‘‘Even under the rubble I want to bury my family’’

Another French fear fest with flesh on the menu, as mutated humans chow down on anyone with a pulse in a world gone to shit, ravaged by a virus as ravenous as its turned hosts.
 
An ambulance hot tails it out of the city as the virus emulsifies the internal organs of the populace, over a three day incubatory period that gestates and then turns its occupant into a frenzied blood fiend. The Crazies (1973) meets 28 Days Later (2002) set against a winter season, where a beautiful white snow covered backdrop covers a chilling topical threat of a pandemic outbreak upon mankind. The occupants of the ambulance are Sonia, an emergency services medic, the driver Marcus, who is in a relationship with Sonia who is in the early stages of pregnancy with his child, a black female from the military with a dark desire for self preservation, and an infected man strapped to a gurney. Pretty much from the outset the gloopy blood is vented, and the unfortunate passenger with mutated genes tastes military issued bullets before breakfast is served.
 
The unease between the three emergency services vehicle occupants culminates during an essential stop off at a gas station. There they discover mutant activity in the form of varying degrees of human cannibalisation, and a surviving autistic young man. The female soldier wants him dead, but when Marcus and Sonia stand in her way it gets heavy and there is an exchange of gun fire. Only Marcus and Sonia survive, but Marcus takes a bullet to the gut. Sonia has to drag him back to the safety of the ambulance to leave in a hurry, without any success of topping up the fuel reserve. They are on their own now, and Sonia has to not only battle to get away from the gathering hordes of mutants, but fight to keep her lover alive !.
 
The medical transportation delivers enough injection to bring them to the doors of a high rise complex, where Sonia and Marcus hold up. Sending a radio message of distress from the ambulance Sonia has hope in the form of a military base called Noe, where survivors have taken haven. She pulls Marcus into the building, finding as safe a place within to hide away and begin treating him for his wound. Things take a cruel turn when Marcus recovers from his shooting injury, only to show specific signs of being infected with the deadly virus.
 
The three day gestation period plays out and Marcus is spewing blood, losing hair and teeth and showing uncharacteristic mood swings in a threatening way towards Sonia. Aware of his predicament he wants to take his own life to protect that of his lady love and the unborn baby she is carrying. Sonia pleads with him that she is just as scared but believes there is still hope of a cure, revealing that two weeks earlier she was bitten by an infected patient, yet still has no signs of being infected herself !?. She believes that it is possible that she may be part of an antidote, if she can get to a scientist to undertake tests.
 
To try and prolong Marcus’ state Sonia sets up a crude blood transfusion for him as her type is that of a universal donor, and if her belief is true perhaps it may just abate his decline. Things of course spiral out of control when a handful of desperate survivors arrive. Sonia locks Marcus away in the lower region of the block, where his gene manifestation takes a path of its own in his transformation.
 
With a means of transport at their disposal the newbie survivors, led by a self preserving chauvinist named Frank, seek to refuel it and head off to safer climes. One of the men takes Sonia through the adjacent wooded area to a place he knows of where there is fuel storage and a radio. Once safely there the man fills his two carry able containers with gas, as Sonia makes another call for assistance to camp Noe. The message gets through but the audible interaction garners attention from a multitude of mutants. They close in on the man and Sonia within the confined space of the bunker like storage facility they have breached. A machete comes in very useful as limbs are loped off and throats sliced, all in pretty bloody graphic detail. The red stuff flies further as Sonia defends herself with the high powered bullet clip engaged repeat weapon she laid claim to from the black military female early on. It’s a gory stand off that leaves just Sonia fleeing for her life back to the high rise, but without any fuel, and bringing an increasingly growing surge of mutants after her.
 
Frank and his loyal few, along with Sonia must fight to survive long enough to see the arrival of the alerted camp Noe people to assist them. It isn’t just the mutants Sonia has to look out for though, as Frank will do anything to protect his own hide and Marcus is free from his basement incarceration. It’s a full on final fight frenzy with bone crunching and blood spurting aplenty. Sonia must use her savvy to survive against all odds, including the inevitable reacquainting with Marcus, who at this point is an elevated mutant on a mission.
 
Frivolous film fancy this is not, but the French horror runaway train is starting to come off the tracks of originality, and Mutants is just such an example of that fact. It is still worthy of your viewing time, but delivers that Déjà vu effect throughout proceedings. Having set the movie genre bar so high in recent times that is scant reason to not give homage to another more than decent filmic frippery, that so deliriously covers its movie French fries in red sauce aplenty. 

 4/5-BITCH SLAPS