Metamorphosis: The Alien Factor is a movie set in a lab facility owned by the Talos Corporation. They’ve gotten involved in some genetic experimentation involving extraterrestrial biological material, transforming lab animals into alien creatures. Would you know it, one of the doctors gets bitten by his test subject and starts to undergo a transformation of his own. Once his transformation is complete, he begins a kill crazy rampage in said facility (for reasons not really established) and it’s up to the rest of the lab workers, along with the help of a security guards two daughters and a tag along boyfriend, to put a stop to the madness.
The whole premise of the movie is a bit silly and really unoriginal, but The Alien Factor is actually quite an enjoyable movie in a lot of ways. Firstly, the movie has loads of gore and nasty alien effects. The doctors transformation is really quite gruesome, worse than most horror flicks in this regard, it kinda reminded me of The Fly 2, except probably worse. Loads of casualties in The Alien Factor and gladly so, this movie has more than its fair share of asshole characters, so its good to see the bad guys getting screwed… Badly.
The acting quality is pretty much solid across the board. Marcus Powell puts in a strong performance as the cold, calculating lab boss Dr Viallini, the source of much of the movies woes. All the rest of the actors are pretty much unknowns, but all do the characters justice.
Scares wise, this movie can have you on the edge of you seat at a few parts, and it doesn’t take long for the action to get rolling either. The Alien Factor doesn’t dither around either, it’s pacing is pretty strong, it keeps the ball rolling and doesn’t stop. Special effects wise, given this movie is 20 years old (in fact some scenes are older than that, this movie was delayed a lot in release) its still looks decent enough. Much of the monster effects later on in the movie are done via old fashioned stop-go motion, which perhaps younger viewers may find naff, but personally i have no issue with them at all.
The Alien Factor reminds me a lot of the horror movies i watched when i was a kid, it has that special magic that only 80s/90’s (maybe 70’s too) movies seem to be able to create. So in the end in giving this one a thumbs up. It’s a dumb movie for sure, but damn its enjoyable.
Movie Details
Director: Glenn Takakjian
Writer: Glenn Takakjian
Actors: Tara Leigh, Dianna Flaherty, George Gerard, Allen Lewis Rickman
Release Year: 1990