Growth (2010) Online

Didn't have too much expectations to this movie, as it already seemed like a fairly low budget movie on the cover. I loved the movie Slither, so I thought I would give this one a look as well.

The story had potential, had it been properly executed on the screen. There was just something missing from the entire movie, that magical something to tie the movie together and make it come together in a greater coherent meaning.

The worms/parasites were nicely made, though I had little understanding for why they needed to make those screechy noises. But I guess it was for effect, perhaps they had seemed more boring and dull without a sound. But then again, a silent killer is more terrifying, right? Just look at Jason Voorhees.

As for the cast? Well, it was good that it was fairly unknown actors and actresses to me. I think I just recognized two people in the entire movie. Some managed to do a good job, while others could have been better.

This is the type of movie that you watch once, and never pick it up again. So many things could have made this movie better. It is not an all together bad experience. I liked parts of the movie, and the ending was a blast.

There are tons of mad creature movies out there, this one is not one to avoid, but not one that sits at the top of the "to watch" list either. It wasn't scary, but not dull either. I sat through it all in one go and didn't have the urge to change it for something else.

Below average movie, but if you like creepy crawlers give it a go, just for the heck of it and if you go nothing more important to do.

Parasites. You can't live with 'em, you can't live...well, I guess you can live without 'em. Don't ya hate it when they destroy your property, or eat everything in your garden, or turn you into zombie-like killers? Okay, they last part has never happened, but it's something that's not too uncommon in horror. The mother of this sub-genre is clearly David Cronenberg's debut feature "Shivers", with more tongue-in-cheek but still great entries "Night of the Creeps" and "Slither" following in favor. Now, we can add Gabriel Cowan's 2009 film "Growth" to that list.

Taking place on an island called Cuttyhunk (*snicker*), "Growth" takes place 20 years after a horrible incident involving a scientific breakthrough gone horribly wrong. Well, Jamie Ackerman (Mircea Monroe) has returned has returned to the island, and what else, the slimy worms they were created by the scientific breakthrough return, and as it turns out, they increase their hosts strength and makes them more sexual-too bad said hosts tend to become more violent.

Though it sounds like a good horror flick, "Growth" ultimately resembles a mix between a Scy-Fy channel movie and an episode of "One Tree Hill." While the acting is hit and miss and Cowan isn't a bad director, the script is unspectacular and tends to jump around and not explain several plot points. What's with the cultists (though they are the only creepy thing about the movie-a scene in which one pursues the character of Kristen (Nora Kirkpatrick) stands out)? Why do the town's people want Jamie out? None of this is explained, and it all feels left over from another movie.

It also doesn't help that the whole plot revolving around Justin (Christopher Shand) is too goofy for it's own good, as he becomes a host for these worms that's as scary as a wet bag. In fact, the film is far too serious, not to mention at times boring because it doesn't offer any real reason to take interest in any of these characters. They're mostly just cardboard cut-outs, and you end up wishing the worms and whatever other evil that's around would take care of them sooner.

As a whole, I can't say that "Growth" made me too angry, but that's because I couldn't really feel anything while watching it. It's essentially a big bag of whatever.

This is a failed attempt at a movie made using a worn out recipe. I usually revel into films with parasites, infestations and so on. This one made me squirm, and not in a good way, either.

The plot revolves around a group of friends that come on an isolated island in order to process an inheritance. The people there are a closed community of scientists that dabble in genetics. One of the guys has "low immunity" which is kind of weird for someone coming on an isolated island.

Anyway, you can see it, right? The potential. The closed community from Wicker Man, the parasites from any number of films, the low immunity resulting in a different condition than other infected, and so on. The film managed to ignore all these possibilities, instead basing the thrills on CGI critters that crawl under the skin. Really? Epic fail.

Hey Guys,

I love horror films. Have since I was a kid. I especially like The Thing, The Fly, the 70's version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and films of that kind. For me, these are the "real" horror films - before torture porn was an industry.

This film is in the genre of the films I mentioned above. It's a low budget version of those films, but an interesting and compelling story with real rich characters. The dialogue is well written, the cinematography is terrific at parts, the acting is well played, the narrative isn't in a hurry - but doesn't drag, and overall the ending is fantastic! I felt that this team and this director were inexperienced, but filled with talent, original ideas, and vision. Keep watching until after the credits or you're missing something!

See this film, you just might like it!

I expected a film similar to Arachnophobia, maybe, given it was about small creatures, well, parasites of a sort. Then after much time passes, it's almost like some kinda Firestarter-type story, with government agents out to capture some superhuman.

There were some surprising parts that obviously I won't explain, but "Growth" took too long for stuff to happen and once stuff started happening it seemed pretty odd.

We're told the parasites were developed to transform people into superhumans, which naturally would make them more symbiotic than parasitic but apparently nobody's familiar with Spiderman in the laboratory and stuff goes wrong.

Oddly, we're told the parasites would devour their host from inside but nothing along those lines occurs. A car appears to be stalking people before one of the main characters becomes infested and I don't really understand why.

Basically I was left feeling as if somewhere I'd missed something!

In response to the first reviewer: I've seen Squirm and Slither. I liked Squirm and I loved Slither, but Growth was a mess. The difference is the former two didn't take themselves too seriously and it seemed they were made with more care than this.

Growth starts out with an interesting premise, and actually very good dialogue and characters. Unfortunately, the story and editing made me sorry I got my hopes up at all. First of all, the film takes itself deadly seriously, and suffers for it. Not that I wanted a horror/comedy, but the script just couldn't pull off a straight horror story, alas.

The other main complaints with the film are as previously mentioned, characters make bizarre decisions beyond the typical "stupid horror character decisions" and are not explained. The effects of the parasites are too amorphous: do they affect the will of the victim? And the weak story too heavily relies on flashbacks.

On the positives, I actually thought the CGI was decently well done, the dialogue/script believable and the casting was not objectionable.

I can see the director doesn't have much experience, so team him up with a better story editor and I'd see the next one.

Have just watched this and I have to say I am surprised at the previous review. I found the story line quite weak, and although a few of the actors gave believable performances, most of the acting was rather hammy. The special effects were the sort I would expect to see on a made for TV movie, and made me feel no sorrow for the victims. The story was a little disjointed in places, and because we are shown the 'parasites' very early on in the film, there is no room to build any tension and the film almost plods along. I found myself checking to see how long there was left to go. Overall, I give this a 5/10, mainly for the few actors that managed to work their script into believable dialogue.

This is a poor plot if I ever saw one. The parasites look good for the most part and I had hopes the story could hold together but oh no. The story just falls flat and becomes a bunch of babel about pushing the human evolution up a few notches, sure, hit me up with some cool parasites doc. I want to be a super human, sounds great. Ian Patrick Williams is pretty creepy in his roll as Mason and really show me how bad old Richard Riehle is in his role as the man who may save the day. Now if your a Nora Kirkpatrick fan like I am you may have to see this flick. Nora has been in a bunch of TV shows and I think she really is the only resign to see this film. Christopher Shand is good in his roll as Justin and I look forward to seeing him in a good movie some day. But two or three good actors can not save a bad film in this case. Pass this turd right on by folks and if you must check it out don't say I didn't tell you so.

Growth is a 2010 or 2009 (the sources varied) 'horror' film that plays out like a leisurely stroll through your awkward teen years. Only instead of mediocrity, acne and regrettable sexual experiences you're hit with angst and a less than lack lustre plot. The main issue with the film is the lack of any innovation; it borrows arm so heavily from pop culture and does no justice to any of it. For example; Growth takes considerable influence from Twilight franchise. Most of the camera and lighting techniques are lifted and imposed over a cardboard character. Likewise, fight scenes take a lot of their influence from the aforementioned franchise however; Growth fails to emulate them even slightly. The main character too is a pale, self motivated angst strain of urine(sic), spending half the film trying to avoid and or pitch woo to his sister?

Onto yet another blinding flaw; the film never explains in any detail the relationships between characters. All of a sudden new characters are introduced with some tangible connection to previously seen characters. But it's not something to dwell upon, because why have development when you can squeeze more shots of characters wandering in the dark or looking into the middle distance?

Between the confusing character relationships, poorly edited fight sequences (all two of those) and the writer's lack of creativity Growth fails to be a horror and simply stands as horrific. Regarding the plot; Growth is loosely about a parasite (twiparasite) that gifts the infected super human abilities, such as; wear women's sunglasses, handle a whole whiskey and take a plagiarise Prototype. Ultimately Twiparasite doesn't do itself any favours, the budget aside; the story could have been focused on to avoid clichéd end scenes and unsympathetic characters with about as much personality as MDF. The acting is probably the most positive aspect (the only positive) of the film, it's too bad the efforts of the cast is let down dismally by the script.

To surmise, this film doesn't deserve the title of horror; despite what it may attempt Growth comes close to the genre for all of a minute.

As far as I could tell this was one of those straight to DVD horror films, some of those aren't all brilliant, but I saw a trailer for this one which looked relatively interesting. Basically in the 1980's an advanced research was being developed to give humans heightened physical and mental strength, but this turned into a parasite. On Cuttyhunk Island, these parasites, looking like alien worms have got out and spread around, and plan to get inside any human they can to breed. It has been twenty years since Jamie Ackerman (Mircea Monroe) has any involvement with this disastrous incident, but she has to witness her step brother becoming one of the infected, and her boyfriend trying to get away from it with her. The authorities, including Larkin Holberman (Richard Riehle) are aware of the outbreak, and are trying to contain it before the infection can spread further afield. Also starring Christopher Shand as Justin Roberts, Brian Krause as Marco, Nora Kirkpatrick as Kristin Daniels, Mackenzie Brooke Smith as Gwen Anderson, Alexi Wasser as Sarah Holberman, Ian Patrick Williams as Mason Lane, Robert Pike Daniel as Jake, Lou Richards as Dr. Macavire and Yousef Abu-Taleb as Sgt. George Seitz. Seeing little horrible worms going into people and coming out through various places in their body is freaky, but that is all the film is good for, there is no effort to make you feel like it is worthwhile, so while it was creepy and crawly, it was just alright. Okay!

If you love Squirm and Slither, then you will love this. It will give you the chills and even the most hardened horror fan will shudder when he sees the "things" burrow through into the flesh of an unsuspecting victim. Growth is a new body horror from the company that produced SAW, MY BLOODY VALENTINE 3D which was Lionsgate. I have to say I have been impressed by the horror movies that Lionsgate are releasing as most of them are good. I love nature gone bad movies and body horror movies, so I gave this a whirl. Well let's just say I was scratching my skin about 45 into the film. It really does make your skin crawl. Most of the time the parasites are CGI but they are CGI that you can believe in and be repulsed by and believe me they are repulsive. Through some scenes I actually even felt sick. It is a movie that plays with your mind and your body at the same time. believe me it will GROW on you.

This for me is no more than an average horror movie with the concept of a good story about the parasite thing and the folks on the island, yes I can see the slight connection with Wicker Man here but there are no known actors in this movie and the story is weak and the film suffers as a result.

I wont say it was not entertaining, on the contrary, the spoof moments were full of suspense and intrigue and the acting is fine, it is just the story promises so much and delivers so little, they could have done so much more with the story and they didn't.

This will likely appeal to a teenage audience and not much more. Not enough horror and solid story for me.

I suffered for around an hour watching this film, until I decided to turn it off.

Having not watched it all, I cannot vouch for the ending, but the first half was appalling.

A laughable section was where the "superhuman-ised" teenager stamped his foot on some asphalt and broke it apart. Theoretically impossible, unless somehow his weight had increased ten-fold...which it hadn't. Had the film been a bit more tongue-in-cheek I'd have let this go, but it takes itself sooo seriously.

One word for this film....and it sounds like bank!

Another wretchedly unwatchable effort from the straight to DVD horror bonanza of the noughties. Little silverfish like parasites which variously kill people or control them while squirming around under their skin ran rampant on Kuttyhunk (!) Island 20 years ago, thanks to some Resident Evilly maniac scientists who wanted to create super citizens – and now, it's happening again, albeit very slowly and stupidly.

The presence of cool CGI parasites is all for naught because the film fails on all the most basic levels: You don't give a crap about any of the characters, the editing is incompetent, and the script is gaping with holes of illogic sure to keep any viewers in Total Cynic mode. The result is extreme boredom.

An opening montage shows parasites swarming like ants in Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. This never happens during the present day invasion of the island. Instead these parasites, which have demonstrated the ability to leap from one infected person to another over 20 feet away with extraordinary ease and finesse, choose to propagate in the following manner: They infect one young man, imbue him with superpowers and confidence, and make him stroll into the Kuttyhunk Tavern, where he goes all out to pick up one local young woman. After she admits that ' he really gets her', her boyfriend's gander is raised. The boyfriend and Superman go out into the parking lot for a scuffle, which is the cue for Matrix-like articulate slow motion kung fu. After Superman's inevitable victory over three locals, he emphasises his win by smashing the car park asphalt up with his foot. His newly won girlfriend fails to notice the strangeness of this and trundles off into the woods with him for some smoochies. Finally, FINALLY, a parasite begins to squirm out of his ear in readiness to attack a new victim, but her scream panics Superman and he tears the girl's throat in annoyance.

DAMN! The invasion's never going to get anywhere at this rate.

There's an unintentional laugh when heroine B, the one with the really short shorts, begins to play the accordion one night in her cabin, after saying earlier to her would-be boyfriend that she was going to do this. I admired the film's follow-up in this area when it had failed to follow up in most others. That we see her playing the accordion from the POV of a heavy breathing, hooded parasite dude just makes the moment even funnier. However, such pleasing moments are thin on the ground.

As the cliché goes, this is 80 something minutes (which felt like two hours) which I can never get back. CGI tricks and RED camera cinematography are wasted time and time again in the service of completely sloppy material like this from indie filmmakers who haven't got their skills up enough before throwing out a feature with a shiny veneer but zero watchability.

Come on,you detractors......what do you expect on a tiny budget of $300,000? For a spend of that size the overall production values of this Movie are excellent. The story Is Interesting and the plot has a few surprises which gradually reveal the connection between the Island and Its Inhabitants and the Girl who's arrived to stake her claim to It. I also found It different enough to keep me Interested-a pretty fresh Idea and while some of the science Is a bit silly the story Is solid enough. Those Movie buffs out there who understand all the variables that go to make a decent film will,I'm sure,give this the thumbs-up. It would have still got mine at 10x the budget. This Is a good dose of Science-Horror and I recommend It to all fans of the same.

Growth is set on the island of Kuttyhunk where twenty years ago a group of scientists set up a community in order to devote their time & energy into their experiments, first they genetically engineer perfect pearls which they sell for millions which they use to fund groundbreaking experiments in parasitic organisms that are meant to increase their human hosts strength & mental capacity but also had the unwanted side effect that turned them into killers. Jamie Ackerman (Mircea Monroe) survived the original outbreak twenty years ago & returns to Kuttyhunk along with her boyfriend Marco (Brian Krause) to sell her old family house that could be worth as much as a couple of million dollars, however the parasites return & start taking over the folk of Kuttyhunk turning them into killers once again. Jamie begins to realise that her past may hold the key to defeating the parasites once & for all...

Written, co-produced & directed by Gabriel Cowan this horror film features parasitic Slug type creatures that take control of their human host's much like Shivers (1975), Night of the Creeps (1986), The Faculty (1998) & Slither (2006) all of which feature Slug like parasites which infect & alter people in some way. The main problem I had with Growth was it's pace, it's just a very slow going film that feels like nothing is happening & I wasn't keen on all the padding either. Usually films that last for a little over eighty minutes don't require much padding to fill the time but Growth has plenty, some may call it character development but I call it padding. Watching a girl go jogging in the woods a few times is boring, listening to a group of four friends argue & talk & generally do boring things may be character development to some but it never goes anywhere, it never feels like anything more substantial than basic 'who loves who' nonsense & the mystery surrounding Jamie's past adds little & doesn't tie in that well. The script tries to throw in a twist or two but there's no great revelations that will particularly shock or surprise you & even the background story feels thin & doesn't make much sense. Where have these parasites been for the past twenty years exactly? If you become infect with a parasite do you know or not? That guy Justin rips a girls throat out one night & thinks nothing of it yet the next day when he crushes some wood with his hands he seems surprised & shocked in an odd sort of way. It just seems that sometimes the parasites have control while other times they don't. The whole genetic experiment gone wrong scenario has been done to death & the script skips the finer details & is quite vague, we only ever really focus on the four teens & what happens in the rest of Kuttyhuck is almost totally ignored, the subplot about the antidote is confusing, why were those people walking through the woods with giant photo's of people & what were the ultimate purpose of the parasites anyway? To create some sort of superhuman? Like that was ever going to catch on...

Between all the talk & teen drama there are lots of scenes of CGI computer parasite Slug things slithering around with lots of squelching noises, to be fair the CGI is actually quite good & is kept fairly simple. There's not much gore here, there's a bit of blood splatter, a guy has his arm ripped off, there are lots of parasites that burrow into people's skin & a guy gets shot through the head. Shot in full 2:35:1 widescreen Growth looks quite nice & sleek although a little bland at times, it's competent for sure but not overly special.

With a supposed budget of about $300,000 this was apparently filmed in Massachusetts. The acting from an unknown cast is alright but nothing spectacular.

Growth is not a film that will grow on me, I thought it was well made enough with competent special effects & acting but the plot is muddled & far too much time is spent on needless padding that doesn't really go anywhere.

I hear what the other reviewers were saying. The film is not without flaw. But I found it to be a breath of fresh air in a horror genre so filled with lifeless characters and flat simple stories. The third act was exciting, and, for me, original and interesting. I really latched into what the characters were going through, especially the lead male character, Justin. I found the acting to be way above average for these types of films and the shot choices were terrific! Also... The Music was incredible! How has nobody mentioned the music? I use to be a composer so that's where my ear goes - but I thought it was great. The film was fun, funny, entertaining and unique. It was NOT a boiler plate stupid horror flick - it was a low budget, character driven science fiction horror film. I really enjoyed it!!!

A girl and her family/friends travel to an island were she stands to inherit a house worth 2 million. By way of an intro we learn that this island was the site of a research project using parasites-worms actually-to improve humanity. How that's supposed to work only the writer knows. Of course the experiment went terribly wrong. Once on the island where she grew up, she receives a cold reception and is basically forced to accept a low sum and leave. That doesn't happen and eventually the parasites start attacking our group. The parasites burrow in the human host and come out to infect other people. They are of all sizes and move pretty fast. We are told that they feed on adrenaline, but it seems that they actually increase adrenalin. We only get to witness one extended infection of a guy who gets sick, becomes a macho and develops superhuman strength. The parasites's weakness is salt, it makes them evaporate. And it's sea water that has kept them confined to the island. The question of course is whether the girl and her friends will make it off the island alive.

This movie was made on a low budget but all the energy of the filmmakers went into making this movie look high budget. And they succeeded, it does look very well made. Unfortunately similar effort didn't go into story, editing, and characters. The girl who is supposed to be the main character is pretty much a secondary character for most of the movie. She plays no significant role until the end. And the secondary characters aren't particularly interesting either. Worms as villains aren't very good, unless they do cool things to the human body, as in Slither. But here the budget I imagine didn't allow for some gory deaths. In fact, there isn't much gore or violence or scares in this film. There is one great fight scene though, again, very well done for a low budget movie. The story doesn't keep you particularly interested, too much is told in the introductions, things that should have been told later to keep the viewer engaged. Key elements of the story ended up in the "deleted scenes" part. This movie represents an excellent effort in low budget movie making, it just isn't interesting to see because it lacks what you would want to see in a horror flick: gore, violence, nudity (of which there is a fraction of a second), cool deaths, interesting characters. Note that after all the credits are over, there is an additional scene.

In the 1980s, an island used for genetic research made some breakthroughs, but also had some terrible setbacks. Today (2009) some of those setbacks might come back to bite the island in the butt as a nasty slug-like virus spreads with unpredictable effects.

Quite simply, this film is a disappointment and something of a mess. There is potential there, and you can glean it from time to time, but overall the feeling is one of letdown. There are two main areas this film fails: the computer effects and the plot.

As far as computer effects go, it's somewhere in the middle ground of modern effects. It's not really good, but it's not as bad as some of the things you'll find on the SyFy network (like "Raptor Island"). Had the special effects people had a bit more time, they might have been able to pull this task off. Instead, the creatures come out looking like very low budget versions of the slimies from "Slither" (a vastly superior film).

The plot fails in a few ways. Primarily, there is not much sense to the whole concept. If this is a research island, why do people live on it? I can understand scientists staying there, but it seems to have a thriving city. That's just pointless. But also, much of the film uses flashbacks that do not really add up until the end, by which time you've probably already forgotten about them, and the story was working just fine without them. In short, we have added confusing footage where none is necessary... edit five minutes from this film and it would be supremely better.

Gabriel Cowan, the writer and director, has said this film was inspired by (of all things) the 2008 presidential debates, and the idea that we must sacrifice ourselves sometimes to get where we want to go. He saw McCain and Obama as both switching positions at the last minute, and turned this into a science fiction story... it's a stretch, but if that's what he says is the source, fair enough.

And Cowan's not without his merits. His last film, "Breathing Room", I found to be startlingly impressive and plenty of fun. And he knows how to cast, securing the great character actor Richard Riehle (probably best known from "Office Space"). The problem with "Growth" may not have been the people involved so much as the budget they were forced to work with.

I recommend seeing "Breathing Room". I'm not as convinced about "Growth". If you want to compare the two to see Cowan's evolution, go for it, but otherwise you'd do just as well to pass. (I cannot say whether or not the graphic novel based on the film is any better, but I suspect it is.)

I came across this gem when it was shown on the UK Horror channel - not a place that I usually find gems - but I noticed a few things (unmentionable here, lest I spoil this for you!) that made me use the tivo to go back to the beginning and watch it in full. I was not disappointed, nor did I know what was going to happen next, the usual experience with so many formulaic movies of the genre. Suffice to say this movie eschews many of the hackneyed "Conventions" that all to often mark out the "Wannabe" horror movies that infect the horror scene. Is it a perfect movie? Probably not, but certainly not because of any of the creative arts employed. Perhaps the biggest problem I had with the movie was the opening titles, which, though telling a story, were flash edited just a little too quickly for my taste and, had I started watching the movie from the beginning, might have put me off it somewhat. Could the SFX have been better? Yes, but only if the money was available. As it is they are of an acceptable standard - think "Better than Sy-fy channel movies." I don't understand the poor IMDb rating (4 stars as I write this) It certainly deserves more than this, with great acting, good actors, a writer who is not just doling out the usual gruel and a director (The same person) who delivers his script thoughtfully and without falling into the many traps that beset many productions. I will definitely be on the look out for Gabriel Cowan's future work. To the prospective viewer I say, stick with it, you'll be glad you did.

Growth, not as good as it could have been. The only problem is that it contains too much CGI. The storyline itself is okay. Some things aren't explained and some parts are a bit too long but overall it was watchable. But for the geeks it's not bloody or gory enough. There are other parasite flicks out that used the real effects, like squirm, and that worked out well. Some things had to be done CGI but the part were one gets some water on him, you see his flesh burns, but sadly it's CGI. If they had made it old school well, than it surely would have been worth viewing. A bit disappointing on the view of the red stuff, one to start with if you have a horror night.

Arriving on an island to sort through an inheritance, a group of friends find the supposedly-finished research on parasites intended for human evolution advancement are still swarming on the island and try to fight them off before succumbing to the deadly creatures.

This here was a pretty disappointing effort that really could've been quite fun. There's a great deal here about the changes that are undergone once becoming infested with the creatures, which is where the film gets a lot of mileage out of by having it really just emphasize the changes undergone once they're infected and getting both some nice gore shots and plenty of gross-out moments. There's also some pretty decent action shots here of the swarming parasites going after victims and there's some fun to be had there, but the main thing that really hurts this one more than anything is way too many loose strands in the story. Far too much goes unexplained or even questionable about it's inclusion, which has a pretty big impact on the story when there's a twist in the last few minutes to try to make sense of everything. Otherwise, this here isn't too bad.

Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Nudity.