By Steve Harcourt

Source: NerdSpan

Although made in a ’90s ‘B-Movie’ style, Acción Mutante can be either viewed as a schlocky, gore laden, science fiction romp or a politically astute piece of social commentary in an innocuous wrapper. It could also, potentially, be both.

In a dystopian future where the world is ruled by the glamorous and ‘good looking’ people, the disfigured and disabled are marginalised and treated as second class citizens destined for a life of poverty.  Fighting against this tyranny is a disparate band of characters, who call themselves mutants, using the name ‘Acción Mutante’ for their terrorist acts.  For several years since the imprisonment of their leader ‘Ramon’ (Antonio Resines), the group, comprising of conjoined twins ‘Alex’ (Álex Angulo) & ‘Juan’ (Juan Viadas), ‘Quimicefa’ (Saturnino García), ‘Manitas’ (Karra Elejalde), ‘Chepa’ (Ion Gabella), and ‘M.A’ (Alfonso Martínez), have been ineptly continuing the fight, leading to many high profile blunders, especially when they try to kidnap someone.  Upon his release, ‘Ramon’ immediately puts into motion a new plan to kidnap Patricia Orujo (Frédérique Feder), the daughter of the boss of the Orujo business empire (Fernando Guillén), and ransom her for 10,000,000 ‘ecus’ on a distant mining planet.  This plan rapidly spirals out of control…

As a writer, producer and director, Álex de la Iglesia has become more well known for films such as The Oxford Murders, La Comunidad, and The Last Circus since Acción Mutante, his first directorial feature. This film was a brash introduction to what was he was later to create.  With production being aided by Augustin and Pedro Almodóvar, and with several well known Spanish actors on board, this was by no means an effort made with little talent behind him and it shows what people saw in him, even then.

What he has made is, essentially, an obvious attack on the bourgeoisie and their ilk with commentary on the disabled and the way society treats them, all put together in a ‘Troma-esque’ black comedy. In the amount of gore, and especially the style of the gore, the Troma influence is apparent and it would sit comfortably alongside many Troma films.  There is also an obvious influence in some scenes from Almodóvar, such as the party scene, where you may even notice Rossy De Palma, an Almodóvar regular. There are also some similarities to other European directors’ early work, such as Jean Pierre Jeunet & Marc Caro (Delicatessen), especially in terms of characters, which is not a bad thing.

These characters are a mixed bag, with some being broadly comedic and others being very one dimensional heroes or villains.  What is clear is that a certain amount of hokey fun was had by the cast. They do a good job in hamming it up in the right manner for this kind of B-Movie with some good interplay, some clever idiosyncrasies, and some nice set pieces.  Plot-wise, the pacing and structure are a little flawed. As the second half falls apart a bit, losing some of the good premise along the way, which is a shame. Much more could have been made of this premise and instead it treads a slightly simpler path with a cheaper, trashier angle.  Having said that, it does still tend to work, but just not quite how you thought it was going to.

There are a couple of problematic areas, namely some excessive violence that is unnecessary and some misogynistic elements which are troubling.  When the film originally came out on VHS, the BBFC (British Board of Film Classification) made some cuts, which have been put back in this DVD version, and we probably would have been better off without them as they do not enhance the plot or its coherence at all. I had previously only seen the VHS version and in no way was this better.  As for the misogyny, it is pretty obvious that these elements are there, but I would be interested to hear what Álex de la Iglesia and producer Pedro Almodóvar have to say about it and whether they were making a particular point, as Almodóvar has a history of strong female characters and is often called a feminist.

Overall, I would say that if you’re a fan of the Troma-style of bonkers, splatter, comedy B-Movie, then you will find something to like here. This needs to be taken as a relatively stupid, schlocky comedy with some obvious social and political points to be made. However, I have read that there are some more specific points made for a Spanish audience that may not be immediately apparent for an international audience.  As someone from the UK, I didn’t pick up on anything in particular, but that doesn’t mean it’s not there. Potentially, it could contain further depth.  So, while it is problematic, it does show the signs of better work that was to come from Álex de la Iglesia, and can be enjoyed as an oddball thing of its own.

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Watch Acción Mutante on Hoopla here: https://www.hoopladigital.com/title/15772689