Growth is set on the island of Kuttyhunk where twenty years ago a group of scientists set up a community in order to devote their time & energy into their experiments, first they genetically engineer perfect pearls which they sell for millions which they use to fund groundbreaking experiments in parasitic organisms that are meant to increase their human hosts strength & mental capacity but also had the unwanted side effect that turned them into killers. Jamie Ackerman (Mircea Monroe) survived the original outbreak twenty years ago & returns to Kuttyhunk along with her boyfriend Marco (Brian Krause) to sell her old family house that could be worth as much as a couple of million dollars, however the parasites return & start taking over the folk of Kuttyhunk turning them into killers once again. Jamie begins to realise that her past may hold the key to defeating the parasites once & for all...
Written, co-produced & directed by Gabriel Cowan this horror film features parasitic Slug type creatures that take control of their human host's much like Shivers (1975), Night of the Creeps (1986), The Faculty (1998) & Slither (2006) all of which feature Slug like parasites which infect & alter people in some way. The main problem I had with Growth was it's pace, it's just a very slow going film that feels like nothing is happening & I wasn't keen on all the padding either. Usually films that last for a little over eighty minutes don't require much padding to fill the time but Growth has plenty, some may call it character development but I call it padding. Watching a girl go jogging in the woods a few times is boring, listening to a group of four friends argue & talk & generally do boring things may be character development to some but it never goes anywhere, it never feels like anything more substantial than basic 'who loves who' nonsense & the mystery surrounding Jamie's past adds little & doesn't tie in that well. The script tries to throw in a twist or two but there's no great revelations that will particularly shock or surprise you & even the background story feels thin & doesn't make much sense. Where have these parasites been for the past twenty years exactly? If you become infect with a parasite do you know or not? That guy Justin rips a girls throat out one night & thinks nothing of it yet the next day when he crushes some wood with his hands he seems surprised & shocked in an odd sort of way. It just seems that sometimes the parasites have control while other times they don't. The whole genetic experiment gone wrong scenario has been done to death & the script skips the finer details & is quite vague, we only ever really focus on the four teens & what happens in the rest of Kuttyhuck is almost totally ignored, the subplot about the antidote is confusing, why were those people walking through the woods with giant photo's of people & what were the ultimate purpose of the parasites anyway? To create some sort of superhuman? Like that was ever going to catch on...
Between all the talk & teen drama there are lots of scenes of CGI computer parasite Slug things slithering around with lots of squelching noises, to be fair the CGI is actually quite good & is kept fairly simple. There's not much gore here, there's a bit of blood splatter, a guy has his arm ripped off, there are lots of parasites that burrow into people's skin & a guy gets shot through the head. Shot in full 2:35:1 widescreen Growth looks quite nice & sleek although a little bland at times, it's competent for sure but not overly special.
With a supposed budget of about $300,000 this was apparently filmed in Massachusetts. The acting from an unknown cast is alright but nothing spectacular.
Growth is not a film that will grow on me, I thought it was well made enough with competent special effects & acting but the plot is muddled & far too much time is spent on needless padding that doesn't really go anywhere.
Written, co-produced & directed by Gabriel Cowan this horror film features parasitic Slug type creatures that take control of their human host's much like Shivers (1975), Night of the Creeps (1986), The Faculty (1998) & Slither (2006) all of which feature Slug like parasites which infect & alter people in some way. The main problem I had with Growth was it's pace, it's just a very slow going film that feels like nothing is happening & I wasn't keen on all the padding either. Usually films that last for a little over eighty minutes don't require much padding to fill the time but Growth has plenty, some may call it character development but I call it padding. Watching a girl go jogging in the woods a few times is boring, listening to a group of four friends argue & talk & generally do boring things may be character development to some but it never goes anywhere, it never feels like anything more substantial than basic 'who loves who' nonsense & the mystery surrounding Jamie's past adds little & doesn't tie in that well. The script tries to throw in a twist or two but there's no great revelations that will particularly shock or surprise you & even the background story feels thin & doesn't make much sense. Where have these parasites been for the past twenty years exactly? If you become infect with a parasite do you know or not? That guy Justin rips a girls throat out one night & thinks nothing of it yet the next day when he crushes some wood with his hands he seems surprised & shocked in an odd sort of way. It just seems that sometimes the parasites have control while other times they don't. The whole genetic experiment gone wrong scenario has been done to death & the script skips the finer details & is quite vague, we only ever really focus on the four teens & what happens in the rest of Kuttyhuck is almost totally ignored, the subplot about the antidote is confusing, why were those people walking through the woods with giant photo's of people & what were the ultimate purpose of the parasites anyway? To create some sort of superhuman? Like that was ever going to catch on...
Between all the talk & teen drama there are lots of scenes of CGI computer parasite Slug things slithering around with lots of squelching noises, to be fair the CGI is actually quite good & is kept fairly simple. There's not much gore here, there's a bit of blood splatter, a guy has his arm ripped off, there are lots of parasites that burrow into people's skin & a guy gets shot through the head. Shot in full 2:35:1 widescreen Growth looks quite nice & sleek although a little bland at times, it's competent for sure but not overly special.
With a supposed budget of about $300,000 this was apparently filmed in Massachusetts. The acting from an unknown cast is alright but nothing spectacular.
Growth is not a film that will grow on me, I thought it was well made enough with competent special effects & acting but the plot is muddled & far too much time is spent on needless padding that doesn't really go anywhere.