SYNOPSIS
After a mysterious mold starts spreading across the surface of an abandoned mattress, a sentient creature begins to take shape from within. Feasting on its unsuspecting victims’ vertebrae while they rest, the creature grows stronger, finding nourishment not only in the bones and sinew it assimilates but also in the hopes, fears, and emotions of all those it encounters.
What We Thought:
There have been some weird creature features over the past 20 years. There’s been a killer tire, killer donuts, a tornado full of sharks. The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra involves a killer mattress. I believe there has been a killer mattress before, but that ate its victims. This one is full of mold and infects people.
The terror grows because the mattress keeps getting discarded and snatched up. Despite what looks like mold on it, the mattress doesn’t get used long enough by people so it’s technically in good shape. It gets put on the street after it has a victim and then gets put in everything from apartments to hotels to a dying woman’s room. Its victims vary because of it.
It’s quirky enough to be highly watchable, but also not gory enough to me. It’s a bit too serious as well so the comedic elements aren’t there compared to say Rubber. Besides the creature stinging people and eventually the final twist, it’s not that much of a horror flick to me. There’s little to no blood. You don’t really see dead bodies or any type of gore. It is more implied than shown because again, it’s not eating its prey or even suffocating them.
That being said, it’s weird enough for me to recommend The Fifth Thoracic Vertebra for people who like this type of stuff. You firmly know if a killer mattress is something up your alley or not. If it’s not, then avoid this. If it sounds ridiculous enough to enjoy then give it a watch. It’s something I’ll be talking to friends about for sure.
The Nerds Templar 