Aberration (1997)

Touches You

People are voting emotionally.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

We're talking about, "Aberration, A 1997 movie, Directed by Tim Boxell, and Written by Scott Lew, and Darrin Oura. Spoiler Alert, I will be talking about it, watch if you like, it is entertaining to a point. Then come back and see if I'm on target. There use to be something called "camp". This movie defines it. Suffice to say that my favorite actor was Merlin the Cat, The small but earnest cast tried their best with the comic book dialogue they were given.OK the story, Talking about targets, Our lady with a shady past, Amy Harding played with spunk, by Pamela Gidley, is one sharp shooter, unlike the dorky collage student, who talks to himself a lot, Played with evolving dumbness, by Simon Bossell as Marshall Clarke. The lad is clearly blinded by Science. These are the main players the rest are just the usual lot of victims, save for the Macho Ex boyfriend that she stole fifty grand from. Uri Romanov played by Valerie Nikolaev. Playing it like he was from another movie. Like a sharpshooter in a gallery arcade Only in this movie they got him shooting pop out rubber lizard heads. No kidding, see these things are suppose to be mutant geckos. To spice things up, they are evolving defenses by the minute. Yep unkillable. Even with Amys amazing twenty one shooter. Mashall is no slouch himself with his thirty seven shooter shotgun, The movie got everything you want from a low budget production, fitting all the used plot devices they could on a shoe string, and a "figure it out as we go", attitude that dares to take every cliché to heart. Start with the obligatory Bath scene, where Amy is directed to do everything she can, not to hear the monster in the room, want More? Lets see, the Hunter looses his dog, How long will the cat last? too bad, We get a lot of stomping eggs, shades of "It", They make disgusting squishing sounds, It will drive some fetishist crazy We also get to see them drive and breakdown twice, in a snowstorm; blinding one moment and clear in the next shot. Keep these guys away from cars or trucks, every one they touch goes Boom. The cinematographer fancies himself working on far more artistic endears The stark whiteouts which is impressive the first time, is repeated eight times throughout the film, likewise the knocking down furniture looking for the rubber tails, three times. The creatures are equal opportunity biters, everybody gets bit. What if it spits in your eye, but you are wearing glasses? You take em off. Lots of Hokey fun here I would give it a, gets tiresome; Six out of Ten ("Oh no, they killed my cat") Stars.

The film opens with Amy (Pamela Gidley - "Brigitte" from the Pretender series) driving to her new home with cat and fish. A couple of minutes into her journey, she removes sunglasses and wig. Uh-oh. Either she just committed a crime, or is escaping an abusive boyfriend. Her paranoia upon entering the house indicates the latter.As she turns into the driveway, she's observed by a scientist (Aussie cutie Simon Bossell) collecting mysterious, goopy samples near the property. Hmm... young, good-looking woman, young good-looking man? What are the chances they'll get together? As Amy settles in, we meet a couple of the locals. The typical crazy & his dog and the kind general store manager. But, wait - this is a horror film! Let's leave this Little House on the Prairie nonsense & see some gore!Finally, we glimpse our monster - well, its viewpoint, as it goes after the crazy recluse's dog. Buh-bye Rover. Amy's cat is similarly bothered in the house - could the beast be in her home? Could there be more than one?!? Ayup. We finally see the creatures. Lizards of some bastardized origin - they're able to evolve from generation to generation. Thanks, Monsanto! Within hours, the newly born spawn has nifty defense mechanisms against what thwarted their parents.So, basically it's multigenerational mutant annihilation for our two heroes. A lot of blowing things up, really.Oh - and that abusive boyfriend? Yes, he makes an appearance. He's an a-hole who enjoys his battle with the so-called "Aberrations" just a little too much. In a combo Lifetime/Syfy flick - he really doesn't stand a chance. A totally hammy performance by Valeriy Nikolaev, but a fun stretch.The movie is slow-paced, and could've been 15-20 minutes shorter. It also uses some cliché tactics (including the 'thrown cat' trick and asinine, punny lines). The puppets used for the creatures had some good detail, and the 'enhancements' were clever. But, this movie didn't know whether it wanted to be a drama, sci-fi, or horror. It was a little too muddled to fit neatly into any of those categoriesOverall, a decent flick with flaws and some major predictability. Editing could have been tighter, but the casting choices were good, and there were some clever shots to impress cinematographers. And the cat? A total PROFESSIONAL! The scenes with the critters seemed a bit campy - like "Gremlins" meets "Munchies". But, still a watchable, if dramatic, romp.

Like others here, I'm amazed how such material gets good reviews. Granted, this thing is low budget. And it was made in the late nineties, before the "perfection" of digital monsters. But there's really no excuse for a contemporary monster movie where the monsters look like they were purchased from a dollar store.Not that I'm trying to be overly critical. The acting is not bad. The camera work is okay. But this is another of those instances where the impoverished budget is readily apparent. Aside from the creature effects, the entire picture seems to take place in a cabin and nearby general store. Which means we're talking isolation, but not of the creative EVIL DEAD type, but of the "We won't have enough money to make this unless we shoot at my parents' cabin" type.Don't get me wrong. The last thing I want to do is discourage young filmmakers - especially ones working on a limited budget. But I would caution them to make sure the centerpiece of their films - the monsters themselves - are worth the ride.

Without saying much to this piece of crap film. I will say that this film has terrible and at the MOST mediocre acting. There are more plot holes than swiss cheese and i mean a lot! The lizards looked fake as hell and this movie came out in 1997? That must be a mistake cause the effects sucked so bad that I find it hard to believe it isn't a movie from the 60's. And it's like throughout the movie they didn't care at all. They stopped for about 10 minutes to rest and than find out more are/were coming. You don't do that in a horror film. In conclusion, save yourself 3-5 bucks at blockbuster and skip this film when needed cause it certainly ain't worth your time. It's one of the worst movies i've ever seen and i watch a lot of movies, especially horror and for me to say that it sucks, it's just about true. Even the ending of the movie made no sense, ahhhh forget it just don't watch this film at all even if u catch it on sci-fi.