The Mutations (1974)

"It's not nice to fool with Mother Nature... it can be horrifying!"

Plot

Dr Nolter is a university lecturer who attempts to cross human and plant life in a series of hideous experiments. Enlisting the help of a disfigured man to kidnap students to be used as test subjects, the unsuccessful results (horribly mutated human-plant hybrids) are then packed off to spend their short-lived remaining days as exhibits in the local circus freak show before they succumb to their disfigurements and die.

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A 40s-style mad scientist film, The Mutations would been right at home with the ‘poverty row’ horrors of that decade - this only needed to be filmed in black and white, with Bela Lugosi in the leading role to tick off all the necessary boxes. It’s a dreary and depressing shocker which is so serious and grim with its approach that it threatens to implode in its own misery. But this was made in the 1970s and it feels so out of place with everything else that was being at the time that I'm not sure I could ever fully understand it being given the green light. Considering that 1974 also saw the release of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, it's even more perplexing to see something this old school being made in the UK.

There’s not really a lot more to the plot than the synopsis I gave above. The script contains too much padding and too many pointless scenes which have could been taken out of the film entirely with no disruption to the narrative, although one would suspect the eventual running time would struggle to fill out half an hour, let alone a full motion picture. The pacing is rather laborious as the script literally doesn’t know what to do with itself out of the central idea of some mad scientist creating freakish by-products of his experiments. I sincerely hope you enjoy time-lapse photography too as The Mutations is full of it, with the camera lingering on flowers growing as Pleasance narrates. There was about seven minutes of it to kick the film off, with an overlong credit sequence designed to pad out the running time.

There’s an undercurrent of Todd Browning’s notorious 1932 film Freaks here as the cast is filled of humans with real deformities, adding an unnecessary and tacky element of exploitation. Unlike in Browning’s film where the characters are presented with respect and humanity, the characters here are merely presented as sideshow attractions for shock value, presumably so they didn’t have to create more ‘freaks’ of their own with expensive make-up. This element of cruelty runs right through The Mutations. It’s a pretty poor film but you can’t get but feel there is a real sense of brutality under the surface, be it from the way its treats its unfortunate supporting cast or just the callousness at some of the things that happen to people throughout the film. The film isn't sure whether it's going to approach the subject matter tastefully or go with the grotty and the latter usually wins out.

Cinematographer Jack Cardiff, who worked with the likes of Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, steps into the director's chair here and handed over the photography to Paul Beeson who at least makes the film look colourful and interesting, particularly showcasing one of the best ‘mad scientist’ labs of this genre in all of its glory. But perhaps he makes the film look too good and, in doing so, draws attention to the many flaws with the make-up effects. The Mutations is given its title for a reason, though don’t expect too much given the low budget. There are plenty of rubber-suited monsters, with the human-plant hybrids looking like a giant walking Venus fly trap (and having the bigger appetite to match) and it's kind of ironic that future Doctor Who star Tom Baker is in this as those rubbery creations would have fitted well into the low budget trappings of that show. As bad as they look, there's still something slightly unsettling about them given we know how they were created in the first place.

Donald Pleasance doesn’t do much apart from look his usual eerie self and totally phones in his performance with a bland and emotionless portrayal of Nolter. Despite being hidden behind tons of make-up as the deformed Lynch (looking more like the Elephant Man than anything), Baker is excellent at conveying his characters anger and frustration - he starred in this shortly before he got the part of The Doctor and his costume here is almost a prototype for what he’d eventually wear travelling through time and space. Though his character does some despicable things throughout the film, there is a really touching sequence where he seeks out a prostitute and, rather than wanting to have sex with her, he pays her to say that she loves him. There are a couple of other character-based moments throughout where The Mutations threatens to break out into something more substantial but alas it never happens. Former Miss Norway, Penthouse Pet and some-time Hammer starlet Julie Ege fills both the glamour and nudity quota for the film.

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Final Verdict

Such a grotty, unpleasant film where no one looks they're having any fun at all, The Mutations is such a weird and bizarre film that it's really hard to judge. Did I like it? Not much. But it definitely leave a stain on you, something which needs a good few scrubs and washes to remove the grime. Kind of like rubbernecking at a car accident. The Mutations is that kind of a film.

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The Mutations Also Known As: The Freakmaker Director(s): Jack Cardiff Writer(s): Robert D. Weinbach (screenplay), Edward Mann (screenplay) Actor(s): Donald Pleasence, Tom Baker, Brad Harris, Julie Ege, Michael Dunn, Scott Antony, Jill Haworth, Olga Anthony Duration: 92 mins