Of late, several cases of humans mutating into animals have swept the country - and Francois' (Romain Duris) wife Lana (Florence Deretz) is one of them. Now Francois does everything to see she gets the best treatment, he even moves to the South with his son Émile (Paul Kircher) when she's moved to a gouvernment facility specialized on her condition. Only she never arrives at the facility as the bus that was to take her and several other mutants there had a crash and all the mutants escaped - much to the dismay of the locals, as the mutants are said to get wild every now and again. Now Francois does everything to find his wife, wandering the local forests at night in search for her - not exactly with the approval of his son, who figures his mother is just too far gone to even be his mother anymore. And he's of course also caught up in his own issues of growing up and facing life in a new town. And then he has to notice he's starting to mutate into an animal as well. At first he tries to hide it from everyone as the locals are not exactly mutant friendly, instead makes friends with an escaped mutant, birdman Fix (Tom Mercier), but eventually his dad and his girlfriend (Billie Blain) do find out, but stand by him. And he sure needs all the friends he can get, as the locals are gearing up for the great mutant hunt ...

This film, a blend of coming-of-age, science fiction, animal horror and body horror, might not exactly tell the most original of stories - it's basically a reworking of the X-Men's recurring humans-vs-mutants theme -, but it sure has a lot of heart to it. And it sure is well-made, keeping things on a relatable, down-to-earth level, not trying to avalanche its audience with spectacle, and placing its well-conceived action sequences wisely. That all said, the film, at 2 hours and 10, seems to drone on forever, making the same point over and over, and at times just not driving the plot. Basically this could have been really good if cut down by half an hour to an hour even, as it is it's still rather ok genre entertainment, falling short of its capabilities.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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