Entry Forty: Metamorphosis: the Alien Factor (1990)

Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor (1990)

Dir: Glenn Takakjian

"It came from another world..."




I just did one 1990 film called Metamorphosis, so I figured fuck it, let's get 'em both out of the way (this one's a little better...AND it has a subtitle!).  So head on down to the Basement of Sleaze, wipe the alien goo off that chair and prepare to witness Metamorphosis: the Alien Factor!


In an austere lab that looks like the facility from the end of They Live (or a location from any number of Cronenberg films), a security guard goes to investigate a malfunction pressure door and is messily killed by rubbery monster that looks like a leftover from John Carpenter's version of The Thing.  Next, we cut to the poor man's home, where we learn that Security Dad was a widower struggling to raise two headstrong daughters: uptight twentysomething Sherry (sexy Debbie Harry lookalike Tara Leigh) and rebellious teenager Kim (Troma regular Diana Flaherty).  Makes you feel a bit bad about thrilling to the poor guy getting his skin melted off, doesn't it?  While the two girls worry about their missing father, we cut back to the lab, where sinister, overwhelmingly British lab overseer Dr. Viallini (Marcus Powell, The Elephant Man) tries to cover up the "accident."  In flashback, it's revealed that the creature glimpsed at the beginning was once brilliant scientist Dr. Michael Foster (George Colucci, Goodfellas), who was experimenting with government-supplied DNA of extraterrestrial origin.  Michael's lab is with an array of wondrously grotesque creatures, including an enormous Venus fly trap and mutated frogs and rabbits (the effects are great, especially considering the film's low budget).  After being bitten by the frog-creature and infected with the alien DNA, Michael begins to mutate, despite the best efforts of his lover/lab assistant Nancy (Katherine Romaine) and friend/colleague Elliott (Allen Rickman, A Serious Man, TV's Boardwalk Empire, not to be confused with Alan Rickman of Die Hard) to curb the change.  Michael's body begins birthing smaller creatures with wasp-like stingers, Gremlins-style.  In the present, Sherry breaks into the lab with her improbably-nerdy boyfriend, Brian (Patrick Barnes, who makes Skippy from Family Ties look like Don Juan) to discover the whereabouts of her missing father, along with stowaway Kim.  When our heroic trio is separated, Brian is captured by Viallini's security forces, the girls encounter Michael, who has fully mutated into an 8 foot-tall fleshy monster that kinda looks like a diseased penis and scrotum with legs.  After Michael messily dispatches Elliott, Nancy and Dr. Foster (the victim of a great decapitation), the girls find themselves trapped in the locked-down lab with the murderous monster, but find some unlikely help in the form of the (fantastically named) Tony Gigante as Dr. Foster's amazingly grumpy, extraordinarily badass security enforcer.  Can this mismatched trio find a way to halt mutant Michael's rampage and escape the lab?   

I really enjoyed this one; it's a gem from the long-gone direct-to-video age (It was released by Trimark Pictures, of Solo and Leprechaun fame...remember them?).  The effects (by a slew of artists who would go on to work on Begotten, Face/Off, Tron: Legacy and Dogma) are top-notch, and includes extensive, top-notch stop-motion work. Takakjian's direction is fast-paced, visceral and never lingers long enough to allow the viewer to question the inherent stupidity of the plot (why wasn't Michael working in a controlled environment? Why didn't he immediately amputate his infected hand? Why did his corporate masters not execute him immediately?).  For genre fans, there are plenty of in-jokes and references to other films. The performances are mostly solid, with standout honors going to Romaine (who, sadly, never did much more film work) and Rickman, who enlivens every scene by absent-mindedly slapping his knee in background scenes or enthusiastically looking into a ViewMaster while delivering expository dialogue.  Leigh, however, is terrible.  Metamorphosis: the Alien Factor was filmed in 1987 and was intended intended as a sequel to Return of the Aliens: the Deadly Spawn, but after years of post-production and a legal battle over distribution, it was released to video with no mention of it's connection to the previous film.  Check this one out!