Not one of my fellow horror loving friends have seen or even know of this movie. I saw it on TV in the 80's or 90's, got a copy on VHS,later sold it but then find myself buying another one as it doesn't appear to be easily available on disc (it really does deserve a release). The late, great Donald Pleasence is a brilliant but crazed scientist working on mutating humans with plants (in his lab he has a laughably bad rabbit eating plant!). He is aided by the hideously disfigured Tom Baker (of Dr Who fame), who runs a circus freak show. Many real freaks (probably an incorrect word these days) were employed, in addition to obviously fake ones. No attempt is made to hide the fact that this was in part inspired by the original 1932 classic "Freaks", to the point where the "one of us" line is used. Add to the mix nudity, 1970's London locations, LSD references, time lapse photography sequences, a few amusing gaffs and a pretty haunting musical score, this is an enjoyable slice of British exploitation. Not to everybody's taste, for sure, but this film deserves to be better known.

"The Mutations" is a middling, mostly forgettable horror movie from the mid 70's. Set in trendy London, it tells the tale of a carnival freak show who run a sideline in kidnapping innocent victims to be the subject of evil experiments! That's all the plot there is, really, and the film doesn't really do a lot with it. It just goes through the motions of showing the freak show, showing some victims get nabbed, and then showing the expected climax. The film has several very silly elements to it. All the kidnapped youngsters are from the same college, and in fact they are all from a single group of four friends! The experiments themselves are very vaguely explained, but they lead to very dramatic mutated monsters.As a London resident I also found a lot to enjoy in the locations...is Battersea Park (the location of the carnival in the movie) really such a dangerous foggy wilderness as it is depicted here? (Maybe it was in the 1970's...). And the exterior location for the students college is actually The Royal Albert Hall! They should be so lucky! Some good points are: Donald Pleasance does his usual good job as a softly spoken but deadly scientist. And Tom Baker does a great job, unrecognisable in ugly face make-up as the scientist's deformed assistant. And the monsterized victims look quite fun, and there's one grisly scene in which a walking plant-thing drains the life out of someone. Although check out a big goof here, where a really big gap between the monster's head and chest suit shows off the actors pink neck in between - which spoils an otherwise effective moment! There are also a few scenes that showcase some real-life "freaks" used in the film, which can't help but seem exploitative. They do get a chance to act, though, in the additional sub-plot in which the freaks rebel against the one among them who is "the real monster" - there are heavy echoes of Todd Browning's famous "Freaks" here.To sum up, it's not really very memorable. The whole story is rushed through at great speed, there's no depth to any of the characters (no time!), and everything seems pretty small scale. The scientist's lab is also filmed at Oakley Court, which stood in for a spooky mansion in dozens of British horror movies filmed around this time, such as The Rocky Horror Picture Show, And Now The Screaming Starts, Girly, and loads more, so personally, I have seen this place on celluloid far too often!

Here at IMDb it's called "The Mutations"; the version I saw was called "The Freakmaker." No matter what title you give it, the result is one pretty bad movie.Donald Pleasance slums mightily in the role of a college professor/mad scientist whose ultimate dream is to create a race of half plant/half human creatures. He enlists the help of a horribly deformed owner of a carnie freak show to find human subjects for him to experiment on. These subjects end up looking like artichokes and cabbages, and are played by actors wearing rubbery costumes that don't look remotely realistic. Meanwhile, a group of students begin to unravel the mystery of the professor's doings, while the members of the carnie freak show (played by actual circus sideshow members, in an homage to Todd Browning's 1932 classic "Freaks") become increasingly angered by their boss's abuse and take revenge.This sounds like the makings of a juicy cult classic, one that if nothing else would be in the "so-bad-it's-good" category. Indeed, this is why I watched it. Let me save you the time and trouble of finding out on your own that it's not so-bad-it's-good -- it's just bad. Bad as in fairly boring, poorly acted, poorly written. Much of it doesn't make any sense. It's almost unbelievable that Jack Cardiff, a film artist with a number of prestigious credits to his name, directed this. This is the sort of thing my wife and I might make using a video camera and some friends. Actually, I think we could make a better movie than this.And am I the only one to wonder why the color in the film is so bright as to actually hurt my eyes at times? Grade: D

Grimy, effective English shocker from Jack Cardiff is not a remake of Browning's "Freaks", but it does recreate several sequences from the 30's classic and uses some real, highly impressive freaks (to its credit). The tabletop scene, which introduced the "One of us!" mantra, is here, as is the scene in which the freaks turn on one of their own. One of the little people in this version even produces a threatening switchblade, mirroring the original.Often titled "The Mutations", a title I prefer, the film is entertaining and filled with the great stuff of horror films -- deformities, a mad scientist, a sleazy carnival, half man/half monsters looking for love, a fiery conclusion.The film feels like Gary Sherman's "Raw Meat" at times with its 70's dialog and haircuts, and the female characters wear a little Women's Lib on their shoulders, again reflecting the period. But what really distinguishes the film is director Jack Cardiff's effort to make some of his most hideous freak creations sympathetic. In particular, Tom Baker (TV's best Dr. Who, in my opinion) is gruesomely tragic as Mr. Lynch, a facially disfigured monster who begs mad scientist Professor Nolter (Donald Pleasence) to find a "cure" for his infliction. A scene where Lynch visits a prostitute and begs her to say "I love you" to him (for an extra pound) is quite touching..."I've got a nice selection of obscenities," she tells him when he initially asks her to say "things" to him.The film is a rich tapestry and its theme is summed up in a couple of lines of dialog: "We are all a product of mutations. We mutated to survive." Plot involves Nolter's efforts to forcibly mutate local lasses and lads who end up as monsters running the streets in search of blood. The sideshow of a local carnival provides the perfect hiding place for some of the good Professor's rejected experiments. A particularly chilling scene involves one of the film's protagonists discovering a missing girl in a cage.The make-up effects are more than adequate for their time and disturbingly gruesome. The score by Basil Kirchin, which combines animalistic sound effects with traditional strings, adds immeasurably to the atmosphere. Great time lapse photography of plants, too, cut to ultra-creepy music.I like this accomplished horror film very much.