Metamorphosis

The plot here is typical of its genre, experiments gone bad, quick-witted scientist/good guy, action side-kicks, a few silly teenagers caught up in it all. Unlike a lot of monster movies of its day you don't have to wait right to the end to see the monster, or the monster growing up, so to speak, and toward the end the thrills do start flying, so to speak. The actors are good, well cast. The horror is gory and plenty of splatter, though the tension needed to be better done. That might have been achieved with better film, but perhaps that was just my dvd, which seemed to have been bleached of some clarity and the colour blue (everything seemed to be a 'midwest red'). It's not a bad movie, though one can't approach it with too much anticipation, and certainly if one is into collecting classic monster movies, then you do need a copy of Larva, if only for a look at Rod Stewart's old girlfriend.

Another evil conspiracy is in the works. This time it's a rich guy who owns a beef distibuting company, in league with genetic engineers, trying to make his product sell more, or better, or something. In any event, they're messing with the beef, by treating it with some kind of parasite. Guess what? Something goes wrong, and the parasites go on a rampage.

It's actually creepy and scary enough to work, in spite of the recycled plot devices. The movie offers exploding stomachs (Alien), the conspirators covering up their actions at the expense of more lives (X Files), dumb sheriffs (lots of movies), and dumber townspeople (also lots of movies). There's also lots of bloody bodies, both humans and creatures. The acting is fairly decent, and the quasi-bat like design of the rapidly proliferating monsters is ugly enough for this sort of flick. The action is paced rather well, gory scenes balanced with scientific analysis exposition, even some "Don't look behind that door!" type stuff. Of course, they run the obligatory victim mauling scenes, including the usual couple-making-out-gets-killed routine.

All in all, a capably managed low budget horror movie, which manages a fair number of good old fashioned scares.

Okay this is my first review. Till now I have never had the need to write one but this movie was too much for me.

The only reason I watched it to the end is because I put on it 5% of my brain. The other 95% was focused on working on my laptop.

I would like to say I have no problem with bad movies, usually I even enjoy them. The problem is when a really bad movie takes himself death seriously. Then you got a crime.

The main flaw of Larva is a really bad, absurd, lame, boring script *PLUS* the director shot it thinking he was going to make Alien. You get colored shots (T2 - blue, Matrix - green, Larva - Yellow), good non-cgi special effects, and acceptable acting. But instead of working for the movie it all goes against it.

About the script... where to begin? Well the intro scene is so stupid one has to choose between instantly forgetting it or immediately stopping the player. The whole movie is plagued with the most stupid lines I have ever heard. Just a quick example: typical running_away_from_the_monster scene. One can expect to see someone getting back to get his asthma thing, to warn someone, whatever. But never, never, never, "to get my candy". "TO GET MY CANDY" !?!

To finish with the review... to say that the script doesn't deliver what was promised would be a bad joke. Take this concept, multiply it by one trillion and you get Larba's ending.

2/10

Is this a horror film or sci-fi? Or maybe it is a not-so-subtle dig at the evil corporations that are forever riding roughshod over us little people in their relentless search for profit. Let's face it, nobody ever lost any friends for railing at big business, heck, even businessmen have bought into this narrative to some extent.

Here we see a new vet arriving in a small town that is on the cusp of a farming revolution, only thing is the company that is backing it has somehow created a mutant parasite that infects not only the new feed but the cattle, and then morphs into a giant bat, or something of that nature. Naturally our idealistic newcomer and his allies are engaged in a desperate rush to quarantine and destroy this pest before it takes over the state and the world, while the agents of the wicked corporation are intent only on hushing the whole thing up lest news leaks out and everybody turns vegetarian. And of course, the wicked capitalists have also succeeded in corrupting the local law enforcement.

As fairy tales go this one is fairly anodyne, that's if you don't read between the lines.

Larva (2005) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows some experiments on larva that get out of the lab and into the local cattle. As the cattle are slaughtered and turned into meat for the locals the cattle might not be the only ones infected by the parasites.

This movie is directed by Abram Cox (Mammoth) and stars Vincent Ventresca (The Invisible Man), Rachel Hunter (The Benchwarmers), William Forsythe (Raising Arizona) and Mercedes Peterson (Rattlers 2).

This has one of those predictable storylines where the entire movie you're waiting for the "experiment gone wrong" explanation. The acting is better than the writing and the dialogue is frustrating at times. The horror scenes are disappointing and the CGI isn't very good. The kills are just okay, which is too bad because there's a worthwhile concept buried deep in here.

Overall, this had a worthwhile premise that with better execution could have been very good. Unfortunately this falls short of its potential. I would score this a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.