Starring: Rod Stieger, Kim Hunter, David Allen Brooks, Amanda Pays   Directed by : Steven Carpenter, Jeffrey Obrow

THE STORY:  You might as well know right now that this movie is really only suitable for fans of b-movies, particularly 80's style B-movies.

Dr. John Hollins finds that his mother has awakened from a years long coma. His mother was a high up researcher and well,...a mad scientist...there's no other word for it. John doesn't realize this at first, but she urges him from her hospital bed to go the house she owned and put an end to the "Anthony Experiments". Its more cryptic than you might think. She tells John that Anthony is his brother, and he didn't have a brother.

Unbeknownst to John, his friend and mentor Dr. Lloyd has been trying to recreate his mother's experiments. Lloyd was once a colleague of the elder Dr. Hollins and together they tampered in God's Domain until a car accident put her in a coma. Lloyd has a redneck ambulance driver deliver accident victims to him for experimentation. But when he learns that John's mother has awakened he wants the data on "Anthony" and will stop at nothing to get it. He even kills the sick woman in her hospital bed when she refuses to give him the information. Enter Melissa.....

Whatever weirdass chemical they mention a lot in this movie has infected her and she needs Lloyd's help in order to survive. (I'm just gonna call it Chemical X) So Melissa plays along, pretending to be a fellow researcher that followed his mothers scientific exploits. John invites her to join him and his friends to the house while he clears up her belongings and tries to find out what she meant by destroy Anthony. As with most movies where there's a secret monster in an usually uninhabited house, Anthony lives in a cesspool of a basement...

Well, it wouldn't be much of a monster movie if "Anthony" didn't show up and kill some people. Actually, there aren't too many kills....and Anthony doesn't really show himself till near the end. But the movie is interesting enough to keep your attention through most parts, even though the "get to know the characters" parts were really boring. My biggest prob was that John wasn't much of a hero...and I can blame that on David Allen Brooks...not only was he wooden and stiff through most of his screen time he didn't even register as a human being. He might as well have been a ventriloquists dummy with the lack luster emotion he showed no matter what he was doing. How would you react to the news that your mother had come out of a years long coma and wanted to talk to you. Well, with more enthusiasm that Brooks shows. They might as well have told him his soup was done.

After Anthony attacks one of John's friends, Hart, the warning flags begin showing. Melissa wants to bail out of the whole deal, but her secret master, Dr. Lloyd forces her to continue. Without the medication he provides she can barely sleep and she's in pain. Melissa discovers the secret diaries and Journals in the house and a bunch of baby Anthony's in jars....and she's ready to hand them over to Lloyd when John figures out her duplicity. Melissa has a change of heart when she herself is attacked by Anthony. Mortally wounded her mysterious illness takes its toll and she turns into a fishwoman! (and dies!) John then rallies his friends and tries to devise a plan of escape and how to kill Anthony. Naturally, Lloyd arrives and since he's the big jerk villain he gets killed by Anthony as John's plan comes to fruition. Both he and the monster perish.

There's more...a kind of tacked on surprise ending involving the baby Anthony's and a lot of gas, but on the off chance that you haven't seen this I want go into it. This is an enjoyable b-move if you keep it at that level.

Best Lines: "You call yourself a scientist? A brilliant scientist!?"-Maybe not the best line in the entire flick but when Dr. Lloyd said this in protest of John's plan to kill Anthony I thought of you Liz.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?:

1.) What the hell? The guy that crashes his car in the beginning didn't see that big honkin' house in the middle of the road? Who is he supposed to be? Mister Magoo's long lost nephew?

2.) Billy must have a hard time delivering the unfortunate accident victims to Dr. Lloyd for profit with his dental bills rising constantly. If the goons have to beat his ass every time to make it look authentic he must spend all of his ill gotten gains at the HMO.

3.) Just so you'll know...I hate the mom already. Kim Hunter (Zira from Planet of The Apes!) really pissed me off and I don't know why. But I can at least tell you that John wasn't too appealing either.

4.) Oh, yeah, Dr. Lloyd can do whatever he wants. That's what John says. "When someone gets to Lloyd's level they can research and experiment in complete secrecy" (that's a paraphrase, but its pretty much what was said.) I can't imagine what this level must be...one where the people and organizations that pay for the research don't actually care what they do for your money?

5.) Man, this happens way too [unwrite]ing much. Billy knows that Lloyd is ruthless and only a fool wouldn't see that he's prepared to kill for what he wants....yet he still threatens Lloyd with no backup other than his mouth and allows Lloyd to talk him into walking into a trap? Why do people do that? If you're going to threaten a ruthless Mad Scientist bring more than your big yap, dammitt! (What's that saying? "Don't let your mouth write checks your ass can't cash.")

6.) Let me get this straight...No one bothered to clean up the house while John's mother was in a coma for years. John says he never went there which is kind of unbelievable, but what's more ridiculous is that he didn't bother to hire anyone else to take care of the place or pay the utilities. When he arrives at the house with Sharon they discover the electricity is off....John admits to not paying the bills so Sharon says she'll call the utility company...What kind of stupid ass girlfriend thinks the phone is going to work after John said he hasn't paid the bills for YEARS!?

NUDITY AND SEX:  None if you don't count seeing possibly fake nipples through a bra as Amanda Pays turns into a trout woman.

HUH?:  If John's mom was in a coma for several years shouldn't she be too weak to be moving around like she does? I mean don't your muscles atrophy?

You know if a woman turned into a fish monster in front of me I'd have run like hell.

This movie really depends on that old cliche' that music calms a savage beast. (Wasn't it supposed to be "calms a savage breast"?)

Could Melissa have possibly looked more suspicious when she lies about Hart to the others. she might as well have been wearing a "Biggest Liars in the World" Club T-shirt, along with a Baron Munchhausen fan club hat.

Why don't the wee beasties attack Brad while he's engineering their destruction? A moment before they literally swarmed him.

THE FINAL JUDGMENT: I have a soft spot for movies with Amanda Pays in them. Pays is as usual gorgeous and her accent always has an effect on me. Plus she's far better than watching Brooks. Besides, you get to see her turn into a fish! What are ya waiting for? Go rent this!