THE FOOD OF THE GODS

THE FOOD OF THE GODS (1976). Director: Bert I. Gordon.

Football player Morgan (Marjoe Gortner) takes some time off with some buddies and travels to an island where they have BIG problems. This white paste-like stuff has come out of the ground near the cabin of Mr. and Mrs. Skinner (John McLiam and Ida Lupino) and for unaccountable reasons they have mixed it with corn meal and fed it to their chickens, with the result that the baby chicks have grown to be as tall as a man and eaten their parents. With the help of entrepreneur Bensington (Ralph Meeker) and his contemptuous scientist-assistant, Lorna (Pamela Franklin), the couple hope to profit off the "food." Unfortunately, the white stuff has also been consumed by wasps and rats, and before long Morgan, the Skinners and other luckless individuals are fighting for their lives against a horde of hungry, giant-sized and extremely aggressive rodents. Meanwhile a young pregnant woman named Rita (Belinda Balaski), travelling with her boyfriend Thomas (Tom Stovall), starts delivering her baby just as the rodents attack. As Morgan and others try to defend themselves and beat off the voracious creatures, Mrs. Simmer prays, "whatever sins I've committed, don't let us get eaten by rats!"

Jon Cypher and Marjoe Gortner vs. rats

Bert I. Gordon, aka "Mr. BIG," directed several fun creature features about out-sized monsters in the fifties. He did a pretty terrible adaptation of H. G. Wells' "The Food of the Gods" in the sixties (Village of the Giants) which focused on giant teenagers, but this picture is very loosely based on the early chapters of Wells' novel which do feature giant chickens, insects, and rats. Typical of a Gordon production is the uneven FX work, with a big rubber rooster that attacks Morgan and a bunch of see-through wasps. The rats, however, are a different story, with the little darlings making excellent performers as they run at, scrabble over, and chew on a miniature cabin that stands in for the real thing. Some of the process work is more than satisfactory.

Ralph Meeker

Say what you will about the film -- which did get some good reviews among the excoriating ones -- it is fast-paced, works up a lot of suspense, and the final scenes with the rats attacking the cabin are undeniably intense and unnerving. Gortner is effective enough as the charismatic hero, and there is good work from Jon Cypher as his PR man, Brian, who quite sensibly doesn't want to accompany Morgan as he goes out hunting for rats. Both Ida Lupino and Ralph Meeker are two old pros who deliver the goods no matter how crazy things get, and Belinda Balaski offers a strong and sensitive portrait of a terrified woman who's afraid her baby will be gobbled up by rats a moment after it's born.

There are some dumb moments in the film, such as when Rita and Thomas leave the relative safety of their camper when a rat jumps up on the roof. On the other hand Gordon's screenplay does try to make these people more dimensional than usual. Some might argue that the best thing about the movie is the excellent, striking poster with the supine woman and the giant rat!

Verdict: Fun, gruesome flick from Mr. BIG. ***.