Skip to main content

Frogs (1972) - George McCowan



I had always viewed this as a lame, gimmicky flick with corny tendencies. I remember watching this movie a lot on cable at my grandparents house. Hosted by Joe Bob Briggs on Monstervision or Gilbert and Rhonda on USA Up All Night. It always intrigued me but I wrote it off until now. Needless to say, I wasn't incredibly impressed.


Mother Nature starts getting her revenge on Old Man Crockett. A crotchety and angry guy with a knack for polluting the river he lives on. Sam Elliott shows up without his mustache as a photographer snooping for scoops on the island. It turns out Crockett had been poisoning his land for years killing all of the wildlife and critters. This is obviously leading to the wildlife having enough and fighting back. A social commentary, sure. But that's too obvious. It's more a hype film for the human race prevailing over that bitch Nature. 

This is undeniably low-budget and it fulfills it's job in setting the scene. It works as a cohesive horror movie but unfortunately doesn't have the budget to keep it exciting or make it even more memorable. A movie like this would never be attempted in a climate like ours today. It's too controversial. What a shame. 

I don't know why I had put this off. Maybe it escaped my memory. However, up on this viewing this movie was pretty decent. It's memorable. The gore in this movie is pretty graphic considering it had a PG rating. It was a different time then. You get a lot of scenes of animals being shot into a crimson mist but nothing too outlandish or hard-to-watch. PETA might have an issue with it. As I said before, this is a tame horror movie but it's still pretty graphic.

Frogs is definitely the type of movies that is scarier when your younger. I didn't find it frightening in the least bit. That doesn't necessarily disqualify it from being slightly entertaining. It's great for acting as THAT one movie that everyone kinda remembers. Just don't be THAT guy that babbles on and on about it. Don't be THAT guy. And clean up after yourselves for godsakes. 



Director: George McCowan
Starring: Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan Van Ark, and Adam Roarke
Style: Animal Horror Mysteries
Country: USA
Studio: AIP

Did ya know...


The mansion used for the Crockett family home is known as the Wesley House and is located in Point Washington, Florida.
This was the first of many "eco-horror" films of the '70s, inspired by the surprise box office success of 1971's Willard (1971).

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Ju-On (2000) - Takashi Shimizu

Watching Japanese horror is similar to watching British comedy. If you enjoy dry whit then you probably enjoy the boys of Monty Python in drag. That's the joke, they're dressed like women. Get it? Well, that's British humor. But if you're like most Americans you probably prefer Adam Sandler farting his way across a football field and hooking up with chicks that are way out of his league. Americans usually prefer this more in your face, crass brand of humor. My point is funny in England is different from funny in the US. The same goes for J-Horror. What the Japanese consider scary is very different from what Americans consider scary and it shows in this horror film. Japanese horror is generally slow (a little too slow sometimes), suspenseful and creepy. Ju-On is a creepy effing film. The movie has almost no soundtrack. It is incredibly suspenseful and the pay-offs are pretty awesome, but I think that it was done better in the American version (cultural t...

Sleepy Hollow (1999) - Tim Burton

Tim Burton's take on the old Sleepy Hollow tale is really interesting. He adds his own flair of course. He delves very deeply into the original story by Washington Irving. The casting is usual for Burton. Johnny Depp of course in your lead. Helena Bonham Carter, thrown in for some flavor. The score is done by Danny Elfman. It's literally just the Ichabod Crane story run through the Tim Burton machine. But in a good way. Sleepy Hollow has a problem with a guy, running around, taking people's heads. Like, a lot of people. The town sends word for assistance and the nervous  Constable Ichabod Crane reports. He starts to unravel clues that take him down an incredibly strange path. With the Horseman still murdering patrons, Crane tries finding who's next before they lose their head.  I've always been a big fan of the Disney cartoon,  The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad . This movie is a far cry from Bing Crosby and quaint animations....

Le Manoir du Diable (1896) - George Melies

According to Wikipedia in August of 2011, Le Manoir du diable by Georges Melies is the first horror movie. Well, actually its a short film (about three minuets or so) but film was really hard to come by in that time so this counts as a film to me. The plot of the film is basic, you have your hero being tormented by demonic things in a crazy castle room... However, that plot isn't what brought the crowds. The thing that drove the popularity of these films was the fact that you were seeing motion on screen. I suggest going and seeing Hugo. That film is spectacular. It answered so many questions that I had. It really sets the scene and the tone. The film has strong christian overtones and actually ends with Christianity prevailing over the "tides of darkness". I provided a link at the bottom of this review for anyone that would like to see this pioneer in Horror Film. The movie uses very, very early "movie magic" that is an abundance of smoke and m...