Mutation

After so many bottom of the barrel filmmakers like Ted V. Mikels, Al Adamson, Ed Wood, etc. You'd think low budget self-styled filmmakers would have learned their lessons. Unfortunately it looks like Brad Sykes, as well-versed in cinema as he is, has very little understanding as far as how to make a film watchable.

The Good: Sykes wisely decides to keep things moving at a quick pace and throws in a lot of killings and martial arts fights (a surprisingly high amount) spaced roughly 15 minutes apart. This takes a page from the Roger Corman style of B-movie production where you had to throw in something violent or erotic every few minutes to keep audience attention. Acting-wise, the film is a low budget mixed bag with performances generally comically bad done no favors by the actors having to mouth horrible expository dialog. The main exception is Jessica Moon, who is further down in the credits but about the closest thing this film finds to a protagonist. She's somehow able to keep her banal dialog from sounding phony and awkward; truly a gargantuan task and one of the only things interesting about the film. It's a shame that she didn't go on to do much else.

The Bad: Oh god, not only do we have an awful script that plunders from a litany of other horror movies (including a scene stolen from HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH), but we have uninspired direction, subpar cinematography, sub-porn performances, and bad sound which makes a lot of the dialog hard to understand. The basic plot is just a kung fu zombie going around killing people but we keep winding up at this same location (a small theater) for about 80% of the film. Being ostensibly a horror movie with a high body count, we'd expect to get a few good killings but practically all are off-screen. There isn't one example of a quality kill or gore scene to be found. Not one.

So do yourself some good and watch some old Shaw Brothers movies if you want to see some laughable so-bad-it's-good entertainment. This chore of a film comes with little entertainment value. It's obvious that little effort went into the film, so why spend any of your time and money on watching it?

Don't believe the "plot". This movie doesn't contain martial arts, nor does it contain any horror. The acting is so bad that it's unbearable to watch. A pure waste of time and money. There really isn't anything more to say about this movie... but IMDb demands that comments are at least ten lines - so here it goes: There is absolutely nothing interesting in the story either; I'm a great fan of science fiction - which is why I wanted to see this movie - but this movie has nothing to do with science fiction. In the beginning there is a "bad" guy (he doesn't talk, just stabs people that come near - much like a zombie - thank God he killed a few of the bad actors out of the movie, but unfortunately the remaining actors were at least as bad. Obviously, all victims do not only deserve to die for bad acting, but also for being extremely stupid. I constantly thought "right - if you do THAT, then you deserve to die - this is evolution at it's finest". Puke. Later he became a real zombie (inject "serum" wait 1 minute - OH, nothing is happening!?! - turn back to zombie - zombie gets up - KEEP turning back to zombie... Oh well, you get the idea. Now, the zombie doesn't change the way he "acts", he just gets some really bad/cheap bubbles taped to his head (that's the "mutation" you get), stabs a few more people and that's the movie.

This "Mutation"-movie had some fighting scenes were the hit-sounds were apparently taken out of video games (as well as the choreography), if you think of "heart-pounding horror" when people are tapping others on the shoulder and "sci-fi" means the year 2005 when bad acting scientists revive cryogenic frozen killers and you as the audience got a weak bladder, then and only then you would describe this awful movie as "Bone-crunching martial arts combine with heart-pounding horror in this intense sci-fi thriller." This movie made apparently by film school-students got more story than a p0rn-movie (though same music and same bad acting). Nevertheless its funny to watch because in nearly every scene the microphone can be seen and its perfect for making fun of...