I don’t ask for a lot when it comes to monster movies, and maybe this is a fault I have as a critic, But, fuck it. My review, my rules right? If there’s a cool creature and plenty of people for it to pick off then I’m in. Everything else that’s good beyond that is all just a welcome bonus on the monster train. As you may have guessed I enjoyed the movie, but why did I? Well that’s why you’re here, right? (Humor me)

Animal opens with a group of friends traveling down a hidden road in their Jeep. We soon find out the driver Jeff (Parker Young) and his sister Alissa (Keke Palmer) have brought their significant others Mandy (Elizabeth Gillies) and Matt (Jeremy Sumpter), along with goofball friend Sean (Paul Iacono) to the woods to visit before it’s all torn down. Once they are in the forest they, invariably, get lost and are soon being hunted by a lurking creature.

The performances are pretty good overall; each character is likeable in their way aside from the obvious antagonist. In particular, I enjoyed Keke Palmer and Elizabeth Gillies performances as the bad-ass final girl-esque characters. Paul Iacono also provides some well-timed comic relief. All of the initial group are likeable, and you start to root for them to live after awhile, it’s not until they meet a second group of people do things begin to turn. A lot of horror movies recently show groups of friends turning on each other immediately, like in Chiller’s other Scream! Factory release Beneath which I hold mixed feelings about. I hope we start getting more likeable groups of people in our horror movies again, I mean look at the slasher flicks from the 70s and 80s! Sure, there’s your occasional Franklin or Shelly in the group but mostly they were nice enough people. I want to feel sorry for the people getting chomped by the monster…and speaking of the monster!

I’ve heard mixed things about the look of the monster. Whether you liked it or you thought it was silly (personally I liked it) there’s no denying the awesomeness of practical creature and gore effects! Maybe the monster sorta-kinda looks like the things from Feast it’s still great to see it moving in a realistic way and seeing fake blood and guts spewing as opposed to computer generated.

I’d classify Animal as a popcorn flick entertainment. It’s fun, it’s got a real monster, and it’s fun for everyone!