Maneater (film)
Encyclopedia
Maneater is a 2007 American television natural horror
film directed by Gary Yates
and produced by RHI Entertainment
, starring Gary Busey
, Ty Wood
, and Ian D. Clark. The film aired on various video on demand
channels, before officially premiering in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel
on September 8, 2007. Filmed in Winnipeg
, Manitoba
, Canada
, the film is the third title in the "Maneater"
film series produced under an agreement with Sci Fi. Based on Jack Warner's novel Shikar, the film details the killing spree of an escaped Bengal tiger
after it gets loose in a small town along the Appalachian Trail
. Trying to stop it are Sheriff Barnes (Busey) and big game hunter Colonel Graham (Clark), while a young boy named Roy (Wood) who has a strange connection to the tiger, tries to save it.
Maneater is one of the few films in the series to break the standard formula of Sci Fi natural horror films with its use of a normal, living tiger rather than a CG animal or excusing its behavior by having it be a mutant or genetically altered. Critics heavily panned the film citing substandard acting, heavy use of stereotypical characters, a hole-filled plot, unused subplots, and the use of a live tiger resulting in almost all attacks being implied rather than seen.
: a young man jogging with his girlfriend and a hermit who rarely leaves his home. Sheriff Grady Barnes (Gary Busey
) finds a trail in the woods which leads him to parts of the hermit's body. That night, young Roy Satterly (Ty Wood
) is reading by flashlight when a Bengal tiger
briefly appears in front of his bedroom window. In the morning, his mother, Rose (Marina Stephenson Kerr), finds him sleepwalking
in the woods in front of their house. A cast taken at the next victim's scene points to a tiger as the hermit's killer, so Sheriff Barnes holds a press conference to warn the public. The tiger visits Roy's home again that night.
A tabloid paper offers a $10,000 reward for the tiger causing the town to be inundated with hunters and reporters. The sheriff forbids anyone from going in the woods and hunting the tiger, but while out with Deputy Sharon Weinman (Sarah Constible), he sees Roy in the woods. They give chase, but instead find a dead tabloid reporter. The National Guard is called in to help. The sheriff later sees Roy in the woods again and warns him to stay out before taking him home and giving Rose the same warning. After he leaves, she mistakenly believes Roy told the sheriff lies about there being a tiger and chastises him.
Six National Guardsmen arrive, led by Sergeant Winshiser (Aleks Paunovic), as does Colonel James Livingston-Graham (Ian D. Clark), an experienced big game hunter from England who is a tiger hunting specialist. Sergeant Winshiser and his men arrogantly refuse to use the sheriff's advice and help. Graham tells the sheriff the soldiers will fail due to their arrogance and that he will start his hunt for the tiger when they finish. When the guardsmen search for the tiger, it kills one silently. Graham appears and explains how the tiger did it and helps them find the body. Later, Deputy Weinman and Deputy Ezra Hundt (Karl Thordarson), the mayor's son, find one of the National Guard trucks sitting empty on the road. They investigate and Weinman tells Hundt to call their position in to headquarters. She finds that the two guardsmen were attacked by the tiger, one being killed and the other shot by his partner. Hearing Hundt blowing the patrol car horn, she runs back to the car, but the tiger has already killed him. Meanwhile, Roy encounters Graham in the woods and they discuss the tiger. When Roy asks if Graham is going to kill the tiger, Graham tells him that he must because it can't chose not to hunt whatever is around it, including people. They shake hands and part ways with Graham continuing to the scene of the National Guard attack. When he arrives, he explains how the tiger attacked the guardsmen.
Later, at another press conference, a reporter reveals that Graham was exiled from India, his former home, after he failed to kill a tiger that slaughtered over 200 people. The sheriff visits Graham that night and he explains that the situation had been beyond his control. Later that night, Roy dreams the tiger killed Graham and runs to his tent to check on him. Graham offers to walk him home, but they end up going to the store where Rose works when Roy says she is working late.
When they arrive, the tiger attacks and kills her. They run into the store, but are separated. Graham calls for Roy, but the tiger gets into the building and attacks him, Graham barely failing to kill the tiger with both shots he fires. Sheriff Barnes arrives after being alerted about an a break-in alarm and is chased into the store by the tiger. He finds Graham's hat and a blood trail and tries to find him before hearing Roy calling out from under a truck outside. The sheriff dives under the truck and shields the boy as the tiger tries to attack. When the tiger jumps into the bed of the truck, they run to the sheriff's truck. The sheriff shoots at the tiger, but hits a gasoline tank causing it to explode and kill the tiger. Graham appears beside the building, bloody but alive. Deciding his hunting days are over, Graham returns home. Sheriff Barnes and his wife adopt the orphaned Roy.
made a deal with the Sci Fi Channel
to produce a series of ten made-for-television natural horror films to air on the network the following year. Though the film series was dubbed "Maneater" by RHI Entertainment, the actual Maneater film is the third in the series. Although the agreement called for the films to premiere on Sci Fi, the first six films in the series actually premiered on various video on demand
channels months ahead of their Sci Fi airings.
Based on Jack Warner's 2003 debut novel Shikar, Maneater was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The film uses no CGI
special effects at all, with the "killer tiger" portrayed by actual trained tigers. In scenes where the tiger is chasing various characters, the tiger is actually on a leash with his trainer behind him. The leash and trainer were edited out of the scenes during post-production. While Gary Busey said the tigers were a "joy" to work with, Clark joked that he was hoping they would not think he was lunch, noting that it was his first time working with tigers.
channel Movie Central on Demand
earlier in 2007 before it aired in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel
on September 8, 2007 as its Saturday night "Movie of the Week" premiere. On January 8, 2008, Genius Entertainment released the film on DVD
. It included no extras, an anamorphic widescreen
transfer, and a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. The film was re-released on July 22, 2008 as part of the first volume of the "Maneater Series Collection" sets. The volume also included Blood Monkey and In the Spider's Web
, the first and second films in the series, respectively.
felt the original novel was superior to its film adaptation, and felt the movie was "an appallingly bad creature feature that barely qualifies as such" with multiple plot holes, unexplored subplot
s, and stereotypical characters plagued by bad acting.
Staci Layne Wilson of Horror.com also felt the film was full of stereotypes, including a "stupid circus trainer; bible-thumping naysayer; the great white hunter; small-minded mayor; pinheaded press; wise Indian sage; [and] military sorts" but felt they were depicted in a such an extreme manner that they were simply boring. She found the films conclusion to be predictable and "corny". She did praise the film's cinematography and visual appeal despite the limited number of filming locations actually used. In reviewing the film for DVD Talk
, film instructor and critic Justin Felix found the use of a real tiger one of the only original elements of the film, while feeling the plot, setting, and characters followed the set Sci Fi Channel movie of the week formula. At the same time, he notes that the use of a live tiger results in most attacks occurring off screen and the tiger being rarely seen at all, taking away the "usual" fun of laughing at badly done "CG terrors." Monsters and Critics.coms Jeff Swindoll felt the film was a poor attempt at replicating Jaws
with the tiger taking on the role of a "land shark." While he felt the character of Colonel Graham was contrived and seemed to come from another era, Swindoll did think Ian D. Clark did portray the character decently. Like other critics, Swindoll praised the use of a live tiger, but also notes that it was obvious the tiger was playing with the actors like a "sweet pussycat" and that the post-production editing did a bad job of trying to make it look like the tiger was a vicious killer.
Several reviewers praised the film for being more subdued than most of Sci-Fi's gore-filled creature films and for its use of a live tiger rather than poor CGI effects. However, David Johnson of DVD Verdict, heavily criticized the film for "its significant dearth of righteous tiger-attack action". He found the implied violence resulted in a boring film that will not satisfy more horror film buff: "the gore-hounds that might be attracted to the promise of a big-ass tiger sinking his teeth into some hapless rednecks will be almost certainly disappointed. The big bummer is that we don't even get any tiger on human direct action until the very end, and that's boilerplate Lassie stuff with a stuntman fending off a laid-back stunt tiger". Conversely, unlike other reviewers, he praised the characters, feeling they were interesting and ended up being ones he "somewhat cared about."
Horror film
Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...
film directed by Gary Yates
Gary Yates
For the director, see Gary Yates Gary Yates was an English cricketer, a capable off-spinner who played for Lancashire from 1989 to 2004. He often seemed to be underrated as a 4 day player and most of his notable appearances came in the One-Day team. He subsequently became 2nd team captain and coach...
and produced by RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
, starring Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
, Ty Wood
Ty Wood
Ty Wood is a Canadian teen actor. He has had several roles including his role as Tim Cherry in the biographical television drama Keep Your Head Up Kid: The Don Cherry Story and in the role of Billy Campbell in the horror film, The Haunting in Connecticut.-Career:Wood is from Winnipeg, ManitobaWood...
, and Ian D. Clark. The film aired on various video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
channels, before officially premiering in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
on September 8, 2007. Filmed in Winnipeg
Winnipeg
Winnipeg is the capital and largest city of Manitoba, Canada, and is the primary municipality of the Winnipeg Capital Region, with more than half of Manitoba's population. It is located near the longitudinal centre of North America, at the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers .The name...
, Manitoba
Manitoba
Manitoba is a Canadian prairie province with an area of . The province has over 110,000 lakes and has a largely continental climate because of its flat topography. Agriculture, mostly concentrated in the fertile southern and western parts of the province, is vital to the province's economy; other...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, the film is the third title in the "Maneater"
Maneater (series)
Maneater Series is the name, logo and line look given to a series of made-for-television natural horror films on DVD produced by RHI Entertainment for the Sci Fi Channel, now called Syfy, and distributed by Vivendi Entertainment. The Maneater Series logo and line look were created under the...
film series produced under an agreement with Sci Fi. Based on Jack Warner's novel Shikar, the film details the killing spree of an escaped Bengal tiger
Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...
after it gets loose in a small town along the Appalachian Trail
Appalachian Trail
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply the AT, is a marked hiking trail in the eastern United States extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine. It is approximately long...
. Trying to stop it are Sheriff Barnes (Busey) and big game hunter Colonel Graham (Clark), while a young boy named Roy (Wood) who has a strange connection to the tiger, tries to save it.
Maneater is one of the few films in the series to break the standard formula of Sci Fi natural horror films with its use of a normal, living tiger rather than a CG animal or excusing its behavior by having it be a mutant or genetically altered. Critics heavily panned the film citing substandard acting, heavy use of stereotypical characters, a hole-filled plot, unused subplots, and the use of a live tiger resulting in almost all attacks being implied rather than seen.
Plot
Two people disappear along the Appalachian TrailAppalachian Trail
The Appalachian National Scenic Trail, generally known as the Appalachian Trail or simply the AT, is a marked hiking trail in the eastern United States extending between Springer Mountain in Georgia and Mount Katahdin in Maine. It is approximately long...
: a young man jogging with his girlfriend and a hermit who rarely leaves his home. Sheriff Grady Barnes (Gary Busey
Gary Busey
William Gary Busey , best known as Gary Busey, is an American film and stage actor and artist. He has appeared in a large variety of films, as well as making regular appearances on Gunsmoke, Walker, Texas Ranger, Law & Order, and Entourage...
) finds a trail in the woods which leads him to parts of the hermit's body. That night, young Roy Satterly (Ty Wood
Ty Wood
Ty Wood is a Canadian teen actor. He has had several roles including his role as Tim Cherry in the biographical television drama Keep Your Head Up Kid: The Don Cherry Story and in the role of Billy Campbell in the horror film, The Haunting in Connecticut.-Career:Wood is from Winnipeg, ManitobaWood...
) is reading by flashlight when a Bengal tiger
Bengal Tiger
The Bengal tiger is a tiger subspecies native to the Indian subcontinent that in 2010 has been classified as endangered by IUCN...
briefly appears in front of his bedroom window. In the morning, his mother, Rose (Marina Stephenson Kerr), finds him sleepwalking
Sleepwalking
Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism, is a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. Sleepwalkers arise from the slow wave sleep stage in a state of low consciousness and perform activities that are usually performed during a state of full consciousness...
in the woods in front of their house. A cast taken at the next victim's scene points to a tiger as the hermit's killer, so Sheriff Barnes holds a press conference to warn the public. The tiger visits Roy's home again that night.
A tabloid paper offers a $10,000 reward for the tiger causing the town to be inundated with hunters and reporters. The sheriff forbids anyone from going in the woods and hunting the tiger, but while out with Deputy Sharon Weinman (Sarah Constible), he sees Roy in the woods. They give chase, but instead find a dead tabloid reporter. The National Guard is called in to help. The sheriff later sees Roy in the woods again and warns him to stay out before taking him home and giving Rose the same warning. After he leaves, she mistakenly believes Roy told the sheriff lies about there being a tiger and chastises him.
Six National Guardsmen arrive, led by Sergeant Winshiser (Aleks Paunovic), as does Colonel James Livingston-Graham (Ian D. Clark), an experienced big game hunter from England who is a tiger hunting specialist. Sergeant Winshiser and his men arrogantly refuse to use the sheriff's advice and help. Graham tells the sheriff the soldiers will fail due to their arrogance and that he will start his hunt for the tiger when they finish. When the guardsmen search for the tiger, it kills one silently. Graham appears and explains how the tiger did it and helps them find the body. Later, Deputy Weinman and Deputy Ezra Hundt (Karl Thordarson), the mayor's son, find one of the National Guard trucks sitting empty on the road. They investigate and Weinman tells Hundt to call their position in to headquarters. She finds that the two guardsmen were attacked by the tiger, one being killed and the other shot by his partner. Hearing Hundt blowing the patrol car horn, she runs back to the car, but the tiger has already killed him. Meanwhile, Roy encounters Graham in the woods and they discuss the tiger. When Roy asks if Graham is going to kill the tiger, Graham tells him that he must because it can't chose not to hunt whatever is around it, including people. They shake hands and part ways with Graham continuing to the scene of the National Guard attack. When he arrives, he explains how the tiger attacked the guardsmen.
Later, at another press conference, a reporter reveals that Graham was exiled from India, his former home, after he failed to kill a tiger that slaughtered over 200 people. The sheriff visits Graham that night and he explains that the situation had been beyond his control. Later that night, Roy dreams the tiger killed Graham and runs to his tent to check on him. Graham offers to walk him home, but they end up going to the store where Rose works when Roy says she is working late.
When they arrive, the tiger attacks and kills her. They run into the store, but are separated. Graham calls for Roy, but the tiger gets into the building and attacks him, Graham barely failing to kill the tiger with both shots he fires. Sheriff Barnes arrives after being alerted about an a break-in alarm and is chased into the store by the tiger. He finds Graham's hat and a blood trail and tries to find him before hearing Roy calling out from under a truck outside. The sheriff dives under the truck and shields the boy as the tiger tries to attack. When the tiger jumps into the bed of the truck, they run to the sheriff's truck. The sheriff shoots at the tiger, but hits a gasoline tank causing it to explode and kill the tiger. Graham appears beside the building, bloody but alive. Deciding his hunting days are over, Graham returns home. Sheriff Barnes and his wife adopt the orphaned Roy.
Production
In October 2006, RHI EntertainmentRHI Entertainment
RHI Entertainment , formerly known as Hallmark Entertainment, is an American producer of television movies and miniseries, founded in 1979 by Robert Halmi Jr. and Robert Halmi Sr. as Robert Halmi Incorporated....
made a deal with the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
to produce a series of ten made-for-television natural horror films to air on the network the following year. Though the film series was dubbed "Maneater" by RHI Entertainment, the actual Maneater film is the third in the series. Although the agreement called for the films to premiere on Sci Fi, the first six films in the series actually premiered on various video on demand
Video on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
channels months ahead of their Sci Fi airings.
Based on Jack Warner's 2003 debut novel Shikar, Maneater was filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. The film uses no CGI
Computer-generated imagery
Computer-generated imagery is the application of the field of computer graphics or, more specifically, 3D computer graphics to special effects in art, video games, films, television programs, commercials, simulators and simulation generally, and printed media...
special effects at all, with the "killer tiger" portrayed by actual trained tigers. In scenes where the tiger is chasing various characters, the tiger is actually on a leash with his trainer behind him. The leash and trainer were edited out of the scenes during post-production. While Gary Busey said the tigers were a "joy" to work with, Clark joked that he was hoping they would not think he was lunch, noting that it was his first time working with tigers.
Distribution
Maneater premiered in Canada on the subscription-based video on demandVideo on demand
Video on Demand or Audio and Video On Demand are systems which allow users to select and watch/listen to video or audio content on demand...
channel Movie Central on Demand
Movie Central
Movie Central is a Canadian English language Category A premium television service. Movie Central is designated to operate west of the Ontario-Manitoba border, including the territories...
earlier in 2007 before it aired in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel
Syfy
Syfy , formerly known as the Sci-Fi Channel and SCI FI, is an American cable television channel featuring science fiction, supernatural, fantasy, reality, paranormal, wrestling, and horror programming. Launched on September 24, 1992, it is part of the entertainment conglomerate NBCUniversal, a...
on September 8, 2007 as its Saturday night "Movie of the Week" premiere. On January 8, 2008, Genius Entertainment released the film on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
. It included no extras, an anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen
Anamorphic widescreen, when applied to DVD manufacture, is a video process that horizontally squeezes a widescreen image so that it can be stored in a standard 4:3 aspect ratio DVD image frame. Compatible playback equipment can then re-expand the horizontal dimension to show the original widescreen...
transfer, and a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track. The film was re-released on July 22, 2008 as part of the first volume of the "Maneater Series Collection" sets. The volume also included Blood Monkey and In the Spider's Web
In the Spider's Web
In the Spider's Web is 2007 American made-for-television natural horror film produced by RHI Entertainment and directed by Terry Winsor. It aired on various video on demand channels, before officially premiering in the United States on the Sci Fi Channel on August 26, 2007. It is the second film in...
, the first and second films in the series, respectively.
Reception
As with many other films in the series, Maneater was heavily panned by critics. Felix Gonzalez, Jr. of DVDReview.com referred to the film as "another Z-grade extravaganza of gore and mayhem" and felt that it was typical of most Sci Fi original movies in that it contained "horrendous writing and nonsensical characters." He considered Busey's being the headliner was the first sign of trouble, stating that "with his ill-fitting suit and incomprehensible facial expressions, (Busey) is actually more frightening than the tiger." Matt Paprocki from BlogcriticsBlogcritics
Blogcritics is a blog network and online magazine of news and opinion. The site—a self-proclaimed "sinister cabal of superior writers"—was founded in 2002 by Eric Olsen and Phillip Winn...
felt the original novel was superior to its film adaptation, and felt the movie was "an appallingly bad creature feature that barely qualifies as such" with multiple plot holes, unexplored subplot
Subplot
A subplot is a secondary plot strand that is a supporting side story for any story or the main plot. Subplots may connect to main plots, in either time and place or in thematic significance...
s, and stereotypical characters plagued by bad acting.
Staci Layne Wilson of Horror.com also felt the film was full of stereotypes, including a "stupid circus trainer; bible-thumping naysayer; the great white hunter; small-minded mayor; pinheaded press; wise Indian sage; [and] military sorts" but felt they were depicted in a such an extreme manner that they were simply boring. She found the films conclusion to be predictable and "corny". She did praise the film's cinematography and visual appeal despite the limited number of filming locations actually used. In reviewing the film for DVD Talk
DVD Talk
DVD Talk is a website for DVD enthusiasts founded in January 1999 by Geoffrey Kleinman when DVDs and DVD players were first beginning to hit the market.The site started as an online forum, an email newsletter, and a page of DVD news and reviews...
, film instructor and critic Justin Felix found the use of a real tiger one of the only original elements of the film, while feeling the plot, setting, and characters followed the set Sci Fi Channel movie of the week formula. At the same time, he notes that the use of a live tiger results in most attacks occurring off screen and the tiger being rarely seen at all, taking away the "usual" fun of laughing at badly done "CG terrors." Monsters and Critics.coms Jeff Swindoll felt the film was a poor attempt at replicating Jaws
Jaws (film)
Jaws is a 1975 American horror-thriller film directed by Steven Spielberg and based on Peter Benchley's novel of the same name. In the story, the police chief of Amity Island, a fictional summer resort town, tries to protect beachgoers from a giant man-eating great white shark by closing the beach,...
with the tiger taking on the role of a "land shark." While he felt the character of Colonel Graham was contrived and seemed to come from another era, Swindoll did think Ian D. Clark did portray the character decently. Like other critics, Swindoll praised the use of a live tiger, but also notes that it was obvious the tiger was playing with the actors like a "sweet pussycat" and that the post-production editing did a bad job of trying to make it look like the tiger was a vicious killer.
Several reviewers praised the film for being more subdued than most of Sci-Fi's gore-filled creature films and for its use of a live tiger rather than poor CGI effects. However, David Johnson of DVD Verdict, heavily criticized the film for "its significant dearth of righteous tiger-attack action". He found the implied violence resulted in a boring film that will not satisfy more horror film buff: "the gore-hounds that might be attracted to the promise of a big-ass tiger sinking his teeth into some hapless rednecks will be almost certainly disappointed. The big bummer is that we don't even get any tiger on human direct action until the very end, and that's boilerplate Lassie stuff with a stuntman fending off a laid-back stunt tiger". Conversely, unlike other reviewers, he praised the characters, feeling they were interesting and ended up being ones he "somewhat cared about."