After making a name for himself in theatre, Clive Barker wanted to shift his focus towards becoming a writer. While writing the short stories that would make up Books of Blood, Barker met up-and-coming filmmaker George Pavlou. The two met at a dinner party, where they discussed their shared interest and passion for the film industry. Pavlou wanted to direct, and Barker wanted to write, so the two decided to collaborate on a project together. Barker wrote a screenplay of mobsters versus monsters that included science-fiction, film noir, and horror elements. Unfortunately, the studio had promised their financiers more of a pop-rock-infused tale and was uncomfortable with the horror themes. The studio demanded rewrites that essentially stripped the film of anything horror-related, which led to Barker disowning the project. Initially released in the UK as Underworld in 1985, Empire Pictures released it in the US as Transmutations in 1986.
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Rating
Synopsis
After underground mutants kidnap high-class prostitute Nicole (Nicola Cowper), the Docklands Mafia hires their best man to find her. Said man is Roy Bain (Larry Lamb), a private investigator who has since retired. He’s convinced by mob boss Hugo Motherskille (Steven Berkoff) to rescue her, given Bain’s past relationship with her. Meanwhile, the mutants abducted Nicole uses her as a bargaining chip for an antidote to the drug “Whiteman.” Created by Dr. Savary (Denholm Elliot), the drug is known to expand the mind and cause deformities. However, Nicole is a rare case in that she’s remained physically normal despite having taken Whiteman consistently. As Bain continues his search, he eventually finds the mutants and Nicole, and he helps them take on Savary. Unfortunately, Motherskille is working with Savary, so Bain betrays his former employer to protect the mutants and Nicole. It’s mobsters versus monsters in the London underworld!
Review
Whether you call it Underworld or Transmutations, this film had the potential to be good only to waste it all. The concept of mobsters versus monsters offers many creative ideas, but this movie has almost none on display. Given Barker’s future work, it makes me wonder what his original script was like compared to the mess we got. The cast has huge names like Denholm Elliot, Steven Berkoff, Miranda Richardson, and Ingrid Pitt, but the film wastes them. Elliot and Berkoff, in particular, give off that sense of “I’m only doing this just for the extra money.” Larry Lamb tries to come off as a relaxed and rugged detective, but he lacks the charisma of Tim Thomerson. Then again, Trancers knew what it wanted to be and stuck with it instead of missing any of its personality. Honestly, this film is almost as bad as the later Trancers sequels.
If there are any positives here, I will say that the production design has a decent 80s punk look. It probably helps that their art director was Len Huntingford, who worked on the Oscar-winning 1981 film, Chariots of Fire. The makeup effects, while certainly cheap-looking, help the movie stand out with all the different mutant designs shown. Also, the score by the band Freur has some solid tracks, though much of it is instantly forgettable. George Pavlou doesn’t inject anything special in his direction and shoots the film with a bland style. Though the widely available version is 88 minutes long, the version released in the US is 15 minutes longer. Honestly, I can’t imagine if those extra 15 minutes would’ve improved the overall quality of this forgettable mess. Overall, Transmutations is what happens when a good idea is compromised and stripped of what made it special.
Buy Transmutations from Amazon: https://amzn.to/3kEJoyn.
