MUTANT (1984)
aka Night Shadows
Article 4468 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 3-8-2014
Directed by John “Bud” Cardos and Mark Rosman
Featuring Wings Hauser, Bo Hopkins, Jody Medford
Country: USA
What it is: Toxic zombie movie

Two brothers get trapped in a small Southern town where the residents are suffering from a flu-like plague. However, the plague ends up turning them into bloodthirsty zombies with a toxic touch.

The movie has a 4.7 rating on IMDB, which is not very good, but I think I like it a little better than that. It’s made with a certain amount of competence, the characters don’t annoy me, and the music isn’t a turn-off, and, in general, I find the movie watchable enough. There’s a few script problems, to be sure, and there are times where the characters don’t always act with much in the way of intelligence. The primary problem with the movie is that it’s pretty derivative of any number of “zombies on the loose” movies, and its few original ideas don’t really lift it above the pack. I suppose I’m damning the movie with faint praise, but one of its strengths is that the moments that don’t work don’t make me hate the movie, but then, maybe that just means it caught me in a good mood, but there it is. I’ve sat through better, but I’ve sat through a lot worse.