Film Review: Mutants (2009)

SYNOPSIS:

In a world devastated by a pandemic virus that turns human beings into primitive and bloodthirsty creatures, Marco and Sonia set off to find a secret base to escape from the ‘mutants’. When the latter attack them, Marco is infected too. Little by little, he undergoes the same changes. Sonia, who is expecting a baby, is then forced to fight her worst enemy, the man she loves.

REVIEW:

Mutants seems to be a popular title lately. Almost so much that I might have passed this one up thinking I’d seen it already. Though if that’s the case, then this is the one of the same name that needs to be seen. The French have there version that frankly is a much more played out dramatic film than you’d expect from the arena of infected and frenzied. Much of the film is pretty solemn in nature, intertwined with some pretty crazy mutant action.

We are told that a pandemic virus has broken out that threatens society and possibly the extinction of our race. The infected once turned …..become violent, diseased, disfigured and maniacal…not to mention cannibalistic. Though it is important to point out that they are not zombies. Merely once the virus had entered the blood stream a transformation undergoes over a period of time. This transformation starts with hair loss, decayed teeth, scars, blackening of the eyes and soars that evolve all over the body. In fact the transformed become pretty slimy almost like there skin is partially melting off, not a pretty site. A rage takes over and essentially they become another species that preys on humans, kills and run amok.

As we enter the film, we find ourselves with the lead characters medic Sonia (Hélène de Fougerolles) and Marco (Francis Renaud)….a couple in love who have set out in search of retreat from the infected that roam the country.

The only hope for them and anyone for that matter is a military station called Noah. They are on there way there when Marco gets wounded by a overzealous militant that shots him out of panic. With the emergency vehicle out of gas, they take refuge in an abandoned housing complex.

The French angle is a bit of change from American driven films of its kind in that it sets out to show the misery and drama that is involved with the change over. When Marco finds that he is infected from a blood spattering that got into his blood upon being shot he slowly becomes ill and starts to turn.

Though its no immediate transformation as his humanity slowly slips away and the violence becomes his main focal point. Sonia, even though knows there is no hope still hangs on to notion of seeing her boyfriend saved. She is given many chances to end his suffering but instead finds the act to hard to deal with. Instead he becomes the thing that he was trying to get away from. As new occupants take refuge in the building, she finds herself confronting them as well who prove to be not much better than the cannibalistic creatures. Attempts are made to contact Noah as she alerts them that she is immune to the virus and is with child. Future attacks continue as all who enter must fight for there lives against these maniacal beasts.

David Morlet directs this one with a heavy does of messed up creatures at his disposal. The film is shot so that much of it centers in the abandoned building. The sense of isolation is felt as the filmmakers often reveal the snowy mountains and forest that surround them. At the heart of this film their is a love story and sense of losing one while trying to hold on at the same time. It does have its share of slow parts, but the practical FX makeup is done so well that the appearances of these things balances alot of that out.

I wouldn’t say this is a highly original film as its basis is similar to so many others like this but it is shot beautifully and provides a different perspective that we’ve come to know from French films. The viral are hideously freakish providing a solid base of unnerving acton film moments along the way. Mutants is pretty decent and some times damn scary!