Ok, with a title like HIDEOUS! you know right off-the-bat that the
filmmakers weren't out to win any Oscars with this offering.
Surprisingly though, what director Charles Band and his co-horts
at Full Moon Pictures do accomplish is a much better B-movie
than one might expect.
The plot is simple yet completely deranged: a "biological oddities
broker", Belinda Yost (Tracy May), and her two, wealthy, high-profile
collector clients, Napolean Lazar (Mel Johnson Jr.) and Dr. Lorca
(Michael Citriniti), square off against one another over a deformed
specimen found at a local sewer filtration plant. One has his half- naked, gorilla-mask wearing assistant Sheila (Jaqueline Lovell)
steal it while the other hires a P.I., Det. Kantor (Gerard O' Donnell)
to track it down. Everyone winds up in a strange, Transylvanian
castlesque mansion fighting one another until, lo-and-behold,
monsters come to life and all hell breaks loose!
Granted the story isn't great, or barely even good, but the film does
manage to shine in a few areas. The cinematography, despite
what is obviously constructed on a reduced budget, is top-notch.
The film is also well-directed, given the poor material with which it
contends. Well paced and shot. And some of the portrayals and
acting/actors are much better than what one might encounter in
similar features and situations; on one end, fine performances are
given by Lovell (who is very easy on the eyes, I might add), May and
O'Donnell (O'Donnell should be making "real" pictures), but then
we have to contend with over-indulgent, ham from Citriniti,
Johnson Jr. and Rhonda Griffin. It comes out even I suppose.
But the most disappointing aspect of HIDEOUS! by far has to be
the creature effects. They are just plain awful. The deformed
monstrosities look more like skinned Muppets, yet with 50 times
less articulation. They can barely move, mutter incessantly, run
around oozing goo and bring the possibilities of the picture down
quite considerably. And the "sex-scene" is too unbelievably stupid
to describe, but is a must-see! Yes, HIDEOUS! is meant to have a
comic undertone for certain, but chances are the viewer won't be
laughing "with" the makers of this ugly nugget.
5/10. This all could have been avoided if they'd used
Tupperware...
