Newborn UK
Set in the future of 1998, six years after a nuclear
apocalypse that left Earth a ‘blackened husk of a planet’, a group of army
deserters seeks refuge in an abandoned former military base. But it’s not long
before the survivors realise their sanctuary was a government research
laboratory, where a genetically engineered creature still prowls its corridors.
To say this is another Alien
rip-off would be accurate right down to a handful of its mimicked set pieces.
But this unpretentious effort does not try to conquer the emerging - and
hackneyed- film fad that followed the success of the groundbreaking sci-fi
blockbuster; ultimately the low budget B movie-type never allows this imitation
to be a competitor, and it doesn’t in any way try to be. Instead, it relishes
in its rubbery façade and triumphs with its self-aware schlock horror
conventions.
The conflicting quartet spends much of their time lurking in
the shadows around winding corridors and dim lit rooms, and a lot of the effects
work makes its excuses by hiding in the shadows. But it does wonders to create
an eerie atmospheric setting, and thanks to the release of the 1:33:1, it isn’t
the unbearably dark picture that it once was.
Aside from the looming silhouettes of DeCoteau’s
bloodthirsty mutants and a great deal of limbs and heads protruding from the
edge of the frame, the cast fight the force by wrestling of bunch of, what seem
like, cuddly toys. A giant fuzzy rodent for one (that, rest assured, gets
zapped by a laser gun.) It’s good fun, and what it lacks in commitment to the
monster, it makes up for it with full frames of blood spurting exploding heads
and melting ripped flesh as the victims go through their fatal transformations
to their own bloody endings. It’s an enjoyable gore fest and, in hindsight, the
FX of the mutilated bodies wouldn’t look out of place in a 90s movie with the
same production values. Retrospectively it’s as silly and shabby as the rest of
DeCoteau’s catalogue and probably scores below par in comparison to his next
underwhelming project, odd horror parody Sorority
Babes in the Slimeball-O-Rama (1988).
A raunchy shower scene with Linnea Quigley (Return of the Living Dead, 1985. Night of
the Demons, 1998 & 2009) and a lengthy girl-on-girl punch up, which I’m
sure has made a few teenage boys squirm over the years, also ticks another box
to assume its trashy appeal. But when the bare breasts and cheesy clichés have
done their bit, the 69 minute running time doesn’t allow much time for anything
more than hasty decisions and sweeping suggestions - though dinner debates and
deliberations form theories on government intervention, military deployment and
genetic mutation wander in to make up the intervening cumbersome dialogue.
Though we long for them to break free form the enclosed danger, the outdoors is
as unknown to us as it seems to be for them.
Guy Moon has become a household name in TV and movie
soundtracks in the last twenty years, critically acclaimed for his later works
in composing music for animation. His familiar trashy score, analogous to
Goblin’s sound and the Cannibal franchise’s
score, signposts the beloved 80s horror and forms most of the film’s early
substance.
VERDICT: It may have only been another stone in the rubble back in
the mid-80’s when Alien influences
seemed to creep into the booming sci-fi horrors, but today it’s a nostalgic raw
piece of entertainment from the “golden-age” of horror that will surely be
appreciated by DeCoteau’s few remaining fans and those who didn’t have the
patience to squint at its before. Kudos to 88 Films.
(Visit www.horrortalk.com for more of my published work, and for horror news, reviews, comment, reports & competitions)
