PARASITE

Yoho Oil has just completed the oil extraction work in the middle of the ocean, but since the costs for dismantling the oil station are too high for the small company, the president of Yoho Oil sends a cleaning crew to spread an experimental enzyme that feeds on the harmful remains of the oil. A group of eco-terrorists, however, intercepted Yoho Oil's plans and is heading towards the platform to prevent the construction from being dismantled with such experimental methods; moreover, the use of the enzyme has caused terrible mutations in some bacteria that populate the construction, turning them into giant killer monsters. For the series "Just what we needed," here comes another banal and mind-numbing sci-fi monster movie of 2004, featuring a series of characters without psychology fleeing from yet another mutant being. But it's useless to think of examples of delicious entertainment like "Mimic," "Virus," or "Deep Rising," with "Parasite" we are in the ghetto of the dullest and most unpresentable z-movies made with four dollars, poor CGI, and a handful of frankly obscene non-actors. The aesthetics of "Parasite" are typical of low-budget TV cable products, and the omen is noticeable even from the poor introduction in "real TV" style where we meet a group of eco-terrorists engaged in a squalid act of sabotage. Everything proceeds in the most complete inadequacy that demonstrates in every smallest element the inability of the entire production. Andrew Prendergast is positioned in the director's booth, a name probably picked at random among the many unemployed in low Hollywood, a director without any talent who will soon go on to direct typical TV fanta-action ("Hydra") that indelibly marks the careers of many aspiring cinematographers, then relegated to dealing with abominations on the wave of various "Shark Attack," "Skeleton Man," etc.. The screenplay by Alan Coulson leaves you stunned by the paucity of the material available and the sloppiness of the narrative twists: it draws heavily from the repertoire of para-ecological fanta-horror in the style of "Prophecy" or "The Terror Comes from the Past," with the classic overused moral of nature rebelling against science. All of this is then seasoned with echoes from more or less sci-fi monster movies, such as "Virus" or "Deep Rising" (the look of the creatures is very reminiscent of Sommers' film, but in a much more primitive version even though this "Parasite" is six years younger!), or even more similar to the already poor "Proteus" or "Devil's Tattoo." The characters that populate "Parasite" are disarmingly flat, with the presence of the usual hot doctor (Saskia Gould) and the handsome hunk who saves the situation (Gary Condes), up to the inevitable slimy businessman of the moment who controls the situation from the outside and puts the lives of the "heroes" at risk. Truly nothing is saved in this "Parasite" and the primitive special effects used are the coup de grace: giant (!!!) worm-like bacteria made with infantile computer graphics, not at all credible. In short, "Parasite" is one of those useless and sad films, a film that insinuates doubt about the mental health of whoever was so reckless as to invest money to produce it. Absolutely to be avoided.