This is has all the vibes of an H.P. Lovecraft story, minus the FishPeople. Maybe. There’s a few fishermen, being a coastal town off of New England or thereabouts where it takes place. Just, a slightly different vector. Considering the alternate name and the intro talking about avoiding the fuckeries of bangin your own family to keep the aristocrazy going, you probably have a good idea where this is headed.
John Strauss is returning back to where he was allegedly born, his wife/nurse helping him as he’s kinda fucked up. Sickly, anemic, two different-colored eyes. Telltale sign of genetic mutations, and not the kind that gives you superpowers. Linear family tree kinda mutations. Yeah. His travels finally reveal an old family history that, well, let’s just say they aren’t very photogenic. Or appreciators of light.
Based on Lovecraft’s The Lurking Fear, this is one of the last screenplays to be adapted from writer/director Dan O’Bannon of Alien, The Return of the Living Dead, Lifeforce, Total Recall, and The Resurrected fame. Pretty small production, the highlight here is a halfway decent Rutger Hauer slumming it as the local discredited doctor, in what basically is a direct-to-video release. It could be worse, they actually have a few sketchy helicopter shots for scope but also some pretty horrible sound mixing that doesn’t do it any favors. But it’s pretty by-the-numbers kind of thing, with a side of rapey mutants. Yeah.
