Especímenes

I expected a film similar to Arachnophobia, maybe, given it was about small creatures, well, parasites of a sort. Then after much time passes, it's almost like some kinda Firestarter-type story, with government agents out to capture some superhuman.

There were some surprising parts that obviously I won't explain, but "Growth" took too long for stuff to happen and once stuff started happening it seemed pretty odd.

We're told the parasites were developed to transform people into superhumans, which naturally would make them more symbiotic than parasitic but apparently nobody's familiar with Spiderman in the laboratory and stuff goes wrong.

Oddly, we're told the parasites would devour their host from inside but nothing along those lines occurs. A car appears to be stalking people before one of the main characters becomes infested and I don't really understand why.

Basically I was left feeling as if somewhere I'd missed something!

This is a failed attempt at a movie made using a worn out recipe. I usually revel into films with parasites, infestations and so on. This one made me squirm, and not in a good way, either.

The plot revolves around a group of friends that come on an isolated island in order to process an inheritance. The people there are a closed community of scientists that dabble in genetics. One of the guys has "low immunity" which is kind of weird for someone coming on an isolated island.

Anyway, you can see it, right? The potential. The closed community from Wicker Man, the parasites from any number of films, the low immunity resulting in a different condition than other infected, and so on. The film managed to ignore all these possibilities, instead basing the thrills on CGI critters that crawl under the skin. Really? Epic fail.

Parasites. You can't live with 'em, you can't live...well, I guess you can live without 'em. Don't ya hate it when they destroy your property, or eat everything in your garden, or turn you into zombie-like killers? Okay, they last part has never happened, but it's something that's not too uncommon in horror. The mother of this sub-genre is clearly David Cronenberg's debut feature "Shivers", with more tongue-in-cheek but still great entries "Night of the Creeps" and "Slither" following in favor. Now, we can add Gabriel Cowan's 2009 film "Growth" to that list.

Taking place on an island called Cuttyhunk (*snicker*), "Growth" takes place 20 years after a horrible incident involving a scientific breakthrough gone horribly wrong. Well, Jamie Ackerman (Mircea Monroe) has returned has returned to the island, and what else, the slimy worms they were created by the scientific breakthrough return, and as it turns out, they increase their hosts strength and makes them more sexual-too bad said hosts tend to become more violent.

Though it sounds like a good horror flick, "Growth" ultimately resembles a mix between a Scy-Fy channel movie and an episode of "One Tree Hill." While the acting is hit and miss and Cowan isn't a bad director, the script is unspectacular and tends to jump around and not explain several plot points. What's with the cultists (though they are the only creepy thing about the movie-a scene in which one pursues the character of Kristen (Nora Kirkpatrick) stands out)? Why do the town's people want Jamie out? None of this is explained, and it all feels left over from another movie.

It also doesn't help that the whole plot revolving around Justin (Christopher Shand) is too goofy for it's own good, as he becomes a host for these worms that's as scary as a wet bag. In fact, the film is far too serious, not to mention at times boring because it doesn't offer any real reason to take interest in any of these characters. They're mostly just cardboard cut-outs, and you end up wishing the worms and whatever other evil that's around would take care of them sooner.

As a whole, I can't say that "Growth" made me too angry, but that's because I couldn't really feel anything while watching it. It's essentially a big bag of whatever.

Hey Guys,

I love horror films. Have since I was a kid. I especially like The Thing, The Fly, the 70's version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and films of that kind. For me, these are the "real" horror films - before torture porn was an industry.

This film is in the genre of the films I mentioned above. It's a low budget version of those films, but an interesting and compelling story with real rich characters. The dialogue is well written, the cinematography is terrific at parts, the acting is well played, the narrative isn't in a hurry - but doesn't drag, and overall the ending is fantastic! I felt that this team and this director were inexperienced, but filled with talent, original ideas, and vision. Keep watching until after the credits or you're missing something!

See this film, you just might like it!

Frankly, I don't think so. But it remains an agreeable time waster. I take advantage to have watched this horror flick a few minutes ago to review it, if not I am afraid to forget it. Just a horror film destined to young adults or grown up teenagers who are not too difficult to satisfy, and also a yarn inspired by David Cronenberg's films from the seventies. Yes, it's cool, never boring, and for me that's already much. The screenplay could have been far worse for such a budget. So my advice is to try it, because when you watch a horror film, you have to expect the unexpected and here the result can easily match whatever you had in mind before watching it. Pretty forgettable movie. Now, what about the gross? I guess that's a secret.... Unlike the GROWTH. Nice ending.