The Food of the Gods (1976) Reviews

• A shameful way for BIG to go

  pv719892002-06-12

  You know, something bad happened to Bert I. Gordon. In the 1950s and 60s, he made films that were expected to be high camp ("Amazing Colossal Man," "Beginning of the End," "Attack of the Puppet People," "Earth vs. The Spider," "Village of the Giants" which inspired Irwin Allen's "Land of the Giants"). In the 70s, however, Gordon seemed to try to make his films serious. As with this film and, later, "Empire of the Ants," he found audiences had changed. Eco-horror with some message against nuclear power or industrial waste was the in-thing. Big studios didn't accept his old stuff anymore. So, he changed the tone of his movies and offered it anyone who would fund him. You can see the results. The movie is based loosely on H.G. Wells' classic "Food of the Gods." Gordon later butchered Wells again with "Empire of the Ants." It revolves around a bunch of people who travel to the countryside and encounter giant, mutated animals and insects. The cast, like "Empire of the Ants" and other 70s eco-horror flicks, is filled with people who should have known better: Marjoe Gortner (the psycho bag boy from "Earthquake") Pamela Franklin ("The Nanny," "The Legend of Hell House") Ralph Meeker ("Paths of Glory," "The Dirty Dozen") Jon Cypher (Chief Daniels from "Hill Street Blues") Belinda Balaski ("Piranha," "The Howling") Ida Lupino ("The Sea Wolf," "High Sierra," "Junior Bonner") I was upset that Ida Lupino did that crapstravaganza. That is, until I saw John Huston in "Tentacles," Henry Fonda and Michael Caine in "The Swarm" and "Bradford Dillman in "Bug." Sometimes our favorite, beloved actors and actresses had to take schlock like this to either put food on the table or stay active in Hollywood. Anyway, the animals are mutating because they're getting into Lupino's "ambrosia," a chemical mix she's supposedly using to make her fowl grow bigger. In H.G. Wells' story, the ambrosia, which means "food of the gods," makes everything bigger, including newborn children of pregnant women. The movie seemed about to touch on that, but didn't (although it was later shown in the very, very, very much unneeded 1989 sequel). The acting is over the top. Franklin holds her own and Lupino seems to be having fun just being on the silver screen again after a long layoff. But, Gortner, a former brimstone evangelist, is unbelievable. Ultimately, the undoing is caused by very poor special effects. The giant chicken attack will leave you rolling. Close ups of the head are actually done with a stunt actor in a chicken head trying to peck at people. The close-ups of the heads of the giant rats make them look like the stuffed toys they are. The sight of Ida Lupino beating at the giant plastic worm chewing on her arm will either make you laugh or have you crying as you fondly remember when she did much better films. What makes this all worse is that Bert I. Gordon did a much better job with giantism in "Village of the Giants" in 1965. Could his talents have slipped this much in 11 years? Personally, I think he should have slipped a little camp into the film to take the edge off. When people think you're giving them crap and trying to pass it off as serious, the results are almost always less than pleasant. "Food of the Gods" is decidedly unpleasant.

• Delightful B movie fun

  Nightman852005-10-01

  Another of Bert I. Gordon's adaptations of the works of H. G. Wells, the others being the Village of the Giants (1965) and Empire of the Ants (1977), results in yet another amusing tale of giant critters reeking havoc! Football star vacations on an island, where a mysterious substance on a farm is causing the local animals to grow to giant, killer sizes! Whats more fun than giant poultry? Entertaining, some what cheesy, B sci-fi thriller is great fun for fans of the drive-in era. It's a wild and bizarre tale, as we have giant rats, chickens, and insects threatening human life! Although the film does show its budget, with a wide display of hokey B movie FX, it's all pretty fun schlock. The cast does a decent job, the best being handsome hero Marjoe Gortner. The film never gets quite as silly as Gordon's later Empire of the Ants, but it does have its share of fun for fans of the B movie genre. ** 1/2 out of ****

• Loved this film! Here's why................

  lloydhansen2009-04-29

  I first saw this movie at the local drive-in theater when I was about 13yrs old. It scared the you-know-what out of me back then. I just rented the DVD and sitting there on my sofa, in my mid 40s I enjoyed it all over again! Sure, it's silly....very "B-rated" type film....but if you just accept that going into it, you won't be disappointed. In this day of Computer Generated garbage, it's refreshing to see REAL special effects. The rats are still scary some 30 years later! Rent it, enjoy it for what it is: a campy, silly scary movie. I just love it! It saddens me to see that it's made it's way onto several "worst movie" lists. Relax people, enjoy it! I've gotta go....I think I hear rats coming.....

• So bad it's good!

  chad4782001-06-09

  Wasps, worms, chickens, and rats feed off of an icky, gooey substance that causes them to grow to gigantic proportions, then terrorize the occupants of a remote mountain cabin. This trashy adaptation of the classic H.G. Wells story isn't just any ordinary bad movie. It's a movie that starts off so bad that you are compelled to actually keep watching it to see how much worse it can possibly get, and you have one heck of a good time in the process. Surprisingly, the film does have some fine points. The special effects are really quite acceptable, considering the era and the film's limited budget. And, amazingly, some of the performers manage to retain their dignity. Pamela Franklin as a sassy lady scientist and Ida Lupino as a bible-spouting farmer's wife come off best. This movie was a remake of the 1965 release VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS, also filmed by Bert I. Gordon.

• Unforgettable

  davidals2005-04-09

  Where to begin with this one? By just about every critical standard around, this is crap, getting down to almost Ed Wood levels of badness. Which of course is why it's great - it's a shame this movie is so hard to find these days; because it's a born cult classic. Jesus-fixated farmwife Ida Lupino (poor, poor Ida - what hath the entertainment industry reduced you to?) and her doomed hubbie (some guy who looks like the Gortons' Fisherman) discover some slop that looks like ranch dressing bubbling up out of the ground. Initially, they think it's oil. When this possibility is ruled out, not knowing what it is, they feed it to their chickens, and soon enough they have a barnful of giant chickens. An inspired and most definitely unique giant-chicken-assault scene is an early high point. Ultimately, wasps and rats get into the stuff, with all the usual expected bad effects - they attack and kill unsuspecting entrepreneurs, hippies, rustics and others, while our hero Marjoe Goertener (the onetime evangelist, and subject of the unforgettable documentary MARJOE) rallies his bored-looking cast to shoot their way out of a rat siege. As is typical for a lot of b-movies (Ed Wood, Herschell Gordon Lewis, et. al.), there is a great affection for the escapist and mythic possibilities of cinema on display here; I can point out the drive-in-flick cheesiness, but I should also note that this film (and stuff like it) is great, great fun, and director Bert Gordon's miniatures are well-crafted; perhaps a bit quaint (and suggestive of an innocence that might now qualify as anachronistic) in an era of technological effects. If you love movies, you owe it to yourself to not miss this one.