Hottoceame The Age of Commercialism

Greenes Please don't spend money on this.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Hattie I didn’t really have many expectations going into the movie (good or bad), but I actually really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters and the banter between them.

Paul Andrews Parasite is set in the North Sea where the decommissioned Johnny Alpha Oil Rig is about to be sunk, the company behind the rig Carmine Oil wants to test out a new cleaning enzyme which is supposed to dissolve oil & make it clean & safe to sink into the Ocean. A four man clean-up crew is sent in by helicopter, Jacob (G.W. Stevens), Nils (Gary Condes), Gary (Luka Spencer) & Kim (Margaret Thompson) get to work straight away & start spraying the rig with the highly experimental enzyme. Then the enzyme's creator Dr. Christine Hansen (Saskia Gould) turns up to oversee the cleaning & generally take notes. Unfortunately the enzyme has the unwanted side-effect of genetically mutating living organisms & as such a small parasitic worm like creature has grown to huge proportions & using the dark corridors & air vents lies in wait picking the crew off one-by-one...This British production was co-written, co-produced & directed by Andrew Prendergast & is a reasonable if very generic by-the-numbers 'Creature Feature'. I would probably say that Parasite is maybe just about above the usual Sci-Fi Channel made stuff standard but that's hardly any sort of recommendation. The script by Prendergast, Alan Coulson & Paul Mackman really is very generic & unoriginal as it uses all the 'Creature Feature' clichés & plot stand by's. There's the isolated location. There's the small group of humans who are trapped there. There's the usual mix of scientists & everyday people. There's the friction between several of them for varying reasons. There is some sort of animal or creature that is created due to genetic experiments gone wrong. There are lots of scenes of various character's wandering around dark corridors & air vents. That's about it, that's about all there is to Parasite. There's no attempt at trying to highlight a relevant issue, despite being set on an oil rig about to be sunk & the environmental implications that has nothing is made of it & even the revolutionary cleaning enzyme doesn't come to much. The character's are alright if a little dull, the dialogue is alright too but at over 90 odd minutes in length Parasite really drags at times with far too many scenes of people walking around near pitch black corridors or air vents & it gets very annoying.Director Prendergast does alright actually, Parasite is better made than most of the Sci-Fi Channel 'Creature Feature' stuff with good sets & some nice moody lighting although there are times when it is too dark. The CGI computer effects are a mixed bag, the actually giant monster which looks like a cross between a giant snake, a worm & a slug looks pretty good actually & is wisely kept in the shadows for the majority of the film but the other CGI is poor especially the helicopter shots at the start which look terrible. There's not much gore here which is a shame, someone has their head bitten off, there's a dead body with it's stomach ripped open & a few scenes of mutilated bodies with blood & guts splattered everywhere & bloody bones lying around. Parasite has the unwanted distinction of having the worst most unrealistic countdown in cinematic history. The last two surviving character's find out that the oil rig has escape pods but they need to activate the rigs power to launch them & once they get the power working the pods have a countdown before they are launched. At one point we see a computer screen which says there are 12 seconds left yet the woman is half way across the rig & over five minutes of actual screen time elapses including fighting & killing the monster, opening stuck doors, avoiding explosions & helping her injured friend before she gets to the pod which says there's still 3 seconds left!Technically the film is quite good, it has decent enough production values & is reasonably well made with tight claustrophobic sets & some nicely lit photography even if it is a little dark at times. Apparently shot in Oxfordshire here in England. The acting is alright from no-one I have ever seen before.Parasite is an utterly routine, predictable & generic 'Creature Feature' of the sort the Sci-Fi Channel churns out by the bucket load. Probably slightly better than usual but that's no great recommendation. Not to be confused with the much more well known Demi Moore horror flick Parasite (1982).

slayrrr666 "Parasite" is one of the weaker Sci-Fi channel films.**SPOILERS**A small group of extreme activists break into an oil company's head office and steal incriminating information about the company's future plans. The company enlists Dr. Christine Hansen, (Saskia Gould) to coordinate a team to clean up an abandoned oil rig to test their newest chemical creation before being exposed to the world. The team, including leader Jacob, (G.W. Stevens) engineer Nils, (Gary Condes) and grease monkey Kim (Margaret Thompson) and others, arrive on the oil rig and begin their assignment. When Dr. Hansen arrives on the rig to begin the experiment, the team of activists also arrives to sabotage the affair. Unknowingly, the team accidentally sprays the chemical on a small parasitic worm and mutates it into a larger parasite, attacking one of the cleanup crew. The rig begins to break down in certain areas, making the team get a little antsy. When the cleanup crew is taken hostage by the activists, the parasites follow them and attack the group. Convinced of the threat to them, the two teams' band together to survive the creatures, which are now growing bigger and threatening to envelop the entire rig.The Good News: The beginning of the film isn't the most action-packed, but with most Sci-Fi films, the film heats up in the second half. Once the discovery of the creatures has been revealed, the film kicks it up a notch and becomes a bit more entertaining. Granted, the beginning isn't exactly all that action-packed, so the last half of the film is it's major saving grace. The ending is the best, as the rig explodes in a giant explosion as the survivors try to kill off the last few parasites. With explosions going off in every location and the fire coming in closer, it adds to the suspense of the scene. Even the designs of the parasites are pretty creepy, based on a general worm look but with a few modifications to the head and a minor design change on the body make the creatures look a bit terrifying at first viewing. Their jaw-lined mouths were perfect for scaring the workers on the rig.The Bad News: The beginning of the movie is extremely weird. Shot through night-vision lens, we see a group of men enter a building under the pretenses of a bomb threat. They then steal information about the company's drilling activities and leave the sight, leaving you to wonder what was really going on: is it a heist film, is it an espionage film, why is this classified as a killer creature film? All these questions come in to play in the beginning. Also pretty annoying is the constant whining between the two sets of protagonists. Because they all have similar backgrounds but just play for different sides, we get a lot of bickering about what is morally ethical or not about what the project is doing to the environment. I could care less about this type of film, but I can't stand all the conversations being about the same thing. It gets boring after a while. Even with all these problems, the worst of all is the unbelievably bad CGI used. When a routine shot of a helicopter flying in a storm is done with CGI, you know the film isn't a high budget film. Even worse, the entire exploding oil factory is done in CGI, as the whole affair simply loses any sense of realism or believability. This is a major offense as the high action finale is ruined by the inclusion of something that ruins the movie. Even for those that don't mind CGI, it is so obviously bad and distracting it destroys the mood of the ending.The Final Verdict: Based on the major flaws involved, I can only recommend this to those who love getting drunk and bashing a film to shreds. This is the only way to enjoy this movie. Watching this one sober is like getting castrated and then watching the video minutes later.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Adult Language, and Brief Nudity

lynxfeld I watched this movie a few hours ago and WHEW!!! It stank! The female lead spends the first 1/3 of the movie yelling at everyone, apparently thinking that if she's louder than everyone else, that makes her the person in charge. One male character has the annoying habit of screaming like a little girl every time someone touches him. As for my spoiler, I'll just say this: after the only two likable characters get offed, you find yourself wishing for the parasite to kill off the rest of the cast as quickly as possible so as to put them out of their misery... and put us out of ours for watching this dog to begin with.Two...thumbs...down...Way down!

userray2305 I highly recommend this film.I wrote down the synopsis as I think it may be helpful:The costs of decommissioning an oilrig after its lifespan has ended are huge. Yoho Oil believes that it has found a solution that allows defunct rigs to be decommissioned safely by developing an enzyme that feeds off prevalent harmful commodities. A cleaning crew is assigned the task of spraying the Johnny Alpha rig with the enzyme. They have 24 hours to clean it and lay explosives that will release it from the seabed.The rig's interior is sprayed with the enzyme, but, in its depths the bacteria are reacting with the remains of the oilrig's dead cat and a breeding ground is forming fast.With the rig soon doused with bacteria, crew leader Hansen radios to the helicopter to pick them up. The reply comes back that a storm is approaching and there will be an overnight delay. Accustomed as they are to such setbacks, the crew makes the most of their situation and hold a party~ But something is moving in the lower bowels of the rig. Kim and Jacob go to the roof of the rig and are getting more intimately acquainted when they notice a stream of slime dripping from above them and hear screams from below. Carefully they make their way to the noise and are shocked by what they see! In the depths of the rig, there are giant parasites and they are growing rapidly, moving onto puddles of bacteria continually growing in size. Gio catches up with Kim and Jacob and they try to catch a vicious parasite but it spits acid in Gio's face. Kim goes for help as she recognizes this as the beginning of a mutation over which they have no control.The power suddenly runs down and the rig is cast into darkness. By torchlight the remaining group start to construct makeshift weapons out of the backpack tanks. Each carrying 'flame thrower' packs, they go to the generator room but discover that the cables that support the power have melted through in many different places and are covered in slime. Jacob slowly extends his hand towards the comer and touches something slimy and horrible.As he pulls back his hand his flesh bubbles painfully and he is hit in the face by a thick spray of acid. The parasites are certainly in control!There is just one way to be sure that all of the bugs are killed; the rig must be blown up. But where can the remaining team hide?If you like scary, suspenseful movies, you'll love PARASITE.