The real 'horror' in this film is the acting (Film only) (Parts: The Clonus Horror (DVD))

Member Name: thereddragon

Product:	Parts: The Clonus Horror (DVD)
Date:	21/05/09 (61 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Intriguing story, had unfulfilled potential later fulfilled much better in 'The Island'

Disadvantages: Embarassingly cheesy risible acting all round, cheapo production

Starring:
Peter Graves as Jeffrey Knight
Tim Donnelly as Richard Knight
Paulette Breen as Lena
Dick Sargent as Dr. Jameson
Keenan Wynn as Jake Noble

Also known under alternate names 'Clonus' and 'The Clonus Horror', this 1978 release is a really creepy film, in more ways than that in which it was intended. It's a terribly acted and cheapo looking tale of a secret scientific institute with some very questionable practices.

Peter Graves, in a role completely different from anything I've seen him in before, and hope to never see him in anything like again, plays ruthless presidential candidate Jeffrey Knight who will stop at nothing to win. The film starts with Knight giving an impassioned pep talk to his supporters at a big rally. Next we jump to a scene of young fit guys and gals jogging a countryside trail, and then we see other young hunks competing in athletics on what appears to be a college campus. We cut to a lab with two scientists watching the hunks on TV monitors. 'George is quite strong,' remarks one. 'I think he's ready.' We cut back to George, where a campus official tells him 'I have good news for you, George. You've been accepted. Time to get ready.' His best buddy Richard runs up and asks, 'What was that about?' 'I just qualified!' exclaims George. 'I get to go to America!' 'Wow, congratulations!' Richard replies, patting him on the shoulder.

George has a big cheery going-away party and his friends express envy, hoping they'll get to go soon too. This is what they spend their lives aspiring to: getting fit and strong to be worthy of being sent to an idyllic life in America. This is all really strange and baffling to the viewer, as everyone in the film has an American accent and although all we see is the campus, there's nothing to indicate that this is located anywhere other than America. Next, George is in the lab chatting with the two scientists (one of whom, by the way, is played by Darren from the 'Bewitched' TV series and therefore a bit hard to take seriously in this role). They hand him a drink, which he downs while the scientists beam at him approvingly. George starts going woozy, and passes out. And...the scientists cryogenically freeze him and put him in a plastic bag. Eeeeeww.

Richard befriends Lena, whom he meets while out jogging. He also finds something floating in the river, the likes of which he's never seen before - we see that it's a beer can. He takes it to Darren, er, Dr Jameson, saying he thinks it could be from America. Dr Jameson tells him not to be silly, it can't be from there, and confiscates it. But Richard starts finding other odd things, and begins to become suspicious. His classmates are all strangely simple and naive, a real load of dummies, but Richard is somewhat more on the ball than the rest and discusses his qualms with Lena. Lena reveals that she had seen something that puzzled and frightened her - one of their classmates who 'went to America' laid out on the back of a truck looking 'very stiff'. She had queried one of the officials and was told he was 'just sleeping'. 'But', she says, 'I'll never forget how odd it looked.'

Richard sneaks into the lab late at night and looks through their files, and discovers that the inhabitants of the Clonus centre are being bred as clones of an elite group of rich and powerful people (including would-be presidential candidate Jeffrey Knight), to be used as spare parts for them. He is as horrified and disgusted at this revelation as we the viewers are at this godawfully terrible film. What can he do?

If this sounds very familiar, it may be because you've seen the recent film 'The Island' (2005, starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johanson). I don't know if 'The Island' was actually an intentional remake of 'Parts', but it is certainly pretty much identical except for very different endings - in fact, the director of 'Parts', Robert S Fiveson, brought a lawsuit against Dreamworks, the makers of 'The Island', for 100 points of similarity that 'The Island' had taken from 'Parts', to which Dreamworks settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. In any case, 'The Island' is a much better made film with much better acting, and I did enjoy that film.

'Parts' really contains some of the worst acting I've ever seen - even decent quality stars Peter Graves, Keenan Wynn and Dick Sargent come across as lame. Of course, a lot of this is due to the direction not seeming to be very good and the fact that this film also contains some of the worst dialogue I've ever heard. However big a star or competent an actor, there's little to work with when the directing and script are bad. Bad acting can be just about forgivable for Richard, Lena, George and the other young clones, as they are meant to come across as thickoes and not the full ticket because of how they're being bred to be all brawn and no brains, but even their acting is worse than it needs to be. And seeing Peter Graves as the vicious ruthless baddie we see much more of later in the film, really strains the credibility as that sort of role just doesn't suit him and he doesn't carry it off at all convincingly.

The overall look and feel of the film is cheap, cheap, cheap. Camerawork is semi-amateurish looking and the film actually looks more like one of those early 1970s made-for-TV movies than a decently-budgeted feature film. It has that look of having been shot on videotape rather than film, as the picture quality is not sharp and the lighting is often not quite right. There are many instances of what look like soft-focus effects, but I'm not sure - that's how unsharp the cinematography is. There are also a couple of scenes where the boom microphone is visible.

But surprising as it may sound, despite terrible acting and awful production and just looking really cheap all round, the actual story itself was gripping enough to make me want to see it through to the end to find out what happens. I did want to see what Richard would do with the information he learned from the lab files, and whether these young victims could be saved and if the baddies would get their various comeuppances. So, two stars for at least having a good story.

This movie was lampooned on episode 811 of Mystery Science Theater 3000, and that's what my version is, so this is a film-only review. If you're an MST3K fan, this is one of their best and most inspired episodes and I really recommend obtaining a copy as it transforms this dire film into a real laugh riot.

Recommended only as a bit of an oddity for horror movie fans - just don't expect Shakespearean calibre writing or acting. Also, seeing Peter Graves as a really nasty baddie is maybe just about worth the novelty value, and if you've seen 'The Island,' it's interesting to compare the two.

Also on ciao.co.uk as thereddragon and ciao.com as EsmeraldaDragon.

Summary: See it if you think you can stand it, at least the story is good