Mutações

French horror has a renaissance. Some of the movies that came out in the last few years have been really nice, so I thought I should check out the latest addition to the genre.

A virus has spread through the population. Victims mutate and become cannibals. There is only one hope, a military station called NOAH. Sonia, a medic and her friend Marco have to stop at an abandoned housing complex in the middle of the forest because Marco has a gunshot wound and their car is out of gas…

Mutants feels like a movie that is cut'n'pasted from different zombie movies. The characters are shallow, the plot unmotivated. A friend of mine often says "the trailer is better than the movie will be". That is the case with Mutants as well. A few exciting scenes, and unfortunately, that's it…

Opinion: 4/10 – Nothing new, kinda slow paced, maybe something for the hardcore Zombie-Fan

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France. A country know for real bad movies that only the French appreciate. But a sudden change a few years ago with Haute Tension has put that country on the horror map. And the holy three, Martyrs, Frontiere(s) and Inside has made an impact that France became the leader into the brutal gore scene. Men could only expect that it would always be like that. So France delivered us Mutants. It won't be much acclaimed as the holy three. The reason is that the others had some creepy brutal suspense. Here you can see things going typical for flesh eating mutants. Not that the movie is bad but the storyline is so simple , as always with that kind of movies. Being trapped, contamination, being bitten by a mutant, changing in a mutant, mutant appears before lover,...but before you out there are killing me, the effects really match up to French norms. And that makes the movie. If you adore gore watch it, if you like cannibals too otherwise just forget it.

I have to admit I started watching it with high expectations, since I've read some reviews saying that it is a bit different from other zombie movies. It was not. It wasn't bad, but in the end it was just a rather low budget zombie movie with the same clichés that we know so well. The specific variation is virus infestation.

The film starts with three people in an ambulance, a woman who is a nurse, her husband or boyfriend and a black soldier woman who goes all crazy Rambo and has to be put down. There are some interesting scenes that hint at a bigger, smarter plan from the movie makers, but it doesn't come to fruition. All we get is this woman who runs away from all kind of creeps (and some zombies) until the film ends.

The idea is that the virus makes people very violent and meat hungry, but it also changes them, transforming them into something else. I kept hoping that the title would refer to some sort of human zombie combination, hunted by humans and zombie alike, destined to become a breed of antihero of its own. But, even if the movie did, as I said, hint at some more interesting ideas, it didn't go as far as actually explore them.

Bottom line: In my mind this films keeps oscillating under and above the average line, like a leaky boat that you don't know if it will sink or not. I am very tempted to rate it as a failure, but then again I must not punish the film makers for the crazy ideas and expectations I had in my head. So I will rate it as average, after all, but I don't really recommend it.

I'm gonna call this a good zombie film. Yes, it's a virus but the results are the pretty much the same, sick people who wanna eat ya. Lots of blood in this film but what makes it special is the romance. Marco has neither looks nor personality but his gal stands by him (almost) to the end. It's a gross, fun film with lots of snow (if ya like snow you're gonna love this movie) and I found it highly entertaining. Great art? No. Much fun? Yes.

Now, if you love snow but want more than just entertainment, if ya want a little art, Let The Right One In, is a must see film. Some blood, romance too and a great take on Renfield.

The world - or at least France - is in the grip of a highly contagious and deadly virus that turns victims into zombie-like flesh hungry mutants, our story concerns a handful of survivors. Original this most certainly is not. But what sets this apart to some extent from the glut of zombie/virus apocalypse movies is that it is set in the snow covered French mountains and the two main characters are a couple, the male getting infected. If you don't speak fluent French or like reading subtitles then I suggest you move on, however you will be missing out on a half decent shocker. The couple are Sonia, a doctor, she is also pregnant (though no bump), Marco her other half becomes infected as a result of being attacked by a mutant. She tells him he has three days left before he turns, his gradual transformation is pretty horrific to see. He starts to threaten her very existence, she has ample opportunities to kill him but hey, she's in love with the guy thus making this a very tragic and deadly love story. This, added with the cold scenery and remoteness, helps give this film a very bleak look and feeling. That's no bad thing provided the viewer is not after some light-heartedness. There is action, violence and gore right from the off but the often dim light, over use of shaky cam and a few cheap looking CGI do not help matters in my opinion. The French have made some incredible 21st Century horror movies, Mutants is hardly "fantastique" but I'd say as this sub-genre goes it is worth a watch. I picked up a copy dirt cheap on DVD, I may watch it again or I may not.