|
Director Alan Crosland,Jr.'s, THE MUTANT, is an
occasionally interesting, but ultimately unsatisfactory Sci-Fi yarn.
The script, (Teleplay by Allan Balter and Robert Mintz; Story by Jerome
B. Thomas), makes little attempt to convince us that we're really in
an alien world. Yeah, okay, the sun never sets, and it periodically
rains tinsel. Mostly, however, we just see folks in Sears construction
site clothes, hanging out in an unimpressive sheet metal shack, or wandering
about in the woods, with occasional side trips to a nearby cave. Yawn!
Warren Oates does what he can, with a role that requires him to wear
large goggles most of the time. If eyes are the windows to the soul,
then I guess the window's shut and the shades are pulled down, so to
speak.
Without his goggles, Oates has large, convex FX eyes, that look like
fried eggs. They don't move, or blink, and are totally unconvincing.
Makeup Supervisor, Fred B. Phillips, is the apparent guilty party.
When people occasionally die, we see sparklers and white light, and
then they disappear. The result is like an elementary version of famous
beaming up effect from "Star Trek". The decent FX are courtesy
of Special Effects guy, Si Simonson, Optical Effects Unit person, M.B.
Paul, and Project Unlimited Inc.
Director of Photography, Kenneth Peach, gives us some good, low angle
shots inside the cramped space colony building. It helps to create a
realistic sense of claustrophobia, like in a submarine.
The music is in the traditional, odd, mysterioso, high-pitched, "Outer
Limits" vein. Dominic Frontiere gets the credit.
THE MUTANT may be slightly watchable for some Sci-Fi viewers. Warren
Oates fans may be entertained. THE MUTANT is not worth eyeballing! BACK
TO: EPISODE
|