User Reviews

This French film about surviving a zombie apocalypse is not to be confused with the American film released around the same time, with the same name.

Sometimes, it's nice just to sit back with a cup of tea and watch a group of people being attacked by the living dead in a world gone mad and unspeakable conditions with little hope of survival or anything other than a life of unbelievable suffering.

In the icy grip of winter, armed with the determined but vague notion of escaping this carnage, Marco (Francis Renaud) and pregnant Sonia (Hélène de Fougerolles) hide out in an abandoned building miles away from anyone. Marco, however, has been infected, and over the film's running time we see his girlfriend treating him, pathetically thinking he will recover. As his slow and graphic disintegration continues apace, the couples' desperation is palpable.

I always find it pleasing – and true to life – when the 'normal, decent' people are revealed to be villains. And that's what happens here when others arrive – some infected, some not. And so, perversely, the zombies – especially the completely mutated Marco – become a force for retribution, and the audience almost begins to side with them.

There is no let up from the misery, gore, graphic violence and horror, and the film is sometimes in danger of becoming very one note. There are only so many times you can be shocked and appalled when someone is unexpectedly killed by the living dead. The only moment of optimism comes at the end, when it seems the long suffering Sonia has been saved. Although the baby she is expecting has been conceived with someone infected… Grim.

Seriously, stop calling this a zombie movie. The hint is in the title! As somebody who follows video games, I am lately quite a fan of the Day-Z standalone game that is being developed for PC and PS4. 'Mutants' is that one film that such gamers should watch (even though it's not a zombie movie).

The problem I find these days with low-budget apocalyptic horror is that not only does it often fail to learn from classic horrors that paved the way for modern cinema - while earning kudos for its own originality - it has too much on its plate for its budget to contend with. It's just not convincing enough, in aesthetic, story or acting ability.

Introducing 'Mutants', I can only point out that not only is it an original story all of its own, it has a location all of its own lending a superb setting, and it successfully refreshes all the thrills and chills of such classics as The Shining, Aliens, Evil Dead, 28 Days Later and more (without being a zombie movie).

A terrifying pandemic that turns its victims into raging flesh-eating mutants leaves two paramedics (Marcus and Sonia) and a SWAT officer on the run. When a showdown leaves only our paramedics alive, one of them injured and infected, it is up to Sonia to try to save Marcus, while protecting herself and her unborn baby.

The pretense being that there is an isolated military base that they must reach, they are forced to hide in an abandoned building, where Marcus slowly mutates and Sonia loses hope. But then there are possibly worse things out there than the mutants roaming the apocalyptic winter landscape.

'Mutants' takes its cue from many classics, but 'The Shining' is most definitely the one that really stands out to me. It doesn't try to be that way, it simply utilises those codes and conventions and succeeds in its mission as a result.

'Mutants' is claustrophobic, tense, bloody and filled with many edge of your seat moments. The same crew could also have made an awesome 'Left 4 Dead' movie. The special effects are quite grim.

My only issue regarding this movie is that the French didn't always translate too well to English. There were also a few letterbox mistakes, which were pretty amateur; something that doesn't reflect on the movie at all as a whole!

Many people hated this film during the Gerardmer horror film festival. And I really don't know why. It's a good picture. With many influences, such as THE THING, 28 WEEKS - or DAYS - LATER and Georges Romero's zombie films, I agree. But that doesn't justify so much disparage.

Characters are well described and well acted too. The work done on this movie is very meticulous, and the shooting sharp, accurate and detailed. The setting is splendid, in the middle of the mountains, somewhere in France.

Violent and brutal sequences are never gratuitous. On the contrary, they make this movie more intense and poignant. Only the very ending is not really a surprise, for those who are fans of horror films. Nearly a cliché. But nothing is perfect...

As a huge fan of Zombie films, I was excited to get into Mutants. It being French didn't really matter to me. The shooting was well done, great gore, okay acting, but the storyline left me thinking "COME ON". The events that took places were just plain stupid. And somehow the main character ,a poor little white lady, survives.

*SPOILER ALERT* She kills a SOLDIER. Really a skilled person in the military? It was the French military, but even still. A paramedic shooting a really brute soldier in the face for no real reason? Come on. The main character also watched on two separate occasions people get eaten alive while she was holding a fully functional weapon. Then when she escapes to out of the building through a vent into a small area surrounded by fences, she wastes time trying to pull the lock when she had all the time in the world to climb over. But get this, the zombie catches up to her, and DOESN'T attack her. He sniffs her. Then she kills him. I was completely confused. But GET THIS. The zombies surround the fenced area. Just then the army comes, shooting them. Bullets fly everywhere, yet shes unscathed. It all seemed too cliché with the army coming to the rescue of the little innocent pregnant white lady. It all left me shaking my head at what could have been a spectacular zombie flick. 4 out of 10. Yes the storyline was that bad.

It's not a film you immediately get invested in, the characters aren't the most intriguing which is perhaps my biggest gripe with this particular film.

Its a scenario you've seen, survivors of a large scale outbreak are fleeing the horror. Their only hope is to be rescued by NOAH base, a military out post...and guess what, one of them is immune.

The thing that differs with this film, is it's intimacy. It hones in with a strikingly human narrative, under a very beastly story. The way it does this is very different to what you'd normally see in films of this kind. It is also a film where terrible things can happen to any and every character.

And considering this is a French horror film, there is quite a bit of brutality. The stakes are very VERY high.

Over all, though it isn't original, it's a very good film.

MUTANTS opens interestingly enough with scenes of confusion and what looks like the makings of a visceral horror experience. There is a tense scene with tense music as well as some interesting visuals. That takes us about 5 minutes into the film after which time MUTANTS devolves into an annoyingly uninteresting crap-fest.

We think that the black female soldier is going to be a protagonist through the movie until she is KILLED by the other female protagonist in one of the most ridiculous 2 minutes of story-line that I have witnessed in some time. Oh, and I wonder if you'll find yourself saying - "Uhhh...is that a dude or a woman?" - when you first see the soldier. I didn't know it was a woman until the word "she" was used to describe her.

But I digress. What develops is a classic "Army vs. Scientists/Doctors theme. Obviously, as is almost always portrayed, the army personnel are going to come off as irrational and ruthless while the scientists are portrayed as compassionate and patient. Sonia, as an emergency medical technician, pushes the envelope of compassion into the realm of stupidity.

The scenario by which the autistic boy precipitates the fallout between the soldier and Sonia and Marco is wholly implausible. The soldier shoots the kid at virtually point-blank range with an assault weapon numerous times. You'd think that at least one round would exit the boy and strike Marco. But no. It's a minor miracle.

You'd also think they'd be in survival mode - ALL OF THEM, not just the soldier. I can understand paranoia and turning on the one you don't trust, but turning on the strongest member of the party at that particular moment just seemed counter-intuitive.

Morley doesn't try to develop much foreboding or dread. You know, the stuff that makes a horror movie scary! But I guess you work with what you've got: a bad story, fairly bad actors, and a bad script.

All they are left with to try to elevate this film is the relationship between Sonia and Marco. Now we're looking at something straight out of "Dawn of the Dead" or "I, Zombie", or "The Return of the Living Dead".

This relationship is pretty much the only element of the film that may make you try to understand what you're seeing. And, for all I know, I made up half of this character analysis because I wanted so badly to find something with merit in MUTANTS. At any rate, to summarize:

Sonia being so trusting of Marco during his obvious infection and transformation seems to signal that she has already given up in a way. I understand that she too was bit and did not transform BUT Marco's hair is falling out, he's vomiting blood, and his teeth are coming loose. Did any of these things happen to her? Marco is the only one who seems to be convinced of his fate as he is the one experiencing the painful transformation. Sonia, on the other hand, is in denial.

Maybe the message is that sometimes HOPE is a dangerous and cruel thing. She selfishly dangles hope in front of Marco's eyes by saying she is proof that he may be OK when she has no idea if this is true. She doesn't even know for certain if she will eventually transform herself. But, she allows Marco's suffering out of desperate love for him. He who is the father of her unborn child and the last recognizable trace of normalcy left in her world. She allows both of them to be tortured by waiting on the infinitely small chance that he will be immune. Marco wants to die and Sonia's behavior is tantamount to suicide. Love in despair is dangerous love. She even resists euthanizing him and ends up locking him in a cage, where he eventually transforms. I suppose this is a manifestation of her inability to let go or, perhaps, an attempt to control something in her environment (a caged animal).

Things get promising when the other survivors show up. But this novelty quickly wears off due to more ridiculous plot development. Such as the dude with the machete - who lets the first mutant that attacks him in the cave bum-rush him from like 20 feet off. DUDE, you have a MACHETE! Or Frank, who throws the smoke grenade - which was effective - but then doesn't use it to his advantage and allows himself to be killed by a mutant who stares him down for a good 5 seconds before going for the kill. I suppose Frank forgot he had a gun.

Eventually I'm saying to myself, "This s--t is just dumb." Sonia won't attempt to kill the now completely mutant-Marco when she has an easy shot BUT after he chases her and tries to kill her THEN she shoots. Why not just let him kill ya sister?

Oh - she unceremoniously kills him with a lead pipe after he is snagged in the barbed wire. How humane. This was all worth it.

I am laughing my a-- off during this part.

And then..... THE CAVALRY ARRIVES! NOAH (Noah's Ark...I get it...) mows down the bad guys!

What is up with this mediocre, Hollywood-esque, FRENCH HORROR FILM???? I mean...whyyyyyyyyyyy did David Morley do this? Does he not know that he is soiling an otherwise magnificent tradition?

In the end, you can't even call MUTANTS a horror movie - it plays more like an action-flick. It's not terrifying and when the mutants catch you they head-butt you. MUTANTS suffers from weak story-line, character development, and dialogue. And in turn, we all suffer too.

So watch this if you want. But my suggestion is to order a couple of pizzas and watch 28 Days Later, Aliens, and Dawn of the Dead (1978) instead.

A virus has spread across France, wiping out most of the population. Paramedic Sonia and her boyfriend Marco try to survive as they head toward the hope of safety at a military base.

I'm starting to think that filmmakers are trying to do too much with the zombie sub-genre. Mutants tries to inject a little romance into the equation but I never really bought Sonia and Marco as a couple so I didn't get into their relationship, and the "trouble" they ran into didn't really have an impact on me. What I did like about this plot device were a few scenes where Sonia's frustration came through, like "I regret taking on this extra hassle of my boyfriend and his addictions." Their connection also played out nicely toward the end of the film.

Mutants starts off promising in its first few minutes, then slows to a crawl and doesn't pick up again until the final 25-30 minutes. The gore is minimal but nicely done when it's there and I liked the setting and cinematography. I'd kind of like to know why the mutants' noses apparently grow shut after infection - that's the thing that bothered me the most (probably not what the filmmaker was going for). As zombie movies go, you could do worse but you could definitely do better.

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