Runtime:
88 minutes
Directed
by: Bert I. Gordon
Starring:
Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, Jon Cypher, Ida Lupino
From:
American International
At least this is entertaining cheese:
Believe it or not this is not the first time I've seen this
cheesefest before; as sometimes occurs, messageboard discussion spurned
me checking this out again. It is quite silly but then again what else
would you expect from Bert I. Gordon?
As was popular at the time,
this was a man vs. nature movie which deals with ecological horror and
has such things as animals and nature itself rebelling against humanity
due to humanity's abuse against Mother Earth. In this case, a mysterious
substance is causing all animals that consume it (but only those that
are not adult) to become giant-sized. There are giant chickens and wasps
but it's mainly huge rats-brought to life by either giant puppets or
miniaturized sets-that is the bugaboo of the cast, from those that are
visiting the small British Columbia island or the residents, such as Ida
Lupino.
The effects are rather quaint and at times the opticals don't look very good; that and the movie itself is inoffensive so even though there are some long stretches where you wish that other things were happening or that different animals would be used, I will say this movie is OK. The cast is fine (including the guy I'll call “Not Breckin Meyer”) although stereotypical-the young couple, the A-hole that causes a lot of problems, etc.-and at least the animal attacks elicit a little bit of terror; I know others will be most terrified that rats were obviously hurt and probably killed during the making of this motion picture-viewer beware.
Even with that element, I still say this has camp value and the overall message is still a good one-tenuous connection with the H.G. Wells story aside. Also, the landscape of the island they filmed on (Bowen Island, in British Columbia; looking at Google, it's still a pretty place) provided nice sights and it looked like a pleasant locale to visit... as long as giant chickens aren't around.
The effects are rather quaint and at times the opticals don't look very good; that and the movie itself is inoffensive so even though there are some long stretches where you wish that other things were happening or that different animals would be used, I will say this movie is OK. The cast is fine (including the guy I'll call “Not Breckin Meyer”) although stereotypical-the young couple, the A-hole that causes a lot of problems, etc.-and at least the animal attacks elicit a little bit of terror; I know others will be most terrified that rats were obviously hurt and probably killed during the making of this motion picture-viewer beware.
Even with that element, I still say this has camp value and the overall message is still a good one-tenuous connection with the H.G. Wells story aside. Also, the landscape of the island they filmed on (Bowen Island, in British Columbia; looking at Google, it's still a pretty place) provided nice sights and it looked like a pleasant locale to visit... as long as giant chickens aren't around.
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