Genetically engineered flesh eating bugs . . . hmmmm what could go wrong?
When I see films like this I always think that maybe we should pay a little more attention to the truly spiritual tree huggers of the world. I mean seriously, at some point if you believe that there is a God, he/she is going to get really pissed off that we keep messing with his/her creations and is going to let us get ourselves into a heapload of trouble. Not that the SciFi original movie,
Locusts: The 8th Plague really had a serious religious undertone to it (unless of course you count the crazy religious zealot screaming outside of the USDA building in a couple of scenes) but, it could have and it would have worked.
All in all it wasn't a horrible film.
The fact that it isn't even listed on the Internet Movie Database was troubling to me at first, but I was kind of pleasantly surprised. Colt (
Dan Cortese) is an entomologist turned organic pesticide manufacturer/sprayer who happens to be engaged to Vickie Snow (
Julie Benz) who is a big wig at the USDA. This is important later in the story to explain why an entomologist turned organic pesticide manufacturer/sprayer would be given so much say in the fate of a swarm of meat eating locusts.
The swarm of meat eating locusts themselves were created by Vickie's father's company, which is headed by a ruthless, money hungry jerk (
David Keith), as an alternative to using pesticides. It seems that they had eradicated the problem of the locusts eating the crops by genetically engineering them to eat only meat. Which is fine, in an enclosed testing environment at the laboratory. However, when the swarm of locusts escape through a malfunctioning door, we learn that to the locusts meat is meat whether bug or human.
And so begins the frantic race to stop these bad-ass bugs whose only mission in life is to eat. With the help of the National Guard, some nasty pesticides, fire and ultimately explosives we are left thinking that the nightmare is over. But is it?
I thought it interesting that in some scenes the locusts would just smash themselves into windshields and vehicles and die, while other times they were actually able to smash right through windshields and eat their helpless occupants. It all seemed to revolve around if the scene required that character to die or not. So much for consistency.
Like I said earlier, all in all not a horrible film but I wouldn't go out of my way to watch it.
Locusts: The 8th Plague Movie Cast and Credits
Directed by:
Ian Gilmour
Written by:
D.R. Rosen
Starring:
Dan Cortese
Julie Benz
David Keith
Jeff Fahey
More Reviews of Locusts: The 8th Plague
Info on Locusts: The 8th PlagueOfficial SciFi Network Home Page for Locusts: The 8th Plague
