Metamorphosis (I) (1990) User Reviews

We evolved from whaaaaaaaaat???????

[Zeegrade · 4/10 · 5 February 2009]

Meet Peter Houseman, rock star genetic professor at Virgina University. When he's not ballin' on the court he's blowing minds and dropping panties in his classroom lectures. Dr. Houseman is working on a serum that would allow the body to constantly regenerate cells allowing humans to become immortal. I'd want to be immortal too if I looked like Christian Bale and got the sweet female lovin that only VU can offer. An assortment of old and ugly university professors don't care for the popular Houseman and cut off funding for his project due to lack of results. This causes Peter to use himself as the guinea pig for his serum. Much to my amazement there are side effects and he, get this, metamorphoses! into something that is embedded into our genetic DNA that has been repressed for "millions of years". He also beds Dr. Mike's crush Sally after a whole day of knowing her. She has a son. His name is Tommy. He is an angry little boy.

Metamorphosis isn't a terrible movie, just not a well produced one. The whole time I watched this I couldn't get past the fact that this was filmed in 1989. The look and feel of the movie is late seventies quality at the latest. It does not help that it's packaged along with 1970's movies as Metamorphosis is part of mill creek entertainment's 50 chilling classics. There is basically no film quality difference whatsoever. The final five minutes are pure bad movie cheese that actually, for me at least, save the movie from a lower rating. Pay attention to the computer terminology such as "cromosonic anomaly". No wonder Peter's experiment failed. Your computer can't spell! This is worthy of a view followed by a trip to your local tavern.

Attack of the Gouda Cheese Monster...

[Jonny_Numb · 4/10 · 23 July 2006]

All the elements for a bad night at the movies are in place: dialog riddled with biological techno-babble, chintzy sets, balsa-wood acting, a horrific late-'80s Casio score, and an overall look that suggests anything on the Sci-Fi Channel's programming schedule, circa 1993. Though "Metamorphosis" starts off with a lot of promise, the film unravels into bland idiocy and MST3K-style cheese as Clark Kent wannabe 'Doctor' Peter Houseman (Gene LeBrock) is pressured into releasing information on his secretive projects. But when he tests his vague experiment on himself, he transforms into a vaguely-defined creature (that bears more than a passing resemblance to 'Dr. Freudstein' from "House by the Cemetery"). The FX work is fairly good for such an obviously low-budget production (though I suspect most of it is kept in shadow for a reason), but overall, "Metamorphosis" leaves a bad retro aftertaste in your guts, in spite of its hopes to sway us otherwise. I can't help but agree with one character's closing remark: "(It was) A nightmare...from the past!"

Extreme Monster-Makeover.

[Coventry · 3/10 · 24 October 2006]

"Metamorphosis" hold a tiny bit of cult-value, simply because it was written and directed by George Eastman. This Italian bloke is more or less the personification of male sleaze and starred in pretty much every rancid Joe D'Amato production during the late 70's/early 80's. Wouldn't it be interesting for avid Euro-cult purchasers to own the only movie directed by the guy who walked around bare-butted in "Erotic Nights of the Living Dead" all the time? I thought so! Now, unlike the movies he starred in, Eastman's own "Metamorphosis" is kind of disappointing in the gore & sleaze departments. There are a handful of nasty murders, cheesy monster effects and naked female bodies (a guest appearance by sleaze-queen Laura Gemser!) on display, but it's mainly a talkative movie. The handsome & eloquent Dr. Houseman is on the verge of a scientific breakthrough with his research on human DNA codes when suddenly the university he works for threatens to cancel his funds. He developed a theory to decode genes and block the human ageing process, but if he doesn't come up with detailed reports any time soon, his research will be stopped. So Dr. Houseman does what any intelligent scientist would do and injects the untested serum into his own veins. Needless to say (and like the title implies), he slowly turns into murderous monster that actually ages much quicker! In other words, his research sucked! Like the other reviewers already mentioned, this movie "borrows" a lot of ideas from David Cronenberg's "The Fly" – the dramatic romance sub plot included - but doesn't add any originality from its own. The big difference is that you constantly feel connected with Jeff Goldblum's character in "The Fly", whereas Dr. Houseman becomes just another monster that needs to be destroyed as fast as possible. The rapid-ageing-syndrome aspect also reminded me of Ruggero Deodato's sadly underrated giallo "Phantom of Death", only the protagonist in that film inherited the disease and didn't inflict it on himself. The physical deterioration of the carriers is very similar in both films, though. Few scares or excitement to discover here, instead the movie features loads of bad acting, poor lighting, lousy editing and a completely retarded climax to boot. Feel free to skip this one.

"You Don't Like Me Much, Do You?!"...

[azathothpwiggins · 31 December 2019]

Young, hyper-arrogant geneticist, Dr. Peter Houseman (Gene LeBrock) teaches at Virginia University. In his spare time, he works on reversing the aging process in his lab. Of course, this is a sci-fi / horror film, so something must go terribly wrong.

So, when Houseman deviates from proper practices, his funding is cut. Does this stop him? Nope. He simply tries out his experimental serum on himself, resulting in a murderous mutation run amok.

METAMORPHOSIS is sort of a knock-off of films like Ken Russell's ALTERED STATES or David Cronenberg's THE FLY. As such, it isn't a complete failure, at least not in the first act. Peter starts exhibiting behavioral anomalies, and remembers only snippets of his violent escapades.

So far, so good.

It's when he undergoes his physical transformation that the wheels sail off. Writhing around on his bathroom floor in his underwear, the absurdity ensues. Peter goes from looking as though he fell asleep in boiling water, to resembling The Tall Man from PHANTASM! If only it ended there, but no, he soon turns into something like ambulatory liverwurst.

Remarkably, the story itself remains in the "okay" range. That is, until the grand finale, when the-monster-formerly-known-as-Peter is ultimately revealed to be... Barney The Purple Dinosaur! Oh, and there's also the obligatory "twist" at the end that only makes things worse. Much ado about very little...

lousy sci-fi/horror movie with an unbelievably bad metamorphosis - laughable, in fact

[FieCrier · 2/10 · 21 January 2005]

A young basketball-playing professor of genetics is doing research on the genetic sequence, using human fetuses. He hopes to be able to find a cure for all diseases and aging. He's pressured into concluding his research because he hasn't published, so the university is having trouble justifying funding him (I think).

He does a trial injection on a monkey, which quickly dies. He then tries it on himself. He starts a relationship with the single mother of an extremely annoying little boy; she's the one who had been demanding results from the research.

Initially, he seems to have no effects from the injection, except some new strength. He then realizes that he had some memory loss, and starts recalling what happened. Additionally, he starts to appear very unhealthy.

Since the movie is named metamorphosis, he does eventually change into something else. You won't believe your eyes - either what he turned into, or the absolutely crappy costume the actor is wearing to depict what he's turned into. Incredibly, there's a further change in store - the end of the movie is really, really absurd.

About the only thing this movie has going for it is that Laura Gemser is in it, but she has a very small part.

I'd once seen a the video box for this with a sculpted plastic form glued to the boxcover. Possibly it might even have had some electronics in it at one time, perhaps eyes that light up (the main character's eyes occasionally turn green in the movie). The copy I watched had a box that only showed tear marks where the glue had held on the plastic, which had been removed. The novelty boxcover, if it still had it, would have been the only reason I would have held onto this movie; I'm definitely getting rid of it.

Prepare to be scared...no, mildly startled...no, chuckling morosely...

[Frequency270 · 4/10 · 16 June 2007]

'Metamoprhis' is the story of a dashing young scientist, revered at the local college, is brought under investigation by financial providers for the college. This forces him to take shortcuts in typical bad-Hollywood melodramatic fashion.

My first thought after this movies conclusion was this. "Not good, but not bad, for early-to-mid eighties." Of course, I then realized that it was made in 1990, which almost propelled it down to a '4', but decided to keep it at the mediocre '5' that it is.

'Metamorphis' does on a few occasions, seem like a good movie desperately trying to get out. The acting, while not stellar, is mostly competent. You can even see the occasional glisten of a modest quality. Pacing is a large problem with the movie. After thinking I had been watching for ninety minutes, I realized I'd only been watching an hour. Special effects aren't stellar, but the director seems to be mostly competent enough to work around that weakness.

The lead, a mildly charismatic male that seems to be attempting a blended channeling of Tom Cruise and Christopher Reeves, reminded me mostly of Matt Dillon's character in 'Wild Things'. The female heroine does an OK job, but does not distinguish herself in anyway. There's a 'naughty girl' role in here, and the actress does what she can with it, but it doesn't seem like much. There is a child actor that the director can't decide if he's morose, cheerful or just weird.

Pacing, as I said, is the worst problem with this movie, until a final battle with the bad guy that would make a Power Ranger blush. It is bizarre and inexplicable, until the final scene which is supposed to be dramatic but simply hilarious, saturated with every bad camera trick and overacting that can be compressed in about thirty seconds.

A decent one-time watch on the 'Mill Creek 50 Chilling Movie Pack'. Nothing that is going to bring you back, and nothing to buy on its own.

Who Knew We Evolved from Reptiles?

[evanston_dad · 3/10 · 8 September 2011]

"Metamorphosis" is like David Cronenberg's "The Fly" if "The Fly" had been filmed in someone's rec room.

A young, hotshot scientist experiments with a serum (don't they always?) that, when injected into himself, makes his DNA begin to evolve backwards to man's most primitive state (or something like that). Now you might think that would mean he would end up as an amoeba or a speck of nothing, but boy would you be wrong. Apparently, we are descended from lizards, and I know this because the scientist in question first begins to simply decay, then makes a brief appearance as a dinosaur (I kid you not) and ends up as a little lizard in a jar.

This movie isn't even in the remotest realm of good, but it's actually not horribly terrible either, at least not until its last 20 minutes or so. Those turn into a seemingly endless chase scene involving a little boy and his mother trying to get away from the monstrous scientist. But you have to stay with it to see the climactic howler of a scene in which a man in a felt dinosaur costume tries to horrify us with what the scientist has become. It seriously looks like something that would be worn at a child's birthday party -- if it were purple, it would look like Barney.

Where did movies like this ever even play?

Grade: D+

Was That an Amoeba at the End?

[Hitchcoc · 2/10 · 8 January 2007]

It's the same old, "If I can't get the funding for my project, I'll inject myself" monster movie. There is nothing new here. It's a lot like the Jeff Goldblum "Fly" movie. The man manages to keep some semblance of sanity, but eventually succumbs to the effects of his experiments. The acting is pretty bad. There are people acting stupidly all along the way, putting their lives in danger for no apparent reason. The guy keeps going back to the lab he has been forbidden to enter. Then there's his relationship with a young woman and her son. Admittedly, he is good looking, but he seems like a lot of trouble. It's just a pretty big waste of time. Even his tyrannosaurus suit looks like it came off the rack at a Star Trek convention.

"Metamorphosis"...predictably for the worse.

[gridoon · 5/10 · 16 July 2002]

Mixing in about equal parts "The Fly" and "Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde", this flick is reasonably well-done on an obviously low budget, but the minute it stops regarding its hero as a human and starts treating him like a standard movie monster, it completely loses its point. Perhaps that's why the drawn-out climax is so unexciting. But it deserves some kind of award for having in its cast one of the most dislikable kids that ever appeared in a movie. (**)

George Eastman mayhem

[BandSAboutMovies · 4/10 · 4 November 2018]

You know what I miss? Italian ripoffs of successful movies. They just don't seem to happen anymore. Like this - obviously, it's The Fly, but takes plenty of twists and turns. And oh yes - it's directed by B&S About Movies favorite George Eastman!

Gene LeBrock (Father Peter from La Casa 5/Beyond Darkness) plays Dr. Peter Houseman, a young scientist who just doesn't get along with the older scientists at his university. His ideas are just a bit too crazy. One of those ideas is injecting himself with his own formula for reversing the effects of aging. That action causes him to undergo a Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde syndrome, along with his body falling apart.

He also has all sorts of women problems, from dating a fellow scientist with a young kid to a student who won't stop teasing him in class and even a mystery girl that he only sees in flashbacks. And oh hey - is that Laura Gemser as a prostitute? It is!

Then, as things happen, he starts to turn into a lizard and kills people. Say no more, you know?

As this was made at the end of the Italian horror movie era, the effects are as minimal as the budget. There are some good ideas, some interesting moments and enough violence to keep things from getting too boring. And hey, it has a needle to the eye, so I'm certain that Fulci was pleased.

An underwhelming effort with only a few positives

[kannibalcorpsegrinder · 3/10 · 23 November 2020]

After receiving word from his superiors, a brilliant doctor is informed of the need to produce evidence of his experiments and decides to push through on the testing by using himself as a subject, yet when he begins experiencing unintended side effects he races to find a way to keep it from consuming him.

This was a slightly disappointing overall genre effort. What brings it down at first is the beginning to this one which keeps this one from generating any interest. The brilliant yet egotistical scientist ranting and raving about funding for his mythic experiments isn't an endearing move to get us onto his side since he comes off as arrogant and elitist. That he comes to believe his entire work is to be completely and utterly isolated from interference and continues to value the unregulated nature of the experiments at all cost doesn't make us root or feel sympathy for him in the slightest. Moreover, this whole first section of the film comes off as interminably boring. The focus on him fighting with the various members of the college board or romancing the girl who feels compelled to help him all but drains any life this could've presented with the storyline which itself doesn't make any sense. Through all the technical and scientific jargon this utilizes to try to play off what he's doing, very little of it is understandable and the cliched romance angle is exactly a cliche being completely expected as well as underwritten, making for a dull middle section to the film. That's carried over for the rest of the film where hardly anything interesting happens. The romance angle serves no purpose other than building to an ill-fated territorial battle for her, while the investigation from the doctors into his experiments is inherently time-consuming delaying the inevitable. All of this ends up cutting into the horror elements until so late in the film that they're barely useful in overcoming the flaws built up previously with the overall lack of content about what he's turning into or what happened as the uninteresting pace or focus away from these features for the majority of its running time. That leaves the few horror elements present in this one which are incredibly hit-or-miss. The first half is based on underwhelming ideas and setups, from the laughably inept attack on the slutty student to a flashback attack on a random waitress, both of which are fine in concept but fail in execution. The hospital escape and resulting rampage offer up much more impressive attacks taking advantage of the fabulous metamorphosis make-up and the inability to recognize who he is until it's too late providing some decent gore in the process. Coupled with the suspenseful stalking throughout the college where this takes place, it does have some positive points.

Rated Unrated/R: Graphic Violence, Language and Nudity.

A must see!!!!

[ICP RULZ · 10/10 · 2 July 2002]

This is a must see movie for all horror lovers.Awsome.About a scientist who becomes is own lab rat.Awsome movie,bad effects at the end.You will never see the ending.This movie has awsome acting from ALL cast members but it also has alot of suspense and some pretty narly scenes.

Metamarsephisarse

[Bezenby · 6/10 · 9 August 2014]

Another horror film from that age where the sun was setting on the Italian exploitation film industry, only this one is directed by George Eastman, which I'm sure no one's mentioned on here yet.

This one involves a guy called Houseman who's a basketball playing, hip genetics professor who kind of looks a bit like Clark Kent. Some lady looking into funding of research forces all projects to show what they are doing which leads to Houseman having to hurry things up and inject himself with some serum that may stop people ageing. He's not angry at that chick by the way, and they end up in the sack fairly early on in the film. Also, this chick has a kid and he looks terrified of all the actors, just like that kid who acted alongside The Hoff in Witchcraft.

The prof hasn't watched Cronenberg's The Fly remake, however (although I'm sure Eastman has), so it comes as a surprise to him when he's feeling great but having blackouts which involved beating the crap out of Laura Gesmer, and then eventually getting worse and worse until it seems like Luigi...I mean George...has replaced half of this film with the last half of Phantom of Death. So he either goes all green eyed or ends up like an ancient old man. And you know that chick has the serum that could cure him...

I'll be frank here: It's fifty eight minutes into the film before we get our first kill. Nearly an hour! Before then, you've a lot of genetic talk, romance, an old enemy trying to one up our Prof, loads of ancient computers and such like. Luckily the acting is pretty bad and it's all neon and eighties like.

Thinks finally pick up a bit when Houseman gets even more mutated and starts wasting the cast (about time too), there's a smattering of gore here, but not enough. I'm giving a six because the cheese factor is very high, and the two 'twists' at the ending are hilarious and kind of worth all the wait, but this is kind of a poor film from an era of poor films.

Don't Mess With The Gene Pool

[bkoganbing · 2/10 · 23 June 2011]

Tom Cruise clone Gene LeBrock stars in Metamorphosis about a genetics research scientist who is being pressed by both the bean counters at his university and by a jealous colleague about his project. Little did they know that they were messing with a 20th Century Dr. Jekyll.

LeBrock's experiments are about halting and reversing the aging process in man, but what he gets is something different and primordial when he experiments on himself.

Like his more famous lookalike player, LeBrock should have contented himself with a much safer need for speed. It all goes real bad in the end. That's assuming you want to stick around until the end.

The little boy Tommy is the real villain of Metamorphosis

[vegeta3986 · 4/10 · 26 July 2009]

Ha. without a doubt Tommy's the evil one here. i don't know why, but for some reason, little kids in horror movies tend to come across as little butt munches. and since they're kids, they won't die. because they're annoying...well..except for asylum of terror. but those are few and far between.

Anyway onto the movie. Can't find this movie on DVD? sure you can! all you have to do is buy the Chilling classics DVD pack! not only do you get Metamorphosis on DVD for $15, but you also get 49 OTHER MOVIES! what a bargain! pff. OK. i'm done advertising for these cheesy movies. let's just say, this movie ain't worth the 15 bucks on its own.

So we have a chemist scientist. yeah. cause all chemist scientists look as handsome as this guy playing Peter. He's trying to come up with a serum to stop deterioration of the body. the college he works at wants to pull the plug on his project, so he tries it on himself. but because this is a horror movie, he sucks it up and starts and incredibly long transformation sequence that takes nearly 3/4 of the movie.

To pad out the movie he gets into a relationship with some woman who has a son. and she was never married! scandalous! But of course Tommy is one of the most irritating characters....no. i take it back. HE IS the most irritating character. Far worse than the old crippled guy who wants to take over peter's work and gloats over him while he's in the hospital. that's right, even as an old cripple, you can still be the villain.

So we see Peter start to randomly kill some people in visions he has until he realizes he's the one doing it and just decides to kill everyone in his path to get back to normal. However at the end he ends up de-evolving into a lizard. yeah, i know don't ask. The ending really doesn't make any sense. And if you're hoping for any really good payoff, you're not going to get it.

This isn't a HORRIBLE movie....it's just frustrating because of the lack of a good payoff. if you already own the 50 movie pack and this is next on your list, you're not in for a snoozer, but you're also not in for a great movie. Just sit back, relax, and eat a lot of snack food. Because this movie isn't going to be making you jump out of your skin anytime soon.

Metamorphosis gets 4 plastic lizard heads, out of 10.

Inept in every way.

[eddy-28 · 10 August 2000]

Grade B-Movie for THE FLY (1986) Fails with it's poor effects and it's star Gene LeBrock who is trying to stop human aging but he becomes his own genie pig. Not good at all and has a lack of direction. METAMORPHOSIS may be a B-Movie but still is terrible.

The Pits

A cheesy slice of Italian sci-fi horror

[Red-Barracuda · 4/10 · 24 January 2011]

I don't think it's possible to write a review for Metamorphosis without revealing spoilers. The final scenes in the film after all are surely the ones that give it any cult value at all. So let me just cut to the chase. The point when the central character turns into a dinosaur is the moment where this movie differentiates itself from all others. It's completely stupid and very memorable. And then immediately after this, the prologue has the hero metamorphosed into a small lizard in a child's box. I'm sure Franz Kafka never envisaged any of this.

The film is also notable for being written and directed by George Eastman, who is famous to most fans of Italian genre cinema as an actor who usually plays convincingly psychotic sociopaths in films such as Rabid Dogs. This flick clearly isn't in the same league as that one, and it is an indicator of the reduction in quality of Italian films in general by 1990. The fact that it's most memorable moments are of unintended (?) hilarity perhaps says it all. Although in fairness to Metamorphosis, its good fun and at least it actually has something memorable about it, which is more than can be said for many similar pictures.

20 minutes of competent work.

[lemon_magic · 3/10 · 27 November 2012]

"Metamorphosis" has about 20 minutes of decent work in it, but those minutes are scattered and buried in a 90 minute movie. And it's obvious that those 20 minutes are the sequences the director had in mind when he started this project - the scene where the robot arm injects the serum into the professor's eyeball, the scene where the elevator door opens and a cane falls out, followed by a mutilated cast member, the scene where the little boy hides in the lab from the mutated scientist and tries to reach a key that is just out of his reach, the rough sex/assault flashbacks, etc. And intermittently, these scenes work as well as the film stock and the lighting and the tiny budget will allow.

Also, the protagonist is hypnotically good looking (which makes the initial signs of change on his face more interesting), the actress who plays his girlfriend has some chops, the rival professor gets in some neat Scrooge-ish moments, and the protagonist's two main friends are played effectively. Even the little boy manages to be reasonably unforced and natural - he's not Dakota Fanning or Haley Joe Osment, but he isn't nearly as bad as he could have been.

Still, there are some really bad and really dull sequences here that pretty much smother any interest or excitement the movie is trying to generate (the director has no idea how to frame a car chase or a driving sequence or a sex scene or a lot of other standard cinematic things required to keep a movie out of Sargasso sea boredom). And the monster make up is pretty bad. And they misspell "chromosomal" on the computer read outs. And someone made the fatal mistake of all cheap movie makers and hired one guy with a synthesizer to supply the music soundtrack, and this guys is under the impression that he's scoring the background to a "Starsky and Hutch" episode.

The movie is actually just good enough to make you watch it through to the end, but at the end you'll throw up your hands and say, "Ah, geez, 90 minutes of my life, wasted."

I kept hoping this movie was going to morph into something less ridiculous.

[happyendingrocks · 4/10 · 18 October 2018]

Hamstrung by stiff acting, an incongruous musical score that belongs in a Golan-Globus cop flick, and a flimsy concept better suited for an episode of Tales From The Darkside than a feature-length film, this bland but serviceable thriller probably won't resonate with too many horror fans as a classic. Metamorphosis isn't a particularly original or exciting movie, it's just kind of there, and none of the ideas on the screen here seem to suggest any loftier ambitions than those this release ultimately realized as a prototypical late-'80s/early-'90s direct-to-video offering. Nonetheless, there's just enough meat here to keep forgiving genre fans engaged--and a burst of roaring unintentional comedy awaiting those who stick things out until the final act.

The plot owes a large debt to David Cronenberg's masterful take on The Fly, the only novel alteration being that this film's protagonist-slash-antagonist is fixated on a scientific innovation intended to stop humans from aging rather than molecular teleportation (though please don't read that comparison as an equivalency; neither the action nor the effects in this flick are anywhere near as breathtaking as the material Croneberg summoned a few years earlier). When Dr. Peter Housman is faced with the threat of having the funding for his genetic research cancelled, his desperate need for results drives him to act as his own guinea pig and inject himself with his experimental serum. Obviously, since this is a horror flick, that turns out to be a terrible idea. Rather than making his cells invincible to the ravages of time, the inoculation instead imbues him with supernatural strength (hey, that's not such a bad side effect) and causes him to unconsciously prowl the night beating up prostitutes (okay, yeah, that one's bad). Once you factor in the unpleasant matter of his subsequently turning into a deformed monstrosity that feasts on human flesh , it becomes pretty clear that Dr. Houseman isn't nearly as brilliant a scientist as everyone else in the movie keeps saying he is.

Since this tale could easily be told in thirty minutes of screen-time, the film is padded with unnecessary passages that accomplish nothing more than stifling whatever momentum the scenario builds. Houseman's romantic entanglement with a single mom who is sent by the university's money-men to assess his work is ostensibly intended to mirror Geena Davis's presence in The Fly, but this subplot adds virtually nothing to the story other than the opportunity for a dimly-lit and wantonly gratuitous softcore sex scene. Other space-filling mechanisms include needless interludes informing us that the young son of Houseman's inamorata doesn't like him very much (which makes sense, since he isn't especially likeable) and numerous tedious vignettes of the Doctor doing science-y stuff on his computer (to remind us he is in fact a scientist, I suppose). There's also far too much time spent squandered on secondary characters who supply jargon-filled extrapolations on the biological causality of the titular transformation; though probably meant to clarify Houseman's plight for the audience, their accounts only serve to make the entire affair seem more implausible, particularly when the explanation the peanut gallery settles upon is that the professor's serum has activated cells that have lain dormant in the human body through millions of years of evolution--in other words, mankind's distant ancestors were evidently homicidal reptile-faced blood-beasts, too.

The gore effects are far from spectacular, but handled capably enough, and despite some other criticisms I've read, the various stages of Dr. Houseman's grotesque makeover are executed about as effectively as the budget allows. Unfortunately, the same can't be said about the penultimate phase of his progression, when he mutates into what appears to be a strobe-lit dinosaur puppet. This monumentally silly reveal renders what's supposed to be the gripping culmination an exhibition of pure slapstick which completely upends the possibility of anyone taking this outing seriously--though the characters who encounter Houseman's climactic monstrosity gasp with shock and horror, any seasoned genre fan will undoubtedly deem laughter a far more fitting reaction. And the chuckles are bound to keep on coming when you get a load of the goofy tacked-on "twist" ending, too.

Ultimately, despite the absurdist heights the film reaches in its last reel, the sum total of Metamorphosis as a whole is merely decent. Whether or not that moderate result and a couple of giggles is worth 90 minutes of your time is up to you.

A little slow at times but tries it's best.

[poolandrews · 5/10 · 25 December 2011]

Metamorphosis is set in Norfolk in Virginia where brilliant young genetic scientist Dr. Peter Houseman (Gene LeBrock) works in a university teaching students & carrying out research in DNA, Houseman is trying to perfect a serum that will alter human DNA & reverse the ageing process. Left alone for two years the university administrators want to know where their hundreds of thousands of dollars have gone & send in Sally Donnelly (Catherine Baranov) to conduct a full audit & report back, Houseman fears his experiments are published before they are perfected. Houseman injects himself with the experimental serum & at first the results are amazing as his health, fitness & awareness improve dramatically, however soon terrible side-effects begin to manifest as Houseman's body undergoes a hideous genetic transformation into some form of pre-human reptilian life-form that must feed on human flesh to survive...

This Italian & American co-production was written & directed by George Eastman who is probably best know for playing the killer in Anthropophagus (1980) & Absurd (1981), while Metamorphosis has a bad reputation I didn't think it was a total failure. As has already been mentioned by just about everyone else who has ever seen Metamorphosis the similarities between it & David Cronenberg's brilliant remake of The Fly (1986) are clear to see, the scientist conducting risky experiments on himself, a neutral love interest, the scientist slowly turning into something nasty & experiencing improved strength & senses with a climax where all traces of his previous humanity have gone. In fact the two films are scarily similar in tone & themes even if The Fly is a far, far superior film in every aspect. Good mad scientist films are thin on the ground really, there's the aforementioned The Fly, there's the Re-Animator films & that's just about it really. I liked the ideas here, some of the scientific exposition is dry & dull but I liked the story, it's based around proper people with proper motives rather than dumb teens even if they act dumb quite a lot, there's enough going on to have kept me interested & the story takes the odd turn here & there. The script takes itself extremely seriously with not one bit of humour or irony even attempted. At over 90 minutes Metamorphosis is slow going at times which hurts it & the extremely silly twist ending doesn't work at all although it might have looked clever on a written page as a script it doesn't work when filmed.

The gore levels are restrained compared to some Italian horror, there's a ripped-out throat, there's a few dead bodies, a few girls are knocked around & there's a heart in a jar. The special effects are alright, the make-up is OK until the very end & the final reptilian creature is shown, director Eastman wisely keeps it's screen time down to a minimum, films from waist up & uses quick cuts to try & disguise how bad it looks, he fails as the thing looks so stiff & rubbery. Metamorphosis looks OK, it's a pretty dark film with the climax set in dark university corridors to try & raise some scares but Eastman doesn't quite manage it. I did like the look of this overall, a bit flat & static at times but with a certain atmosphere. Also known as Regenerator here in the UK when it was released back in the 90's on VHS.

Filmed in Norfolk in Virginia the film is set against a Christmas backdrop for some reason, maybe it was coming up to Christmas when it was shot so had to included Santa's on the street & decorated Christmas tree's. The acting is a little dry at times but not too bad.

Metamorphosis is something a little different, it tries to be a complex science fiction horror rip-off of The Fly & the basic idea is here but the execution lets it down. A little too slow, not quite enough gore, a poor looking final monster & a very silly twist ending makes me wonder why I liked it. Well, I don't know but I did for all it's faults & it has it's fair share.

So absurd, it's ridiculous

[catfish-er · 2/10 · 2 December 2009]

METAMORPHOSIS I am working my way through the Chilling Classics 50 Movie Pack Collection and METAMORPHOSIS is the seventh movie in the set. Released in 1990, METAMORPHOSIS seems to be a remake of "The Atom Age Vampire," which also featured a scientist striving for similar results. Set in modern times, METAMORPHSIS is not my kind of horror movie.

A university researcher is working to crack the human genome in order to create a serum that would prevent aging. Pressured by the administration to publish his papers; and, produce some results (or risk losing funding), the scientist decides to use himself as a guinea pig! At first thinking that he suffered no adverse side effects, he eventually discovers that the serum has indeed altered him in the most unexpected manner!

The acting is stilted; and, the performances left me with a much diminished interest in the film. The score is pandering. And, the science behind the experiments and their findings is not only fallacious; it's absurd; it's ridiculous – at best.

As others noted, the end turns into a 30+ minute gag, which is seemingly endless. Without giving too much away, I'd call this one, "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde meet the Creature From the Black Lagoon meets Home Alone."

It Started Out OK But...

[Rainey-Dawn · 3/10 · 14 October 2016]

The beginning of this film I enjoyed but once the metamorphosis began the film started going all down hill... we evolved from what?!! I don't believe it! I'm not going to ruin the film for those that might want to see it but to me the ending is ridiculous! You would have to watch the film to find out what he turned into!! The acting is semi-OK, not too bad really. Most of the film had a 1970s or early 1980s look and feel to it which I really liked! Most of the special effects were good -- minus that dang ending which was awful! The ending really ruined what was potentially a pretty good horror film - like a modern creature feature for a little while.

I don't recommended the film but if you catch it on one night and decide to watch it or find it in a film pack as I did then don't expect too much from the movie, well the ending anyway. The ending is a let down from the evolution aspect but comical in it's way.

3/10

A living fossil

[polysicsarebest · 6/10 · 20 January 2007]

Metamorphosis is an entertaining film about a daring young scientist who creates a drug that makes people live forever. He decides to test it on himself, and in the process he becomes a killer (and slowly becomes.. uh.. something else).

This is a pretty decent watch with good acting and an intriguing plot. There are even a couple of gruesome scenes and decent effects. Most people who review this film seem to suggest that this was a shoddy slapped-together low-budget effort, but there seems to actually have been a lot of heart and thought put into some aspects of this movie. Too bad it kind of peters out in the (unintentionally hilarious) last five minutes.

You could do a lot worse than watching this film.

unfulfilled potential

[mlamar-3 · 3/10 · 15 January 2011]

The story idea itself wasn't bad, but the screenplay, editing and much of the acting were deficient. Many points in the portrayed events seem to have been skipped over, instead of tying them together into a coherent presentation. The film thus tended to be rather choppy and to jump around a bit. Although it was allegedly filmed in Virginia, it seemed to be more like a Canadian film than an American film. I never figured out why the woman from the home office in New York, who was allegedly sent there to examine the finances, seems to have moved into a house there, with her son. (Her son, by the way, seemed to have very little to do with the plot, except perhaps for some background on her.) This movie could be remade, with the needed improvements and be a decent horror film--perhaps becoming a classic. But, as it stands, it is more of an instructional film of what not to do in a movie.

Silly Italian horror

[lor_ · 16 May 2023]

My review was written in June 1990 after watching the Imperial Entertainment video cassette.

"Metamorphosis" is an extremely silly Italian horror film in home video release Stateside. Pic is not to be confused with an American feature, "Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor", made about the same time but still unreleased.

Picture adequately poses as a U. S. product with location filming in Virginia and an American cast.

Gene Le Brock, who previously topline Troma's "Fortress of Amerikkka", stars as a genetic engineer whose university puts him in a publish or perish situation. He unwisely speeds up his ambitious experiments (using himeself as p=guinea pig) to conquer disease and ageing, turning into a monster.

Pic's ludicrous finale reveals a basic misunderstanding of sci-fi, moving from the incredibile to the sublime. Le Brock's regresson through various stages of "Dr. Phibes" makeup (by Maurizio Trani) culminated in him turning not into a missing link, but rather a baby tyrannosaurus rex. Police shoot down the dinosaur, but the damage is done.

Acting is acceptable with Catherine Baranov making a luscious leading lady. Softcore film star Laura Gemser pops up as a prostitute who's one of the Jekyll & Hyde hero's victims.