Variant Movie Review!

I love reviewing the short movies of Joe Meredith. So much imagination and so much creativity on micro budgets. When I reviewed Teratomorph (see review of Teratomorph here) my head as good as exploded. It was a sequel to 2018’s awesome, South Mill District (see review of South Mill District here) which incidentally I showed at a second movie night above a coffee shop in my town centre, double-billed with Plan 9 From Outer Space. Wild combination, and all for Halloween, but it went down very well with the audience. All in all, I’d go so far as saying that duo of nasty sci-fi are low budget masterpieces for a select but enthusiastic audience.

Variant is chapter three in this bite-sized epic, so have a brief rundown of the prior reviews for the overall synopsis for anyone wishing to take the plunge (they need to be watched in order just to get the full gore and effect bukake in your face).

We start the proceedings with the burning of mutated alien infested remains, and a voice over, crackling, gives a brief synopsis, but like I said, watch the first two, you have to. Witnessing a city on fire, we then jump back 72-hours. An embryo alien is being cut from a corpse, I think, and gets prepared for transport out of the facility by an Eon Corp vehicle. This is a new mutation, similar to the South Mill District type, but far more dangerous. Along the way, the operative is shot and the case with the specimen is taken.

Communication gets back to Dr. Bottin, the only character who has appeared in the whole trilogy (we can’t count Cidney Meredith, she plays three different people, so there). “The specimen he stole could unleash an infection that is far more unpredictable than the ones we witnessed before!” he snarls. Meanwhile a hammer is smashing the glass jar open. He plunges a syringe into the gore and goo, injects himself, then the insurgent walks to his car. The specimen starts to move.

Our insurgent pal, Adrian Crawl, left the specimen in a graveyard and it gains access to a corpse that begins to mutate. Up from the soil rises a clumsy looking Tetsuo-style zombie which decides to gather some mates and go after a guitar playing hobo just to showcase some graphic neck nibbling. Afterwards we hear a bit more in-depth spoon feeding by Dr. Bottin. Then it’s time to meet our other main character, Clementine, played by Cidney Meredith, a gothy lady who rolls a joint and drinks Trump-style by holding her glass with two hands, oh yeah, then masturbates. What happens in her side of the film is basically rape by mutant alien (a leftover creature from
Teratomorph it appears) and some far out trippy visuals. Back to our insurgent, he’s not well at all, laid in bed with green vomit oozing from his mouth. Naturally things aren’t going to go his way…

I’ll be honest here, there’s something not right. Variant hasn’t got that closed-in frightening trapped feeling as the prior two (like Elliot – see review here, but with more monsters). The pace and story is off kilter like a group of people have jumped in and chucked whatever they could at the screen with no planning at all. Something about the camera and the effects seem lesser, lacking the time and effort placed in those (even the stop motion is jerking and quite pathetic, unlike the crude but effective stuff). Variant appears cheap and ragged around the edges as opposed to the rich quality. Wherein I was captivated by the isolation and the plotline, but I struggled to hook myself into anything. First time I watched Variant I lost my patience, skipped bits, but for my review I watched it whole, concentrating and it grew on me a bit, but feels hollow like the ideas simply weren’t there, or were unfinished like some of the effects — people wobbling bloody rubber bits at the camera. Oh boy, it wasn’t what I expected after my near orgasm over Teratomorph.

There are some okay performances. Cidney does her thing very well as usual, and Rob Ceus has a quick cameo which is cool. Samuel Barnette as Adrian doesn’t do much aside from stare a bit and walk around, then look ill. God I feel awful writing all this because I like Joe, he works hard, I usually wax lyrical about his creations, yet I cannot tell a lie – Variant disappointed me. I could see some of its prior siblings spirits simmering under neigh dying to get out, but for some reason, Joe stomped that down and presented a shadow.

MOVIE

Overall Score 2.5

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Variant Movie Review!

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