Metamorphosis

Off-beat Italo-American co-production revolving around David Cronenberg-esque sci-fi body horror themes. Unfortunately, the resulting film is rather weak. After a decent start, “Metamorphosis” loses its way in the fog of a muddled screenplay before coming to a conclusion fraught with unintentional humor. Additionally, the cast turns in rather dull performances and the special effects are sadly wanting, to say the least.

Basically, it all looks and feels sadly unpolished, even though the Italian director deserves some credit for his courage in taking on this genre of film which was definitely outside the comfort zone of Italian producers and directors in the 1990s. Perhaps “courage” is too strong a word, as the legendary Luigi Montefiori directed the film under frequent pseudonym “George Eastman.” Montefiori is best known for his strong acting performances in cult films such as “Rabid Dogs” (1974), “Emanuelle’s Revenge” (1977), “Endgame” (1983), and “Blastfighter” (1984).

Produced by Filmirage, the Italian film production company founded in 1980 by director Joe D’Amato (pseudonym used by Aristide Massaccesi for most of his professional work).