There are two types of bad films: bad films that are fun and somehow end up being good, and bad films that are no fun and only manage to be crap. Given the plot line, this bad film really should have belonged to the former group; but somehow it doesn't manage it and ends up being a part of the latter. Quite how a film about ravenous, over-sized animals could be so boring escapes me, but somehow director Bert I. Gordon has managed to make it so. The film is based on a story by the great H.G. Wells, and while I haven't read it, I think it's safe to say that The Food of the Gods is a lot better on paper than it is on screen! The plot focuses on a group of friends who go hunting on a Canadian island. It's not long before they are attacked by a group of wasps, but they're not just any wasps - they're giant aggressive wasps! One of their number is killed by the wasps, so the friends go looking for help, when they come upon a barn inhabited by giant chickens! It's not long before they put two and two together and realise that something funny is going on - shortly before they meet the most dangerous creature on the island, the rats...
Giant animal films don't tend to be high quality, and this one does nothing to buck that trend. Most of the action is unexciting, and when you've got people battling giant animals - that really shouldn't be the case! The special effects are decent in places, the rat attack looks decent enough considering that this is a very low quality film, but some of the effects look terrible and the gore isn't any good either. The plot is fairly basic and there isn't much explanation for anything, which is a shame as the story basically just lays out it's stall (a load of white goo trickling down the side of the mountain) and lets the giant creatures take it from there; but the giants aren't enough to keep things entertaining, and the film fails for that reason. It becomes hard to care about anything shortly after the film starts, and that doesn't get any better as it moves on. Probably quite unsurprisingly, I wasn't impressed at all with The Food of the Gods, and that's a shame as this could have been quite decent if it had been handled better. I can't really recommend wasting time with this film - shiny new DVD release or not!
Giant animal films don't tend to be high quality, and this one does nothing to buck that trend. Most of the action is unexciting, and when you've got people battling giant animals - that really shouldn't be the case! The special effects are decent in places, the rat attack looks decent enough considering that this is a very low quality film, but some of the effects look terrible and the gore isn't any good either. The plot is fairly basic and there isn't much explanation for anything, which is a shame as the story basically just lays out it's stall (a load of white goo trickling down the side of the mountain) and lets the giant creatures take it from there; but the giants aren't enough to keep things entertaining, and the film fails for that reason. It becomes hard to care about anything shortly after the film starts, and that doesn't get any better as it moves on. Probably quite unsurprisingly, I wasn't impressed at all with The Food of the Gods, and that's a shame as this could have been quite decent if it had been handled better. I can't really recommend wasting time with this film - shiny new DVD release or not!