Stars: Rouxnet Brown, Brett Goldin, Tessa Jubber, Jeroen Kranenberg, Dean Lotz

Director: John Greyson

Summary: Offers a portrayal of the homosexual, interracial relationship experienced by two men imprisoned in a Cape Town penal colony in the eighteenth century. English and Afrikaans dialogue with subtitles.

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A conventional but spirited monster-at-loose quickie, Proteusstars British hulk Craig Fairbrass (Beyond Bedlam) as an undercover cop marooned with a gang of panicky drug dealers (played by Americans no one has heard from since 1995) on an oilrig-cum-unethical-genetics research station where a shape-shifting creature is on the prowl, mostly impersonating human beings but occasionally appearing as a giant shark-person. The Thing-like creature absorbs personality traits from the victims it absorbs, so--in a gag reminiscent of the cancerous liver gambit from Forbidden World(1983)--it is finally defeated because it becomes a heroin addict. There is a neat joke about the way the towering hero is constantly beaten up by people far shorter than he is, and Fairbrass's fed-up mockney patter sometimes wrings a few laughs from lines like "f***ing typical--you can never find a mutated monster when you want one!" The sick humour and weird science that were the strengths of the original novel (Slimer, written by screenwriter John Brosnan and Leroy Kettle under the significantly initialled pseudonym Harry Adam Knight) is hammered out in favour of rubbery goop effects and familiar running-around waterlogged corridors being pursued by a red-filtered subjective camera. Doug ("Pinhead") Bradley shows up in old-age make-up as the evil industrialist behind the monster-making programme in the last reel, and effects man director Bob Keen stages an especially gross death scene for the villain as he chokes on a huge scaly tentacle in what looks like an outtake from a gay porn film.

On the DVD: An extras-free package, full-screen transfer, and a lot of strange colour distortions that make some dark scenes look like photographic negatives. --Kim Newman

Aspect Ratio:	16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	Afrikaans, English
Region:	Region 0
Subtitles:	English
Year:	2003
Release Date:	October 3, 2005
Runtime:	100 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	P P D 103
Keywords:	Subtitled, General, Drama, Afrikaans, Proteus
Genre:	Drama