Mutants (2009)

Don't Believe the Hype

Absolutely the worst movie.

A Masterpiece!

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

The zombie genre is one of my favourites(The Walking Dead is my favourite TV series ever and love films like Dawn Of The Dead and Shaun Of The Dead)as is the zombie/virus sub genre(my favourite British film is 28 Days Later)so this French spin on the genre was a superb one.This film follows a more 28 Days Later plot than the dead back to life plot where a nasty infection turns people into ravenous monsters but unlike any zombie/virus film I've seen before it makes the person infected go through a much longer transformation process than say 28 Days Later or World War Z(the infected transform in about ten seconds in them)with the infected going through a horrifying four days or so before full blown mutant/zombie mode happens.We follow Sonia a medical person of some sort(never explained what she does)who has to care for her boyfriend Marco who gets infected with the virus that has swept the world(well I think the whole world)and has to watch him go through a nasty transformation which includes his hair falling out,yanking his teeth out(yeah yuk I know),vomiting incessantly(more like exploding out)and having moments of what's to come like having vivid dreams of being a zombie,raging at Sonia and shouting horribly.As she seems immune(she is attacked a few times but never transforms)she tries to make a cure but it doesn't work and seems to speed up Marco's transformation so she locks him up for her safety.Just after a group arrives and their leader threatens Sonia with a gun and demands the keys to the ambulance she and Marco travelled in(to the big building they are staying in)but she makes out its out of petrol.As a horde of mutant/zombies gather outside she tries to make contact with the helicopter base in hopes of being rescued and makes contact(telling them that she is pregnant also)but just after the infected storm the building plus Marco is now a full blown mutant.Can Sonia survive,will the nasty group that invaded help or will she suffer at the hands of both humans and ex humans.This was a different take on this popular horror genre and though its no classic and some of it is ultra gory I thoroughly enjoyed it and unlike other people reviewing it saying it dragged it never did for me,the whole point of the slow part in the middle was to show the painful process in how a infected person transforms and how hard it is to see someone you love become something entirely different.The acting by the two main actors was sublime and you really feel for both Sonia watching the love of her life slowly transform into a monster and Marco who goes through four days(or how many days it was)of a agonising process that will see him suffer in every imaginable way possible and though the infection in 28 Days Later or World War Z is quick and nasty this would be much worse for someone to feel all this and to lose hair,teeth and vomit like that and then become a zombie would be worse than anything you could imagine,both give wonderful performances that deserves more plaudits than they got.The others are good but are pretty wasted even if the man who was the gang leader played a nasty and selfish person very well(got his comeuppance though later)plus the cop lady at the start was very good in a small role.Action or exciting wise it comes a bit at the start and much at the finale and the final scenes are terrific and worth the build up before hand with hordes of infected like a scene from 28 Days Later or a action packed sequence from The Walking Dead who storm the big building and take down the gang one by one with the gang leader Frank selfishly locking his supposed lover out from him so she dies a nasty death(shown in a Walking Dead point of view type with blood splattering the camera)before evil Frank got what was coming to him just after(my goodness he deserved that).Other great moments include Marco's many moments of madness which seen him go through a nasty bout of vomiting(don't watch if you don't like seeing people being sick),chasing after Sonia butt naked covered in blood and a gory scene of him pulling his teeth out(not nice guys trust me).Another scene I liked was one of the gang members(bald guy)facing off with the mutants before being ripped apart.I really enjoyed this French horror film and though its neither a classic horror film or zombie film its certainly worth a watch with for a film of this type top quality acting,gore galore,a group of nasty bad guys,beautiful imagery(snow filled mountains)winter setting which is great for a zombie film and a new spin on this extremely popular genre.

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.

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.