Mutant (1984)

100 minutes.

Wings Hauser, Jody Medford.

Rated R

There is much romance to be had here. Not just in the story, but in the execution of this production and at this particular time for horror. It's a small town monster movie made during the slasher era. There are practical effects, stuntmen on fire, bodies flying off of cars and crashing through dark windows during the mayhem. Shot in Atlanta in 1983, it harkens back to another time where you could almost picture this mostly local cast in a western some thirty years previous. The influences are there. Bo Hopkins is our alcoholic Sheriff with a troubled past and the lovely Jennifer Warren is the town doctor, love interest. Wings Hauser and Lee Montgomery round out the cast as two city boys, brothers Mike and Josh respectively. Mike is getting his younger brother out of the city to cheer him up as they intended to just pass through but... they run afoul of some local town "hero's" who aren't so impressed by them. In short order we have road rage inspired stunt driving, an ok bar altercation, some cool exposition and a dead guy who isn't so dead anymore. I'll leave it at that.

This film screams out the color blue as it is laced all through the production design. Set pieces, wardrobe, lighting et al. The creature effects are minimal but on the level and the action is played convincingly straight without getting too ambitious for the modest budget. So there aren't any Romero-esque zombies that shuffle around. They are like human leeches that grab a hold of you and drain your blood through open sores.

The music is beautifully composed and conducted by auteur Richard Band with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This is the icing on the cake as production value goes. The writers really worked hard to move the viewer along while the characters are people you identify with and actually hope for!

I strongly suspect Mutant has been criminally over looked or mistakenly had its thunder stolen by similar films like “Creature” or “C.H.U.D” -all released in and around 1982-1984... or even more unjustly, dismissed as an inept Alien rip-off...not even close. This is just pure innocent fun that doesn't aspire to rip off or be like any of the other films being made at that time. I first watched this at home with my all my brothers while eating chips, hiding under the blankets on a cold winter school night in 1991. I was thirteen years old. It left an impression on me then that never went away.