On the remote island of Kuttyhunk, years of parasitic research and genetic engineering have attempted to fix the shortcomings of human DNA and fashion the perfect human. In the late 80’s the experiments led to the demise of a huge percentage of the island’s population. In the modern day, a bunch of young folks are in town to clean up a prominent island family property. They have no signal (fuck!) and their survival chances don’t look great from the many ominous signs that Things Are Not OK : look for hooded figures lurking in woodland, funeral parades, authority figures shot dead by council members, all too recent mass grave sites. In other words, another outbreak is afoot.
There’s no shortage of shots of CG parasites oozing out of eyeballs or wriggling under skin in Cowan’s low budget horror movie, but, in spite of all the riffs on past movies like Cronenberg’s SHIVERS and Carpenter’s THE THING, there’s almost none of the skin-crawling ickiness or tension that those movies generated. That has a lot to do both with Cowan’s bland execution of the premise and also the fact that there’s nothing scary, unsettling or gross about slick, shiny CG parasites.
Characterization is mundane, at best : the chief source of threat is a solitary infected person who turns out to be the heroine’s blandly good-looking step-brother. The only person who might draw your attention is a pretty blonde whose hobbies are jogging bra-less and persistently attempting to seduce a stubbornly non-receptive guy. On the evidence available throughout this slow-paced movie, the “infected” don’t do much of interest except become extra horny, talk more than usual and display silly comic book-hero type strength and speed in bar fights. You will greatly miss the grotesque perverts of SHIVERS and the mutating freaks of THE THING.
The plot relies on familiar contrivances – the parasites are killed by saltwater, something of a bummer for them given the island backdrop – and only the fleeting grisly old-school make-up FX have any impact : hurray for the guy knocked to the ground with his own severed arm. One time movie hunk Brian Krause is the only recognizable face ; the predictable coda is set in Korea for some reason.
– Steven West
- Interview with J.R. Bookwalter - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Andrew J. Rausch - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Rick Popko and Dan West - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Director Stevan Mena (Malevolence) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Screenwriter Jeffery Reddick (Day of the Dead 2007) - January 22, 2015
- Teleconference interview with Mick Garris (Masters of Horror) - January 22, 2015
- A Day at the Morgue with Corri English (Unrest) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Writer/Director Nacho Cerda (The Abandoned, Aftermath) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actress Thora Birch (Dark Corners, The Hole, American Beauty) - January 22, 2015
- Interview with Actor Jason Behr, Plus Skinwalkers Press Coverage - January 22, 2015
