"Hell Comes to Calaveras County," or...

Ah, the idyllic, carefree Early Seventies, when all right-thinking (by pop-culture standards) Americans knew the end was near.  We were poisoning the environment and reminded of it daily.  We were losing a war and didn't have much experience with being good losers.  We lost our rapport with the world's major oil producers and started to pay double top dollar for our crude.  We were damned for being capitalists because we were in a recession or had bad inflation or maybe stagflation.  We were seconds away from a nuclear holocaust.  We began to suspect our government was up to something, but we didn't know what.  We were in a period of social examination and civil disobedience, and if you made a public stand for your beliefs, some crazy would come out of the woodwork and shoot you dead.  In other words, it was hip to be a pessimist.

During the '50's and early '60's, there were several films about the end of the world, but that was OK, because it was survivable.  During the '60's and '70's, story tellers were less optimistic.  It was all about to end, you won't survive it (nor do you deserve survival), and here it is, presented for your entertainment.  The only question was, "How?"
 

Contents

• The Plot
• Pickett's Charge
• A Fool and His Money Are Some Party
• Cry Havoc!  Let Slip the Frogs of War!
• The Good Stuff
• A Few Good Humans
• When Animals Attack
• The Bad Stuff
• Saving the World One Tree at a Time
• The Delegation from the Arachnids
• The Who Cares Stuff
• Notes on the Cast and Crew
• Roots, Shoots, and Other Compares (Animal Acts of the Seventies)
• The Bottom Line

The Plot

Pickett's Charge

End of credits, and our intrepid boatsman is on a lake.  A speedboat ridden by Karen (Joan Van Ark) and helmed by her brother Clint (Adam Roarke) breaks our peaceful boredom.  Clint is a responsible pilot.  Well, he'd be a responsible pilot if he wasn't doing a product placement for Bud while manning the wheel.  You don't have to be Nostradamus to predict what happens next, so we'll skip to the aftermath.  When Clint reaches to Pickett to pull him out of the water, a hacked off Pickett intentionally pulls him over the side.  Clint makes excuses while Pickett explains that he has just lost a lot of valuable equipment.
 

Be thankful it doesn't say Frogs for Snakes (but that's another story...)	"Heheheh.  I can paddle a boat, canoOOOOPS!"

Meanwhile, on an island in the lake, the wheelchair bound patriarch of the Crockett family Jason (Ray Milland) and his brother-in-law Stuart (George Skaff) are watching the speedboat come in.  Jason grumbles about Clint and tells Stewart to meet them and smooth out any problems his son may have caused today.  On the boat, Clint tries to make small talk with Picket, but it leads to a challenge in some games.  Pickett tries to back out of this hospitality.

They pass through mansion grounds and what looks like a private graveyard.  Several credibly large Ominous Frogs™ seem to be stalking them en masse.  (It's hard to tell if that's their intent, since hopping is usually not a form of locomotion associated with stalking.)  Suddenly, the trees are enshrouded in a mist, but the characters are not.  It looks like a variation on bad "night for day" shots, but in a later shot, a gentle mist wafts to the side.)  Stuart greets them, and then we are treated to more shots of Ominous Frogs™.  (Most scene transitions are done with shots of Ominous Frogs™.  We hope you like them because you're going to see a lot of them.)

They meet Jason, who wants to know what Pickett was doing taking pictures.  This is private property and pictures are not allowed.  Pickett explains he was taking pictures for an ecology magazine.  Jason then asks if he'd seen any frogs, because he'd seen several big'uns.  Afterwards, Karen shows Pickett the phone so he can call his editor.  It's dead.  From some more dialog, we learn it's a holiday weekend (Fourth of July) and Jason's birthday, which is a traditional mandatory family event.  Clint's wife Jenny (Lynn Borden) enters.  Somehow, Jenny knows Clint has done something stupid.  Is she a psychic or is it classical conditioning?  You decide.

Now we meet the Stuart's slightly wacky Iris (Holly Irving), and Iris's son Ken (Nicholas Cortland) and his elegant black girlfriend Bella (Judy Pace).  (Interracial coupling was kind of a shocker back in the early '70's).  Iris is making big deal about the huge butterfly she's caught and mounted inside a display dome.  Pickett is shown upstairs so he can shower and change into some of Clint's clothes.

After his shower, Pickett looks over Clint's collection of sports trophies.  Clint tells Pickett about them, and mentions Jenny was a cheerleader.  Clint claims he weighs the same as he did then, and Jenny just got a little bagged in the eyes.  He also claims he set the national record for yards gained during a single game while his blockers slept on the job, and he's expecting a call from the Dolphins any day now.  Nah, just kidding, but not by much.

Elsewhere, Ken is taking some pictures of Bella.  The family gentleman's gentleman Charles (Lance Taylor Sr.) delivers a verbatim message to Ken from Jason.  ("Has your damn watch stopped?")  They're late for a mandatory some family fun.  While they walk, Bella asks Ken if bringing her to chez Crockett shook up Jason.  Ken says Jason would not admit to being shook up.  (We later learn that Jason's drink of choice is the old fashioned, which is stirred not shaken.)

Back at the mansion lawn, Jenny's and Clint's kids Jay and Tina (Hal Hodges and Dale Willingham) are also late for afternoon whatevers.  They're were at the pool, which leads the live-and-let-live Jason to comment if the kids are going to use his pool they should show up for his parties.  Jay and Tina arrive and they've got a big frog.  (This one does not appear to be of the Ominous Frog™ variety.)  We get some more exposition about number and size of frogs.  Since Pickett's an ecology expert, they quiz him.  They want to get rid of the frogs.  Stuart wants to put oil on water to kill 'em off.  Jason muses he can't handle the problem despite all technology and money available.  Clan Crockett doesn't seem interested in a solution that involves "living in harmony with nature," which is understandable, since the Ominous Frogs™ don't seem to be croaking in harmony.  (Perhaps if they had "Ragtime Gal" or "It's Not Easy Being Green" in their repertoire…)
 

Ominous Frogs.™  You see a lot of them in this movie.	Humans discuss their fate.  (You see a lot of that in this movie, too.)

 

A Fool and His Money Are Some Party

Pickett drives jeep back to the mansion.  The scene shifts to the mansion at night.  Bella is talking to the family lady's lady Maybelle (Mae Mercer) while she sets thing up for dinner.  Bella tries to connect with Maybelle, who is also black, and she admits her real name is Maybelle, too.  She tries to offer Maybelle a drink with the catchphrase, "C'mon, live a little."  Ah, the carefree, idyllic '70's…

Elsewhere, it's family time in parlor.  "We are the ugly rich," admits one of the members.  Iris complains about having to buy strainers for lumber mill.  (Hey, this ain't a movie about Ominous Spotted Owls™!)  Pickett returns but doesn't announce Grover's new place on "The Circle of Life."  Stuart mumbles about good help being hard to find.  The phone is still dead.  Pickett tells Jason about Grover.  Since Jason doesn't want to be a bad host, he's not telling any one else about it.  Actually, it's more like he doesn't want a dead body raining on his parade (and that's a sick mixed metaphor if I ever heard one.)  Jason tells Pickett he can stay the night.  Their conversation is interrupted by a thumping noise.  Some Ominous Frogs™ are pressing themselves onto the glass of the French windows.

The conversation interrupter is interrupted by a scream.  In the dining room, an Ominous Snake™ (not a recognized family member) has been discovered in the crystal chandelier which hangs low over the dinner table.  Jason whips out a revolver and shoots it. (The man must be a dead eye; try this yourself sometime).  Jason says nonplused, "Charles, take it out."  While Charles scoops up the dead snake from the dinner table, Jason says, "Let's eat."  (Nah, not kidding this time.)

After dinner, Pickett and Jason talk about the weirdness.  Crocket admits he believes in man over nature.  Pickett suggests it could be nature trying to get even.  Elsewhere, Jenny is complaining to Clint about his behavior this holiday.  He gets pushy with her and points out that Jason won't be living forever.  Later, Pickett and Karen are outside making small talk.  She says the frogs are driving her crazy.  They talk about his job, and he describes some of the perks of being an ecojournalist.  (He's either a self deluded optimist or this is taking place on a planet where ecologists are heroic figures.  Since this is a '70's movie, we suppose it's the latter.)  She asks what he and Jason were talking about; she knows something's up.

The next morning, brunch is being prepared on patio.  The kids enter and say, "Happy birthday, Granpa."  Jenny enters looking for Clint.  Jason suggests helping with decorations.  The kids wander off and set off some firecrackers, which frighten some soon to be Ominous Frogs™.  Karen and Pickett make some more cutesy small talk.  There are now some big lizards outside, but we can't tell at this point if they're Ominous Lizards™.

Back at the brunch, Clint gets drunk (or maintains his drunk) while Stuart's other son Michael (David Gillum) pounds stakes into the ground for croquet.  Clint wants to play king of the log and challenges Michael, who doesn't seem real interested.  After Michael is delogged a couple of times, he expresses his disinterest and walks away.  Stuart tells Michael he'd like to see him take down Clint, but Michael doesn't really seem to care.  (Hurrah!  A wise person has been seen in this movie!  What's the point of playing dominance games with psychos whom are only interested in winning?)  Clint makes a subtle pass at Bella by asking, "How would yo' like to fight me fo' my log?"  OK, it's subtle for Clint.

Pickett tells Jason he wants to check out the island, maybe find out what the deal is with phone.  Jason allows it, but tells Michael to go find downed line.  Michael gets in the jeep with a shotgun, and Pickett heads out on foot.  They encounter lots of footage of Ominous Reptiles™.  Michael stops the jeep to shoot a bird.  Why?  Who knows?  (Forget the comment earlier about Michael's apparent wisdom.)  Michael starts walking through the woods with his shotgun like he's hunting.  Why?  Who knows?  He runs with the gun, trips, shoots self in leg.  Why?  This time we know.  He's a designated victim in what's about to follow.  While he's down, a herd of sociable tarantulas gang up on him.  Some spiders in the trees shoot webbing and drop moss on him.  One tarantula bares his fangs while sitting on his chest.  The sequence ends with a scorpion crawling on his hand while the web shooters cover his body. Thus concludes our lesson in firearm safety for today.

Back at the house, Iris goes over the party plans.  Clint asks Ken if he'd like to volunteer for his beanbag punch.  Stuart encourages Ken to take Clint down, but he won't.  Iris is distracted by a butterfly, grabs her net, and hoofs out after it.

Meanwhile, Ken enters the greenhouse to collect some flowers, but he doesn't know it's been occupied by Ominous Lizards™.  He talks to some of the flowers about their mortality while harvesting them.  Several lizards scurry about, while a particularly big one quietly enters, brushing the open door with his tail.  The door shuts.  While Ken is picking a few more flowers, one of the big lizards crawling along a shelf starts knocking over glass gallon jugs of poison.  (It would be an Ominous Act™ if it didn't look so much like something out of an old Disney movie.  You know.  The kind that has Rex Allen as a narrator and features a comedic bit with a couple of cute mammals accidentally ransacking a room.)  The liquids fume up and the greenhouse is filled with mist.  Ken asphyxiates.  As he lies there dead, several small lizards jump on him. Due to their size, they cannot really be counted as Ominous Lizards™, but we'll assume they are because they seem to be able to breathe poison just fine.
 

You'll never forget the thrilling King o' the Log scene.	Ken's Izod shirt gets out of control.

Elsewhere, the Crockett clan is getting ready to start the games.  Karen is sent to find Charles, and Stuart is sent to find Michael.  Jenny watches Clint show Bella how to handle his mallet.  (The croquet kind, dammit, and kindly keep your "sticky wicket" comments to yourself.)  Pickett returns and tries to use the phone again, and of course it doesn't work.  People are getting spooked, but it's Jason's party and he'll tirade if he wants to; no one may leave until the festivities come to full stop.
 

Cry Havoc!  Let Slip the Frogs of War!

Meanwhile, Iris (remember her?) is still stalking her prey with a butterfly net.  She encounters lots of Ominous Reptile™ footage.  Suddenly, her path is blocked, not by reptiles, but Ominous Frogs ™.  She stops and goes the other way.  (Apparently, this is a variation on the "black cat crossing your path.")  She encounters several snakes, including a rattler and a black racer.  She freaks and runs.  A party dress is not made for thick undergrowth; she moves slowly through the brush.  Naturally, when she stops to rest by leaning against a tree, she has selected a tree with a Ominous Snake™ at eye level.  When she backs away from tree, she falls into some water and comes out with leeches all over her.  She pulls the suckers off her arms and face, looking real pale.  She gets up and books again, but she trips and falls down by a rattlesnake that immediately gives her a hickey on the wrist.  She sort of stops panicking.

Stuart passes by without seeing Iris.  He also doesn't see some Ominous Alligators™.  They ambush him.  'Nuff said.

Back in the mansion, the younger members of the rapidly diminishing Crockett family are discussing a speedy exit.  Jason is adamant; they're staying.  Grover's death is revealed.  Karen asks if it was an accident, but when it's also revealed that it was snakebite, they decide it may not be a coincidence.  Pickett points out they're all in probably in trouble, and that Michael and Stuart are probably dead, too.  He also observes there haven't been any boats on the lake.  Bella, Charles, and Maybelle bind together and decide to leave.  Bella decides to make it a social issue.  Jason tells Clint to take them off the island.  Pickett tells Jason to be ready for more trouble.

Clint and the party of the departing part leave in the speedboat.  They make it to the landing.  Ominous Frogs™ and Ominous Snakes™ watch them come ashore.  Clint calls for the attendant while the others walk away with their bags.  They find signs of abandoned barbecue party.  Suddenly, Ominous Birds™ attacks them, and, in the distance, a groundswell takes shape on Alfred Hitchcock's grave as he rolls over.  (OK, just kidding about that last bit.  Sort of.) Ominous Frogs™ overrun the barbecue leftovers.

Back at the mansion, Jenny gets some binoculars to watch for Clint's return.  (We can't tell if she's concerned about his well being or regular stupidity.)  Over at the landing, Clint notices the boat's gone adrift.  The line has been severed. He gets in another boat, but there are no keys in the ignition.  Clint makes swim for his boat and meets some Ominous Water Snakes™.  He goes down screaming in some very red water and Jenny sees it.  She makes a run past some Ominous Frogs™ to the shoreline where she gets stuck in some mud.  An Ominous Snapping Turtle™ slowly approaches her.  Ominous Frogs™ watch the fun.

Jenny's disappearance and the drifting speedboat are noticed.  Four out of five humans surveyed decide it's time to get the hell out of Dodge.  The holdout is Jason, who sees this as a no retreat condition.  Picket asks Jason if he'll be all right.  Jason says he'll be just fine and stews over his spoiled birthday party while getting stewed on some old fashioneds.  Pickett, Karen, and the two kids make their good-byes and run for it past the Ominous Frogs™.  When they get to the water, they see Jenny doing a deadperson float.  (Guess ol' snappy did her a favor and pulled her loose.)
 

Lynn Borden (top) begins to regret co-staring with Gamera (bottom), who looks much taller in his other movies.	Leo the Lion has nothing to worry about.

They load up Pickett's canoe and push off while Ominous Snakes™ begin to close in.  Ominous Frogs™ watch them leave.  After a few close calls with Ominous Snakes™ and Ominous Alligators™, the film's designated heroes make it to the landing.  Later, Pickett flags down a passing station wagon and the driver (Carolyn Fitzsimmons, who is also one of this films production associates) agrees to give them a lift.  They all pile into the back seat.  (Bet you wish your car was so roomy.)  The driver explains she and her son are on their way back from picking up the boy at summer camp.  She also mentions she's been on the road for a long time and has seen no one but them.  The boy in the front passenger seat asks the kids if they want to something he got at the camp.  They lean forward expectantly and the kid proudly shows them an Ominous Frog™.

Back to the mansion at night.  Jason has an old Sousa march playing on a phonograph, but the music is interrupted when a frog lands on the turntable. (Reminds me: What's red and green and goes a hundred miles an hour?  A frog in a blender.  Mwahahahaha... aw, ne'er mind.)  Jason takes a drink and looks at his hunting trophies.  The phone rings.  No one's on line; it's dead.  Several Ominous Frogs™ are in the house, all over the furniture surrounding Jason.  He sees several skewed views of all the animals (dead or alive) staring at him and falls out of his wheelchair.  (Sorry, but it has to be said: we assume he has croaked.)  Frogs are hopping all over him and his chair.  Cut to an outside shot of the mansion with the sound of Ominous Croaking™ in the background.  The lights go out.

End credits, blue on black.  But wait, there's more.  You see, back when this movie first came out, the poster showed a gigantic frog with a human hand jutting out of the mouth.  Young movie patrons (like yours truly back then) expected this to be about gigantic frogs and were disappointed at the absence of colossal croakers.  Why all this history?  At the end of the credits, there's a simple cartoon of a frog hopping on screen with a human hand dangling from its mouth.  It sucks in the hand and hops away.  OK, kids, there's your frog with a manual menu.  Go home happy.
 

The Good Stuff

A Few Good Humans

When Animals Attack

The scenes with animals attacking humans are well staged and edited.  Most of the scenes don't really show animals attacking humans, but this effect is achieved through some good selection of shots of humans cut with shots of animals and edited with a good rhythm.  Even if this does not impress you, you still have to admit it's more acceptable than the bear attack scene in Faces of Death (1978).
 

The Bad Stuff

Saving the World One Tree at a Time

And, of course, any dire message about the end of the world means we're going to see that message translated into film, and a lot of those movies are going to be pretty tacky with the message.  Frogs falls into that category.  At the time, it was a "popular message" movie.  The Crockett family represented decaying American society and industry.  (This is nailed into the script by the date of Jason's birthday.)  Pickett was one of those rugged, heroic, right thinking ecologists that was going to save us from the folly of our ways.

Well, here we are at the end of the '90's.  The world didn't die.  Ecology degrees are about as valuable as political science and history degrees.  Several of the ecologists (professional and otherwise) of the '70's now have rewarding careers running Xerox machines for Greenpeace.  Saving the environment has been taken over by politicians who write scientifically inaccurate books and pose for the camera at conferences on global warming and the ozone layer.  Taken out of the viewing context of the '70's, Frogs is entertainment for the sake of entertainment.

None of this is meant to say the ecology movement was worthless.  Those politicians posing for the camera got their ideas from someone, laws banning the dumping of certain chemicals have been passed, and recycling is common.  Who knows?  Maybe the ecologists did save the world, or at least helped to make it easier for people to act a little more responsibly.
 

The Delegation from the Arachnids

Now compare this to Frogs.  The script gives a reason for the animal attacks (they don't like what man is doing to the environment) and it's pretty thin.  Furthermore, having all animals cooperate toward this end implies a belief in the mystic aspect of Nature.  Mysticism and real science don't go together very well, but it does go a long way to fostering the current scientific illiteracy in this country.

While we're in science nit-pick mode, it's time to also question the selection of animals in several of the scenes.  I'm not a zoologist, but I've got to wonder if several of the animals shown would be native to Florida.  Perhaps if there's a herpetologist reading this….

If there's a thematic reason for the animal attacks, and one accepts that the Crocketts represent a failing American society, then the animals represent bloody revolution against that society.  There might've been a touch of that in The Birds; Tipi Hendron's character is wealthy and the color scheme of her wardrobe is green and gold.  You do the math.  Just don't refer to the birds as Coo-munists, nor expect me to refer to the frogs as Leapin' Leninists.
 

The Who Cares Stuff

Notes on the Cast and Crew

Robert Blees (writer) penned some memorable stuff in the '50's, although they may not be memorable in a good way.  He's listed in the writing credits for Magnificent Obsession (1954), The Black Scorpion (1957), and High School Confidential! (1958).  In the '70's, he started writing for AIP.

Ray Milland (Jason) was a legendary actor who made several movies beginning in the late '20's and was a screen idol in the '30's and '40's.  His most finest work was in Lost Weekend (1945), for which he won an Oscar, but he's better remembered for starring in weird stories.  He played self-experimenting scientists in both It Happens Every Spring (1949) and X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (1963).  In 1962, he directed and starred as a militant father keeping his family together at the end of the world in Panic in Year Zero. However, as he got on in years, he suffered the same fate as other older actors -- sinister parts, like this one in Frogs and as half of The Thing with Two Heads.

On the other hand, the passing years seem to have been kinder to Sam Elliot (Pickett).  Earlier in his career, he played intelligent, action oriented characters in movies like this one and The Lifeguard (1976) and he's played tough guys in things like Mask (1985), and Road House (1989). His winner has been that cowboy image he developed on TV shows like The Sacketts (1979) and The Shadow Riders (1982) and self parodied in The Big Libowski (1998).

Joan Van Ark (Karen) has mostly been a TV actress.  She's best recognized for her work in Falcon Crest (both as an actress and a director) although she's been in a variety of other shows and as the voice talent for some cartoons.  Silly movie fans may also remember her for The Last Dinosaur (1977).

 Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson (co-executive producers) are two of the most notorious names in movies.  They ran American International Pictures (AIP) from the '50's to the '70's and produced some of the most amazing B-grade films known.  This includes the works of Roger Corman, Burt I. Gordon, several beach movies, and some dubbed monster movies.  Truly the Kings of the Drive-ins and Masters of MST3K fodder.

Finally, there's Thomas R. Burman (make-up artist).  Frogs was his first credited film, but wait, there's more.  He went on to do special make-up and effects in The Manitou (1979), The Beast Within (1982), Halloween III (1982), and, most recently, The Tracey Takes On series and Carrie 2 (1999).  In 1988, he wrote and directed the rarely seen cult film Meet the Hollowheads, which, by the way, is a bit better than most other movies he's worked on.
 

Roots, Shoots, and Other Compares

Animal Acts of the Seventies

There were several movies in the late '60's and through out the '70's about animals ganging up on humans.  The list below is not all inclusive.  It begins with the one that seemed to start it all and includes those movies from the '70's that carried on the theme of regularly sized, usually small animals attacking humans, usually en masse.  I've intentionally excluded following types.
 

• Normal animal attacks in their native environment (like the army ants in The Naked Jungle (1954) and the piranhas in Killer Fish (1978))
• Fantastically oversized animals and mad science experiments (like the behemoth bunnies in Night of the Lepus (1972) and the critters in Food of the Gods (1976))
• Relentless attacks from singularly large or weird creatures (like Prophesy (1979), Jaws (1975) and all the variations on Jaws, like Grizzly (1976) and Alligator (1980))

Also, some of these (like the killer bee movie and its variations) are a sub-genre unto themselves.

The Birds (1963) -- As noted in passing in the plot synopses, the normal-sized-animals-gang-up-on-humans thing kind of started here.  The bird attack scene in Frogs was staged the same way.  Today, this might be considered as an homage, but back then, it was a rip-off.

The Deadly Bees (1966) -- Beekeeper breeds bees to use as a murder weapon.

Barbarella (1968) -- Included here for the carnivorous parakeets scene, which at the time reminded people of The Birds.

Eye of the Cat (1969) -- Galeophobic (he's afraid of cats) tries to finesse a fortune from a lady with a lot of cats.  More of an early erotic suspense feature than a horror flick, but in the end the cats act as an instrument of vengeance.

Willard (1971) and Ben (1972) -- Intelligent rats rampage while under the guidance of a troubled humans.

Stanley (1972) -- Open rip-off of Willard.  Deranged Viet Nam vet makes snakes instead of rats his special friends.

Phase IV (1974) -- Ants are possessed by an alien life force and make life a pain for two researchers in the desert.

Fer-De-Lance (1974) -- Snakes get loose on board a trapped submarine.

Killer Bees (1974) -- Pretty much like Deadly Bees

Where Have All the People Gone? (1974) -- Solar flares cause most humans to turn to powder and most animals to turn vicious.

Chosen Survivors (1974) -- Group of people are sheltered from nuclear destruction by being placed into a cavern, but are attacked by vampire bats.

Bug (1975) -- Incendiary cockroaches pop up unexpectedly.  By the end of the story, it's revealed they're intelligent. Based on the novel The Hephaestus Plague

The Savage Bees (1976) -- Killer bees at the Mardi Gras

Squirm (1976) -- Rampaging worms stampede!

Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) -- Tarantulas become social creatures and take over a small town.

Damnation Alley (1977) -- Included here for the infamous "killer cockroaches" scene.

Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo (1977) -- Rip-off of the killer bee plot device, with rampaging tarantulas

It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977) -- Poisonous ants rampage in a hotel.

The Pack (1977) -- Dogs left to go wild terrorize vacationers.  Where's Jack London when you need him?

The Uncanny (1977) -- Domestic cats are secretly in charge of human affairs, and a reporter finding this out is in huge trouble.

Day of the Animals (1977) -- A hole in the ozone causes some animals and Leslie Nielsen to rampage.

Jennifer (1978) -- Psychic girl and her special snake friends go out for revenge.  More properly a rip-off of Carrie.

Piranha (1978) -- Toothy fish of the title are bred to thrive in cool waters.  Technically, this is both a Jaws rip-off and a science gone wrong story, but it is included here because it is an en masse attack form, and people will complain if I don't include it.

The Swarm (1978) -- Killer bees presented in a disaster film

The Bees (1978) -- Killer bees again, only this time they become super-intelligent.

Terror Out of the Sky (1979) -- Sequel to The Savage Bees

Creepshow (1982) -- Technically, this is an '80's movie, but the stories were selected for their quaintness.  That quality is in the roaches segment, "They're Creeping Up On You."

There were some animal attack films in the '80's and '90's, too.  The sub-genre became less fashionable, probably because Americans became more optimistic.  Arachnophobia (1990) managed to breathe some freshness into the en masse animal attack sub-genre, and it had a happy ending.  On the other hand, the recent mondo documentaries on FOX are a top draw.

Finally, I add an antidote to all the above.

Joe's Apartment (1996) -- I've heard people call this movie too disgusting. I found it to be quite delightful.  Perhaps it's because I lead a clean life and don't have a personal problem with roaches, so this movie doesn't hit close to home.  (By the way, did you ever notice how some TV editions of Creepshow don't include the roach segment?)
 

The Bottom Line

Published 4 July 1999