Memorable, crazy movie

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Growth is set on the island of Kuttyhunk where twenty years ago a group of scientists set up a community in order to devote their time & energy into their experiments, first they genetically engineer perfect pearls which they sell for millions which they use to fund groundbreaking experiments in parasitic organisms that are meant to increase their human hosts strength & mental capacity but also had the unwanted side effect that turned them into killers. Jamie Ackerman (Mircea Monroe) survived the original outbreak twenty years ago & returns to Kuttyhunk along with her boyfriend Marco (Brian Krause) to sell her old family house that could be worth as much as a couple of million dollars, however the parasites return & start taking over the folk of Kuttyhunk turning them into killers once again. Jamie begins to realise that her past may hold the key to defeating the parasites once & for all...Written, co-produced & directed by Gabriel Cowan this horror film features parasitic Slug type creatures that take control of their human host's much like Shivers (1975), Night of the Creeps (1986), The Faculty (1998) & Slither (2006) all of which feature Slug like parasites which infect & alter people in some way. The main problem I had with Growth was it's pace, it's just a very slow going film that feels like nothing is happening & I wasn't keen on all the padding either. Usually films that last for a little over eighty minutes don't require much padding to fill the time but Growth has plenty, some may call it character development but I call it padding. Watching a girl go jogging in the woods a few times is boring, listening to a group of four friends argue & talk & generally do boring things may be character development to some but it never goes anywhere, it never feels like anything more substantial than basic 'who loves who' nonsense & the mystery surrounding Jamie's past adds little & doesn't tie in that well. The script tries to throw in a twist or two but there's no great revelations that will particularly shock or surprise you & even the background story feels thin & doesn't make much sense. Where have these parasites been for the past twenty years exactly? If you become infect with a parasite do you know or not? That guy Justin rips a girls throat out one night & thinks nothing of it yet the next day when he crushes some wood with his hands he seems surprised & shocked in an odd sort of way. It just seems that sometimes the parasites have control while other times they don't. The whole genetic experiment gone wrong scenario has been done to death & the script skips the finer details & is quite vague, we only ever really focus on the four teens & what happens in the rest of Kuttyhuck is almost totally ignored, the subplot about the antidote is confusing, why were those people walking through the woods with giant photo's of people & what were the ultimate purpose of the parasites anyway? To create some sort of superhuman? Like that was ever going to catch on...Between all the talk & teen drama there are lots of scenes of CGI computer parasite Slug things slithering around with lots of squelching noises, to be fair the CGI is actually quite good & is kept fairly simple. There's not much gore here, there's a bit of blood splatter, a guy has his arm ripped off, there are lots of parasites that burrow into people's skin & a guy gets shot through the head. Shot in full 2:35:1 widescreen Growth looks quite nice & sleek although a little bland at times, it's competent for sure but not overly special.With a supposed budget of about $300,000 this was apparently filmed in Massachusetts. The acting from an unknown cast is alright but nothing spectacular.Growth is not a film that will grow on me, I thought it was well made enough with competent special effects & acting but the plot is muddled & far too much time is spent on needless padding that doesn't really go anywhere.

I expected a film similar to Arachnophobia, maybe, given it was about small creatures, well, parasites of a sort. Then after much time passes, it's almost like some kinda Firestarter-type story, with government agents out to capture some superhuman.There were some surprising parts that obviously I won't explain, but "Growth" took too long for stuff to happen and once stuff started happening it seemed pretty odd.We're told the parasites were developed to transform people into superhumans, which naturally would make them more symbiotic than parasitic but apparently nobody's familiar with Spiderman in the laboratory and stuff goes wrong.Oddly, we're told the parasites would devour their host from inside but nothing along those lines occurs. A car appears to be stalking people before one of the main characters becomes infested and I don't really understand why.Basically I was left feeling as if somewhere I'd missed something!

Growth, not as good as it could have been. The only problem is that it contains too much CGI. The storyline itself is okay. Some things aren't explained and some parts are a bit too long but overall it was watchable. But for the geeks it's not bloody or gory enough. There are other parasite flicks out that used the real effects, like squirm, and that worked out well. Some things had to be done CGI but the part were one gets some water on him, you see his flesh burns, but sadly it's CGI. If they had made it old school well, than it surely would have been worth viewing. A bit disappointing on the view of the red stuff, one to start with if you have a horror night.

If you love Squirm and Slither, then you will love this. It will give you the chills and even the most hardened horror fan will shudder when he sees the "things" burrow through into the flesh of an unsuspecting victim. Growth is a new body horror from the company that produced SAW, MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D which was Lionsgate. I have to say I have been impressed by the horror movies that Lionsgate are releasing as most of them are good. I love nature gone bad movies and body horror movies, so I gave this a whirl. Well let's just say I was scratching my skin about 45 into the film. It really does make your skin crawl. Most of the time the parasites are CGI but they are CGI that you can believe in and be repulsed by and believe me they are repulsive. Through some scenes I actually even felt sick. It is a movie that plays with your mind and your body at the same time. believe me it will GROW on you.