Lizard in the Badboy Mutant Tradition

Following in the wonderful B-flick tradition of scientists who muck around with genetics and create a misunderstood — and violent — animal-human chimera comes Lizard Boy (US-2009; dir. Paul Della Pelle).

Synopsis:

A small mountain town is terrorized by a half-man, half-reptile creature when renowned geneticist, Dr. Gino Conti, contracted by the Defense Sciences Office to develop a top-secret hybrid animal, pursues personal experiments in an effort to reconcile his tragic past. An entertaining sci-fi thriller with plenty of action, drama, humor and bits of gore, Lizard Boy raises questions about modern genetics while harkening back to the monster movies of old.

Complete with retrograde indignation at humanity’s hubris (on God’s behalf), ominous thunderstorms, a conceptual descendant of Dr Frankenstein, decapitation, moral dilemmas and a mutant that wears pants, the film — described by the filmmakers as a “sci-fi tragicomedy” — looks like a lot of exploitative fun. What’s more, Lizard Boy apparently boasts not only human and lizard DNA, but is also part ninja!

Trailer:

Synopsis 2:

If you were a brilliant geneticist, working on a secret government genetic engineering project, and your fiancee dumped you because your sperm were not viable, what would you do to resolve your mid-life crisis? Dr. Gino Conti creates his own son by combining reptilian and human DNA, but discovers fatherhood an extraordinary challenge when his son’s anger management issues include eating people. (IMDb)

Below: Scientist “dad” chatting up reptilian “mom”

Behind the Scenes:

In the following behind-the-scenes vid, you get to see Lizard Boy being “cast”. Yes, it’s mainly of interest to non-CGI SFX enthusiasts:

This one shows a rehearsal for one of Lizard Boy’s kung-fu sequences:

There are more vids on production company Thunderhead Entertainment’s YouTube Channel and you can check out a slideshow of snaps on the official website.

Lizard Boy is currently seeking a distributor, though it premiered on October 24th last year at The Silent Movie Theater on 611 N Fairfax in Hollywood.

• Source: Producer Benjamin Cooper via Avery; official website; Thunderhead Entertainment website.

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