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Terror at Baxter U (2003) |
Posted on 1 July, 2007 by
Princess Jolene
Writer: Bill Vincent
Director: Jeff Burton
Starring: Bill Vincent, Janet Lockwood, Rob Blankenhorn, Kimmi Voight, Ryan Gaffke
I used to be a big fan of Clue when I was a kid. In fact, I still am. I loved any kind of murder mysteries and ingested anything on TV that had to do with mystery. And I’m not gonna lie—I’ve always liked Matlock. So when I flipped on Terror at Baxter U, I was pleased to see that it was a mystery of sorts.
Written by Bill Vincent and directed by Jeff Burton, the film takes place on a college campus. There’s a Chupacabra on campus killing people and a group of students are trying to figure out how to stop it. In fact, they don’t all really even grasp what a Chupacabra is as one of the dummies pronounces it “Chupacannibis.” Not sure if that was supposed to be funny, but really it wasn’t. For those of you who don’t know what one is—a Chupacabra is a creature from Mexican and Puerto Rican urban legends said to drink the blood of animals and, in this case, students at Baxter U.
The first scene involves some sexy time amongst students. But that was all the sexy time we get to see. We get a kiss at the end, but, unfortunately, no more sex. A large portion of the beginning takes place in a classroom where the students bicker amongst themselves and accuse a poor stuttering student of being guilty of the murders. The audience finds out that this stuttering cutie’s father was accused of the murders, or, at least, found an amulet about 20 years ago that is found at the first scene of the crime during the modern day crimes. The bickering was the detail that reminded me of Clue. I was thinking that there might be some good stereotypes in the cast of characters, but there really weren’t any. Schucks.
The two professors played by Bill Vincent and Janet Lockwood were also central points in the plot. I was suspicious of both of them the entire time because both of them acted as if they had something to hide. And did they? Watch and find out. I’m not supplying you with that information.
The low point of the movie is definitely the detective, played by Rob Blankenhorn. I wasn’t exactly sure how his acting fit into the whole movie because he was so exaggerated that he was hard to watch. The others were slightly exaggerated some of the time, but he was completely over the top. Also, there was a smarmy, scary, and creepy janitor running around throughout the second half of the film. I figure he was included to throw the students AND the audience off, but he just kind of ran around strangely like an animal. This must have been intended, of course, because he was the only character who acted like a Chupacabra.
As for the writing, the dialogue wasn’t bad even though the characters were a little cheesy. The camera work was fun. When the creature kills, we see red blurriness. I would have liked to see some more gore and actual killings because all I got to see was some spazzed out camera shots and no blood, but at least I had decent dialogue to listen ingest for the totality of the film.
I can’t say I know exactly what happened at the end. The Chupacabra attacks, but I was confused as to what provoked it. Terror at Baxter U is worth a look even though it’s not nearly gory or sexy enough.
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