Title: Frogs
Format: DVD and VHS
Year: a rereleased film, originally from 1972
Genre: horror
Kisco's Review of this movie:
This is one of those cheesy horror movies that Elvira would host on her old TV show, Movie Macabre! Its not going to win any awards for special effects, that's for sure, but the message of this movie is its salvation.
The film begins with actor Sam Elliot in a small rowboat, taking pictures of filth and pollution in the swamps and marshes of the Florida Everglades. Between the music and style of photography, you immediately know this was shot in the 1970's. All that's missing from this opening scene is Cheif Iron Eyes Cody standing on the shore with a tear rolling down his face. So just for its anti-pollution message, I immediately liked the film.
Now keep in mind that the movie title is "Frogs", however, you quickly discover there are no frogs in this film, except for one bullfrog towards the end. Instead, the movie was made with TOADS! Lots and lots of toads star in this film! Some look like fellow Bufo Americanus, but the rest appear to be Bufo Marinus and Bufo Paracnemis....... Cane toads and Rococos! One would think they (Canes and Rococos) would be easily available and easy to work with, (of course) and because of there size, they get the effect accross more effectively than small toads would. They could have used large bullfrogs but one would imagine how hard they'd be to work with. After all, they require much more water, can leap much farther in one hop (making the crew go nuts trying to keep them in one place) and they are slippery and slimy. Toads were a natural choice for obvious reasons, however, they used a sound bite of a bullfrog everytime they showed one of us Bufos on camera. I was very put off by that, but what can you do? In fact, I beleive the sound of many frogs that is heard in the film over and over again is actually the Pacific Treefrog, (psuedacris regilla). Compare with the soundfile found on this page: http://www.enature.com/fieldguide/showSpeciesRecNum.asp?recnum=AR0018.
Anyway, the film revolves around a big mansion where a family is gathering for their yearly celebration around the 4th of July. The audience is led to beleive that this household is at least partially responsible for the pollution in the area and we know its definitely responsible for spraying poisons and pesticides that have killed many animals in the area. The toads are the brains in this movie. The viewer is let in on the fact that the Bufos run the show, directing the other animals as to what to do. One by one, most of the people in this movie get killed by animals. For this reason, this is not a good film to show to little children. Though the "dead" people are made up with fairly cheesy looking make-up, it is still disturbing for younger viewers.
There are many close ups of toads. We even see a scene where what appears to be a Rococo is attempting to get inside the house through a glass door. While the audience was intended to look on in horror, my humans kept saying, "AWWWW! They're so cute!" and my human Daddy said that if all those toads were trying to break into our house, we'd open the door for them and (in a stereotypical Southern accent), he said he would tell them, "Come on in, Boys! I got a great big water bowl for ya"!
Overall, the film is more silly than scary. The actors are acting in that typical 1970's movie style of acting which is sort of fake. I think it was nice that the filmmakers wanted to explore the notion of nature striking back for human inconsideration and human attrocities against nature, but the problem is, its mostly lost by the fact that the film is so cheesy. Regardless of that, let's face it, how many films exist that feature so many Bufo stars? Its not often that Hollywood employs so many Bufos at once (though we can assume most of them did not have a union card). For that reason alone, I'd say it was a great film! The toads they show close ups on are very good looking, which doesn't hurt for the benifit of the female Bufos in the audience. So my final word is, blow the $5.50 at Walmart or nab a used copy on Ebay or Amazon, and check it out
Kisco's Official Rating: TWO FLIPPERS UP!
Here's a link to a place that sells it cheap:
http://excaliburfilms.com/GeneralDVD/gr100530D1-f.htm
