Brilliant and touching

Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

A film of deceptively outspoken contemporary relevance, this is cinema at its most alert, alarming and alive.

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-

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...

The meaning of cryptic prophesy splits apart a team of secretive guardians as they transport, by 18-wheeler truck, a deadly creature and its half-human sister from their now ineffective holding place to a more secure location.Whether you see this as "Monster Truck" or "Dark Haul", it is not a bad film. Tom Sizemore, who does not appear in nearly enough films these days, leads a team in order to fulfill a prophecy... but does even he understand it? The brilliance of this script is not the hauling of a demon (which is already clever), but the demon's pairing with a very human sister. Can she be trusted? Is she too attached to the demon? What is her role in all this?

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.