THE MUTATIONS (1975)

 

DIRECTED BY Jack Cardiff

SCREENPLAY BY Edward Mann & Robert D. Weinbach

STARRING - Donald Pleasence as Professor Nolter, Tom Baker as Lynch,  Brad Harris as Brian Redford, Julie Ege as Heidi, Michael Dunn as Burns, Scott Antony as Tony,  Jill Haworth as Lauren.

PLOT - Professor Nolter is an insane geneticist. His aim  -  to "evolve" mankind to the next level by gene splicing his human guinea pigs with plant D.N.A. taken from Venus flytrap's 

Aided by his assistant - a deformed carnival owner called Lynch, Nolter abducts a pair of students with the aim of transforming them into his own twisted vision of a perfect lifeform.

However things go wrong. One of Nolter's mutated creatures dies and the other breaks free. With a mutant killer on the rampage, the missing student's friends becoming suspicious of Nolter and the carnival sideshow freaks who work for Lynch becoming tired of his bullying ways, it looks like the net is closing in on Professor Nolter and Lynch...

PERFORMANCES - Ask most people who the best Doctor Who was and there will be one name that stands tall...Tom Baker. Baker was - and still is - considered by many to be THE definitive version of the TV Time Lord, nobody (with the possible exception of David Tennant) has ever come close. What many people DON'T know though is that a few months before starting his legendary reign as the Doctor, Tom Baker played a deformed villain in an obscure British sci-fi/horror exploitation film. That film was The Mutations, the character Baker played was deformed carnival owner Lynch...and Baker was every bit as brilliant in this role as he was to be  later playing the Doctor.

Baker is almost completely unrecognisable (the makeup he acts under totally alters his appearance, it can't have been an easy or pleasant job), it's not until he speaks and that familiar rich booming voice issues forth that you even realise it's him (even that is sometimes slightly disguised, you can tell that the makeup isn't the easiest thing to recite dialogue from under - in early scenes Baker's voice sounds slightly muffled. I think as the film goes on they probably partially redesigned it to make it easier for him to speak, as Baker's voice becomes much clearer as the film progresses).

The character of Lynch is an embittered sociopathic bully. He's both embarrassed by and deeply saddened by his hideous facial features (a condition he was born with), so much so that he takes his frustrations out on the sideshow performers who work for him, he rules this band of circus freaks with a rod of iron, badly mistreating them. At one point one of the performers celebrates her birthday and the freaks invite Lynch to join them as he is "one of them". This is like a red rag to a bull to the bitter and vain Lynch - he flies into a childish temper tantrum, stomping on the birthday cake in a drooling, spitting rage. It's a great moment and shows just how messed up in the head this character is.

Yet despite his arrogant, bullying ways we do feel sympathy for Lynch. This is mainly down to Baker's skill in imbuing the character with a sense of vulnerability. Desperate to have his deformities cured Lynch has fallen in with the amoral scientist Nolter (Donald Pleasence, playing a very nasty character - maybe he should be called Donald UNPleasence...). It's obvious that Nolter is just using Lynch, stringing him along by telling him he'll cure his afflictions in "good time" as long as he continues to help him. Lynch is so desperate though that he doesn't seem to pick up on this.

Pleasence, is as always, very good as the evil scientist. Like all good mad scientists Nolter doesn't believe that what he's doing is wrong, he thinks he's genuinely benefiting human evolution by playing God (although quite how transforming college students into carnivorous plant monsters is going to benefit ANYONE is hard to guess). Pleasence plays the part in a coldly detached way without ever descending into scenery chewing campness (which is probably how many actors would have chosen to play such a part).

An interesting sidenote - both Tom Baker and Donald Pleasence (at various points in this movie) wear clothes that resemble the costumes of the characters they would become most famous for playing. Baker wears a hat and scarf very like his Doctor Who costume, whilst Pleasence wears a battered looking beige raincoat that's very like the coat he's always wearing when he plays Dr Sam Loomis in the Halloween movies.

Coincidence or eventual influence ?

The film's heroes are a couple of students - Brian (Brad Harris) and his girlfriend Heidi (Julie Ege) - they don't give bad performances but unfortunately they don't have a lot to work with as the characters are very two dimensional and a bit dull.

Far more interesting are the various circus "freaks" (all played by genuine sideshow performers ) who work for Lynch. As the story progresses we see them get increasingly pissed off at Lynch's bullying ways. Needless to say it doesn't end well for Lynch...

SFX - Aside from the brilliant makeup job they do on Tom Baker, the creature designs for the plant monsters are very well done. The main monster  - Tony - starts off looking more like another deformed human before he eventually mutates further into a big green monster with a Venus flytrap's jaw for a chest - all the better for chomping his victims with.

VIOLENCE - The escaped "Tony Mutant" chomps a few people (including eventually Professor Nolter), he does this by grabbing hold of them and bodily pulling them into his handy Venus flytrap body cavity...

This process leaves the victim's resulting corpse looking like a drained and dessicated mummy.

Finally deciding that enough is enough, the circus freaks get thier revenge on Lynch. They skewer him repeatedly with throwing knives (they work in a circus, so naturally they're all deadly accurate shots with daggers). Lynch gets skewered in several places (perilously close to his balls at one point). He staggers around screaming in agony and then the freaks set a pack of hungry dogs on him which proceed to tear him limb from limb, all the while his agonised screams get louder and louder. Funnily enough this time Tom Baker DOESN'T regenerate into Peter Davison...

RATING - This is a very cool little British exploitation shocker. Tom Baker and Donald Pleasence are both great, the story is hokey but still interesting, the monsters are good and I love both the sleazy early 70's London atmosphere and the tacky, shlocky carnival setting. It's only let down slightly by it's two dull heroes, nevertheless this is still a good watch.

4 deformed Doctor Who's out of 5.

ART -