Reaction & Review | Mutant Hunt

Welcome, one and all, to "Full Moon vs. Troma" here on Reaction & Review. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna be covering a movie from 1987. That movie is "Mutant Hunt".

Now, I have a little bit of a story about how I discovered this movie and why I wanted to cover it. You see, when I was originally coming up with the concept of this marathon, I wanted to find as many movies as I could from both Troma and Full Moon Features. That way, I would have plenty to work with once I found an opening in my schedule for this marathon. And as a result, I found a little bit more than what I originally planned to find in order for this marathon to work. Now for Troma, it was pretty easy on what I wanted to pick out from them for this marathon. But Full Moon was a little bit different, because there's a quite a few movies of theirs that I bought, and I had a pretty hard time in considering which ones to cover. While I had a couple of movies in mind already, there were still a couple of others that I was still unsure of whether or not they would be good enough to cover for this marathon.

But then I happened to notice one day that Full Moon's official YouTube channel began uploading some of their movies onto their channel. Now I should mention that Troma does also have an official YouTube channel. And they use to have some of their movies that you could watch from their channel. But for one reason or another, they took them down. I'm not totally sure why exactly, but I'm not gonna get into that. So anyway, Full Moon recently began uploading some of their movies to their channel. A couple of examples I can remember were the first two "Puppet Master" movies from the Axis trilogy. But I've already seen them both. And in the case of Axis Rising, I covered that movie a couple of weeks ago for my 150th episode. So those two movies were ineligible.

And as for the other movies that they've uploaded to their channel so far, one movie of theirs caught my interest, which would be tonight's movie "Mutant Hunt". And the reason why I chose this movie out of all the others was mostly because of one cast member. In fact, if I'm correct, he is also the main star of the movie. That cast member goes by the name of Rick Gianasi. Now a lot of you probably have no idea who that is. And in case you don't, he was the star of a popular Troma film that I covered a long time ago. That movie, of course, being "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.". Yep, he played Detective Griswald, AKA Kabukiman. And, that alone, was enough for me to cover this movie. I'm curious to see what he did in a movie from Full Moon Features before he went on to star in a Troma flick.

Now as for the movie itself, I don't really know very much about it. I know it stars Rick Gianasi, and I vaguely remember something about cyborgs being in it as well. I don't know what the rest of it entails, because I haven't bothered to read what the plot is about. I haven't seen any trailers or clips from this movie, so I'm gonna go into this thing completely blind. And I'm hoping that it's gonna be good, but I have no idea if it will be. So the only way I'm gonna find out if this movie is any good at all, is if I shut up, and I push play, and I'm gonna do that right now. So, without further ado, it's time to kick back, relax, and check out "Mutant Hunt".

6 minutes later

Guys, this movie's barely started, and I can already tell you that the acting in this movie is fucking terrible. I'm kinda hoping, maybe, I'll get use to this kind of shitty acting, or maybe it'll actually get better as the film rolls on. But as of right now, we're off to a bit of a bad start.

7 minutes later

Whoa, hold on a second here! So one of these cyborgs was handcuffed to a pipe by Riker. And in order to escape, it somehow was able to stretch it's arm like it was Mr. Fantastic, and was able to grab a machete that was hanging on a wall. And then it started cutting it's hand off to free itself. Which would've really cool...except the aftermath was showing the entire hand AND wrist hanging from the handcuff, even though we saw the cyborg was clearly cutting from the HAND area, and the machete was nowhere near it's wrist! Good god, that scene was just terribly edited.

6 minutes later

Wait, so that chick that Riker was in bed with a few minutes ago turned out to be a "pleasure droid"? So...basically, they're sex robots. OK. And yet, even though she just died, she was the best actor in this entire movie so far. That is pretty sad, guys.

19 minutes later

I didn't think this was possible, guys. But the acting has gotten steadily worse since the movie's started. Jesus Christ, I'm REALLY hoping that I'm gonna find something decent out of this movie sooner rather than later, but I'm not really sure if I'm going to at this point.

6 minutes later

So, one of these cyborgs just ripped off a woman's head from her body. You know what, that was sorta cool. Probably would've been better if we didn't just see it from a shadow's point of view. But at the very least, we did get a little bit of blood splatter from it. So...I guess that's sort of a positive.

14 minutes later

So, guys, not only have I learned that the acting is still terrible, but our villainess, Domina, is fucking retarded. She basically removed the implant bomb from Riker's head, after he promised to tell her where to find Darla, who is the scientist's sister. And once he made sure that the bomb was removed, he knocked Domina's lights out and escapes. Don't know where the fuck her cyborg was when this all happened, but I guess the cyborg didn't fucking care enough to go after him after Riker knocked his boss out. Guys, this movie is getting worse with each passing minute, and there's still more than a half an hour left into the movie! Something of interest had better fucking happen soon, because I am becoming rather impatient with this film's horrendous writing.

The Review

Well, guys, that was "Mutant Hunt". And apparently, this version of the movie on YouTube doesn't have any ending credits. It just has the standard copyright text info from Full Moon Features. So, I can go ahead and shut the movie off now...OK. Holy shit, that was almost a chore to get through. You guys have no idea how happy I am to see a movie end. It's not often I say that about a movie, but this is one definitely an exception here.

So, let's start this all off by getting into the writing. And I'm gonna start with pacing, because, my god, this movie has some of the WORST pacing I have ever seen from any movie in a long, LONG time. And I would normally attribute most of that stuff into the actual writing itself. Because if a movie is not telling it's story at a consistent pace, then it brings the entire movie down. But this movie is a bit of a special case. Because this movie has pacing that is just atrocious from a multitude of different levels. We have scenes here that extend for far too long. Whether it's pointless scenes like the one involving Domina and Riker, which I'll talk about later. We have fight scenes that are slow, boring, and really poorly choreographed. And the movie's only about an hour and a half long. Which, you would think that with that kind of runtime, the movie would just speed on by as the story progresses. But no, this movie feels so god damn long, that it ends up becoming boring as shit! I was struggling to stay the fuck awake, in hopes that this movie would actually do something that would be considered partially interesting. The closest thing to that was when we get to see a cyborg rip a woman's head off her head. But aside from that, nothing else of interest happened. I can't think of a single positive when it comes to this movie, and I haven't even talked about the actual writing itself yet. 

So I may as well just get into the actual writing that this movie has, and...well, to put it simply, guys, there is no fucking writing here. We have a story that is not doing anything new or special. The only kinda interesting thing that happens with this movie is that our villain, Z, injected a drug known as Eurphoron into these cyborgs known as the Delta 7's, that was able to turn them into killing machines, and they'll basically kill anyone for pleasure. And then he holds one of the scientist's hostage named Paul, as he originally wanted both him and his sister to be detained. But his sister, Darla, manages to escape, which then later leads into her finding Riker's apartment. Z then later admits to Paul that he wants to sell this Eurphoron drug to terrorists, dictators, etc. So that way, he can turn it into a profit, while also creating an army of these killer cyborgs with this drug. So basically, it's a little bit like "The Terminator", mixed in with a drug film. Now I would probably be OK with this kind of story if, for starters, we actually had any characters who were worth caring about. But that's not the case. And I am not kidding when I say that NOBODY in this movie has any depth or personality to their characters. I mentioned Domina earlier, but she and Z are suppose to have some sort of conflict that really doesn't go anywhere, and the payoff for it sucks. Our heroes are not all that better. Matt Riker is suppose to be our main protagonist of the movie, and he has all the charm of a wooden stove that stopped working ages ago. Elaine is described as being a private op, bounty hunter, dancer, etc. And her character is also fucking lifeless. Felix is just the friend of the group, that's also suppose to be the tech genius of the group. Darla is the scientist I mentioned earlier, and her brother, Paul, is also a scientist, whom we barely see for a majority of this entire movie. And that's kinda it. So like I said, nobody has any depth or personality to their characters.

There is one thing I want to mention involving a scene that I touched upon pretty late into the movie. So Riker gets captured by one of these mutant cyborgs that's working for Domina at gun point. Which then leads into him being bound, while Domina interrogates him. And she says to him that she's implanted an exploding device on the back of Riker's skull. And she explains to him about how Paul and Darla work for Inteltrax, which is Z's company that's also producing these cyborgs. She also tells Riker that she wants the Eurphoron drug that Z has from his company. So in order for her to do this, she wants Riker to tell her where to find Darla. That way, Domina can use her as a bargaining chip, in exchange for the Eurphoron drug. Now, here is where it gets REALLY fucking stupid. Riker decides to give in to what she wants, but ONLY if she deactivates the bomb from the back of his skull. So after making sure that he would tell her, Domina decides to deactivate the bomb, as promised. And after Riker asks her exactly 3 times that she has deactivated the bomb, he decides that he's going to have to trust her. And by trusting her, I mean that he knocks her out cold, and was able to get himself out from his crisis with no problems whatsoever, thus ending the scene. I have just one question, and it's something that I hinted at earlier. But where the fuck was Domina's cyborg at when this was all happening?! Her cyborg was the one that captured Riker, so why wasn't that thing on standby whenever Domina was interrogating Riker? The only explanation I can think of is that she ordered it to stand guard outside somewhere in case any intruders came by. But you see, that would require somebody with a functioning brain to write that kind of effort. Granted, it's not a good explanation, but at least it would explain where that thing was, especially after Riker's escape. And even then, it makes her a fucking retard, because she didn't have the common sense to actually think that Riker would be able to escape from his position so easily and NOT worry about getting herself knocked out. But hey, I could just attribute that to what little writing was actually put into this movie.

Guys, I cannot think of a single thing that was even a remote positive when it comes to the writing for this movie. Because there is almost no writing here. And little writing IS here is just poorly, poorly thought out. Speaking of things that are done poorly, let's talk about the fight choreography, shall we? Oh boy, the fight choreography! It's not often I talk about the fight choreography in a sci-fi movie, but this one is definitely an exception. As I mentioned earlier, the fight scenes in this movie are slow, boring, and really poorly choreographed. The first one is definitely the worst of the bunch. So, about a third into the movie, there's a fight between Felix and one of the cyborgs. And as the fight scene was going on, we get about 3 cutaway scenes involving Darla at Riker's home, showering. And it also focuses on one of the fucked up-looking cyborgs that Riker beat up early on in the movie. Now the reason why these scenes are terrible is because it ruins the flow of the fight scene that is currently going on between Felix and the cyborg. If they were focused AFTER the fight between Felix and the cyborg, then these scenes wouldn't be that bad. But because they are in the way of this fight scene, it brings the flow of the fight down to a screeching halt. And mind you, the fight scene itself was not very good either, but it would've been paced better had those scenes not gotten in the way there. And the fights themselves are so poorly choreographed that it makes the shit you see in modern wrestling look like fucking Shakespeare. The only movies I can think of that had worse fight choreography than this were "The Russian Ninja" and "Panther Squad". And that is fucking pathetic on a whole host of levels.

So, with all that, what else can we add on top of the all the problems that this movie has? Oh, I know! The acting. Oh, fuck me dead, the acting in this movie. Guys, I was hoping, and I mean GENUINELY hoping, that the acting was going to get better after what I first said when I started watching the movie. Well, surprise surprise, that didn't fucking happen. The acting in this movie started off poorly, and it only got worse as the film went on. This is some of the most stilted, wooden, lifeless acting that I've heard in a movie in a long time. Almost nobody in this movie tried. The only one that actually did, somewhat, try was the actress playing the pleasure droid near the beginning of the movie. Which is pretty fucking sad, especially when you consider someone that was supposing to be playing a sex robot did a better job than most of the cast in this entire movie. Hell, I don't even believe that most of these actors have ever been in a movie before in their lives. The only exception to all this is Rick Gianasi. And he's been in movies before, and after this. Most of them I've never even heard of, with the one lone exception being "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D." And he was really good in that movie! At least, when compared to this shit heap. Because he also phones it in here, too. Now I think that's mostly because when you're given a script such as this, you can only do so much with a god-awful script. And it shows. I'm just surprised, and thankful, that he was able to get a better role later on in his career, because this is probably the worst performance he has ever given in a movie such as this. Granted, I've only seen 2 movies with him in it, so that's not saying very much, but still. Overall, the acting in this movie is fucking terrible from across the board.

Special effects in this movie are, probably, the one and only thing I can say that this film did OK on. Mind you, none of it is great, and it's certainly not going to win any awards, but it still looks OK for low budget standards. There is one effect that I want to mention, and that would be the fucked-up cyborg I mentioned that ruined the flow of the fight between Felix and the other cyborg. And I will say that the puppeteering on the fucked-up cyborg actually looks pretty decent. And the way it talks is when you see a small bulb blinking from it's exposed neck area. Now most of everything involving that puppet looked fine, except for one moment. So, it's during the final portion of the movie and the cyborg has our villain, Z, being held up by it's arm. And one thing I mentioned early on was that these cyborgs have the ability to stretch out their arms longer than normal. And I want to say that, for the fucked-up cyborg, it would've looked really cool. However, when you see it's arm that's stretching out, you can see that it was mostly wrapped around in duct tape. I understand that they were trying to go for a mechanical route with it's arm, but it honestly looked really cheap, and came off as looking like shit in the process. However, almost everything else here looks OK. The blood effects, what very little is used here, is OK. The makeup effects are OK, as well. But they're honestly nothing to write home about. So, as I stated earlier, the special effects in this movie are the only slight positive I can give this thing.

Camerawork here is decent, but I have to mention editing for one particular scene. I mentioned it way early on, but it bears repeating. So, shortly after Darla first meets Riker, the two cyborgs that follow her end up there as well. Which then leads into our very first fight scene. And as it's going on, Riker ends up handcuffing one of the cyborgs to a pipe. The cyborg is trapped, and is trying to get loose. And it notices a machete and uses it's stretching arm to grab it and cut himself loose. Now, I want to make mention that the cyborg was cutting around the hand area when it first starts to chop it's hand off. And as it's doing so, it's bodily fluids start to flow out of it's hand, to which it finally frees itself from being handcuffed. Now, that would've been sort of cool...except, as I mentioned before, it shows both the hand AND the wrist area. Even though the scene CLEARLY shows the cyborg cutting the just hand, and the machete was nowhere near the wrist while the cyborg was cutting. And to show that the filmmakers did not care at all is when you actually do get to see the entire hand dangling there, you'll notice that the cut mark that first appeared when the cyborg went to chop it's hand off is completely gone. And it just looks like a normal hand prop with no injuries to it whatsoever. Which again, tells me that the filmmakers did not care at all when trying to be consistent with their own fucking movie.

So anyway, the camerawork here is decent, save for that one terrible bit in editing. The lighting here is pretty dark. In fact, I noticed that the picture quality also looks kinda like shit, because most of the footage looks a little bit blurry when you are viewing this movie. And I have no idea why that is. And what makes this even stranger is the fact that this movie was put out on Full Moon's official YouTube channel. I have no idea if this thing came from it's DVD format, or if that was just a technical issue on my end. But either way, this movie looks ugly as shit to watch on YouTube. And considering the fact that it, once again, came from Full Moon's official YouTube channel, makes them look incompetently amateurish. Now again, maybe it's just how it looks like on my end, but if it's not, then it makes me question why Full Moon uploaded it in this way? I would've that, maybe, they would've cleaned up some of the footage, so that way any viewer watching this movie would've been able to see this thing in a clearer way. But again, I could be just complaining about something on my end, so who know? Anyway, the lighting here is kinda dark. The sound-mix here is kinda shit in a couple of scenes, but it's not the worst thing I've heard. Music, however, is total shit. Why? Well, because there's this one guitar solo that you will hear about 3 or 4 different times in this movie, and sometimes, it will play that one solo on a loop during some fight scenes. The first time, I didn't mind it. But as the movie went on, it played that particular part of the song about a few more times afterwards, and it just got grating to listen to after a while. Not only that, and also going back to the sound-mix, the audio for the music seems to be pretty loud in some areas of the movie. It probably would've helped if they had balanced some of the audio within some of these scenes, so that way the movie could've sounded better. And also, find other music to play that's not the same, tired guitar solo that just got irritating to listen after a while. So yeah, the music here is total shit.

So, guys, when everything is said and done, can I recommend "Mutant Hunt"? What the hell do you think? No, I cannot! This movie is fucking garbage on almost every conceivable level. The only thing that this movie does halfway decently on is the special effects. But that's not even enough to make you want to watch this movie, unless if you just have some morbid curiosity, and you're curious to see how bad it really is. And if you REALLY are that curious, I might even post a link to this movie at the top of this description for you guy's to check out. But I assure you, it is NOT worth your time. It is boring as shit, the story is almost non-existent, the acting is atrocious, the fight choreography is also garbage, there is just nothing here that you will make you want to go and watch this movie for yourself. This movie is almost unwatchable. And the fact that I even had interest in watching it makes this thing even worse than it already is. I'm just thankful that I didn't buy a physical copy of this movie, because I know the mini-mall that I go to is carrying this movie on one of their shelves, next to a bunch of other horror movies. And I don't even want to know how much they're selling it for. But I can definitely say that it's not worth purchasing at ANY price whatsoever. And seeing as how this movie starred Rick Gianasi, I'm gonna go and watch the only other movie that I've seen that I know he's good in, which is, of course, "Sgt. Kabukiman N.Y.P.D.". Because, good lord, I need to watch something better after sitting through this crap that I had to go through for about an hour and a half.

So anyway, guys, with that, we come to the close of another Reaction & Review. Until next time, ladies and gentlemen, take care, and I will see you all later. Peace.