One man’s trash, is another man’s killer golem.

Jake (Kavan Smith) and Ethan (Colby Johannson) are the Hampton brothers. They are working on restoring an inn when they see something come out of the sky and crash to the ground on their neighbors property. They investigate what they think is a meteor and find out that it is a Russian satellite that looks like it has some kind of green substance on it. Since they don’t see their neighbor around they take the satellite remains to Earl (Donnelly Rhodes).

Earl repurposes old metal to create modern sculpture. He is currently working on something that looks like an 18 foot metal robot giant. He calls it an Iron Golem. A gift to the town. They sell the metal remains of the satellite to Earl. Unbeknownst to any of them, the green substance is actually an alien bacterium that infects the metal bringing it to life.

While the golem is energizing, Jake sees his old girlfriend Amanda (Nicole de Boer) and her daughter Claire (Merritt Patterson). She is back in town for a short time while she gets a divorce. Amanda is staying with her aunt. Jake finds that his feelings for Amanda have not changed since before she left.

The statue, now animated, knocks Earl unconscious and before he knows what’s happening, it calmly walks away. When Earl comes to, his grandson Max (Jesse Moss) has just returned from the store. They call the sheriff (Paul McGillion) to report the statue missing. Earl is not satisfied with waiting. He gets in his truck and goes out looking for whoever stole his statue.

In the meantime, lots of stuff happens. A guy trying to fix his car is killed by the statue. Jake finds his neighbor dead. While he is away from the inn the golem kills his brother Ethan. The golem then kills Amanda’s aunt. Amanda and Claire manage to get away. They go looking for the sheriff. When they finally find the sheriff they have trouble getting him to understand the situation. At least until the golem strolls into town.

“Metal Shifters” AKA “Iron Golem” AKA “Iron Invader” was released to the SYFY channel in 2011. It is a Canadian made movie that was directed and written by Paul Ziller. The bacterium from outer space eats metal. The way it kills people is by sucking out all the metals in the human blood. What the bacterium does to the metal robot is basically consume it. The robot may not be real, but the bacterium on it is.

I don’t care what anyone says, the whole idea of this movie was actually pretty cool. Even if I didn’t understand the concept of the movie, having a giant robot-like creature stomping around town is also cool. It was fun. A little campy, but not too much. As for the title, I was OK with any of them. “Metal Shifters” I believe refers to the bacterium that can manipulate the metal on the golem and keep it together. The monster is actually the bacterium, not the golem.

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