Accion Mutante — Accion Mutante( UHD /Blu Ray)

Accion Mutante (aka Mutant Action) is a 1993 dystopian sci-fi/comedy from Spanish director, Alex De La Iglesias (The Day of the Beast, Perdita Durango and Witching and Bitching). Heavily influenced by comic book creator like Marvel’s Stan Lee and Flash Gordon creator Alex Raymond, De La Iglesia brings a hyper-violent comic book style to his movies and Accion Mutante sits alongside Peter Jackon’s Bad Taste and Brain Dead or Frank Hennelotter’s Basket Case and Brain Damage as one of the finest exponents of the art of bringing comic book violence to our screens. Starring Antonio Resines (Cell 211, Lucky Star and Los Serrano), Álex Angulo (Pan’s Labyrinth, Day of the Beast and Live Flesh), and Frédérique Feder (Three Colours Red, Steven and Swept from the Sea). 

Accion Mutante is set in a future world ruled by beautiful people, where a terrorist group, made up of disabled people (the Accion Mutante of the title) take a stand against their good-looking oppressors. They intend to violently wipe out the beautiful people and the pervading shallowness that they uphold.  The group have struggled to make an impression; however, their leader Ramón Yarritu (Resines) is planning to make a splash by kidnapping socialite and heiress Patricia Orujo (Feder) at her wedding. The event turns into a bloodbath, when one of the terrorist group, who is hiding in the cake, is stabbed by Patricia and her husband as they cut into it. He unleashes a heavy round of gunfire, slaughtering the revellers as they dance and party and leading to a far messier kidnapping than the group intended. They eventually flee with Patricia in their spaceship, headed for the planet Axturiax, a distant mining planet populated by miners .

Rámon demands 100 million ecus from her father, Lord Orujo (Fernando Guillén) in exchange for her safe return. Rámon tells his colleagues that he has asked for a mere 10 million ecus with the intent of sharing out the 10 million and keeping the other 90 for himself. What he hasn’t counted on are his colleagues discovering the actual amount he has demanded from her family, which creates mistrust in the camp. Ramon uses his wiles to cause consternation among his colleagues with the intention of murdering them all and taking all of the 100 million for himself. Siamese twin, Juan (Juan Vladas) is murdered but his twin, Alex (Angulo) survives, putting a spoke in the works of Rámon’s plans. The two clash and the ship’s guidance system is destroyed in the wake leaving them to crash land on Axturiax. Ramon and Patricia are captured by the sex-starved miners whose female population has completely died out, while Alex attempts to find Patricia, free her and return her to her family. 

Accion Mutante is a hyper-violent, low-budget sci-fi comedy from a director who has made this visual style his own. Perdita Durango, Day of the Beast and Witching and Bitching have all used this same style to great effect and Iglesia has become well-loved in cult movie circles, justifiably so in my opinion. Accion Mutante does exactly what you want from a low-budget cult film, it creates a wild crazy world, populated by interesting characters, adds a splash of comedy, and some garish gore effects to create a wild visual feast. The sets belie the film’s modest budget and the cinematography by Carles Gusi (Cell 211, El Nino and The Laws of the Border)  is excellent throughout. 

The performances of the cast, many of whom had little experience at the time, were excellent, with Resines and Feder the standout performers. The presence of Pedro Almodovar’s name as producer should not be underestimated, as touches of his style can be seen from time to time. Overall, Accion Mutante is a solid sci-fi comedy film that explores ideas about the concept of the so-called “beautiful people” being treated differently to others, whilst still retaining a shlocky, comedic core. 

The new UHD Blu-ray release from Severin feat both a UHD disc and a Blu-ray disc. The UHD features the film and an audio commentary with Alex De La Iglesia, his co-writer Jorge Guerricaechevarria and other production crew members, whilst the Blu-ray disc features a host of interviews with cast and crew as well as behind-the-scenes and making of featurettes. 

Accion Mutante is a bloody but very enjoyable way to spend a couple of hours and this release from Severin is beautiful in every way, from its pristine new 4k restoration to its discs loaded with extras and the beautifully designed packaging. Once again, Severin have come up trumps with another excellent release for a cult classic.