Predator: The Quietus

Director - Leslie McCarthy (Knott's Berry Farm)

Starring - Cordelia Roche (Party Time, What's Your Story?), Cliff Twemlow (G.B.H., Tuxedo Warrior), and Darryl Marchant 

Release Date - 1988

Genre - Horror

Tagline - "Truth is deadlier than fiction"

Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     When I received the Bloody Legend: The Complete Cliff Twemlow Collection I was expecting movies with a lot of action and a lot of blood.  However, what I found was movies that barely qualified as such.  I love bad and no budget cinema but these films so far are barely films.  I hate saying that especially since Severin was kind enough to send this set my way but they are rough.  The set up to this point consisted of "action" flicks that lacked action and one thriller.  That was until I reached what appears to be the sets only horror film, Predator: The Quietus.  This 1988 horror flick was released under the title Moon Stalker but was changed sometime after to prevent confusion with a slasher of the same name.  This is one I was looking forward to and I want to thank Severin for sending this set over!

     The film follows a sensationalist journalist who partners with a hunter to visit Exmoor where legend has it a sort of panther, or werewolf depending on who you talk to, has killed several sheep and possibly a few people.  

     I went into this one actually excited to check it out.  I was hoping that the no budget flair of the previous films was going to meet horror in a way that made Troma releases of the time look like big budget films backed by a major studio.  However, I was very wrong about that.  The film was rough from start to finish with flat dialogue, stock footage, and a creature the filmmaker was afraid to show for some reason.  I seriously wanted to like this one but it was a flaming bag of dog shit at my door step and my eyes was my house shoes.  The acting in this one is easily the worst in the film.  We have some familiar faces to previous Twemlow films but it's evident by this point that they are not trying.  They are spewing their lines out of their mouth like liquid shit out of your ass with no attempt at creating a character.  While some of the cast is inexperienced, a lot of the acting is just laziness.  The story for this one is part An American Werewolf in London and part any bigfoot film from the 70s.  Honestly, I could have got behind it especially if it focused more on the cryptid aspect of the story instead of the tabloid sensationalism.  With that being said, it feels like very little focus is applied to the story itself.  Instead, we get dialogue heavy scenes with more character development than we need.  Finally, the film is not a bloody or violent one.  There is a little bit of blood but not enough to really draw your attention to the scene and the creature you wait the entire film to see is only in the film for a moment.  I liked what I see but I would have liked to see more.  Overall, Predator: The Quietus has a decent story on paper but was never fully explored.  Instead, we get some lazy acting and a lot of dialogue.  I seriously wanted to like this one but it wasn't for me.