The Devil Bat (1940)

Bela Lugosi plays a pissed-off, bitter doctor who concocts an aftershave that makes his giant pet bats go crazy and attack whoever is wearing it.

The film gets rather repetitive with the same thing happening over and over again. Lucky for us the films running time clocks in just over an hour at 68 minutes. Keeping it short and sweet and to the stupid point seems to be the best option here. If the film ran any longer it would be bound to put people to sleep.

As far as the entertainment goes, Ya have Bela Lugosi in big goofy goggles playing with his potions and bats, you get two dim witted reporters who are trying to figure the whole thing out and a bunch of cheesy scenes in which victims are attacked by the giant fake looking bat. Not only does the bat look fake but it squeals like a hawk before it attacks. This all happens while the bad actors try their hardest to look believable. Lugosi's accent is as thick as ever in this one and most of the time its pretty hard to understand him but this is nothing new to fans of the cult icon.

The Devil Bat is only worth looking at for lovers of truly bad cinema and Lugosi fanatics. All others would probably be better off skipping it all together.

The Swarm (1978)

I always thought these killer bug, nature gone wrong films were supposed to be fun. Not quite the case with Irwin (The Poseidon Adventure) Allen's The Swarm. Yet again Irwin Allen tries to make a giant epic production and it really hurts the film.

Like The Towering Inferno and other Irwin Allen movies The Swarm is entirely to long. It clocks in around two and a half hours and that is just way to long for a movie about killer bugs. Most of the runtime is eaten up by boring chit chat and by the time we get around to more deadly bee stings we are fighting to keep our eyes open.

Michael Caine plays a scientist who is supposed to save the world against The Swarm of African Killer Bees. The bees have mutated into a very deadly force. Only one or two stings can kill a grown man. The seemingly endless experiment scenes seem to go on forever as we witness failure after failure. Henry Fonda plays a wheel-chairing cripple doctor who works along slide Michael Caine and cult status Cameron Mitchell (Toolbox Murders, Blood And Black Lace, It Came Without Warning) shows up for more useless dialogue.

Some of the high notes of the film include dead children, a mother and father are killed at a family picnic and the preteen son takes off in the family station wagon, we get a giant reappearing monster sized bee, flamethrower action, a derailed train full of teachers, cops and townsfolk and of course swarms of bees covering helpless victims.

If the Swarm was cut down to 90 minutes or less it probably would have held out okay as another bugs destroy man movie but due to its over ambition it falls into the category of seen it once and once is enough genre. Even the climax is a big let down. I wont give away the ending but it sure to disappoint anyone who digs these 70's nature gone wrong flicks.

Only worth looking at if you have two and a half hours to waste and if that is the case there are plenty of other movies you could choose before this one.

Squirm (1976)

Squirm has everything in the world going for it. First off its a 70's movie. Secondly its a Jeff Lieberman movie. Plus it is a nature gone wrong flick and worms go ape-shit crazy and eat people. What more could you ask for?

Squirm is good gory camp at its finest. Some would put the film down due to its low budget. Others because of its bad acting and most would probably deem it stupid and the film is all of the above and that's why we love it, right? Squirm is the first full length feature film from Jeff Lieberman (Blue Sunshine, Just Before Dawn) and for those familiar with Lieberman's early work it offers all of the goods and doesn't hold many punches.

A small town is hit by a devastating storm which leaves the hillbilly towns folk without electricity. Little do they know that instead of being sent to their homes the electricity is running straight through the damp ground from a power line which was knocked down in the storm and thanks to Willie who owns a worm farm we learn that electric brings worms to the earths surface. Up from the soil millions of worms will emerge to make humans their meal. Awesome!

In one of the most memorable and ridiculous moments Roger a pervy dim witted hick has his face half eaten by worms. Instead of fighting for his face he attacks a man who he is jealous of and he delivers the brilliant line "Now your gonna have the worm face". Try to sit through this scene without laughing and you might self implode. Roger continues his wrath of vengeance up until his dying breath all the while being eaten alive by worms. Some of the other squirmy treats involve a man who has his guts eaten by the slimy creatures, a dead cop, a dead waitress, a dead mother, disappearing skeletons and a two story house which is filled to the brim with worms.

Unfortunately the cast members are all pretty ugly including the leading lady who takes a bath with some of the critters but the sister character really takes the cake. She is supposed to be some kind of a dope smoking, hippie wanna-be when it is obvious that she is nothing more then some dumb redneck and I wouldn't be surprised if she was a product of incest. The amazingly ugly cast just heightens the viewing pleasure of Squirm. If the worms don't make you Squirm maybe the females will.

Most Squirm fans would probably agree that Squirm would go great as a double bill  with the 1980's splatterific classic Slugs and it certainly would but the film would also go great with William Girdler's nature gone wrong flick Grizzly which was released the same year.

There is something about the films of Jeff Lieberman that always remind me of William Girdler. I was never able to exactly place my finger on it but there is something about the pace and mood that flows through both of the directors films which forces me to link the two together. Both directors have never really gained the deserved recognition and are remembered by most as b-movie directors who make wacky cult films. Maybe I am just crazy but for me there is some kind of genius to these films.

Get some friends together and run this one with Grizzly or Slugs if you have no imagination. Or better yet do a triple feature. Now that is a night worth remembering.

Cyclone (1978)

I picked this one up, thinking it was going to be a Mexican Jaws ripoff. I was surprised to learn that its more of a natural disaster type film then an all out shark attack flick. I was even more surprised at how well it was executed.

When a tornado strikes an airplain full of passengers comes crashing down into the ocean. The survivors are left stranded in the middle of the sea. They are pulled onto a boat filled with more stranded victims of the storm. Naturally the boat runs out of gas and it is a race against time. Will they starve to death? Will the injured bleed to death? Will they be eaten by sharks? Or will they be rescued? Cyclone plays like an exhausting drama. The men, women and children aboard the boat are dieing of starvation and dehydration. They are forced to do things that go against their moral and religious standards in order to survive.

The victims slowly start to turn against each other and they seem to be hanging on to life by a thread. One scene in particular stirred up some controversy when one of the men on the boat slits a dogs throat out of survival instinct. If they eat dog in Thailand, why not in Mexico? Apparently some were outraged by this scene and while it was done very realistically the blood looks more like that 70's Dawn Of The Dead blood then anything real. Either way it makes for a very memorable scene and for me personally it makes the film well worth owning. Aside from the doggy meal we are treated to a bit of cannibalism and eventually the shark attack massacre.

Cyclone was directed by Rene Cardona Jr. who's father was responsible for such delights as Night Of The Bloody Apes and various Santo & friends Lucha Libre films. Cardona Jr. would go on to do more Nature Gone Wrong films such as Beaks and Tintorera : Killer Shark which I hear plays more like a true Jaws ripoff. None the less Cardona Jr. makes a realistic and believable drama. He combines natural disaster stock footage with nicely executed staged storms. We see land slides, violent tidal waves, electrical storms and some really nice under water photography. Still Cyclone is not without flaw. The film tends to run a little bit to long. In its uncut form it clocks in at 118 minutes but thanks to the decent budget and the believable actors (Hugo Stiglitz) the running time is not unbearable.

Cyclone is one of the more entertaining natural disaster films. It has a hint of exploitation to it and is far superior to something like Open Water.

Killer Crocodile (1989)

I found this movie sitting on the shelf at my local video store. The cover of the DVD was Japanese poster art and when I flipped the thing over the back of the disk was just a giant review describing how awful the movie is. I read more and learned that Killer Crocodile was not in fact a Japanese movie but an Italian ripoff of Jaws. Naturally I had to see this for myself.

All I know is that who ever wrote that review on the back of that DVD was a total asshole because Killer Crocodile is good gory Italian exploitation at its best.

Yes it is a Jaws ripoff and it has got to be one of the latest ripoffs to come after the wake of Jaws. The Italians have a way of milking every genre for everything it is worth and of course due to the lack of budget they substitute big actors and things of that nature with shit-loads of gore and anything else they can throw in out of sheer bad taste.

When a group of animals rights activists venture out to the murky swamps of some tropical island they learn that the waters are contaminated with toxic chemical waste. Its not long before they learn that the water is also being ruled by the biggest fucking crocodile in cinematic history (I think) and oh how soon these nature loving yuppies shift gears and become cold blooded animal hunters. Killer Crocodile is nature gone wrong at its finest. The Killer Croc rips the limbs from its victims and leaves a gory mess where ever it goes. It attacks men, women, children and even annoying little poodles. This thing also comes complete with a very strange cast and an even weirder wardrobe. The character of the judge likes to yell at people while wearing his fruity little neckerchief. He also comes complete in white wife-beater and white pants. However the best character in the movie is Joe. Joe is of course the Quint character from Jaws reincarnated but Joe is way fucking cooler. He even surfs on the back of the crocodile and stabs the shit out of it while on its back. This scene really has to be seen to be believed. The only thing crazier then Joe's new surfboard is the climax of the movie. You need to see this for yourself and then maybe you can tell me why our Killer Crocodile explodes.

Fans of this movie should be sure to check out Enzo G. Castellari's Last Shark. That one is just as ridiculously fun.

Day Of The Animals (1977)

The great William Girdler would follow his highly successful nature gone wrong film Grizzly with another animals run amok flick called Day Of The Animals. Also known as Something Is Out There, Day Of The Animals is way inferior to Grizzly but still holds that campy William (Three On A Meathook) Girdler charm.

Day Of The Animals is often mistaken as a sequel to Grizzly but this of course is false. It was just an attempt for the director to try to cash in on his own success. To further confuse people Christopher George is again casted as the lead but this time he is leading a group of city-folk assholes on a nature hike through the mountains. Amongst the hikers is Lynda Day George who I remember best for another role she played besides Christopher George in a trashy little Spanish slasher called Pieces, where she would scream "Bastarrrrds" over and over and over again.

Andrew Stevens (Massacre At Central High) gets killed with a sharp stick through the guts and to make things even better  Leslie Nielsen plays a psychopathic scum bag on a power trip but we will get back to him later.

I have to laugh that people went to go see this thing, thinking it was a sequel to Grizzly. It is as far from a sequel as possible. This thing plays more like a remake of Frogs then another giant killer bear flick. Sure there is killer bears in the movie but that's because all of the animals have gone bats in this one. We have ridiculous scenes with rats being thrown at the faces of the actors. Snakes on fishing lines and many other very unbelievable animals attack scenes including a mountain cat that looks like it wants to cuddle rather then eat the actors on screen. Still this is all fun and those familiar with William Girdlers so-bad-its-good brand of art (Asylum Of Satan) shouldn't be disappointed.

Day Of The Animals is the classic tale of mother nature striking back against its biggest and most dangerous enemy, humanity. Despite constant warnings on the news that the animals have been acting kooky due to a damaged ozone, the city slicker yuppies venture up into the mountains where they will be terrorized by wolfs, dogs, bears, cats and birds. Remember in Frogs how the Frogs sort of seemed to be the ring leader? Well that's also going on here but instead of frogs it seems that the Hawks are sort of controlling it all from above.

Its possible that the poisonous ozone is not only affecting the animals because Leslie Nielsen's character although a total ass-hat from the start goes completely bonkers when he decides that there is no god above and that he will lead the group. I guess to Leslie Nielsen being in charge means running around with no shirt, screaming at people, beating up on old women and repeatedly calling her an old "Beverly Hills Bitch", smacking little "Cockroach" kids around, killing anyone who stands in his way and of course "Taking what he wants, when he wants" This of course meaning it is cool for him to rape the girls. Yep this one is before Nielsen would become the funny-man from Airplane and he does get a bit rape-happy in this one. For me all of the scenes with Leslie Nielsen are the most entertaining and gives Day Of The Animals a lot of its replay value. Nielsen's character of course meets a very nasty death. He is killed by a giant bear and hugged to death.

Warning : the video transfers of Day Of The Animals have all been pretty rough to my knowledge. Shriek Show put out two different versions of the movie on one disc. They offer up the theatrical print Something Is Out There which is very choppy, grainy and full of snap, crackles and pops. They also offer up the television transfer of Day Of The Animals which is by no means very good looking but still far clearer then the retro theatrical print. So if you can bare through the blurry images on the screen, some very bad acting and some what of a slow pace, you might find something that you like about this one but most would probably hate it. Probably only worth watching for William Girdler fans and anyone who just can't get enough of Nature Gone Wrong flicks.

The Nest (1988)

I usually love all of these silly nature gone wrong and animals attack flicks but The Nest really is nothing more then a big let down. Its the generic tale of secret government testing gone wrong but this time we are left with mutating cockroaches.

How you can fuck up a movie about flesh eating cockroaches, I'm really not sure but some how they managed well enough on this one.

A small town named North Port gets more then they bargained for when they are over run by killer roaches. The little critters sneak up on dogs, cats and humans alike and rip the flesh from the bone leaving a bloody mess where ever they go. I have to admit the gore effects are pretty good but in my opinion the film relies to much on special effects and not enough on character development or even a coherent plot which is the major downfall of the final product. Being somewhat of a gore-hound myself I enjoy the scenes of eyeballs being eaten from the victims skulls but then the movie goes into this cheesy 80's realm and destroys itself with shitty humanoid cockroach mutations and transformations.

I think I would just rather watch the Creepshow segment with the killer cockroaches. That one is good clean gory fun and holds back on mutant cat-roaches. We have way to much of this stupid shit. One scene in particular really annoyed me when a man sheds his skin to reveal that he is a giant cockroach that walks up right.

The towns people might be a bit confused because it is not The Blob that is terrorizing them but they still reach for the nearest fire extinguisher and get a bit trigger happy. I guess fire extinguishers is the weapon of choice against any form of monstrous invasion because yet again it seems to do the trick.

The Nest also comes in tact with a boring love story for a sub plot but for me the best scene shows a man playing in a dumpster as a waitress yells to him "Stop playing with the garbage". This dirty fucker meets his fate by the jaws of the killer bugs and is left dead and rotting amongst his beloved trash.

Trash is what we have here and not in a good way either. Stick with the countless other animals gone wrong flicks. This one would only really appeal to those who love dumb 80's movies where gore is king and story telling is secondary.

White Dog (1982)

White Dog tells the gritty tale of a white German Shepard that is trained to attack and kill. However this is not your average attack dog. This is a "White Dog" meaning that it was bread by white racists to attack and kill black people.

While most directors would have taken this movie in one of two directions. Either the straight up exploitation rout or the sappy Hollywood moralist direction. The great Sam Fuller opts to make a art-house type horror film with a serious social commentary. The White Dog of course being a metaphor for the problems of racism in America and how easy it is to corrupt an innocent mind. The outcome is extremely dangerous. Not only is this dog dangerous but the subject matter is equally dangerous for any director to touch upon in 1982 and Fuller definitely paid the price.

The director fell victim to rabid critics who just didn't understand the film. Anyone familiar with Sam Fuller's work (The Naked Kiss, Shock Corridor) would blatantly see that racism and its affects on society is a theme that constantly comes back in the writer/directors films and this one is as touching as any other.

The horror on the other hand also works very well. When a struggling actress named Julie accidentally hits the dog with her car she does the humane thing and rushes the wounded animal to the hospital. She takes the dog home and falls in love with it. The first scene of violence shows the dog protecting its new owner against a rapist but its not long before innocent people start dying. Innocent black people that is. When Julie learns what is happening she takes her new pet to some professional animal trainers who have already dealt with a White Dog. The plan is to correct the dogs behaviour by mental reconditioning. The dog escapes and the murders continue but out of love for her dog Julie does not turn him in to the authorities.

White Dog artistically mixes horror and drama together. It finishes on a bit of a down note and comes complete with somewhat of a twist ending. There is also a delightful bit of gory mayhem that takes place in a church that needs to be seen to be believed. Check it out for a great Sam Fuller experience with racist animals, blood and a ending that would make Bambi viewers stop crying and shit their pants instead.

Grizzly (1976)

The most successful of all William Girdler films and it is understandable. Personally being a huge Girdler fan and a lover of his work that some consider unwatchable such as 3 On A Meathook and Asylum Of Satan, Grizzly is by far his most polished film and really goes to prove what the director was capable of.

Grizzly is just awesome from start to finish. With scenes of great brutality and bloodshed.

Christopher George (Pieces, The Exterminator, City Of The Living Dead) plays Kelly. Yep that's right his name is Kelly but he ain't no bitch. Kelly is a park ranger with a serious problem on his hands. When two pretty young girls turn up ripped to shreds he believes it to be a 15 foot Grizzly Bear which is not native to the woods that he is in control of. Kelly rounds up his men and take to the forest in search of the killer bear but he is always a step behind.

The bodies keep piling up and the Grizzly leaves a trail of body parts in his wake. Arms are severed, Heads are sent rolling, a woman is smashed into trees and left a mangled corpse, a bathing beauty meets her fate by the claws of the bear, a man is attacked from on top of a watch tower, another meets his fate by a killer bare hug and in the best and most controversial scene a little boy has his leg torn off at the knee, leaving a bloody stump for us to gawk at.  These are just some of the highlights that Grizzly has to offer but there is even more bloodletting that I haven't mentioned. The film also offers up explosions, helicopters and a real life giant Grizzly Bear which is unheard of for a Girdler film. In the films climax Kelly meets with the bear face to face and the battle has to be seen to be believed.

In the following year William Girdler will direct another nature gone wrong flick called Day Of The Animals also known as Something Is Out There but it just doesn't compare to the epic blood-bath that is Grizzly. Still true Girdler fans can't pass it up!

Grizzly caught a lot of flack from reviewers and critics upon its release. Most called it a Jaws ripoff. Some were witty enough to coin it as "Jaws With Claws" but this is of course a bit ridiculous. Yes there are similarities between the two films but did anybody accuse Steven Spielberg of ripping off Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds? Or Frogs or any of the other countless killer animals movies that came first. Of course not. Ripoff or not, I will take Grizzly any day over Jaws. Its the slasher flick of all killer animals movies and the only reason critics were so harsh on it is because the it came out right after the release of the giant budgeted Jaws.

Food Of The Gods Part 2 (1989)

This 1989 follow up to the 70's animals gone bad cult classic shows giant killer rats one more time. The giant rodents and the title is really the only way you can connect the two films because they are as different in plot as possible.

When a young boy is the subject of a hormonal growth experiment, his attitude changes along with his size. The once sweet little boy now says things like "Fuck you, Bitch! Get out of my fucking room" Naturally scientist need to find an antidote and use lab rats to continue their experiments. Well this is a Nature Gone Wrong flick and before you can whistle three blind mice these giant rats are running amok on a college campus. Surprisingly enough this late 80's flick was shot on 35mm and some of the special effects are a bit gruesome. The killer rats first attack an animal rights activist group in a scene that reminded me very much of the opening of 28 Days Later. The leader of the activist group has his eyeballs gnawed out.

Limbs are chewed off, backs are ripped out and heads are severed. We even get a completely out of place melt down in a scene that seems like it belongs more in something like Street Trash rather then A Food Of The Gods movie. Despite the bloodletting that I just mentioned Food Of The Gods Part 2 follows the style of many other B grade horror flicks from this era where we see more of the gory aftermath rather then the victims actually being torn apart. The movie is very unbalanced in this way. Some of the murder is on screen but in my humble opinion way to much of it is off screen. There is also a bit to much of a silly tongue in cheek tone that flows throughout the sequel. Where as the 70's original did its best to play it straight and of course no matter how ludicrous the subject matter, playing it as serious as possible is always the way to go.

Another problem I had with the sequel is the fact that the rodent slaughter at the end is nowhere near as graphic, disturbing or believable. I can assure that no rats were harmed during the filming of this one. We get a bunch of wire tricks whenever a giant rat is shot and well, it just doesn't look real. On the upper hand Food Of The Gods 2 does offer up some bare breasted action, foul mouthed children and a bare assed man running down a public street. The rats chase after him and take chunks out of the mans ass. Boom mic's are visible throughout the film as well and we also get an exterminator who is putting on his best Clint Eastwood impression.

Still I recommend sticking with the original. 70's is king and this late 80's flick just doesn't compete.

The Last Shark (1981)

This Italian Jaws ripoff typically goes under a million different titles. Here are some of the alternate English titles The Last Jaws, Great White, Jaws Returns, Shark (Not to be confused with the Sam Fuller film of the same title). My reason for giving the alternate titles is to make it easier for you to dig up this movie. Its a must see.

Directed by Enzo G. Castellari (Keoma, The Inglorious Bastards) and staring James Franciscus (The Cat O' Nine Tails, Killer Fish) and Vic Morrow (Black Board Jungle, Twilight Zone : The Movie).

What we get is a over the top Italian take on Jaws. There for in my opinion its better then the original and way better then all the shitty sequels. Personally not being the biggest fan of Spielberg's film in the first place due to the fact that its mostly drama and lacks in gore and general shark-fu, I have shyed away from the Italian ripoffs for far to long. Big mistake!

First off we get a way bigger shark. This thing is fucking huge! Secondly these Italian sharks blast people from the water in what looks like giant explosions. Naturally the actors turn to dummy's when they are launched twenty feet into the air but when they come crashing down to the water they are mauled and usually partially eaten by the most hungry shark in cinematic history.

The best part is that this shark doesn't even seem to want to just feed itself. It seems to have a grudge against people and does its best to terrorize, and mangle anyone who gets to close to the water. In one of the best moments the shark bites a mans legs off who is hanging from a helicopter and then brings the chopper down into the water with it.

Castellari uses the perfect mix of stock footage (which surprisingly worked very well) with his own brand of special effects.

I think Joe Bob Briggs said it best when he said "Spielberg makes movies for mom not dad" I couldn't agree more and I'm sure Briggs would agree that Castellari makes bad-ass movies for pop and not mom.

Check this thing out to see Vic Morrow survive one more helicopter crash and go to war with the biggest, baddest shark of em all. The Last Shark has some truly funny moments that will have you scratching your head and wondering if your eyes are playing tricks on you. Then in the next moment offers up dismemberment and gore galore.

Black Sheep (2006)

Take Hitchcock's The Birds and mix it with Peter Jackson's Dead Alive and what you get is one hell of a campy nature gone wrong flick. I first saw Black Sheep in a theater on a double bill with Jaws which I conveniently missed... Yeah I know... What kinda horror-lovin, weirdo doesn't like Jaws? Black Sheep on the other hand I loved.

I felt it was a perfect mix of horror and comedy which film makers just really can't get right these days. Remember the good old days when you would watch a horror movie with lots of comedic elements in it and you didn't get angry or embraced by watching it? Movies like Return Of The Living Dead, Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2, American Werewolf In London and Dead Alive? Well writer director Johnathan King must have done his homework and his own share of watching these types of films because he hit the nail right on the head. The audience laughed the whole way through and us gore hounds got our rocks off at the same time with tons of blood and crazy practical effects. In fact there is hardly any CGI in the movie at all and that is a huge plus for a fan of classic cinema like myself. I personally only noticed two scenes with computer graphics and all the other effects were great.

I love most nature gone wrong, animal mayhem films but sheep really have to be one of the most harmless looking animals in the world aside from (Killer) Shrews but these woolly buggers pack a nasty bite and we are treated to intestine-spilling, chopped off arms (complete with spewing blood and a blueberry pie looking substance gushing), Leg dismemberment, a mutant sheep fetus with a taste for human flesh, ears are ripped off, a penis is ripped off, gut munching, teeth are ripped out. We also get to see burning sheep, exploding sheep, and there is even were-sheep... Yep you have heard of werewolves but now you get to see were-sheep and in one of the best scenes we get a homage to American Werewolf In London and a great were-sheep transformation. However my personal favorite aspect of this movie is the constant hippie jokes. I have never been a big fan of hippies. I find them to be annoying with all of their useless views on animal rights and saving trees and meditation and Karma and all the things in life that I couldn't give a shit about. Well in Black Sheep it's two hippie activist's who are to blame for the whole murderous sheep epidemic and the writer takes jabs at these people constantly. So if you are a hippie hating prick like myself this one might especially appeal to you.

What ever you do, don't try to take this movie seriously. Get a bunch of friends together, get rip-roaring drunk and sit back and enjoy the blood soaked, sheep massacre, laugh-riot that it is.