Acción Mutante (AKA Mutant Action) (1993) Arrow Player Review

Acción Mutante (AKA Mutant Action) (1993) Arrow Player Review

Produced by legendary provocateur Pedro Almodóvar, director Álex de la Iglesia’s debut feature Acción Mutante is a violent sci-fi black comedy set in a post-apocalyptic world where attractive people hold all the power and a terrorist group, who see themselves as mutants, take arms to rid the world of their superficial oppressors.

This is how I would imagine MAD MAX might look if it were filtered through the visual sensibilities of DELICATESSEN directors Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Acción Mutante is utterly bonkers and a very welcome reminder of a time before streaming and a time before everything offended everyone, and more importantly a time when cinema was not afraid to be experimental and break out from the norm.

Violent, funny, and absurd, this is essential viewing for those out there gagging for a break from the saturation of dubious fare that passes as entertainment in this over-populated streaming age. It reminds of a time when the likes of the acclaimed MAN BITES DOG and director Peter Jackson’s BRAINDEAD went as far as one could possibly go when it came to combining laughs with violence and got away with it (although there were clashes between the director and the film’s producer Pedro Almodóvar over the proposed content during the film’s production).

I cannot empathize enough how much watching this came as such a relief after being saturated by flicks that would never ever have seen the light of day had streaming platforms not needed to fill up their catalogue with any old tat to justify their existence. It has been a long time since a film has offered up a moment that proved so yukky to watch that it caused me to look away and how ironic too that the film that afforded me this pleasure is not current but one from thirty-one years ago.

Acción Mutante (AKA Mutant Action) (1993) is available now on Arrow Player