SciFi/Fantasy
Ecology Strikes Back: "The Food of the Gods"
Everyone has their lowbrow guilty pleasures — Pop Tarts. Peter Frampton records. Grilled Velveeta and wonder bread sandwiches. There, I’ve confessed a few. But none rival the cheesy delight I feel in watching plastic larvae gnaw Ida Lupino’s arm off in the “so bad it’s awesome” b-movie classic “The Food of the Gods.”
I don’t know who convinced a Hollywood executive to greenlight this turkey in the mid-seventies, but studio guy, if I ever find you I’ll kiss you. I first saw “Food” at a cult-movie screening club in Los Angeles — part of a film series they called “When Animals Attack.” Hitchcock’s “The Birds would have belonged in the series, but it’s just not crappy enough. The movies that did make the cut? “Bug,” about killer cockroaches (1975), “Day of the Animals,” about killer dogs (1978) and the ROFL-riffic “Night of the Lepus,” about killer bunnies (1972). Yeah, that’s right. I said killer bunnies.
While the other films focus on specific species of critterdom, “Food of the Gods” was a veritable smorgasbord of malicious mammals, foul fowl, and bad bugs. Cringe as the supersized chicken chomps on townspeople! Gasp when huge rats and wasps dine on helpless humans!
Man’s recklessness with technology and lack of respect for “mother nature” is to blame, as it was in similar schlock-fi features of the day. Remember, this was the same decade in which Earth Day, the Environmental Protection Agency, and lots of bad LSD were all created. Mix them all up, and you get this movie.
Here’s the plot, such as it is (spoiler alert!):
On a remote island in British Columbia, a weird white goo, like Kool Whip or marshmallow creme, oozes forth from the earth. The God-fearing local countryfolk who discover it reckon it’s a gift from the lord, “like oil,” and immediately begin feeding it to their chickens. Because what else would you do with marshmallow goo oozing from the earth, right? You’d feed it to your chickens.
But when eaten, the stuff speeds up and extends the growth process in living things past what is natural. Other common animals in that Canadian backwater soon consume the goo, and in no time, the whole island is overtaken by giant, hyper-aggressive vermin. Melodrama ensues. Football players and sexy “lady bacteriologists” somehow end up in the storyline, too.
“The Food of the Gods and How it Came to Earth” is the complete title of the 1904 HG Wells novel on which this film is based. In Wells’ book, scientists created the goo — “Herakleophorbia IV” — and the book goes on to explore what happens to human beings who dine on it. Bottom line: they grow to 40 feet tall, and the resulting conflict destroys the world or something. The ending’s kind of vague in both book and the film. Whatever. Giant rats! Sequels! Everyone wins.
The 1976 film won a Golden Turkey Award for “Worst Rodent Movie Of All Time” — an impressive feat, when you consider that this means it whomped such fearsome competition as “The Killer Shrews” (1959), “The Nasty Rabbit” (1965), and the aforementioned “Night of the Lepus” (1972).
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Daemon
I see your “food of the gods” and raise you “squirm”. A movie about worms. Not giant worms, not worms with teeth… just ordinary earthworms that have some magical, unexplained ability to kill people. Somehow.
Though, ultimately, attack of the killer tomatoes is the god of the genre.
frankenstoen
This is a troubling movie for me, because it is a great B-movie classic with great special FX, but the animal cruelty depicted on screen is quite real. It’s the animal equivalent of a snuff film. Those aren’t CG rats - those are real rats getting shot up on screen, and it’s a bit stomach turning.
Larry Welz
This was done as a beach party movie in the 60s. I forget what it was called, Village of the Giants or something like that. Giant surfers terrorize small town. Surfer girl grows huge & pops out of her sweater, then does a dance with a terrified Johnny Crawford or Tommy Kirk or somebody hanging off of her bra that she has fashioned out of theater curtains. Not much man eating vermin, but I believe Freddie and the Dreamers appeared in it. Genius marketing.
Morne
Okay, I’m sorry, I know this is terribly pedantic, but I just have to mention that rabbits are not rodents…
Romeo Vitelli
“I don’t know who convinced a Hollywood executive to greenlight this turkey in the mid-seventies, but studio guy, if I ever find you I’ll kiss you.”
Save your kisses for whoever greenlighted the sequel to this crapfest.
Random_Tangent
I’ll have to add it my netflix queue. For more animal attacking goodness, check out The Uncanny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykyup7fbS-8
Saw a trailer for it at the New Beverly in LA. Evil cats!
Savannah Red
I did the double dip with this one–I read the book and saw the movie at the theater.
When you’re 12, I don’t think there is anything better than giant, ravenous animals out to kill and eat you.
If I was on the committee, it would have won an Academy Award.
RobWeaver
I don’t suppose anyone knows where I can find a transcript of Marjoe Gortner’s hilarious “why we fight” speech from this flick.
RobWeaver
It’s been a while but I recall Marjoe Gortner’s “why we fight” speech from this flick as being an hilarious classic of the genre. If only I could find a transcript.
illlich
Ohhhh. . . yes, this freaked me out as a kid. I actually don’t remember much about it except two scenes, the very corny scene near the end where “giant” mice are very clearly regular white mice walking among miniature model houses, and a scene where a guy is trying to kill a giant fly in his hands (that scene gave me nightmares for a while).
It also reminds me of a B-film from the 80’s called “The Stuff” where (surprise, surprise) white goo oozes from the ground and people decide to eat it (will we never learn?!) “Mmm. . . it tastes good, let’s market it as a dessert!” But instead of turning you into a giant it turns you into a mindless zombie.
Sur
Are you sure “Night of the Shrews”, “Nasty Rabbit” and “Night of the Lepus” weren’t disqualified from “Worst Rodent Movie” because none of the aforementioned animals are actually rodents? Rabbits are lagomorphs, meaning they’re more closely related to a Shetland pony than a rat. And shrews aren’t rodents, either–they actually fall under the order Insectivora, rather than Rodentia.
What’s wrong with these Golden Turkey people? Surely they have a certified biologist on their judging panel!
none
I was 12, 13 when I saw this. I went out of my way because it said H.G. Wells and I sat there for 2 hours simply confused about what was on the screen and why. Each improbable plot twist was less logical than the last (starting with the magic white goo coming out of the ground) and each line spoken was worse than the one before it.
January 7th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
I went to see this when it came out, and it wasn’t until the very end when the kids are drinking the (possibly) tainted milk that I started to get this sinking feeling. That scene is almost shot like a documentary. When I got home my mother had french fries cooking in the oven and the smell made me think maybe the fries were also tainted. I could barely eat them. All that night I waited to grow…