The Mutation | Experiments With Human-Sized Killer Rats

The Mutation movie doesn’t hold back from revealing this science experiment gone wrong in the opening scenes as it fatally wounds the man who made it. And before you can say “Let’s invite some unrelated people in to look at the murder scene” or “Maybe a cat did it,” a bunch of detectives, the scientist’s widow, and a zoologist are on the case to find out what’s going on.

When Uncork’d do giant rat movies you can never tell what you are going to get. I was expecting a rabbit-sized rat or two scurrying around and causing havoc en masse. What I got was a giant man-sized rat similar to the iconic Frank from Donnie Darko. Not the kind of mutant rat I was expecting.

Scott Jeffery wrote and directed The Mutation. On closer inspection of his previous films, none rate higher than a four out of ten on IMBd.com. He is listed in so many films as a producer I wondered briefly if the man ever sleeps. The Mutation may be a symbol of whether this fact is true.

Giant Monster Movies

There is a lot of talking in The Mutation for a giant rat monster movie. To its detriment, the dialogue is not particularly sharp. What is apparent as the film crawls along, is that I began to become increasingly aware that for a film that spends a lot of time putting on a serious facade, a few climatic events bring the horror movie to a few outrageously humorous peaks. After the mad scientist Peters’ death, his grieving widow Dr. Linda Rowe flutters her eyelashes and peeks through toward zoologist Allen Marsh.

Despite being a doctor herself, Linda is saying all sorts of damsel in distress lines and feigning some kind of memory lapse about her husband’s dealings. Had the mutation experiments resulted in tinier flesh-eating rats, perhaps being an unknowing patsy to Peter’s giant rat would have flown. But alas, this thing was hardly something you could hide in the spare room and have no one know about it.

The rat is played by Derek Nelson. You have to see this performance for yourself. The Mutation’s kills are on the tame side compared to other films I’ve seen like this, but for a low-budget affair, they were quite effective. Most were played out off-screen before panning back to the mutilated shredded corpses but the effects were well done.

Creature Movies With Rats, Giant Ones… That Look Like Donnie Darko’s Frank

My favorite part of The Mutation took part in a coffee shop. If you like films like this and want the cheese aspect to really shine, then watching a giant rat attack wait staff in a restaurant while stunned guests stare on in confusion, will be a memorable moment. Between men trying to shoot this giant rodent with aim so bad, I could only laugh, and the stilted responses by those still seated at tables in this scene were a massive highlight. As the camera looks in from outside to capture the chaos, a few people are seen pawing at the window in a vain attempt to get out. Who needs doors when you have this type of comedy?

Overall, I did kind of enjoy some of The Mutation. If you’re looking for something to drink pumpkin-spiced cocktails to while eating candy corn and waiting for trick-or-treaters, this should be where you start.

I give The Mutation

2 Hairy Donnie Darko’s out of 5

The Mutation 2021 Full Movie Trailer

The Mutation horror movie, by director Scott Jeffrey. On DVD & Digital, October 5, 2021. From Uncork’d Entertainment. For a more recent animal horror movie, have you seen No Way Up 2024? For an alternative view on this back to basics creature feature, read from Bloody Disgusting website.

The Mutation cast includes Ricardo Freitas, Amanda-Jade Tyler, Abi Casson Thompson, and, James Robertson.