Mutants

Sonia (a nurse/doctor) and her husband Marco have survived a mutation outbreak and are now on the run. Finding a place to take refuge, Marco gets infected with some contaminated blood, and is desperate to find a cue. As the infection takes days to mutate, Sonia is in a desperate race against time to help the love of her life, and ultimately face up to the possibility that she may lose him.

We have all had our fair share of standard Zombie/Infected films. Everybody seems to want to be the next George A. Romero, and unfortunately its a case of "seen one, seen them all". Then comes along David Morlet's "Mutants". A film about an apocalyptic outbreak, with plenty of flesh eating mutants, but this film serves so much more of a purpose than others that have come before it. To me, the story of the apocalypse was a side story, as the real focus was on the controversial use of "Euthanasia" ... such a debate has been raging over this topic, and the subtle way that David Morlet uses this topic, was superb. Is it OK to end the life of someone who has no more quality in theirs? Is it OK to put someone to sleep, forever? The question is constantly asked throughout the duration of the film, and shows the impact and heartbreak that even the thought can produce. The fact that this infection takes days to mutate and not instant, gives the viewer a false sense of a positive outcome. It shows that sometimes hope can be cruel, and we go along with the two characters, as things just go from bad to worse. Combining this strong psychological element with superb, isolated, cinematography, a strong soundtrack, above average acting, with gore and blood to add, this movie stands out as a very unique addition, to a very tired sub genre. Highly impressive!

A french horror movie that plays more like a psychological horror than a full on horror movie. The director made a short, that is setting up the mood for this film. He even uses one actor from the short and if I'm not completely mistaken, you could say, that it continues exactly where the short movie stopped/ended.

As a psychological film it really works. It doesn't have that much scares though and it might not be bloody enough for some people. While it's not pitch perfect, it's a nice watch. So if you want a horror movie with a little brain (no pun intended), then you can certainly give this a try.

In its very first minute, Mutants reminds us that in order to survive the inevitable zombie apocalypse, it is best not to get too attached to anyone or anything.

And of course, the problem is that it is very easy to say that, but much harder to put theory into practice. The difficulty with zombies, besides the fact that they are the tireless, ravenous living dead is that they are monsters with the faces of our loved ones. Random zombies are a problem, but one that can be solved with ruthless application of violence. From Romero's Night of the Living Dead to Robert Kirkland's Walking Dead the most difficult zombies haven't been the faceless hordes, but the zombies that we knew when they were human, our sons, daughters, parents and lovers.

The zombies being offered in Mutants are viral mutants similar to the ones in Danny Boyle's 28 Days Later, but where Boyle's film gave us a transformation that was almost simultaneous with infection, Mutants offers a much crueler plight. It imagines a delay between infection to full viral mutation of about four days. The cruelty of a long and painful transformation (in this case strongly reminiscent of Cronenberg's The Fly) is that it offers the illusion that a cure is possible. In this case, the main character, Sonia, is a medical professional. (It is unclear if she is a doctor or a nurse.) Sonia's identity is vested in her belief that any disease can be cured, that her infected lover Marco can be saved and she has secrets that help convince her that a cure is possible, even likely.

This is heresy for zombie affliction afficionados, where the only true cure for infection is immediate amputation, but by flirting with heresy, Mutants asks some compelling questions. In the process, it offers an eloquent elegy to the moral quandary of euthanasia.

At what point is medical treatment crueler than death? At what point has your loved one become so consumed by disease that all that they were and all that they could be have been replaced by the disease? Where does humanity end and death begin? Bad enough to be faced with those impossible questions, but Morlet ups the ante on Sonia by reminding us that the inevitable zombie apocalypse is not just about the zombies, it is also about the apocalypse - the end of everything. The end of easy transportation, the end of gas, the end of warmth, the end of light, the end of communication, the end of parts, the end of bullets, the end of civility, the end of love and the end of trust.

The film is not perfect. It uses a but too much of the shock-cam technique currently in vogue. There are also a couple of steps in the mutation that make little sense. Mutant zombies losing their hair makes sense, but losing their teeth? Really? The reason that the zombie apocalypse is inevitable has everything to do with our voracious and insatiable appetite that will eventually overcome and overwhelm our ability to feed it. The zombie apocalypse is the contrast between the death of our ability to feed the hunger and the dark monstrous face of that hunger lying just behind the mask of civility.

David Morel reminds us in Mutants not just of that inevitability, but also that when the end comes it will be both painful and beautiful, and that the barrier between life and death, love and hate, civilization and chaos is not a barrier that is crossed in an instant. It is one that is crossed so slowly and the hair, the blood, the fluids and all the mess of life and living shed in the crossing are so distracting that by the time you know that you have passed the tipping point, it is too late to turn back.

A virus has transformed the majority of humans into zombie-like creatures. An unlikely group tries to fight for survival in a military base.

Despite the recent influx of zombie and virus films from various countries, including France with the entertaining 'Le Horde,' here's another French take. 'Mutants,' refreshingly, stands in contrast to its counterparts as it takes a serious tone with the subject matter, expertly filmed by director David Morlet.

The film boasts impressive sets, cinematography, and art direction. It features cold, eerie lighting, desolate bunkers, and well-executed gore effects, all against the backdrop of a snowy wintertime setting.

Many scenes are filled with tension, enhanced by a pervasive sense of claustrophobia for added horror. While the sound design for the infected may be considered excessive, the acting is top-notch, with Helene de Frougerolles (bearing a resemblance to Asia Argento) carrying the film. In Louis-Paul Desanges and David Morlet's screenplay, everything is portrayed realistically, lending a gritty edge to the narrative.

There is, unfortunately, an excessive use of shaky camera work, a characteristic often associated with zombie and virus films. Calls for help on the radio, fortified bunkers, machetes, guns, human betrayal, love, and loss-all the clichés are present but handled with realism. Combined with the naturalistic acting and a chillingly crafted score, 'Mutants' manages to stand out in the oversaturated genre.

Aside from the '28 Days Later' rage-like infected, the film features a well-balanced, simmering survival element infused with emotion, creating a captivating atmosphere and continuous action. Although devoid of humor, it remains bloody and dramatically entertaining.

I have to admit I started watching it with high expectations, since I've read some reviews saying that it is a bit different from other zombie movies. It was not. It wasn't bad, but in the end it was just a rather low budget zombie movie with the same clichés that we know so well. The specific variation is virus infestation.

The film starts with three people in an ambulance, a woman who is a nurse, her husband or boyfriend and a black soldier woman who goes all crazy Rambo and has to be put down. There are some interesting scenes that hint at a bigger, smarter plan from the movie makers, but it doesn't come to fruition. All we get is this woman who runs away from all kind of creeps (and some zombies) until the film ends.

The idea is that the virus makes people very violent and meat hungry, but it also changes them, transforming them into something else. I kept hoping that the title would refer to some sort of human zombie combination, hunted by humans and zombie alike, destined to become a breed of antihero of its own. But, even if the movie did, as I said, hint at some more interesting ideas, it didn't go as far as actually explore them.

Bottom line: In my mind this films keeps oscillating under and above the average line, like a leaky boat that you don't know if it will sink or not. I am very tempted to rate it as a failure, but then again I must not punish the film makers for the crazy ideas and expectations I had in my head. So I will rate it as average, after all, but I don't really recommend it.