GetPapa Far from Perfect, Far from Terrible

Glucedee It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Kaydan Christian A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Wuchak RELEASED TO TV IN 2014 and directed by Daniel Wise, "Dark Haul" (aka "Monster Truck") details events when a 279 year-old female with superpowers, Zib (Evalena Marie), is held captive and transported on a semi tractor-trailer with her gargoyle-like twin brother by a sect of "keepers" who are in conflict with other "keepers" over the interpretation of cryptic prophecy. Damon (Rick Ravanello) has developed father-like affection for the girl while Knicks (Tom Sizemore) thinks she's wholly evil, like her monster brother, the inspiration for the Jersey Devil myth. Kevin Shea plays the Catholic priest.I was surprised by how good "Dark Haul" is, particularly compared to the typical half-baked SyFy nonsense, and was shocked by the low ratings. The script is well thought-out, the main cast is stalwart, the desolate wintery Northeast locations are great and the film's fast-paced & action-packed. The only negative you have to withstand is the unbiblical Catholic-tinged gobbledygook (but this is expected in a fantasy-based story). The cartoony monster CGI could be cited as another negative, but this is offset by the superb traditional F/X used in the climax where the creature looks like the devil incarnate, hooves and all. Redheaded Evalena Marie is comely in a girl-next-door kind of way, not to mention all-around effective as the protagonist/antagonist. There are a couple of other quality women in the periphery, like Maya (Adrienne LaValley) and another brunette (which might be Kate Billard; it's hard to tell by the credits). THE MOVIE RUNS 87 minutes and looks like it was shot in Pennsylvania, where the story takes place, or somewhere else in the Northeast (there's no verification of where the film was shot). WRITER: Ben Crane. GRADE: A-

stevechams As SyFy movies go, this was definitely a lot better than most. The creature was a bit cartoonish at times but it was pretty descent. Acting was good, even for the no name characters that usually spoil as so-so movie. I like Tom Sizemore and he did a good job as usual, he's played in this type of movies before. Didn't know any of the other actors. Body count kept me interested and the gore was not over the top or unrealistic. Plot was original for the most part and I guessed the ending somewhat) action but didn't quite get the final scene. Wasn't sure how they wanted me to perceive the end...

clhct1 I am not a huge fan of made for syfy type movies. Other those with some pseudo science asteroids or magnetic problems with the earth type things they generally suck. However Dark Haul was different. First of all it kept my interest through the entire film and it was action packed. Second , there was more of a sense of history and mystery than most such movies. Evalena Marie puts in an amazingly strong performance as well. The movie also wasn't entirely predictable. I do agree with other review points that the editing could have been a tad better and the movie a bit shorter and a bit more backstory but overall the movie was way better than the usual fare.

GL84 Being transported to a new location, a Jersey Devil and his half-human sister see the trip as a chance to escape capture and lead the crew deep into their forested home where they launch a terrifying battle to save each other.This one's not so bad and really does have some decent parts about it. One of the better qualities to this one is the fact that it tends to not only utilize the grossly-underused Jersey Devil as a main creature here without really making sure that it brings about the film's few instances of rather dynamic qualities because of that. The back-story, as well as the interplay between the two due to their familial relationship, makes for quite a unique take on the monster while still giving off the traditional elements found in those movies which is where this one scores quite well. That also leaves the second half to become quite a bit more fun here with this one generating most of it's good action scenes with the full force coming into play here with a thrilling escape scene, numerous ambushes along the dash to freedom and the whole thing being augmented by the tense stand-off in the cottage which is where this one really comes into great use with a particularly exciting series of brawls with the creature as it wipes them out one-by-one while also engaging in the inner discord among the trapped gang who have her among them and the distrust she manufactures by being there. That continuing plot-thread, despite being on the biggest harms to the movie by clearly being obvious about her intents which cause her captors with supposedly plenty of experience dealing with her to look like the biggest bunch of morons for being so oblivious, here works in the film's favor by ramping up the tension in the moment quite well and allowing for even more good to come from these scenes beyond the high-quality action and body count delivered already. That growing distrust among the group towards her does cause this some good elsewhere as it provides plenty of action throughout as the requirement for her to be around in order to control the more demonic being allows for a lot of great confrontations here with the opening chase through the factory and the later encounter at the diner which turns into a somewhat-decent car chase gives this a really unique look while also giving off plenty of action throughout here. That still doesn't make up for the films' one big flaw, which is the aforementioned inability to make out how she continually initiates everything despite repeated claims to the contrary that she's on their side and getting everything started which causes them to look woefully ineffective despite having tons of experience guarding her. It makes this come off a little more stupid than it really should, but overall this is still a solid creature feature.Rated R: Graphic Violence and Language.