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MUTATION
Produced by Josephina Sykes
Directed and Written by Brad Sykes
Edited by Michael Davis
Director of Photography - Andrew GiannettaBrook - Jessica Moon
K - Eddie Croft
Sean - John Damon Charles
Gornick - Brain Schwartz
Rochelle - Anita Maria Taylor
MUTATION director Brad Sykes really doesn't hide the fact that he makes formula pictures. As MUTATION unfolded, it became clear that his structure mirrored his previous film, DEATH FACTORY. Not the plot, mind you, but the basic story and structure. With the exception of GOTH, a movie I genuinely liked, the few films I've seen from Sykes feel identical, but isnt' that the basic definition of an auteur, a director who makes the same movie over and over again?
MUTATION opens with two cops, one played by kickboxing champion Brain Schwartz, staking out the lair of a serial killer known as "K," played by martial arts instructor Eddie Croft. The scene sets up the film to follow, both the story plot and tone. Without guns drawn, vests worn, back-up called, and no brains to speak of, Schwartz's Detective Gornick and his partner decide to rush the building in hopes of taking K down. They're just the sort of moronic horror characters who deserve a good killing.
Inside K is about to kill his latest victim whose only depth is her tight shirt and ample bosom. K comes from the modern trend of torture porn horror. He has his victim strapped down in a chair with a collection of his favorite knives placed for easy access...to her organs. Before K can test the sharpness of his phallic blades on his lady victim, Gornick comes to the rescue. The two duke it out with feet flying, and ultimately Gormick comes out on top, but not before his partner is killed in the process.
The opening scene, which details the stupidity of cliched characters, is a small precursor to the insipidness that follows. The rest of the movie hinges on the belief that not only are all the characters, both seen and unseen, are morons, but the audience is as well. Where MUTATION differs from DEATH FACTORY is that while DF was also a formula picture, it's one that doesn't insult the audience.
Consider this, 5 years after Gornick gives K the chop-socky dirtnap, two scientists, Dr. Friedle and his assistant Janet, decide to thaw K's cryonically frozen body which was stored for brain research. The two plan on testing a cell reanimation cocktail, called Trioxen, that after years of research has finally given its first positive results. The audience is asked to suspend disbelief and believe:
1) That someone would spend the hundreds of thousands of dollars to cryonically freeze a serial killer.2) That someone would actually want to cryonically freeze a serial killer with the thought of reviving him in the future.
3) That the study of cryonics has advanced to the point where entire bodies can be revived without tissue or brain damage (cells don't freeze due to the chemicals used, but there are issues that arise from lack of oxygen to the cells during the cooling and reviving phase)
4) That no one would have performed an autopsy on our killer so that his body could be frozen in the first place.
5) The two scientists would set aside all ethical standards and jump right from a single successful result in the reanimation of tissue to experimentation on human corpses. It's not so much that their work would be invalidated, but that any profit gained would be lost since it's illegal to profit on a crime...especially while you're in jail. This sort of unethical action would no doubt bring about legal action.
6) That even with a serum that gives the reanimated corpse 10 times it's natural strength, the corpse could immediately jump up and go about dropping bodies.
My original list of suspended reality included another 10 points, but you get the idea. Some people would say that you really need to check your brain at the door and go along for the ride, but it's hard to go along with anything when the thought processes behind it defy every notion of logic known to mankind. I'm a firm believer that stupid people in horror films should die off as quickly as possible so that a good movie might possibly be salvaged from the remaining intelligent, or at the very least, interesting, characters. Unfortunately for the cast of MUTATION, everyone suffers from the same mental defects. It's a reflection of laziness on Sykes' park that there's not even a remotely interesting character worth saving.
The story gets even more preposterous in that way in which only bad horror movies can - outlandishly contrived coincidence. When K goes about his new killing spree, Detective Sean Taylor is assigned to the case. He quickly learns that K is heading for his old hideout where Taylor's girlfriend, Parole Officer Brook, just so happens to be leading 4 female parolees in a building-wide cleaning. Not only must the viewers buy this, but they also have to believe that when K was initially killed 5 years ago that the police never bothered to thoroughly search the lair for his weapons as boxes of knives keep turning up.
It's at this point where Sykes reveals his true problem as writer of formula pictures - he can't deliver a second act. Both DEATH FACTORY and MUTATION have a slow 45 minutes of set up before the final 20 minutes of bloodbath ensue. A second act could help establish characters and give them emotional weight which could possible give emotional impact when their on-screen death occurs. It could also help to establish an actual story rather then moving right from beginning to end. Sykes notes on the commentary during a catfight scene that the sole reason for the fight was to kill time while the killer makes his way to his old lair. Why not story, or backstory, or establish relationships?
MUTATION is the sort of movie where it's too easy to criticize, and I really don't take any enjoyment from doing so. There's a scene where the killer goes after the 3 of the 4 remaining ladies while one runs in the other direction. We're supposed to buy it when he suddenly shows up to surprise the fourth? Does the Trioxen allow K to teleport? While K goes about his rampage, no one stops to think that a shot to the head would put things to an abrupt end? No matter how quickly his cells might regenerate, it's would take more then a few minutes, enough time to makes a run for it, for his brain to regenerate enough to animate the rest of his body.
These are the sorts of thing that takes away from noticing what Skyes does right, and it's drawing natural performances from his actresses, especially Jessica Moon who plays Brook. His casting choices are interesting in that he opts for women who look like real women as opposed to the Barbie Dolls he was forced to cast in DEATH FACTORY. It's as if he cast the best actress for the role rather then the one with the biggest bust size.
GOTH seemed like a stop in the right direction for Sykes. It felt like a more personal work. While I haven't seen any of his films between that one and this, MUTATION seems like he's gone in the wrong direction. Sykes admits during the commentary that the majority of his movie was lifted from movies he's enjoyed, especially a number of Italian horror features. Hopefully in the future he'll find inspiration from these better movies instead of recycling them in a far inferior manner.
Besides the commentary, the dvd features a short making-of production.