Colony Mutation Blu Ray Review (Visual Vengeance)

Colony Mutation (aKa Colony) is a 1995 horror science fiction film written, produced, camera operated, and directed by actor Tom Berna (Jigsaw, Vengeance of the Dead, and Go to Hell) in his directorial debut. When genetic scientist Meredith Weaver (played by: Anna Zizzo) finds out about her husband Jim’s (played by: David Rommel from Downer) affair with his secretary Jenny Dole (played by: Joan Dinco), she doses him with an experimental and very unstable serum. It causes his body parts to separate from his torso and take on monstrous lives of their own, all of them now craving human flesh. Soon, he’s stalking the streets in search of young women to quench the now insatiable hunger of his evil appendages!!!!! Colony Mutation has a great concept, it’s beyond ambitious but I really liked it. It’s a fun mid 90’s micro budget feature that mixes sci-fi and horror. It’s an interesting entry for the body horror sub-genre, it feels like something David Cronenberg would do but with absolutely no financial support. Actor Tom Berna directed his only film here, I’m surprised that he didn’t do more after this. Actress Anna Zizzo in her only movie is the vengeful Meredith Weaver. She works in the same genetics lab as her husband and she finds out that he’s been cheating on her with a co-worker. She’s struggling to get her next experiment to work so she decides to test it on her husband as payback. David Rommel is the egoistical Jim that thinks that he’s god’s gift to women. He’s careless and he doesn’t seem to care about messing around with someone that’s in the same place that his wife works. He’s extremely unlikable and so you want him to suffer. He has the best performance in this. The rest of the supporting cast includes Joan Dinco, Tammy Andersen, Nancy Brown, Tom Fugina, Carri Krehl, Susan L. Cane (Go to Hell), Clayton Simchick (Go to Hell), and Felix Bofil (The Dirty Job franchise). This man can separate every body part from himself including his dick to kill people. It has really cheap special fx but it adds to it’s over the top bizarre charm. It has some nasty moments and gore. Colony Mutation would have been amazing with some actual money behind it but I still appreciate what they did with so little in Wisconsin back in the 90’s. It’s worth checking out for it’s crazy plot, it’s pretty damn unique when it comes to horror. It’s very entertaining, fun, and totally unexpected. I personally would love to see someone remake this someday with better funding because it has so much potential, RECOMMENDED!!!! Let’s discuss this high definition presentation and special features from Visual Vengeance in association with Wlld Eye Releasing! This 1080p (1.33:1) unrated transfer is from a newer 2K restoration from the original Super 8 elements. Colony Mutation can only look so good on home video considering it’s original source material but this is a nice upgrade. It’s a massive improvement over the 2010 DVD from Apprehensive Films so it’s never going to look better than this. It has an English: Dolby Digital 2.0 track on the disc. It’s all about the score and soundtrack for the audio but it does have it’s fair share of suspensful moments. It has English SDH subtitles. It has an “Audio Commentary” with Tom Berna. It has an additional “Audio Commentary” with Weng’s Chop Magazine own Tony Strauss. It has a brand new exclusive little over 22 minute “Interview” with director Tom Berna. He chats about his early inspirations. He talks about going to school for film and how different It was compared to now. He said used Super 8 because that’s all that he could afford at the time. He jokes that the original VHS tape looks awful. He is very technical when explaining stuff for this convo. The original shoot for Colony Mutation actually started in 1995 but it took a few years to finish it because they only filmed during their free time. It has a brand new exclusive little over 30 minute “Interview” with lead actor David Rommel. He chats about how he got involved with Tom Berna and this horror sci-fi hybrid. He was having a rough time in life so this project really helped him out. He thought his character was a sleazeball for his first read of the script. He tried to make him more likeable on screen with a strong performance compared to what was written. He breaks down the role and how he seen it. He goes over his transformation in this. He shares his experiences on it and he has great things to say about it. It has a brand new exclusive almost 13 minute “Interview” with composer Patrick Nettesheim. He got this job through director Mark Buchard. He goes into great detail on the process and tools that helped create the music for this. He has a great memory about this. He covers a variety of things like the atmosphere, the screenplay, direction from Tom Berna, independent cinema, and plenty more. It has the archive almost 12 minute “In the Director’s Chair”. It’s a public access interview with director Tom Berna. He’s there promoting his horror film to the locals. He shows his appreciation for making movies. He brings using a Super 8 as a kid and it turned into something real. He has goals of making a career of it at the time. He goes over the cast and it’s concept. He shows some animal cruelty that was shot for it but instantly regrets doing it. He really sounds like he was ready to move for a bigger opportunity to put together so many more features with this so it makes you wonder what happened because he never did anything else after Colony Mutation. It shows some video clips from it. It has the “Original 1998 VHS Version” (82:42). It has the “Original 2013 DVD Version” (82:41). Both of these alternate cuts really make you appreciate the new restoration when it comes to the picture quality. It has the “Complete Original Script”. It has the under a minute “Image Gallery”. It has the “Producer Teaser Trailer” for Colony Mutation. It has various Visual Vengeance related “Trailers”. This has 3 versions of Colony Mutation plus all kinds of new and archive bonus material. It comes with a slipcover, 2 different artworks underneath, a retro sticker sheet, and a 6 page booklet. It’s available everywhere right now, CHECK IT OUT!!!!