Writer / producer / director / editor D. M. Cunningham here created a decent practical effects showcase in search of a movie. The upshot is that a strange disease is rapidly infecting citizens in Michigan, and eventually it mutates its victims once it gets a foothold inside them. Cunningham relates the tales of various characters - some of them inter-related - as they fall victim to this horrible plague.
Unfortunately, very little of the thinly written "stories", and very few of the characters, were actually involving for this viewer. These people are ciphers and chumps, and keep making one bonehead move after another. That might have been the point, however, as Cunningham clearly couldn't wait to take these inane people and put them through the wringer. The gore & creature effects *are* a highlight, of course, but "The Spore" proves once again that gore & creature effects alone cannot make a movie. One has to give a damn about the tale being told and the people inhabiting it.
Granted, "The Spore" gets a bit more bearable in its second half, partly because this viewer didn't dislike the Serena (Haley Heslip) character as much as he did the others. (Vera was just the worst.). That said, he still wanted to yell at her for ultimately acting as dumb as everybody else in the film.
The music score is monotonous, the "acting" largely unappealing, and the whole thing is played *very*, *very* straight, with nothing in the way of intentional humor. "The Spore" is a drab, underwhelming affair that goes on for approximately 92 minutes, but unfortunately feels a lot longer.
Four out of 10.
