“POLYMORPH” (1996)

Starring: James L. Edwards, Ariauna Albright, Tom Hoover, Sasha Graham, Joseph A. Daw, Jennifer Huss, Pam Zitelli, Leo Anastasio, Pete Jacelone & Michael Raso
Written by J.R. Bookwalter (story) & James L. Edwards
Directed by J.R. Bookwalter
Tempe Entertainment

Polly Staffle Rating: ***

Near the end of J.R. Bookwalter's “Polymorph” a character muses that their situation has all the believability of a Mentos commercial. Though the line is uttered by the film's screenplay writer James L. Edwards, I have a sneaking suspicion it echoes Bookwalter's thoughts on his1996 film and many of his projects for that matter.

Bookwalter is a good filmmaker in that he knows not to take himself too serious when he is producing something that is part sci-fi, part horror, part action, part comedy, part gangster and part martial arts. Especially when it’s on a budget of $10,000 and being shot in the woods behind his dad’s house.

At the same time, Bookwalter takes his final product serious, so you don't end up with “Polymorph” accidentally veering into parody or spoof territory. Never once is your suspension of disbelief broken. Bookwalter doesn't have any of his actor’s yuking it up to the camera admitting they are making a cheesy low-budget film. The closest he ever comes is the Mento’s reference.

“Polymorph” opens with an outer space intro that is similar to the overhead spaceship shot in the original “Star Wars.” The primitive special effects aren't as good here and look like Sega video game graphics, but they explain the origin of a meteorite that crashes into the woods near a cabin. It is there at the crash site a glowing green bad special effect emerges that I like to refer to as “green lightning.” It has the ability to enter a person’s body and control them. Once the “Polymorph” takes over a human, their eyes glow green and they have the ability to die and resurrect themselves over and over as long as they get plenty of gasoline to drink through their finger. They can also throw green glowing explosive balls of energy. Once they are tired of being someone, they can easily switch by transferring themselves into someone else’s body again via the “green lightning.”

Don’t worry, the low-tech special effects actually add to the films overall cheesiness. This is similar to something you might watch on a Saturday morning though there is a bit of blood and the violence goes further than regular television. Bookwalter, who also produced, photographed, edited and thought up the film’s original story, uses geeky sci-fi transitions between scenes and “meanwhile” text bubbles, giving it a very comic book feel.

The characters are very much like caricatures of mainstream cinema. There’s a mob boss (Tom Hoover) that wears a pink tie with his black suit. His two goons are a tough female (Pam Zitelli), who isn’t his wife or girlfriend that he still has to answer to, and an all muscles and very little brains Rambo wannabe (Leo Anastasio). There’s also a coke snorting survivalist named Tarper, played by Sasha Graham. She carries a gun, wears camouflage pants and has Jackie Chan on her wall, so you know Tarper means business. This was the first film I had seen Graham in, but I was thoroughly impressed with her. She’s kind of like a badass version of Kate Winslet. There’s also a scientist (Pete Jacelone) with his own personal security guard (E.I. Cinema’s Michael Raso) and two college-aged slacker interns Bill & Ted (James L. Edwards and Joseph A. Daw) that bring along girls (Ariauna Albright and Jennifer Huss) and camping supplies to search for the fallen meteorite. When the interns show up to find their fearless leader missing, but his car there, they assume he has played a joke on them and go about their partying in the woods without a care in the world. After setting up tents, cooking by campfire and Albright’s character Donna asking the question, “So, how’s your wiener,” the four partygoers soon find a dead body and clash with drug runners. “Green lightning” then shows up and all hell breaks loose. Before it is all over with, the Grampa Munster-esque Edwards slicks back his hair and Albright dons a tight black leather outfit to send the shape-shifting greenie meanie to the bad special effects graveyard.

To me this is a fun watch and pretty damn entertaining. It drags a bit in the middle, but never gets boring. Just as things begin to slow down, something happens to liven things up; such as Tarper catching a bullet in her head and slinging it back at her shooter, a four-way Mexican standoff, a struggle between Zitelli and Edwards with her on top choking him that comes off looking like a sex scene and a girl-on-girl action sequence between Huss and Albright that rivals just about any catfight. Considering “Polymorph” is ten years old, it’s amazing it’s not really dated in any way – besides the reference to the goofy Mentos commercials that seemed to have disappeared. Even more astonishing is the fact Bookwalter basically had to have his hands tied behind his back by two of the film’s stars to get him to agree on making it.

Supposedly, “Polymorph” was originally the title for a silent short Bookwalter started, but never finished in 1981. He had gotten the name from the word “polymorphous” from a dictionary. Eight years later, he wrote the treatment this film was based off. Bookwalter stored it away under lock and key in a filing cabinet along with a number of other discarded ideas and treatments. Disappointed with his 1995 film “The Sandman,” Bookwalter didn’t feel like he was up to directing anything when Albright and Edwards started nosing through his idea stash. Albright dusted off the “Polymorph” treatment and got Edwards pumped about the project. Wanting to get the duo off his back, Bookwalter let Edwards write the script never really intending to direct it. But then something strange happened. A meteor fell from the sky and “green lightning” took over Bookwalter’s body. He then ate a bunch of Mentos and ended up directing one of the first digital video movies ever produced. Ah, forget it. Just watch the damn thing. I can’t finish writing this review and bust the lock on this filing cabinet at the same time anyway.

- CCF, May 2006