“The Mutation” (2021) Writes A New Page In The Book of Creature Features [Review]

As avid horror fans, “creature features” are far from unfamiliar. We all love to watch a movie with a disgusting, ugly, and sometimes even horribly grotesque creature running amuck on our protagonists. This has been going on for over a hundred years with movies like “Creature from the Black Lagoon” and the way up to more recent ones like “Feast” or “Mimic”. We want to be terrified but also so intrigued that we want to keep our eyes on the creature at all times as if it would be coming for us. Thrills, chills, and creatures are boxes all horror fans want to have checked when watching a good movie. 

 I recently got the privilege to enjoy a new film called “The Mutation” that definitely peaked my “creature feature” interest. This movie stars Ricardo Freitas as Allen Marsh, a Zoologist who is helping the local police officers Sergeant Chambers (portrayed by Megan Purvis), Sergeant McKenna (portrayed by Andrew Rolfe), and Officer Norton (portrayed by Jamie Robertson) get further clues on what killed a recent victim of a gruesome animal attack. The victim is the husband of Dr. Linda Rowe (portrayed by Amanda – Jade Tyler), a distraught woman who is trying to find out what killed her husband. 

 I will say that right off the bat in the beginning of the movie we can see the creature attacking her husband. The monster (which is later revealed) is a mutated rat, which to me looked a bit like what a rabbit would look like if it was bit by a werewolf and recently turned. Having said that, I absolutely loved the way they designed this mutant creature. The way it was designed and ultimately created to look menacing and monstrous (despite the werewolf rabbit compliment I gave) transitions really well onto the screen. I will also contribute the body acting of Derek Nelson who played the mutated rat. His head tilts and mannerisms were almost as enjoyable as Kane Hodder’s Jason Voorhees. 

 Yet another thing that works super well with this movie is the gore. My god is the gore done pretty well (plus or minus some out-of-frame blood splatter) in this movie. The reveal of the 1st victim (Dr. Linda’s husband) provides some horrific gore and torn apart lump of what is left of him, as well as how detailed his face looks after the attack. You can tell they put some effort into each of the dead victims before starting to film each scene. Even the kills continuing after such as the 2nd victim’s death in the alleyway and the victims who follow are done in such a unique way that their deaths didn’t feel repeat itself at all. 

 By far one of the best death scenes starts off mild with a waitress gets attacked in an alley by the monster and ends up in the kitchen and then killed off in the restaurant in front of all the patrons there. This is crazy because all they do is sit there and watch. Even more crazy is the fact that Officer Norton is there with his wife. The guy has been talking about taking this monster down the whole movie but once he 3 feet away from it he just sits there for 5 minutes and after a bunch of patrons are getting killed by the monster, springs up into action. 

Now this is common knowledge but as horror fans, we all tend to laugh at moments the average person wouldn’t laugh at but in this scene, the cop is firing rounds at the monster and unfortunately, an old woman walks in front of him, getting shot in the head. I think what made me laugh about this is only 1 minute before we saw her puking at the sight of the monster chewing on a man’s arm only to be shot by someone who is supposed to protect her. The irony and the randomness of it is what truly got an involuntary laugh from me. The entire restaurant scene from start to finish is well-timed, well shot (no pun intended), and was paced greatly. I was on the edge of my seat trying to make sure I didn’t miss any of the carnage. 

 We also get a pretty good jump scare before one of the victim’s deaths a bit earlier in the film. An unfortunately placed mechanic is working on a car for a less than patient customer only to turn around and see the monster face to face with him. I got a literal jump scare from this (not just because I am deathly afraid of rats, to begin with) but because it was so unexpected. That to me has always been what makes a good jump scare. It’s unexpected and doesn’t happen too many times in a movie. This is followed up by the less-than-patient customer coming to see what is going on only to be trapped and her hand viciously ripped off by the monster. You can see a sense of glee in the monster’s eyes every time he takes a bit out of someone. 

 As we start closing in on the finale, we see Allen at Dr. Linda’s house with Sergeant McKenna, Sergeant Chambers, and Allen’s assistant Julie Smith (portrayed by Abi Casson Thompson) trying to lure and trap the monster in the home to finally finish it off and end the brutal deaths of anyone else. Unfortunately, more death is around the corner as the monster shows up to cause havoc. There is a pretty gnarly death involving Sergeant Chambers as she is trying to hide from the monster in a cage it was previously kept in before all of this craziness started at the beginning of the movie. She is at the back of the cage fending the monster off while trying to reach for a knife outside the cage that is barely out of reach. She looks away from the monster just for a moment to finally grab the knife and sees it is gone. Within a few seconds, the monster is gnawing her arm off and taunting her with it afterward as it swings the arm while it is still in its mouth. 

With the last 20 minutes remaining we find out the final twist of the movie is that Dr. Linda’s husband was not the one who created the monster, but it was she who did it as a way to cure cancer and prevent painful deaths like the one her mother suffered from. Because of this mistake, she made she had to cover her tracks and make sure it didn’t all come back to her so she could continue to try and better mankind with her findings. You can tell there is sorrow and regret in her emotions as she clearly hates what she has done. She ends up sacrificing herself by keeping the monster busy as the others escape after they set off a poisonous smoke bomb they put to finally kill the beast. 

This isn’t the case as with an extra surprise twist we see that the monster has further mutated into a giant rat/dinosaur hybrid. Granted the CGI is not the best with this new transformation but the monster looks even cooler in its final stage. With the surprise of them now having to face off against a giant man-eating monster, the remaining survivors (Allen, Julie, and Sergeant McKenna) try to escape only to have Sergeant McKenna be eaten “Jurassic Park” T-Rex style in one giant chomp. 

Thankfully the quick thinking of our hero Zoologist Allen causes something to make the monster further mutate to make it’s body unstable and die. This plan pays off as the monster explodes onto Julie and Allen in a gross amount of blood splattered onto them. I can only imagine how many people were standing on ladders with buckets of blood and drenching them for that scene but hey it looked pretty gross (which is what I am sure they were aiming for). After the final defeat of the monster, Julie and Allen stumbles away to victory, still alive after the insane ordeal. Of course, we have just one more final twist as they both hear a loud growl behind them leading Allen to say “Ah %*&#! Of course there’s more.” before cutting to the credits. 

 Now if it isn’t too obvious already I would highly recommend this film. Most creature features these days are played out and honestly over-done but this one keeps you entertained, has a great storyline, and honestly is one I could see adding to my horror movie collection. “The Mutation” from Uncork’d Entertainment is available on digital and DVD on October 5th.