Strange Nature is a film by Jim Ojala.
A single mother and former pop star, Kim (Lisa Sheridan) has moved herself and her 11-year-old son, Brody, to Duluth, Minnesota, the town Kim grew up in, and help her father Chuck (Bruce Bohne). At around the same time, a series of strange birth defects have started popping up in the local wildlife. Kim tries to dig into it, but gets nowhere.
Soon, she decides she has to do something before the deformations spread from animals to humans.
The film was funded on Kickstarter on October 10th, 2013, and released on September 22nd, 2018.
Strange Nature contains examples of:
- Body Horror: It starts with the frogs that some kids find by the riverside. Soon the deformities start appearing in other species such as Nikki's puppies, Jodie's daughter, the wolves, and Kim's daughter.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Kim's newborn daughter is revealed to have a deformity in the form of an eyeball on the back of her shoulder. And since Nikki and Jodie started convulsing and died after giving birth to their deformed children, it's quite likely Kim's days are numbered as well.
- Eye Scream: During the attack on his home, Joe sticks his thumb in one of his attackers' eyes until blood starts to come out of it.
- Facial Horror: Joe and his daughter Michelle have some pretty lumpy faces. Though they were like that before they moved to Duluth.
- Plus, the newborn puppy which seems to have a cleft lip.
- Jodie's daughter Michelle has a cleft lip and no nose, just nostrils.
- Fly Over Country: The film is set in Minnesota.
- Messy Maggots: In one scene, some maggots are seen inside a dead frog.
- Nightmare Sequence: Kim has one about her son growing up into a deformed freak with half of his face becoming a frog. He goes into a room, puts a gun to his head, and says "Thanks, mom." before shooting himself. Kim wakes up at the sound of the shot being fired.
- Nothing Exciting Ever Happens Here: According to Chuck, most of the town's younger residents have moved out, and the only reason to stay is if you're interested in working in pesticide.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Mayor Paulson. When Kim comes to him about the mutated frogs, and a possible connection to pesticides, he states that he won't look into it unless she brings him irrefutable evidence. He's also wary of linking it to the American Patriot pesticide factory, as it's one of the town's biggest employers. When she does, he goes through with launching an investigation, though he does make the town think HE was looking into it right from the start.
- Savage Wolf: These turn out to be behind the string of disappearances that have been occurring in the area recently.
- Screaming Birth: Jodie screams while she gives birth to her deformed daughter.
