Food of the Gods (1976)

[Wence]

FOOD OF THE GODS
1976

I am surprised that I have found a movie that is really and to the core pure neckbracking nonsense and nevertheless I don´t like it...

First I was very surprised and happy to see Marjoe Gortner in this flick (he played Akton in "Starcrash"), but after 20-30 minutes this movie starts to suck extremely!

In spite of some very funny scenes this is a boring and partly disgusting film.
Why disgusting? Because of most of the "effects" used in it.
There are giant rats attacking people hiding in a house. The people shoot at the rats.

The effects used are: some idiot is shooting at real rats that hang around a model house. I am not a "Save-the-Animals"-Freak but that was just disgusting and absolutely stupid- the director must be an a***ole!

I think one can stop watching this movie after the only scene that is worth to be seen: the "Cock-Scene". That was really funny.

Akton (or M.Gortner if you want) comes to a small farm to ask for help. He hears some noise in a barn and looks what´s going on there - and gets attacked by a SIX- FEET-COCK!!! After he defends himself successfully with a pitchfork he walks over to the farmhouse and talks with the farmer as if nothing happened!

All in all this movie is not worth watching it.

[Scott]

Wence I really liked FOOD OF THE GODS. Found it totally entertaining. The chicken in the barn, the mosquito, and the rats at the end. Great stuff. Wouldn't mind owning this film.

[Wence]

But you have to admit: that with the rats was even for 1976 too stupid, wasn´t it?

[Scott]

You have to admit that FOOD OF THE GODS is much more fun than WILLIARD'S recent CGI rats.

[Wence]

I haven´t seen WILLIARD but I don´t like CGI effects, too.

[Scott]

Ah, so we can agree? : )

[Mr Hockstatter]

Is that the one where they find some stuff bubbling up out of the ground, and they don't know what it is, so the farm lady starts feeding it to the animals?  

Like, yeah.  If it oozes up out of the ground, one would just naturally assume it must be nutritious.

[Ozzymandias]

Isn't it a Bert I. Gordon film? He milked that Welles story for several films.

[peter johnson]

I remember vividly the Giant Plastic Chicken(Cock) Head attacking Gortner in a barn -- beyond that, it's been too many years ago for me to remember much about it --
So, Wence, you think real animals were really mistreated in the film?  That part I really don't remember.
peter johnson/denny crane

[Yaddo 42]

Wasn't aware of any animal abuse when I saw this on late night TV years ago. Are you sure about that?

Got a few laughs out of the film. The weird transition (and bad dialogue used) from giant animal attacks to the gratuitous love scene was even featured in some TV documentary (I think on AMC) about horror movies as the clip for an example of the decline of horror films until the slahser flicks came along with "Halloween" and the "Friday the 13th" films.

Some directors find a theme or style and stick with it but Bert I. Gordon's giantism fixation seemed to border on a full on psychological obsesssion. Or he just really liked his initials.

[Wence]

Peter Johnson,

I estimate that the makers of this movie killed about 40-50 Rats.

This is even more disgusting when you have the opinion - like me - that this movie was not  even worth the death of a fly...

[Wence]

Yaddo 42,

absolutely sure.

[trekgeezer]

It always appeared to me that someone was shooting the rats with a .22 loaded with rat shot.  It was definitely real.

[DaveMunger]

No one has mentioned the hero being Peter Bonertz (orthodontist with the nose on Bob Newhart), so I'm starting to suspect that it might not have been him after all. The giant rat effects impressed the hell out of me when I saw this. Probably because they follow the chicken and wasp effects. It lulled you into thinking they didn't have the budget for decent bluescreen/rear projection or whatever, then, wham, giant rats. Particularly impressed by the scene where the rat chases the woman down the hallway toward the camera, right up until the part where she slams the door on it's head and it's a killer shrew-like model head. I remember thinking, "if rats were that size, that's just what they'd look like".

[Wence]

I am not sure if one can speak about "wasp effects". Well, theres a plastic or gummi model hanging on the back of one guy. Later you see someone who picks up the same model from the ground (after a wasp was shot)...