Mutant

Mutant (1982)

There are a few really cool movies that came out at the tail end of the drive-in era and the beginning of the VHS revolution. Mutant is one of those movies and I really do like it. The story here revolves around a couple of brothers, Josh and Mike that are trying to bond while on a trip. When they get run off the road by some locals they end up getting stuck in a small town. As if that weren’t bad enough the town also happens to be in the middle of a crisis (thought they don’t know it yet). After being exposed to toxic waste many of them are turning into blood sucking mutant zombie monsters! Yeah it is that kind of movie…

And damn it I like this kind of movie. The story is very familiar, but is executed well enough to keep the action coming and the characters interesting. At first the brothers, strangers in the town, feel very out of place and aren’t welcomed by the locals. Even before they “monster” up they aren’t very nice! But after the creatures show up, which isn’t too long into the movie (another good choice) Mutant takes on a creepy atmosphere. The Mutants stay out of the light, so there are a lot of things jumping out of the shadows and a couple of good jump scares. There are also a couple of cool plot points (don’t want to call them twists, because they are consistent with the movie) towards the end with a kid and one of the locals that I’ve always liked. I guess that the final thing I’ll say about the story is that while it doesn’t deviate from the creature feature “formula” much, it is different enough to stand out from the rest. That is one of the reasons I still like it as much today as I did years ago.

There are a few more things that I wanted to mention. First up is the excellent cast. Now this is a low budget monster movie, but it was cast very well. Wings Hauser is very good as the older brother Josh, who spends much of the movie running around looking for his brother and trying not to become “lunch” for the mutants. I also thought that Jody Medford is decent as the local girl/love interest. She only did this and Chained Heat, which seems like a shame. But what always puts a giant smile on my face is seeing Bo Hopkins as the sheriff. This is a real character that gives him something to work with, unlike many of his other films. There is a sequence where he is looking for a woman and listening to a recording of what happened to her. He does a great job with it.

Now we need to talk some special effects. The creatures here are basically just people with some face paint on them to make them look very pale and devoid of blood. And there aren’t any gory or memorable kills. So if you are an effects fan or gore hound you are going to be disappointed here. But I think that the creatures look just fine and fit with what they are supposed to be. The kills I also don’t really mind, because they are shot well. Director John 'Bud' Cardos does a fine job of using the shadows and camera to make the movie scary without the benefit of elaborate effects. I can appreciate this old school approach.

In the end I’m going to recommend Mutant, which also known as Night Shadows, as a solidly entertaining bit of ‘80s fun. The movie is in the public domain and should be easy to locate.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer