The New Mutants

As someone who had been watching a lot of superhero movies at the time, the idea of a superhero horror movie sounded interesting to me when I learned of The New Mutants, one of Fox’s later installments in the X-Men film series. However, while the quality of Dark Phoenix had nothing to do with Disney’s acquisition of Fox, The New Mutants unfortunately did, which resulted in it being the last of the X-Men films to be released. Although production went smoothly for an April 2018 release, things got a bit dicey when the merger occurred, with planned reshoots being continually delayed until the film was declared complete without any having been done at all. On top of this, the COVID-19 pandemic affected distribution plans, with Disney initially planning on a streaming release before changing their minds and finally giving it a theatrical run in August 2020. As it stands, while the final product is surprisingly decent considering the circumstances, it serves as an example of what can happen when your project becomes a crossfire victim of a corporate merger.

After running from a tornado in which her father perishes, Danielle “Dani” Moonstar (Blu Hunt) passes out and later wakes up in the bed of a dingy hospital-like environment. After an attempt to escape, she learns that she is in a mutant facility run by Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), the facility’s sole caretaker who has Dani and four other mutants under constant surveillance and prevents their escape with a forcefield surrounding the area, with the purpose of learning to control their powers. As Dani struggles to figure out what her mutant power is, the other mutants start having mysterious visions where they are forced to relive traumatic events from their pasts.

 

Dani (Blu Hunt) wakes up in a mysterious mutant training facility.

As it is, the story is paced well, with its 94-minute runtime allowing room for proper character development while also not overstaying its welcome. The plot is also more coherent than some of the later X-Men films, with the sparse sets and characters allowing for a more intimate and focused narrative. Though a little predictable, it still manages to maintain a consistent and intriguing horror atmosphere that keeps your attention the whole time, which is more than I can say for X-Men: Apocalypse or Dark Phoenix.

That said, the film presents a few logistical problems when you stop to think about it. While the purpose of the facility is clear, some of the specifics can be brought into question by the presence of Dr. Reyes’ barrier ability, such as how they are able to source food if it’s up at all times since we see interactions with the kitchen. A bigger one is how Illyana Rasputin aka Magik (Anya Taylor-Joy), who has the ability to teleport, can’t just teleport to the other side of the barrier; since it’s not explicitly stated in the movie even as a throwaway line, one is left to assume the barrier is able to prevent this, as seen in X-Men: Apocalypse. One is also left to wonder whether or not the planned reshoots would address any of this, but as it is, it’s just messy.

While The New Mutants has a comparatively smaller budget than other X-Men films, rivaled only by Deadpool and the original X-Men, it maximizes its budget effectively, leading to some very impressive visual effects whenever they are used. One such element is Lockheed, Magik’s dragon companion, being mostly presented as a hand puppet and in a way that works with her personality and backstory. There’s also some clever use of a TV as a form of diegetic foreshadowing to an upcoming major event. Thanks to a combination of good acting and music, as well as the pacing and cinematography, the film also manages to maintain a consistent and effective horror atmosphere throughout. Unfortunately, despite getting the atmosphere right, it fails to deliver in one of the most important aspects of a good horror movie, in that the scares don’t live up to their buildup and aren’t really all that scary once they come.

 

In a clever budgetary workaround, Lockheed (left) spends most of the movie as
a hand puppet.

The New Mutants is a case where knowing more about the production history explains how the end product turned out, especially as it relates to the Disney/Fox merger, but on its own merits it feels somewhat incomplete and doesn’t completely deliver on what it sets out to do. That said, it’s not exactly the worst way to end Fox’s run on the X-Men series and can still be worth watching once to judge for yourself, though horror fans may not feel completely satisfied.