I was in for a fun and silly movie evening and got a visceral, emotional sock in the solar plexus instead. Everyone involved in making this should be really proud of themselves.