Aberration

Oh man, what a stinker! I like B movies, but this one, I'm not sure to be impressed by how bad it is, or mad that I sat through it. The lizards looked like sock puppets for God's sake! I flip-flopped between laughing and fast forwarding. I guess anyone can make a movie with a cam corder and $10.00, throw it onto a DVD with their home computer, get some nifty packaging and manage to sneak it into the video rental system. After I watched it all I could think of was, "why did I watch that?" I can sum it up with, "It should have been titled Ab-bore-ation". I guess we could get lucky and they start MST3K back up, and there'd be a great movie for it.

pamela gidley shows that she really knows how to take control of mutated reptiles, although she can't do too much with the script. the actors are so forgettable that the creatures should get top billing. on-screen chemistry between gidley and simon bossell is perhaps the worst ever if not for the recent star wars trilogy.

the effects and props are outlandish but there's plenty of them - a guy's head explodes and you've gotta love that, another guy gets eaten by mutant lizards, and there's an absolutely great scene toward the end where gidley almost loses her leg to a hasty operation on (of all places) the counter in the general store. more lizard battles follow, lots of blood, puss, etc. it's a miracle that the characters' lack of anything resembling common sense didn't get them dusted in the first ten minutes.

if you're a fan of gore, crackerjack horror, B-anything, peter jackson's older work, or have a "thing" for pamela gidley, then you'll probably enjoy it. it succeeds where a lot of cheap movies fail, which is to say that while the plot is essentially brainless, it manages to stay consistently fun and entertaining. aberration's biggest drawback may be its 'TV movie' feel but given the subject it doesn't suffer much for it.

Amy (Pamela Gidley) has her deep woods vacation interrupted when ravenous, mutant lizards attack. Teaming up with a scientist, the two must fight to survive against the creatures.

ABERRATION is a fairly cheeezey, silly, yet very enjoyable monster movie with some interesting monsters. Among the horrors wrought are the devouring of Amy's cat, and the stripping of her neighbor to the bone!

There's also a nice, gruesome twist toward the end...

Pink-haired Pamela Gidley steals money from her Russian mobster boyfriend (Valery Nikolaev) and retreats to a small cabin in wintry Northern town. A blizzard traps her and a friendly local guy (Simon Bossell) there and fast-evolving, fanged mutant geckos (!?) attack. Her ex also eventually shows up to make things worse. A silly premise and occasional hokey creature FX detract from this ALIEN-type movie, but it's humorous, well acted, entertaining, action-packed and lots of fun, with plenty of blood and slime for gore fans. A bit better than expected. It was filmed on location in Wellington, New Zealand.

Score: 5 out of 10

It can't be helped, the film is cool. Yeah it's low budget and there's bad acting, etc. but from the beginning this film grabs you. A young girl (Pamela Gidley) escaping her troubled life finds refuge in her families old house in the mountains. She gets stuck in her house, but luckily with a grad student (Simon Bossell) who specializes in animals. Very soon after they get stuck the showdown with the killer geckos begins. All parts with the geckos are entertaining, but by far the best bit is when the girl's boyfriend (Valeri Nikolayev) finds where she's hiding and tries to force 'his' money out of her. Must be seen to be understood, but he does a great job of being campy and unintentionally funny. 'Aberration' did not take itself too seriously, which paid off because the script was really cheesy. I would say it's good enough to rent, definitely worth a watch if it's ever on TV. Rating: 23/40