It's a big reach to try and roll Erin Brockovich, Cabin Fever, and an animal attack horror movie all together into one film, and absolutely baffling to watch it succeed? Strange Nature (2018) is just out there doing this thing. It's a movie with flaws and budget shortfalls, but overall competent work and it clearly has some drums to beat when it comes to social ostracization and corporate malfeasance. Branded like a straight up monster flick, Strange Nature is much more to do with a kind of race against time to uncover the source of what's causing deformities in the population of a small town, starting with frogs and rapidly spreading to humans.
For a small budget film trying to cover so much, the pacing and storytelling are handled with an impressive steady hand, giving the characters lots of space to breath and develop in the first third, and setting up what will be a multitude of points of conflict. And because it takes so much care in developing the characters, it also helps reduce them coming off as negative stereotypes or simplistic. As tension escalates, the film more and more asks the viewer to consider the ways in which people panic and shift blame onto the disenfranchised or outcasts of society.
Ultimately it's a bit heavy handed and sort of "privileged savior" in how the various conflicts are resolved, but for doing so much in such a small package, and for presumably a low budget, I'm willing to cut it some slack. It has flesh melting toxic chemicals, a fight against corruption both corporate and governmental, a cute kid who doesn't get punished for beating up bullies, humanized characters, and a great big gory fight with mutant coyote monsters.
With all that going on, I should add some severe content warnings about animal death, child endangerment, and prejudiced behaviors. As a movie it does not at all try to undersell the gruesome effects of on all the population of its setting. That's a big turn off for a lot of people but if you ever wondered what it would be like if discount Sandra Bullock fought a mutant monster, this is as good a chance as any.
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