HALLOWEEN HORRORFEST 2021/RATAPALOOZA NIGHT TEN: The Mutation (2021)

We are back with The Ratapalooza Randomizer, and said Randomizer has presented me with what may be the freshest film I've ever covered during these Horrorfests.  The Mutation dropped at the very beginning of this month without fanfare...and once I saw the first logo flash on screen, I knew why.

You see, The Mutation is from Uncork'd Entertainment.  Uncork'd is not a production company per se.  Uncork'd is one of a number of companies--you may be more familiar with its peer Mill Creek Entertainment--which doesn't produce films so much as find films that already exist but do not have DVD or streaming rights wrapped up and licenses those rights for a limited time to produce product that can be sold at an extremely low price.  If you've ever done a dive into those Bargain DVD bins at Walmart or went through those cardboard boxes that you find at random in Dollar Tree or Dollar General or any of countless chain stores with 'Dollar' in its title or bought one of those '8 _____ Film Festivals' packs for five or ten bucks, you have probably bought something from a company like Uncork'd.

Films that are acquired by companies like Uncork'd sometimes are of value--I remember the joy I experienced coming across an Echo Bridge repackage of The Reflecting Skin (which is arguably a horror film, but inarguably a film that will destroy you and is highly recommended)--but mainly they're low-budget, home brewed features that were put together with a lack of artistry or vision or plot...so they could be licensed by a company like Uncork'd.  There are two excellent YouTube channels, Possum Reviews and CordreyFX that excel at looking at the type of films that Uncork'd or Mill Creek or Echo Bridge will license to make a quick buck.  And I am expecting to see it on one or the other any day now.

Zoologist Allen Marsh (Ricardo Frietas, who apparently learned how to act by studying lesser known Al Pacino movies) is called to consult on the murder of a scientist that seems to have been committed by an animal of some sort.  It turns out said scientist was mauled by a...rat man? (Derek Nelson in a tatty monsta suit) who was experimented on in an effort to cure cancer.  The rat man runs rampant, and Marsh, aided by three police detectives and the scientist's widow Linda (Amanda Jade-Tyler), endeavor to capture or kill the creature as it goes on a...gory?...rampage.

Sometimes a single shot says volumes...

Throughout this film, I had the weirdest sense that this film, obviously shot in Ireland and featuring some bizarre attempts at 'American' accents, was trying to hide that it was Irish.  Pretty much every character tries to conceal their country of origin, and in almost every single case, the actor's natural accent breaks through.  Even the actors who were the most successful like Jade-Taylor and the quite tall Abi Casson Thompson slip up eventually...although they might have gotten away with it if I wasn't made hyper-aware of the accent problem very early on.  Then comes the moment when the...lead detective?...tells Allen the FBI are taking over the investigation that and I realized they seriously expect us to believe this takes place in an American city.  I was not quite checked out at this point, but boy, did I check out immediately after that realization.

(I should also mention that almost immediately after that scene, we're presented with a newscast that specifically refers to a monster terrorizing the English countryside...)

This film has all the earmarks of a film made by people who just wanted some of that cheap horror movie money.  The beats will be overly familiar to anyone who has seen a horror movie in the last thirty years--right down to the last minute betrayal of a major character that fools no one.  The scenes are obviously shot in the homes of the cast and writer/director Scott Jeffrey and any public building they could be left alone in for an hour.  There's a weird sense of disconnect, as Allen's apartment door leads to what is obviously a high school basement, and the adjoining office of a garage is obviously somebody's suburban den.  Even the house that the film's third act takes place in is cobbled together by a number of disparate rooms that never seem to synch up....to the point where there is no geography to the place and we can't figure out what's going on from moment to moment.

I suppose I should mention the not-so-special effects.  They're horribly bad, from the super-shaggy rat-man costume with its jiggly fingers, curly tail and mask that looks more like a sad person's concept of a wolfman than anything else..and Nelson doesn't exactly help by acting in a decidedly non-rat man werewolfy way.  The gore effects are average at best, and one set piece involves a character trapped in the cage where the rat man was kept where the 'iron bars' bend and twist in such a way that it's ridiculous.  And if this wasn't stinky enough, we're treated to a CGI proto-SyFy sequence where the rat man turns into a giant rat-wolf-thingie and terrorizes the last three characters standing.

Like Gnaw: Food of The Gods II, this film fails so badly because it manages to be both boring and inept.  The only reason I rank this film marginally higher is because the weird dissonance between it being obviously Irish while pretending to be American makes for some mild amusement ala' The Rats Are Coming!  The Werewolves Are Here!.  I cannot recommend this.

We might as well stay in the Super-Low-Rent Rat Man sewers tomorrow, as I did a stroll through the...less examined corners of Amazon Prime and came up with 2007's Bottom Feeder, where Tom 'Will Act For Drugs' Sizemore runs afoul of a Super-Low-Rent Ratman in the tunnels under a hospital while a Bond villain acts, like, eeeeevil and such.

There are presently ten open slots for this year's festival, and if you'd like to be included, there are four ways to get your share of the spotlight:

1) You can become a Domicile of Dread Patreon at any level.  Patreons always get a free slot, as well as advance access to podcasts and other goodies!

2) You can buy me a coffee at Ko-Fi.  Suggested donation is $3

3) You can make a donation to Queens Community House Covid-19 Relief and Recovery Campaign.  Suggested donation is $10.  Please forward your receipt to me as proof.

4) You can choose to make a donation to the charity chosen by a sponsor on his/her/their day. Like with the third possibility, please forward me proof of donation.

It is not necessary to choose a rat-based horror film.  However, if you do, I will forward you a special Ratapalooza banner you can display on your website.