“Colony Mutation” Literally Gives an Arm and a Leg for Blu-ray release!
A genetic scientist working on test batches of a resurrection formula finds out her public relations executive husband, both of whom are working for the same research company, is having a clandestine affair with another colleague. In a fit of rage, she splashes the latest test batch liquid onto his face when confronting about his illicit affair. As time passes, the side effects of the experimental drug crave raw red meat but requires the meat to be fresh and, more grotesquely, his appendages are able to separate and become monstrous to do his bidding driven by his impulsive need for meat. He stalks young women, luring them into hope of a romantic evening, to feed his need. With no cure existing, he throws caution to the wind and continues the monstrosities against the women, even against his contentious ex-wife and his side woman until he comes face-to-face with his lover’s gun-carrying sister who never trusted the married man in the first place.
Tom Berna’s one and only directorial and screenplay feature film, “Colony Mutation,” takes womanizing and sexual assault to a whole new disturbing level, mutating toxic masculinity for severe severed limb bedlam against young women. Berna, who went on to having acting credits in independent productions of “Go to Hell,” “Vengeance of the Dead,” and, perhaps the most notable feature, “Jigsaw,” not the “Saw” spinoff story, from the late 90’s and into the early 2000s, shot the film in the Milwaukee metropolitan area to be the background for masculine predatory behavior, finding and integrating influence from body horror films from the likes of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” or David Cronenberg’s “Rabid” to show extremities with aggressive, mutated autonomy and parasitical symbiosis hungry for other humans. Berna self-produced the film and listed as a film from Tyger Brand Coffee Productions.
David Rommel plays as Jim Matthews, a PR exec having a romantic affair with Jenny Dole (Joan Dinco) at the workplace. Also at workplace is Jim’s wife, genetic scientist Meredith Weaver (Anna Zizzo). While Meredith works nights or is away for business, Jim’s able to sneak away and play with Jenny, building a relationship that’s quickly getting serious for Jim, much to his chagrin. A workplace triangle, by all means, will run to a confrontational head and does with Meredith confronting her husband’s credit card statement that lists hotel stays. Rommel, Zizzo, and Dinco play to their character’s ability extremely well. Rommel’s not the epitome of machoism as he’s favors a selfish and cowardice side that doesn’t allow him to break his union with wife Meredith and he doesn’t fully commit to Jenny’s head-over-heels love for him, we see this when Jim stutters and becomes reclusive when the mention of having future children come into the conversation. Meredith’s rage causes her to toss her experimental resurrection and growth serum into his mouth agape face and this climatic act acts like a metaphor for Jim’s breaking point between the contentiousness with wife and his side piece’s neediness for more than just sex, sending Jim into sexual assault airspace where even his wife Meredith falls victim to a forced oral sex that results the mutation to blow a hole through her head. Jim goes on to pick up bar women to then kill them for the fresh meat of his mutated biology but mostly done off screen or in the shadows and implied, which could be said as a double entendre for off screen sexual assault. “Colony Mutation” rounds out the indie cast with Tammy Andersen, Nancy Brown, Clyaton Simchick, Tom Fugina, Yeng Monroe, Carri Krehl, J. Elizabeth Marhal, and Susan L. Cane as Jenny Dole’s sister who had a bad feeling about her new boyfriend Jim in the first place.
If looking for a DIY body horror with plenty of ambition but short on cash, look no further than “Colony Mutation” that harnesses the B-movie mayhem of an appendage detaching, young woman feasting, monster of a man which, ironically enough, is created by a woman and is innately obsessed with devouring raw meat. The curious about this modified man-thing, who can appear normal until time to strike then all parts detach into a feasting frenzy, is that he only attacks women, suggesting single-sex predator behavior. Jim’s detachable limbs and other suggestive parts celebrate the independent spirit with crude construction, inventive editing and imaginative conceptions that appears antiquated on the outside but surely heartfelt in its objective – a David Cronenberg tiered body horror. The unicellular organisms can be arms, legs, manhood, and even his head in a scene very reminiscent to John Carpenter’s spider-head moment in “The Thing” but the scene stand on its own two idiosyncratic pereopod legs, or rather four legs. Shot on Super 8mm, the harsh details and near monochromic complexion with all the cell’s imperfections associated to provide the Tom Berna film a classic monster movie façade and since the film was shot in the early 1990s, there are very minimal period specific details that pin down a modern decade. “Colony Mutation” could be set in the 1980s.
“Colony Mutation” is not longer detached from the body of filmic society with a new, director-supervised Blu-ray release from the Wild Eye Releasing associated company, Visual Vengeance. The AVC encoded, 1080p resolution, BD50 is pulled, transferred, and restored from the original Super 8mm elements. The 2K transfer retains plenty of the Super 8mm innate aesthetic with desaturated color palette, cell transparency bleed, and the dust, dirt, and scratches but never do anything of those distort the overall viewing experience. “Colony Mutation” is a quintessential rare gem of indie filmmaking setting the bar high with practical and stop-motion special effects and pulling off a rough cut of said effects. With the new and upped pixel count, many of the special effects scenes render over as cheesier than ever with all the minute details now exposed. While that’s low-hanging fruit, the more problematic issue with Berna’s film is Brad Snowball’s choppy editing that often feels key scenes being cut too short or omitted for crucial continuity. “Colony Mutation” is presented in the original full screen aspect ratio of 1:33:1. The uncompressed LPCM dual channel English Stereo offers a directionless and flat track that often sounds mono designed but the synched post-production dialogue, ADR, is evident with not an exact detailed synchronization between lips and vocals in its isolated and omnipresent attendance that never feels like it’s within the scene. Range and depth are loss with the accompany audio track with often loss of Foley that creates moments of silence, typical with films shot on Super 8mm and kept on tighter purse strings. Optional English subtitles are new and provided for optional selection. Visual Vengeance always comes out swinging with supported special features on all their releases and this feature includes feature parallel audio commentary with Tom Berna, a second commentary with Weng’s Chop Magazine’s Tony Strauss, a new interview with director Tom Berna, new interview with star David Rommel, new interview with music composer Patrik Nettesheim, archived public access interview with Tom Berna In the Director’s Chair, alternate cuts from the original VHS and DVD releases, the original completed script, an image gallery, “Producer” teaser trailer, and Visual Vengeance preview trailers along with their trademark motion title menu. The physical release comes with a Justin Coons illustrated slipcover art that’s “The Thing”-esque with additional artwork from Belgium artist STEMO. The reversible sleeve art also includes the original VHS artwork. Inside, there’s a sex-risky promotional illustrated mini-folded poster, a tri-folded booklet with an essay by Tony Strauss Of Milwaukee Mutations and Men: Tom Berna’s Colony and Blu-ray acknowledgements, and a retro sticker sheet. The region free product is not rated and has a runtime of 83 minutes.
Last Rites: Visual Vengeance brings out of the depths of obscurity Tom Bern’s “Colony Mutation” for a special features packed Blu-ray of body horror bonanza saturated with predatory male sexual addiction.
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