THE RAKING ** USA 2017 Dir: Bryan Brewer. 97 mins
Co-writer / director / star Bryan Brewer’s movie sounds like a garden tool-based slasher flick from the title, but it’s actually a straight-forward monster movie inspired by the internet “creepypasta” urban legend.
A standard-issue geek, angry goth stereotype and an ineffectual blonde team up to make a film project about a legendary monster with rake-like claws that roams California’s “Joshua Tree” every Equinox. After an effectively discreet opening attack (marred by a punchable child actor), this is torpedoed by an endless midsection in which the cast – headed by an exposition-spouting Basil Exposition / Crazy Ralph local character – sit around talking for what seems like an eternity. Practical creatures are all too rare in genre movies, but this film’s antagonist (resembling an in-bred cousin of the crawlers from THE DESCENT movies) is unimpressive, and the film limps its way to an inept “shock” ending.
Review by Steven West
DVD Available on Amazon MOD and Family Video Stores 7th March 2017.
Also available on VOD at: Amazon, Itunes, Google Play, Vimeo, Xbox, Flix Fling, Vudu, Youtube, and Cable VOD.