Customer Reviews

Mutant Species [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I picked this little flick up earlier today at the local video store. After reading the synopsis on the back of the cover, I couldn't refuse, your promised with not only some freaky dog thing...but also a futuristic movie set in 2003!!!! Wait...2003... Yea, its a flick from the 90s.

Anyway, plot is rather basic. New type of DNA is being tested in a large cover up/consipracy. Team of soldiers thinks there in a mission in an extotic land but they quickly learn the truth afterwards. The team leader finds the DNA, gets infected, kills all but one of his group, transforms into weird dog/mantis/kangaroo/cat/human beast. Last soldier finds help from two locals and soon all hell breaks lose...yea...you know the story.

The acting...well... If you want good acting, go watch something else. Effects are average, the CGI "DNA" looks pretty bad (thankly, its the only CGI in the movie). The monster suit is well crafted and stands high in rankings as one of the best suitmated monsters from the 1990s.

On a small portion of the creature, I only managed to find parts from a few animals. The basic one being wolf. But if you watch, you can see some wild cat, mainly in the nose/mouth area. One of the arms seems to be a claw like that of a mantis, while the other is a normal, three fingered monster hand. I'd also say it has some kangaroo mixed in, as the creature is an EXCENLENT jummper.

While this movie is no were near gold status, I would advize for the casual B-movie fans to atleast rent it. As for anyone else interested, I'd say rent also, if anything, simply for the monster.

Some army guy gets exposed to mutant DNA and he is transformed into a dog-faced monster. He is up against a soldier and two little kids, armed with a gun and whatever they can find in the woods, like rocks and sticks. This so called 'mutant' looks like something that would tear a human to shreds with his claws, does nothing of the sort. He throws and smacks people, bareley injuring them. Sound bad? It is. This movie does'nt deserve any attention at all.

...but not much worse. Good for watching if you need something as background noise; not good enough to watch by itself.

If you could find a film that was a low budget blend of Pumpkinhead (Collector's Edition), Delta Force 2 - Operation Stranglehold, and Werewolf would you be interested? Now say we sprinkle in postman general/diabetes extraordinaire Wilfred Brimley to spice things up. Clearly this is a film you'd give your right eye for. Since we'd like to think we have an eye for detail, we can officially confirm that it does exist! In a perfect storm of horrible acting and disillusionment the world has delivered us this combination platter in Mutant Species. It's about as fine as Chini takeout on a crisp October evening back in 95 with your best comrades. Yet another barely known classic from the 90's that you could only catch between 1-4 am...which would be after hardcore t.v. but before the end of Don West's card auction. Surely this is the type of film Sid's third member would catch late night at work, say how awesome it was, and then have no idea what the title was.

Mutant species opens in a tense scene as a secret government agency prepares to package a deadly foreign liquid into the #1 Camps can. To ensure it's properly disposed of, they enlist the help of an army secret ops unit led by Mike Norris cousin Mark Norris. Naturally they have a big-time problem when they accidentally unleash the mutant banana juice, turning one of their crew into a beastly creature. With the beast on the prowl they call in reinforcements lock stock and barrel. However this doesn't nothing bury infuriate the monster forcing him to lops heads off left and right. Now when tying to picture this monster envision a d-grade pumpkinhead infused with the head of a werewolf/dog type creature. With the cheapest materials possible they slapped this thing together with hilarious results. On top of it's stellar looks the beast has super human strength, 50 foot leaping abilities, and enough brute force to knock down trees after a bull rush. Seriously...it knocks down trees, we're not referring to the time Sid the third ran into the tree and cursed us because of our video machines. Despite the creatures murderous ways it still has human emotions in tact. This is seen in the closing brawl where the creature decides to finish himself off due to the havoc it had caused. It straps a bomb to it's chest and salutes Mark Norris, it actually salutes him!, before blowing itself into oblivion.

When the end credits role introducing a plethora of unknown actors, all you can do is applaud and shout Bravo...or even Dino Bravo. It was another piece of mounting evidence proving 90's B horror is some of the finest available in any decade. These films are so consistently bad that you have no choice but to love them. It's almost as if the 90's abandoned the thought of making a horror movie scary and decided the approach should be to make us laugh for an hour and a half. And that is the exact reason why we love these movies. It's simply a great way to relax and burn a few brain cells. If you're lucky enough to come across Mutant Species we implore you to move forward on a viewing. At the very least you get to hear Wilfred Brimley in his usual hilarious fashion playing an army general, you will not be disappointed.