Mutant opens with a mysterious individual snooping around a spooky looking house. But within minutes he's killed by an unseen assailant. The film then cuts to two city slicker brothers taking in a country-side vacation. But it isn't long before they have a run in with some nasty old undesirable Rednecks. The good old boys drive the brothers off the road and into a nearby stream. With their car trashed they decide to hitchhike into town and grab the nearest mechanic. But an over inflated car bill should be the least of their worries! When they reach Goodland, the two siblings quickly feel that something's slightly amiss by the lack of citizens in the eerily deserted town. That's hardly surprising though with the townsfolk suddenly dropping dead like flies and coming back as reanimated zombies, that burn their victims to death with a killer touch! Is a nearby chemical plant responsible for all the mayhem?

I was always intrigued by the Entertainment In Video cover to this movie when visiting my local video shop back in the Eighties. And I'm glad I finally tracked it down after all these years. What's not to like? Wings Hauser hamming thing's up considerably and beating the hell out of rednecks and zombies alike and ogling over his attractive co-star like a lecherous perv! Bo Hopkins playing an alcoholic Sheriff whose quicker on the bottle than his gun! Great zombie transformation scenes, a very effective score by Richard Band and hot eye candy provided by Jody Medford, she plays a school teacher who also moonlights behind the bar at a redneck establishment! Mutant is a cheesy slow burner but definitely worth sticking to for it's climatic pay off. Now I have to track down Mutant 2!

Mutant, aka Night Shadows (1984) Trailer

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