Movie Review: Strange Nature (2018)

Strange Nature is a horror/thriller written and directed by James Ojala. He has worked in the film industry for almost 20 years in mostly the special effects department for many projects, but this is his feature-length writing and directorial debut. The film has a simple enough concept. A woman returns to her home town to live with her father and brings her son along with her. There happen to be some frogs which are found to be a bit mutated nearby, which sparks some questions about how this is happening, and what the cause could be.

What we liked:
– The directing was pretty good for a first attempt at a feature, and the cinematography was great as well.
– Some of the practical effects were pretty decent, especially toward the end.
– The acting was pretty good for an indie film

What we thought could have been better:
– There was a lot more thriller than horror going on. If it was aiming to scare, it missed the mark.
– The film seemed to struggle to find a good tension/story balance.
– The pace was a bit slow at times.
– It would have been nice to see more of the killing from the mutated creatures.

Overall:
While there is a lot of promise in the mutated animal horror film market, and perhaps it just wasn’t in the budget to show as much of the killing as we would have liked, which is understandable, this one didn’t scratch the horror itch we were hoping for. We thought that the acting was good, and bringing on a talent like Stephen Tobolowsky (Spaceballs, Groundhog Day, Memento), Tiffany Shepis (Victor Crowley), Bruce Bohne (Fargo, Dawn of the Dead 2004) and others made this more of a good thriller film than a bad horror film. We hope Ojala gives it another shot, and maybe even continues this story, as it was an interesting concept that has a lot of possibility.