Really Surprised!

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

When this movie showed at a small movie theater down the street, the marquee (which used magnetic letters) said, "Now Showing. Food of the Gods." During the night, someone switched the letters around and made it "Food of the Dogs." This was apropos in that it was probably the worst movie to appear that year at the theater. It has a stupid plot, horrible actors, and looks cheap. Anyway, that anyone would bother to pretty much remake an awful 1965 film is a little jaded. The H.G, Wells story is a lesser work but it is ten times the story here. If it's on TV, don't bother. By the way, who the heck was this Marjoe Gortner guy? I do remember his hair, but that's about it.

In this adaptation of a portion of H.G. Wells's "The Food of the Gods", a strange substance bubbles up out of the Earth and causes giantism in forms of animal life including wasps, chickens, worms, and rats. Among the unlucky people caught up in this invasion of plus- sized critters are football player Morgan (Marjoe Gortner), his teams' P.R. man Brian (Jon Cypher), expectant couple Thomas (Tom Stovall) and Rita (Belinda Balaski), pathologically greedy opportunist Bensington (Ralph Meeker) and his associate Lorna (Pamela Franklin), and farm woman Mrs. Skinner (Ida Lupino).You gotta love him; veteran film director Bert I. Gordon was *still* relying on his favourite movie theme of large menaces at this point in time. This effort is ultimately dumb, silly, and sloppy, but just like many bad B movies, it's not without appeal, especially when it comes to supposed shock scenes (that chicken attack scene early on in the movie is a riot). The special effects, as one will expect, are for the most part none too convincing. The acting is variable; Gortner is likable as always as the hero. Veterans Lupino and Meeker had certainly been in much better films, but they're as solid as ever. Meeker is particularly funny in a very one note and sleazy portrayal. The lovely Ms. Balaski does well as the young mother to be who feels no need to marry the father of her baby. Gordon does generate some atmosphere from the surroundings; this was filmed on location in the Canadian province of British Columbia.One thing's for sure: this will rub many animal rights activists the wrong way.Six out of 10.

On an island, some crazy old lady and her husband found some white goo seeping out of the earth. So, they did what anyone would do--they mixed it with animal feed and gave it to their farm animals. The animals then grew to enormous proportions and soon had a craving for human flesh. Some particularly dim people get themselves stuck on the island and must fight giant animal models (being thrust at them by people from the props department) to survive. All the while, a REALLY dumb rich guy is imagining the riches he'll make by harvesting this goo! I was not at all surprised to see Marjoe Gortner starring in a crap movie like this. What surprised me was seeing some once decent actors whoring themselves out in this film. To a small extent I was surprised to see Ralph Meeker but even more surprising was the famous 1930s-40 actress/director Ida Lupino. Was she bankrupt? Was she being blackmailed?! All I know is that the film is every bit as bad as the worst giant animal films of the 50s and 60s and 70s and these two never should have taken these parts.Dumb acting, VERY dumb writing, horrible props and the like sink this production. One of the finer moments in the film was when giant bees attack as folks are INSIDE the cabin--so naturally one of them goes outside with a shovel to fight them! Later, when a Winnebago has a GIANT rat on the roof, the husband tells his wife (who is safely inside) to come outside to see the rat that is the size of a cow! Duh!!! By the way, this film would make a wonderful double-feature with "Night of the Lepus"--a 70s film about giant killer bunnies that is nearly the equal to "Food of the Gods" in the stupidity department.

It's hard to criticize a movie like The Food of the Gods. Meaning, it hits every low point: bad acting, cinematography, writing & dialogue, horrible special effects and worst of all, "suspenseful scenes" that literally will make you laugh out loud. Who needs Mystery Science Theater 3000 to make fun of this – just watch it for your own personal amusement.I did. I laughed very hard in spots, from the stilled framed credits to the opening dialogue ("My name is Morgan and I play football. We'd worked our butts off trying' to get it together for the big Sunday game…") to the big COCK fight between our hero and a large COCK. Also, the film pans from close-ups of "giant" rats to an actual sized car to now regular rats attacking a toy car. PRICELESS FX. Don't forget the TIDAL WAVE and wasps. Heck, the only thing (hilariously) convincing were the enlarged worms and even them, not so much.Footballer – American that is…or is it Canadian? – Morgan (Marjoe) is headed to "the country" (or in human terms, an island) to hunt or whatever male bonding he chooses with his two mates. One of them is inadvertently stung to death by giant wasps. Well, they strike and leave, thankfully, giving our heroes enough time to investigate.They take one of MANY very long trips on the ferry back to shore with their friend's body. Stop. Okay, even at only 88 minutes, this movie drags on far too long. And most of the time was spent, incredibly, on the ferryboat. Did they rent it? And did that take half their budget? But, I digress, for very weak reasons, the two remaining buddies travel back to the island (via ferry, AGAIN) to investigate the death and meet up with both the incredibly hilarious "Mrs. Skinner" (Lupino) who speaks of her (unbeknownst to her, late) husband as "Mr. Skinner" (McLiam) and a pair of coworkers, one of which is to (GASP) profit off a white goo pumping from the ground that caused all creatures to grow to huge proportions.(To speak like the villains in the first Scream movie: Horror Movie Rule #156b – Do NOT trust any bubbling white substance coming up from the ground. The Stuff – 'Enuff Said.) The main enemy, is the rats, but there's worms, wasps and chickens to add to the tension. But, let's think about this: who's the real enemy here? Are we being punished for polluting the Earth? Eh, that's their message at any rate.Spend the rest of the movie laughing at their lines, their driving and rats climbing on a miniature house just for kicks. One of the funniest scenes in the "climax" is a rat's trying to get into the room and a character's shutting the door on its head. It almost matched the JAWS spoof, Land Shark, from Saturday Night Live.Even though this movie is only allotted one out of five stars, I will admit, the finale (end credits,) though thoroughly predictable – heck, they mention it throughout, including the opening, was rather creepy. That almost granted it an additional ½ star.I wanted to see this movie again, as I was scared as a child and always had a thing for When Animals Attack movies (SEE: Empire of the Ants and ants!) but this movie is just simply horrible. Maybe a young toddler would be a'runnin', but no adult should be subjected to this: "You know, I used to think about dying a lot. I'd lie there in bed at night in the dark; I guess I've always had a fear of it. I'd used to fantasize the most horrible deaths. You know the most frightening. None of them come close to being eaten by a rat!"