The Mutations

Anytime Tom Baker graced the screen his characters were always memorable. Here he plays a freak with a self loathing that must be seen to be believed. The story concerns a scientist who tries to turn people into plants. He succeeds with a cross between human and venus fly trap. The makeup isn't great, but it does the job. First time director Jack Cardiff made a great little horror film. Donald Pleasence plays the doctor. I saw this on Cinemax during the 90's. Basil Kirchin from Abominable Dr. Phibes did the music. I wish this was out on DVD. Columbia Pictures has done worse.

I first became aware of this one from my, somewhat inaccurately named book, Sci-Fi Now which charted the science fiction which fell between 2001 and Star Wars. It turns out that this was a great era for the genre, seeing as the sci-fi in this period just seemed to go a bit weird. The Freakmaker on the other hand, seems to have resurrected that sub-category which was seriously antiquated even back in the 70's - the mad scientist movie. The story has the mad scientist abduct college students to use in his experiments where he is trying to create a crossbreed of human and plant; with his failed subjects being handed over to a circus to be used in their freak show.

This could be described as Frankenstein meets Freaks, with quite a heavy emphasis on the latter 30's Tod Browning classic. It even goes so far as to basically recreate scenes from that film, as well as finding roles for several actual sideshow freaks. To that end, we have a human skeleton, a human pincushion, the pretzel boy, Popeye (i.e. He really can pop his eyes out!), the frog boy, alligator skin woman and a good old bearded lady. We even get a section where we see an exhibition featuring these performers, so its pretty exploitative while being somewhat fascinating at the same time. Acting honours go to the ever-reliable pair, Donald Pleasence and future Dr Who Tom Baker; with the former going through the motions and given little to do, other than feed cute bunnies to giant carnivorous plants, while Tom Baker has a much more rounded part as a deformed self-loathing henchman afflicted with acromegaly. The story eventually has one of Pleasence's creations running amok through the town - it's a rubber-suited wonder which is half-man/half Venus flytrap, a man/plant, or as I prefer to call him, a mlant. There is a fair bit of things to like in this one, even if it does become increasing less interesting in its final third. Look out too, for the impressive opening credits sequence which features some nicely executed time-lapse photography plant action.

This film is a definite cult-classic and a follow up to Tod Brownings FREAKS. Perhaps a bit poorly made, but with real freaks like the Alligator Woman, Pop Eye and many more. Julie Ege, Norwegian scream queen, is starring and making the best of it. If you ever want to see the definite B-film from British cinema during the Seventies: This is the one to see. The film takes place at a travelling carnival which also features a freak show. Donald Pleasance is the mad professor who mutates plants with humans and then puts them on display. The results are horrific and so are the monsters that looks like a mixture of broccoli and humans. The film is odd to say the least and the actors try very hard to make it believable. This is a film with a strange mixture of science, horror and drama. It moves along a bit slow, but you won't be bored. The last of the real "freak films".

I liked this movie, thought it was from the 1980's from the discussion at the beginning about cloning dinosaurs from their DNA and employing genetics on animals. Turns out it was from 1973 and ahead of it's time.

The movie does have some parallels to "Freaks" and the movie supplies the real thing. Michael Dunn, "Dr. Lovelace" of "Wild, Wild, West" is good in his role as the operator of the sideshow.

THE FREAKMAKER (aka: THE MUTATIONS) is the charming tale of Professor Nolter (Donald Pleasence), who is determined to create a human-plant hybrid. This means that a few people have to disappear, reappearing on Nolter's lab table.

Meanwhile, a freak show thrives next door with a steady flow of new, highly unusual attractions.

Tom Baker is fantastic as Nolter's faithful henchman, Lynch.

If you have a passion for the wonderfully weird, then FREAKMAKER belongs on your watchlist...