Why this dreck isn't debuting on SyFy is a mystery, but if Creature were made for the cable channel it might at least have an interesting title (like Lockjaw, after the human/alligator hybrid's name), not to mention cheesy (but fun!) CG effects, as opposed to the sub-Swamp Thing rubber suit worn by an anonymous performer probably too embarrassed to receive credit in production designer Fred Andrews's first stab at both writing and directing. Andrews tries toying with audience expectations by keeping the sole black character both alive and making him the hero (the ex-Navy SEAL shaking off a gunshot wound to the knee is heroic indeed), but actor Mehcad Brooks is more lifeless than when he was in a zombiefied trance on HBO's True Blood. Still, at least he can move his mouth, something Lockjaw's sealed mask won't allow. Not even House of 1000 Corpses' Sid Haig hamming it up as a hillbilly patriarch can pull this out of the New Orleans swamp it's set in.
