Surprisingly incoherent and boring

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The Mutations is set in in London during the early 70's where Bridget (Olga Anthony) goes to University, after a biology class taught by the ever so slightly mad Professor Nolter (Donald Pleasence) she decides to walk home on her own through a park. Bridget is followed & kidnapped by the horribly deformed Lynch (Tom Baker) who part owns & runs a travelling freak show in which he was once an exhibit, Lynch has a deal with Professor Nolter to supply him with fresh young specimens to experiment on in return for Nolter curing his horrible disfigurement. A group of Bridget's friends happen to pay a visit to Lynch's freak show attraction & spot Bridget's unique medallion around the neck of a dwarf named Burns (Michael Dunn) who is rather vague about where he got & since Bridget has been missing for days her friends put two & two together & decide to investigate further. They discover Professor Nolter's insane plan to create a part man part plant mutation & find out that his hideous failed experiments becomes part of the freak show...Also known under the title The Freakmaker & apparently Dr. of Evil this British production was directed by Oscar (& another whole host of awards) winning cinematographer Jack Cardiff & is maybe the least likely credit on his CV which spans over seventy years! I am in two minds about The Mutations, on the one hand it's a sleazy little mad scientist monster film with added seediness although on the other hand it's rather dull at times & lacks focus or much of a story. The script should zip along but somehow manages to drag at times, I mean we have a horror film featuring mad scientists, grotesque failed experiments, plant creatures, bizarre medical experiments, a circus of freaks, kidnapped young ladies, murder, betrayal & a London prostitute who charges £2! Boy, those were the days, those were the days... I mean two bloody quid wouldn't buy you anything now but I digress. The Mutations should be more fun than it is, the story is weak & takes itself a bit too seriously with Professor Nolter's reasoning behind his apparently revolutionary experiments vague to say the least. Once he perfects his plant creature then what exactly? Surely that laser beam to reverse the state of decay would be more useful? I mean no food would then ever go off or go rotten again & could be kept indefinitely & solve the world's food shortage, right? There's no one central character to root for or get behind or follow the story through with either, Professor Nolter pops up occasionally & Lynch gets a bit of screen time & even has a touching moment when he visits a prostitute & ask's for something a little extra which she charges him an extra pound for! The freaks aren't shown as the tragic character's they are but as oddities to stare at while none of Bridget's friends really comes to the fore either as they all stay on the fringes of the action.There is quite a bit of fascinating time lapse photography of plants growing, decaying & roots burrowing underground but it feels like it belongs in a nature documentary rather than a horror film. There are a few monsters with decent make-up effects including a gross Venus Fly Trap man who digests Professor Nolter at the end. The early 70's London locations are surprisingly drab, the fashions are a bit dated & you definitely couldn't have sex with a prostitute for £2 any more but The Mutations does have a rather sleazy atmosphere. Real freaks were used in the carnival scene apparently, from the bearded lady to the human pin cushion & from the Alligator woman & Frog boy to a guy who can pop his eyeballs out of their sockets.Filmed in London the production values are decent enough, surprisingly for such an esteemed cinematographer Cardiff makes a fairly dull looking film although there one or two moments. The acting is alright, Pleasence looks bored & unconvinced by the script, soon to be Doctor Who Tom Baker is almost unrecognisable under layers of latex make-up while most of the young female cast get naked at one point or another.The Mutations is an oddity of a film really, from sideshow curiosity to mad scientist horror to 70's sleaze it never quite decides what it wants to be & suffers because of it but there's enough to keep you from being bored & I liked it overall even if it could have been even better.

A university professor by day, mad scientist by night, Dr. Nolter(Donald Pleasence exuding a quiet mania, portraying his character as someone completely convinced that his work is for the betterment of mankind despite how diabolical his methods are), respected by his peers, creates hybrid plant-humans in a goal to form a new evolution of mankind, using his own students brought to him by a carnival owner, Lynch(Tom Baker, under effective hideous facial make-up)plagued with the glandular Elephant Man disease. Lynch believes reluctantly that Nolter will cure him of his problem, for which he continues delivering specimens, but as friends of bio-chemistry wunderkind Brian Redford(Brad Harris)and Hedi(Julie Ege)come up missing, it's only a matter of time before the professor's ghoulish experiments and Lynch's kidnapping will be discovered. Lynch has another problem of his own making..he treats his carnival employees(..freaks, to the "normal" audience who cheer, sneer & fear them during shows)cruelly, displaying an ugliness just as much inside as outside. Lynch's crew have tolerated his insults and nasty treatment for a long time, and this film shows how his behavior towards them will result in a violent revolt echoing Tod Browning's masterpiece "Freaks." And, as typical of "mad scientist" movies, the creation will get revenge on it's creator..Nolter creates a plant-man who ingests humans for consumption from a belligerent student of his who always replied in classes against his theories.Macabre premise delivers some shocking moments including Nolter's creations and how one of them eats a street bum. Nolter's fate is especially grotesque. Baker is far removed from his charismatic, charming Doctor Who in portraying quite a tormented monster of a man who will do anything to remove the diseased face that keeps him removed from the society he yearns for. I found the seedy elements startling..such as Lynch's finding a prostitute willing to yield to his desires for a certain fee, the numerous displays of female nudity, and how female specimens have their clothes removed while unconscious on Nolter's laboratory slab before being experimented on. But, despite all the rather unpleasant mutations we are witnesses to, the opening of the plant cycle, set to rather unnerving music, actually was as effective(..if not more)to me than what comes after. And, director Cardiff has a lengthly showcase for the "freaks" of the carnival, with the viewer as "grossed out" or transfixed by each representative allowed to display their abnormality, as the audience in attendance. The script can be quite literate, whose "science-speak" might bore many viewers. If you're wondering whether or not Pleasence is hammy, he's indeed quite low-key, playing the doctor with a calm confidence.

Not really enough money or effort put into this one. It appears that everyone thought simply that the presence of various 'freaks' Donald Pleasence, a bit of nudity and some man eating plants should see them through.Actually this almost works, unfortunately Mr Pleasence is in particularly one note form and although the speeded up photography for the plants is fine the later costumes for those that have turned into half human, half plant are not half as effective. There are some decent moments and good ideas but it is all so uphill. Undeniably quirky, though and probably worth it for the fairground scenes.

How on earth have I never seen this film before? I watched it tonight 'cause there was nothing else on Cable (again) - lucky me!It started with some time-lapse film of plant-life and looked like a programme from the Open University - but then the soundtrack signalled something strange was happening..."Mutations" owes a lot to Tod Browning's "Freaks" but offers loads more: some nice 70's nudity; plants that eat live rabbits (why not pet food?); dialogue that mentions "cloning dinosaurs"; a soundtrack that judders from spaced-out, slowed-down, phased bass to free form jazz. This is a minestrone of madness with some nice inconsitencies in the plot. Great!Tom Baker was obviously heavily influenced by his role in this film and took most of the wardrobe with him for Dr Who!