If memory serves, there were a number of these "insect" type movies made in the 70's - an attempt at returning, perhaps, to the 50's "creature feature" concept. I like a lot of the 50's stuff. It was usually fun in a campy sort of way, with decent (if outrageous) plots and generally OK acting. I don't remember having watched a lot of the 70's stuff, so decided to give this one a try when I ran across it. I'll stick with the 50's.
Where the earlier movies were what I described above (campy fun) this was anything but. The idea seemed to have promise as the genre goes - with some sort of fire-breathing beetles or cockroaches being released from the bowels of the earth after an earthquake to wreak havoc - but in fact it just didn't work. Unlike those earlier movies from the 50's, this one wasn't fun. The acting was sub-par, the characters were poorly developed and the story didn't flow at all. In the end, it seemed not so much a "creature-feature" as it was a psychological study of obsession - Dr. Parmiter (played by Bradford Dillman) having become obsessed with these creatures to the point at which everyone and everything around him is destroyed by them - as he himself ultimately is. It could also be seen as a warning against playing God - it was, after all, Parmiter who actually bred a new, hybrid creature. The strangest part of this is that it left me wondering whether any of the story about the bugs was actually true. Parmiter was writing a book, apparently. I wondered if the bugs were a sort of imaginary plot device to trace his obsessiveness about the book - a depiction of a sort of writer's block gone totally crazy. That makes every bit as much sense (to me) as bugs that are able to spell out words on walls!
I would give a wee bit of credit to director Jeannot Szwarc for the opening minute or so. Everything began in complete and utter silence (and while there was no action on the screen, the silence - no opening musical score; nothing - did create an eerie and suspenseful feel.) The very opening scenes were also a bit ironic - a "fire-breathing" preacher speaking about the moral destruction of America, with fire-breathing bugs soon to follow to give physical form to his prophecy. Still - the bugs should have burned this! It's not good.
Where the earlier movies were what I described above (campy fun) this was anything but. The idea seemed to have promise as the genre goes - with some sort of fire-breathing beetles or cockroaches being released from the bowels of the earth after an earthquake to wreak havoc - but in fact it just didn't work. Unlike those earlier movies from the 50's, this one wasn't fun. The acting was sub-par, the characters were poorly developed and the story didn't flow at all. In the end, it seemed not so much a "creature-feature" as it was a psychological study of obsession - Dr. Parmiter (played by Bradford Dillman) having become obsessed with these creatures to the point at which everyone and everything around him is destroyed by them - as he himself ultimately is. It could also be seen as a warning against playing God - it was, after all, Parmiter who actually bred a new, hybrid creature. The strangest part of this is that it left me wondering whether any of the story about the bugs was actually true. Parmiter was writing a book, apparently. I wondered if the bugs were a sort of imaginary plot device to trace his obsessiveness about the book - a depiction of a sort of writer's block gone totally crazy. That makes every bit as much sense (to me) as bugs that are able to spell out words on walls!
I would give a wee bit of credit to director Jeannot Szwarc for the opening minute or so. Everything began in complete and utter silence (and while there was no action on the screen, the silence - no opening musical score; nothing - did create an eerie and suspenseful feel.) The very opening scenes were also a bit ironic - a "fire-breathing" preacher speaking about the moral destruction of America, with fire-breathing bugs soon to follow to give physical form to his prophecy. Still - the bugs should have burned this! It's not good.