MOLD! (2012) Review

Directed by: Neil Meschino
Written by: Dave Fogerson, Meil Meschino
Starring: Lawrence George, Ardis Campbell, Chris Gentile, Rick Haymes, Mike Keller, Edward X. Young

"THIS ISN'T SCIENCE... IT'S MURDER!"

Earlier this week I reviewed a movie about killer worms, creatures which are right up there in the category of 'least threatening things to make a horror movie about ever'. Surprisingly I found it to be quite an effective and well made film and probably more terrifying than it should have been. But what about mold? Could the same green fuzzy stuff that grows on your old food be successfully utilized in a horror movie? Neil Meschino's appropriately titled MOLD! is here to answer that question.

It's 1984 and the US is at the height of the Reagan era war on drugs. Somewhere inside a secret research installation a group of scientists have been working hand in hand with the military to produce a new strain of super-mold, designed to wipe out Columbia's vast coca fields. The political and military big wigs have come by to witness a demonstration of the new biological weapon but of course something goes horribly wrong and the deadly mold is unleashed. Trapped inside the facility with the mold spreading, scientists Roger (Georgie), Julia (Campbell), Dave (Gentile) and Matthew (Haymes) along with an army Colonel (Young) and Sergeant (Keller) need to figure out how to prevent themselves from becoming the deadly growth's next victims.

MOLD! is a very low budget film and as such it takes place in a limited number of small rooms, in fact the majority of the film takes place in one such room. As you might expect it's quite heavy on the talking in-between characters but luckily there is some entertaining dialogue to keep things interesting. The Colonel is by far the most stand out character and despite the overacting he delivers some of the best lines in the film. My personal favorite occurs when his cigar smoking habit is questioned. His reply? "If I could survive a knife fight with a Cambodian mountain jaguar then this little cigar ain't got a chance!" Pure gold. He also makes a number of references to other films which range from cheesy to cringeworthy.

The effects are all practical which is great but I was a little disappointed with the low level of slime in the first hour or so of the movie. I was (perhaps unfairly) expecting some STREET TRASH lever slime and splatter but there's mostly mold-caked walls and a bit of green slime. But where the film really hits its stride is in the final half hour which is full of exploding faces and buckets of blood and goo all over.
MOLD! may not have a ground breaking new concept, it may not have top-tier acting or an excellent script but what it does have in spades is entertainment value, which in all honesty is even more important. If you're looking for a fun, low budget flick then give MOLD! a chance, it may just grow on you.