Deep in the murky swamps, Dr. Simon Trent (played by Jeff Alexander) is hard at work, attempting to create a human with gills. He has secluded himself and his wife Pat (portrayed by Francine York) amongst, yet apart from, the small group of swamp people that also dwell in the area (but make no mistake, the area is pretty desolate). These people, viewers learn right away, are none too happy that the doctor has stationed himself in their area. They worry as some of their people begin disappearing without word, and they see that these disappearances are linked to the arrival of the doctor. The drumming at the beginning credits suggests voodoo, and sets the tone for the rest of the movie.
Audiences then learn that there is a group about to partake upon an adventure into the swamp – in search of oil. There is some confusion in the beginning introductions of this group. Driscol West (Bill Thurman) shows up at the Fly n’ Fish (loving that name, by the way), and the people who are regulars there kind of take him out when they discover he is there to look for oil. Brenda Simmons (Shirley McLine) then decides she will step into the role of “Mrs. West,” so that she can go and find the oil herself. Crafty and kind far fetched, but it appears to work on Barry Rogers (John Agar), who is there to help Driscol in his oil quest.
Of course, in their fervent quest for oil, the group stumbles upon Dr. Trent and his wife. Dr. Trent knows long before they arrive that they are coming, and indicates that he will be ‘hospitable’ to his guests. As the group moves closer to Dr. Trent’s residence, viewers become aware that they can hear the drumming as well, that it is not included in the film just for them. The group arrives and one of the members asks to be shown this snake dance that the natives are performing (the cause of the drumming). The dance is interesting to watch, and the natives have hung a stuffed ‘Dr. Trent’ from a tree to symbolize what they wanted to happen to him.
Within a short while, Dr. Trent’s wife has destroyed his latest creature (the others prior to this kept dying, and the doctor would feed the bodies to the alligators), so Dr. Trent takes it upon himself to become fully hospitable to his guests by bestowing this ‘gift’ upon one of them. Needless to say, it does not end well. Though the scenes with the alligators are pretty grim, there is no blood in this film and that would cause me to place it more in the ‘sci-fi/thriller’ genre versus the ‘horror’ genre. If you enjoy creepy scientists and frankenstine-esque swamp creatures, then this movie is definitely worth a watch.
Number of killers? If you examine the movie closely, there are at least five. Boob count? Zero. I guess in B movies there are less boob shots (at least thus far) but you would think there would be more…(B for boobs?!). Cheap thrills? Nonezo. Raven’s Scream Meter says: 2.5 out of 5 screams. This was a decent thriller, but I won’t lie that it is low budget and quite dated. I gave it 2.5 because I genuinely enjoyed the concept, and some of the acting.
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