THE FOOD OF THE GODS (1976)

 

(Director/screenwriter/special visual effects: Bert I. Gordon)

Review

A mix of H.G. Wells’s 1904 science fiction novel THE FOOD OF THE GODS AND HOW IT CAME TO EARTH and Cy Endfield’s 1961 film adaptation of Jules Verne’s notably different 1874 novel THE MYSTERIOUS ISLAND, this 1976 film starts with a heavy-handed voice-over provided by Morgan (Marjoe Gortner, MAUSOLEUM, 1983) telling viewers how he and two football-player buddies went deer-hunting on a Canadian island where they’re attacked by mutated animals. Thankfully, Morgan’s voice-overs merely bookend FOOD (1976).

One of Morgan’s hunting buddies (Davis) is stung to death by man-sized wasps (that look like flying, winged shadows). Morgan and his other friend (Brian) escape, talk to a local woman (Mrs. Skinner, played by Ida Lupino). Skinner, who has mutant chickens and a rooster in her garage, tells Morgan about a weird, white liquid that bubbles out of the earth and how she fed it to her chickens and rooster─the same liquid that might be responsible for the oversized wasps.

Later that evening, Mr. Skinner (John McLiam), back from the mainland, gets a flat tire on his VW Bug and is attacked by a mischief of car-sized rats. More animal-related assaults and deaths follow, including several attacks on Jack Bensington (Ralph Meeker) and his fed-up assistant (Lorna, played by Pamela Franklin)─Bensington owns a company that hopes to strike a deal to distribute the white goo (labeled Food of the Good, FOTG, by the Skinners) for cattle growth.

Then the animals attack en masse! Everything gets crazy violent, lots of arguing, planning, and animal-repelling ensues. More characters die horribly. The familiar ending is solid, believable and (still) timely.

Gordon’s ecological thriller is cheesy, golden turkey fun. There’s a lot to admire about FOOD, released as a PG-rated film (by today’s standards, it’s probably closer to an R). Gordon, known for his big-monster pictures and FX work, wrote and directed this tightly edited movie (e.g., the first ten minutes of FOOD has two giant creature-related deaths). The characters are barely sketched, and the actors are mostly solid in their over-the-top acting (especially Lupino, who make FOOD more fun than it would otherwise be). The practical creature FX are obviously fake in parts, but it makes the film more fun in a nostalgic way. Adding to the enjoyment of these scenes are the sound effects (swarming rats sound like a mix of wild cats, pigs, and something else I couldn’t identify) as well as the suspenseful soundtrack (the latter provided by Eliot Kaplan).

If you have a sense of humor, appreciate solid Seventies B-movies and aren’t sensitive to obviously fake animal deaths (rats were shot with high-intensity blood squirts), this might be your cinematic cheese jam for an hour and a half.

CRAWL (2019)

 

(Director: Alexandre Aja. Screenwriters: Michael Rasmussen and Shawn Rasmussen.)

Review

As a Category 5 hurricane threatens to bear down on her Florida hometown, professional swimmer Haley goes to check on her father (Dave) at the behest of her long-distance sister (Beth, played by Morfydd Clark). Haley’s relationship with Dave is strained because of his recent divorce with her mother─Haley blames herself for their breakup, because of all the time Dave spent coaching her swimming.

When she finds him, he’s seriously injured and trapped in the basement of their old, unlived-in house. She devises a way to get the out of the flood zone as the storm worsens, and then an alligator strikes─setting off series of increasingly terrifying and potentially catastrophic events not only for her and her father but for those around them.

Rated R for bloody (but not excessive) violence, terror, and tension, this relatively short (hour and twenty-seven-minute) film is perfectly edited (credit: Elliot Greenberg), with great writing, acting, cinematography, set design and direction. Michael Rasmussen and Shawn Rasmussen (among their credits John Carpenter's THE WARD, 2010) keep the inventive and situation-ratcheting terror element constant and theme-true, whilst underlining the story with relatable human concern and warmth. Lucy Eyre’s set design and Ketan Waikar and Dragan Kaplarevic’s art direction is convincing and detailed, as are the mostly CGI alligators and their briefly gory attacks; Maxime Alexandre’s cinematography is appropriately storm-dark, often claustrophobic, and water-hued as the locations for the nature-sourced attacks shift between characters and places. And director Alexandre Aja, whose work is often amazing (in a good way), horror-true and laced with humor, masterfully guides this top-notch terror flick with its various-angle camera shots and tableaux.

Not only that, CRAWL’s two leads are excellent in their roles. Kaya Scodelario (RESIDENT EVIL: WELCOME TO RACCOON CITY, 2021) is great as Haley, whose parental-divorce transition is as tumultuous as the waters that threaten to drown her and her father. Barry Pepper, a consistently excellent character actor, nails it as Dave, Haley and Beth’s sad, loving but coach-hard father. Ross Anderson, in his brief role as Wayne (a roadworker who crushes on Beth), is immediately likeable with his boyish charm. Trigger, Dave’s wiry-haired, scrappy mutt, is a charmer, too.

CRAWL is not only one of the best horror films of 2019, it’s also one of the best overall films of that year. If you’re a fan of films like ALLIGATOR (1980, starring Robert Forster), PIRANHA 3D (another Aja-helmed movie) and works of that ilk, check out CRAWL.