The Creature Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.0

The Creature Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 1, 2024

Severin's trifecta of simultaneously released cult items, this film, A Dog Called... Vengeance and The Mummy and the Curse of the Jackals, have a number of interesting tethers. Among the more overt is the perhaps unintentional (or maybe intentional) "callback" to venerable Universal horror enterprises in two of the three titles. But a potentially more provocative link can be found between A Dog Called. . .Vengeance and The Creature, as they both utilize canines as kinda sorta metaphors to help dramatize a Spain emerging from its long virtual "captivity" under the reign of Francisco Franco. A Dog Called. . .Vengeance featured a "starring turn" by an absolutely vicious German Shepherd which had been tasked with tracking down (and mauling) escaped political prisoners. The Creature takes a somewhat more, um, intimate approach toward this metaphor, with a troubled woman named Cristina (Ana Belén) more or less forsaking her mostly estranged husband in favor of another German Shepherd. That "bestiality" aspect certainly gives The Creature a decided edginess, to the point that some of the film's putative political points may get buried in all of the shock and/or awe.

The back cover of this release calls director Eloy de la Iglesia "defiantly transgressive", and anyone who has seen any number of de la Iglesia's films will probably heartily agree (The Cannibal Man, also released by Severin a couple of years ago, springs instantly to mind in this regard). The fact that the back cover goes on to call The Creature "the most daring and unsettling film of his entire career" may frankly be up for debate, at least given some of the other films in de la Iglesia's quiver, but the whole focus on a distraught woman (Cristina loses the child she's pregnant with after an early near vicious attack by a mangy looking and possibly rabid German Shepherd) "bonding" with a dog in favor of her husband is so out there that other plot points may fade into the background.

Part of the contextual background of this tale actually involves Cristina's husband Marcos (Juan Diego), who perhaps somewhat hilariously works in television and, especially as his right wing political opinions become more and more detailed, might be compared to certain "pundits" on the broadcast landscape of the United States. The fact that Marcos is having an affair kind of makes him an inarguably unlikable character, which may "help" (?) to explain Cristina's choice, but the film is so rife with outrageous vignettes between Cristina and her "new, improved" companion that parts of this film kind of reminded me of some of Luis Buñuel's scabrous takedowns of supposedly (no dog command pun intended) "well heeled" folks.

The Creature Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

The Creature is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Severin Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. As usual, Severin doesn't provide a ton of technical information on the transfer, though the back cover states "now scanned in 2K from the negative". This is a kind of interesting looking presentation when compared to the two other Severin releases coming out simultaneously. This seems to have undergone some filtering, as grain is much less evident in this presentation than in the two others. That said, there are interstitial moments where grain suddenly spikes (weirdly, never really related to the "usual suspects" like opticals and/or lighting conditions), including a brief insert of Cristina reacting to the rabid dog very early in the story. Perhaps because the bulk of this presentation looks so relatively grain free, these spikes may be even more noticeable. This also has some of the same yellowish undertone that I noted in our A Dog Called... Vengeance Blu-ray review, and as with that presentation, things like open water vistas can have a somewhat greenish appearance. Otherwise, though, the palette is at least reasonably suffused, and in fact actually pops rather well in some of the more brightly lit moments.

The Creature Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Creature features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track in the original Spanish. This is a nicely full bodied track for the most part, and some of Víctor Manuel's quasi-chamber cues sound especially nicely burnished. Effects like the growling of dogs is also decently forceful. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

The Creature Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Strange Movie (HD; 22:41) is an interview with assistant director Alejo Loren. Subtitled in English.


• Gaspar / Eloy (HD; 14:04) is an interview with Gaspar Noé, who is one of this film's champions.


• Introduction by Gaspar Noé at Cinémathèque Française (HD; 4:29) is from July 20, 2023. Subtitled in English.

The Creature Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While there's no one getting a hatchet square through their noggin as in The Cannibal Man, there are "other" kinds of shocking images in this story, though de la Iglesia may restrain himself if only slightly from getting into really provocative presentational moments. The whole emotional ambience of this film is so roiling that the scenes between Cristina and Bruno (the name of the dog she adopts) almost become simply part of the totally unbalanced tenor of the story. While the perceived "political" aspects of the story are certainly there to be seen, some may feel as I do that the unbridled gonzo-ness of the screenplay may actually make them recede into the background. This transfer looks a bit filtered to my eyes, but audio is fine, and the supplements are quite interesting, for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.