Food of the Gods

Food of the Gods (1976)

Rating: Not really
Moderately Trashy

Watched this after getting home from Empire of the Ants - it's directed by the same guy (Bert Gordon who, according to the IMDb is also responsible for The Amazing Colossal Man, Beginning of the End (giant grasshoppers), Earth vs. the Spider, and Village of the Giants) and is also supposedly based on an H.G. Wells novel, though I doubt it is a particularly faithful adaptation.

In this movie, a bunch of people including the smart-but-beautiful-whateverologist (Pamela Franklin), the money grubbing corporation guy (???) and Marjoe Gortner become trapped in a cabin in the woods when a small Canadian island is overrun with giant rats, wasps, maggots and (I shit you not) chickens.

These creatures apparently ingested a mysterious substance bubbling out of the ground in Ida Lupino's backyard, which made them grow to monstrous proportions! Dear God, how could such a thing happen? Well, as it turns out, when these farmer found this mystery shit bubbling out of the ground they took the only rational course of action and force fed it to their chickens. Okay...

The special effects in this movie, though entertaining, were mediocre. The acting was mediocre. The script was mediocre. Everything about the film was kind of mediocre.

For instance - it seems to me the only reason to add a pregnant woman to the motley crew of stereotypical b-movie characters would be to imply that, perhaps, the mother accidentally ingested some of the Food of the Gods and that the child would, like, become the 50 Foot Woman or something.

No, actually, it was just so that she could squeeze the little whelp out while rats were attacking the cabin and The Men were doing something vastly more important. This is why you should never bring women into a situation like this. All they do is fuckin scream and have babies and shit...

So though Empire of the Ants was stupid and perhaps even less competent than this film, it was way more entertaining than this.

END

Written and Directed by: Bert I. Gordon based on the novel by H.G. Wells. Starring: Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ida Lupino, Ralph Meeker, Jon Cypher, Belinda Balaski, John McLiam.