Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor

I just watched this movie, and despite (or perhaps because of) my low expectations, I was pleasantly surprised. While there's certainly nothing brilliant here in terms of plot or acting, a lot of work and creativity went into the special effects. Not every effect works, but the ones that came out right are quite nice-looking. Fans of stop-motion animation should definitely check this out; early stop-motion effects in the film are pretty crude, but as the film progresses, the animation keeps getting better and better. At the end... well, just see for yourself.

Attempting to find their missing father, sisters tracking him down to the genetics lab he works out find that the company's experiments with alien DNA have inadvertently released a mutant monster in the facility forcing them to fight it off to get out alive.

This one turned out to be quite the intriguing creature feature. Among the film's positives here is the film's rather well-handled action scenes that occur throughout here which are incredibly fun and manage to generate some great moments here. The opening starts this off nicely with the discovery of the bloodied staff and the resulting attack on the security guard, and the first half does contain some rather nice moments in the hospital where his working with the mutations as well as the growing development of the transformation that's taking place in the infection room where they attempt to study him. That manages to keep this one going along nicely into the final half where it mainly deals with the creatures hunting them down within the corporations hallways and corridors which is all sorts of cheesy creature-feature goodness as the creature begins attacking them throughout here. The first encounters, where they come across the creature out in the hallways by sheer accident. are rather fun while the brawl in the exploratory lab makes for a solid action scene and sets up the fantastic finale in the basement where the creature gets a big fight in the lab where it features some rather impressive ideas and tactics used to combat the creature which ends this on a high-note. As well, the fact that the creature effects look decent and give this some nice moments in the kills throughout here. Still, one of the film's main problems here is in the completely clichéd and useless notion of the sleazy executives trying to keep the whole idea of their plans under wraps despite the ethical and logical rationale of their motives. The manner of him trying to keep the identity of the participant and the true nature of the experiments from getting out makes for quite an overdone set-up that comes off as rather illogical in the face of what's happening around them and really makes this one seem all the more familiar. The manner of going about hiding the involvement is quite lame and being yet another reappearance of that motif makes for quite a useless plot-thread. Likewise, the fact that the main part of the first half is played out like a flashback to the events rather than simply playing it straight which really makes for quite the bland beginning retelling events long before they actually occurred and then getting to the part that actually happened. This is wasted time that could've been used from the very beginning to get into the film proper by staying in the current time-line rather than recapping it rather lamely. While some might not be able to take the low-budget special effects work, but otherwise there's not a whole lot else wrong here.

Rated R: Graphic Language, Graphic Violence and violence-against- animals.

I had never heard of director Glenn Takakjian and it's normal, this is his only flick he directed. He's still in the business as actor or in the animation department. I had never heard of Metamorphosis The Alien Factor but coming across a article in an old Dark Side Magazine I was surprised by the pictures. It looked like they used great effects. And by watching it, they did. It starts great with the breaking out of some alien virus attacking people working in the lab. One of them transforms into a weird creature but the transformation or metamorphosis was really well done. It even reminded me of The Thing when some tentacles appeared out of the victims body. It wasn't gory but the red stuff do flows a lot. But as I said it was campy too. The words sometimes said were really laughable sometimes. And when you saw a flesh eating plant moving or one of the creatures it was a bit of a laugh, but the dog was again really well done and face it, no CGI was used, just the good old latex and even some stop motion.

Everybody was talking about Tara Leigh being in this flick but for me the face of Dianna Flaherty rang a bell. She was in some Troma productions (Class Of Nuke'em High and Toxic Avenger). The acting was okay and by some mediocre.

The look of the flick itself looked like a eighties production and being made in the nineties it couldn't deliver the effects used then due being a low budget. But I enjoyed it a lot, man, the changing into the creature and the face changing towards the end, I loved it. The alien factor really did it for me, what a metamorphosis.

Tautly directed and cheaply made, little sci-fi / horror monster throwback flick which is nothing but schlock, though all the same quite fun. It's a sideshow of horrid make-up effects, stop-motion and a touch of gore thrown here and there. The story is basic starting off rather grey, if a touch slow and talky in parts, as situations is explained through fragmented flashbacks. What are going on are the usual secretive experiments on genetic engineering that sees a doctor accidentally being contaminated by alien cells and virtually transforming in to something otherworldly that goes on the rampage in a forlorn scientific facility. While a headstrong girl along with her boyfriend and younger sister enter the building looking for their missing father, who worked as the facility's security guard. While the doctor in charge hires two killers to rid any evidence. Although it's no walk in the park, as they'll find out they are really unprepared. The first half is mainly told in flashbacks explaining the occurrences before and after the contamination. Here it tries to be thoughtful and selective with its choices (where the most suspenseful moments occur), but the second half keeps it straight-forward and dumb it down with the usual monster on the loose formula around empty rooms and corridors. Throwing in some outrageous special effects (tentacle action anyone?), grisly jolts and mutant creations where it finishes on a crazy note. In some aspects in reminded of another sequel "Syngenor" and it was interesting to see that it was initially set-up to be the sequel to the 1983 film "The Deadly Spawn". The acting is on the lousy side, but there are few exceptions with Marcus Powell chewing up his scenes with glassy intensity and Tony Gignate as one of the hired killers with a dry sense of humour.

"Please dear, not in front of the mutants."

Rented this one from the video library out of sheer curiosity. Like a cross between Cronenberg's "The Fly" and Ridley Scott's "Alien", the slimy special effects are better than average. The script and acting, on the other hand, are not, giving this a bit of a tele-movie feel.

If you're a sci-fi/horror buff with an hour and a half or so to kill, give this film a go. Otherwise, catch the above-mentioned originals, who did it much better with a lot more intensity.