Natural Selection

MOVIE #1,864 • 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿 • 07.31.24 D̷I̷R̷E̷C̷T̷O̷R̷ ̷F̷I̷L̷L̷-̷I̷N̷ ̷S̷E̷R̷I̷E̷S̷:̷ JACK SHOLDER TV movies often signal the death knell for those directors who previously worked in theatrical releases, but seeing as how TV movie 12:01 is my favorite Jack Sholder film to date, I was pretty psyched for this, in spite of — or perhaps because of — C. Thomas Howell’s goatee and fro looks! (He plays a dual role! Haha yes!!) The film also stars Lisa Zane as his wife and child actor Miko Hughes as his son, both of whom I know from my Nightmare on Elm Street franchise run-through (she starred in Part 6 and he was in New Nightmare). In another weird twist of synergy, the production designer for this is none other than Alfred Sole, the director of Pandemonium (1982) which I literally just reviewed. C. Thomas Howell plays a good and evil version here. The good one is a computer games designer and these games look like crap!...

Sorry to spoil the 1994 TV movie Natural Selection, which is ‘better known’ as Dark Reflection (probably from a VHS release — you see that cop with the gun on the movie poster above? yeah, that guy isn’t in the film). After some mystery about who this evil CTH is, we learn that they are clones, the last remaining pair of six. Evil CTH has killed off the other four and after, briefly assuming their identities before getting bored, has decided to settle down as the most successful version of the cloning experiment. Look at all these versions of CTH…


I love how he initially tries to convince his wife that this guy is his doppelganger with MS Paint…


One funny moment in this is that, in preparing to assume the good CTH’s identity, evil CTH steals some home movies and then learns to do basketball hook shots like the noted hoopster, good CTH…


Anyway, this isn’t nearly as good as 12:01 but I genuinely like C. Thomas Howell and enjoyed this nonsense for what it is. The two clones fight it out in the end and the film concludes on a surprisingly foreboding note as it turns out evil CTH is the winner.

---

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ MOVIE #1,863 - (YOU ARE HERE) - MOVIE #1,865 ⫸

---

Software programmer Ben Braden has it all: beautiful wife, cute kid, dream house, sports car, great job. Then one day the doorbell rings and he finds himself standing eye to eye with Alex Connelly, every inch his double and hell-bent on getting Ben's material features as well... It was released on January 10, 1994.