The Mutations is a low-budget 1974 British-American science fiction/horror film directed by Jack Cardiff. The film was also released under the title The Freakmaker.
Plot
This movie directed by Academy Award-winning cinematographer/director Jack Cardiff in the 1970's depicts a deranged genetic scientist, Professor Nolter, a man with self proclaimed noble to break through to the next stage in human evolution, through the crossbreeding cannibalistic Venus flytraps with abducted college studentsguinea pigs from his own class. "I'll create a race of plants that can walk, and men that can take root," through an exploitation of certain nucleic acids. The failed experimental mutants are then given to a cruel circus freakshow owner, Mr. Lynch who exploits them to the fullest. However, the mutants and the circus freaks will not be denied justice. Inspired by Tod Browning's film Freaks with a science fiction twist, this film is full of pseudo scientific jargon, stop motion visuals, makeup effects, references to psychedelics, comical gore, nudity, and by the standards of modern viewers a distasteful exploitation of actors with actual genetic disabilities as well as some made up disabilities including a man with rubber-bones known as the Human Pretzel, a lady with reptilian skin, the Monkey Woman, the Human Pincusion and Popeye.. Nonetheless it grabs attention among the other scenes of "freaks" it depicts a reversed stop motion capture of the professor reviving a moldy orange, and the professor feeding a bunny rabbit to a Venus flytrap. A dissonant and jumbled orchestral score composed by Basil Kirchen provides a perfect dissident backdrop to accompany visuals of gore, circus freaks, and accenting the overacting and dramatics of the actors in this intriguing 1970's horror film which has been restored on DVD after decades of floating in obscurity.
The film was released on DVD by Subversive Cinema on September 27, 2005. Subversive Cinema later re-released the film on January 29, 2008 including with it commentary tracks with Jack Cardiff, Robert Weinbach, and Brad Harris as a part of its 2-Disk Greenhouse Gore movie pack. It was last released by Desert Island Films on February 18, 2012.
Reception
Author and film criticLeonard Maltin awarded the film 2 out of 4 stars, criticizing the film's predictable story and what he called "grotesque elements and characters". TV Guide awarded the film 1/5 stars, writing, "Though at times the film is so bad it's unintentionally funny, it has a certain cruelty to it." Michael H. Price of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, gave the movie 3 stars and praised the movie comparing it to Tod Browning's Freaks, and calling the effects "at once shocking and fascinating" and praising its "dissonant orchestral score" which he claims "adds mightily to the mood of unease and gathering madness."
