Directed by Bert I. Gordon, king of the low-budget big monster movie, The Food of the Gods is a clunky slice of B-movie hokum brought to life using exactly the same kind of low-rent special effects techniques the director used on his debut, King Dinosaur, over two decades earlier (and on numerous films thereafter). Rear projection, scale models, over-sized creature props and soft-edged mattes are the order of the day, none of which are very effective.Amongst those facing off against the unconvincing creatures—which include whoppin' big wasps, gigantic grubs, chuffin' great chickens, and ruddy big rats—are football star Morgan (Marjoe Gortner), his pal Brian (Jon Cypher), unscrupulous businessman Bensington (Ralph Meeker), his sassy assistant Lorna (Pamela Franklin), loopy farmer's wife Mrs.Skinner (Ida Lupino), and young couple Thomas (Tom Stovall) and Rita (Belinda Balaski).With its shoddy effects, laughable script, and diabolical performances (poor Ida Lupino—to wind down such an illustrious career by being gnawed to death!), The Food Of The Gods is an undeniably awful movie, but it still manages to be marginally more entertaining than Gordon's final giant monster movie, the utterly awful Empire Of The Ants, simply thanks to its greater variety of immense animalia (after all, you've seen one enormous ant, you've seen them all!).

In this adaptation of a portion of H.G. Wells's "The Food of the Gods", a strange substance bubbles up out of the Earth and causes giantism in forms of animal life including wasps, chickens, worms, and rats. Among the unlucky people caught up in this invasion of plus- sized critters are football player Morgan (Marjoe Gortner), his teams' P.R. man Brian (Jon Cypher), expectant couple Thomas (Tom Stovall) and Rita (Belinda Balaski), pathologically greedy opportunist Bensington (Ralph Meeker) and his associate Lorna (Pamela Franklin), and farm woman Mrs. Skinner (Ida Lupino).You gotta love him; veteran film director Bert I. Gordon was *still* relying on his favourite movie theme of large menaces at this point in time. This effort is ultimately dumb, silly, and sloppy, but just like many bad B movies, it's not without appeal, especially when it comes to supposed shock scenes (that chicken attack scene early on in the movie is a riot). The special effects, as one will expect, are for the most part none too convincing. The acting is variable; Gortner is likable as always as the hero. Veterans Lupino and Meeker had certainly been in much better films, but they're as solid as ever. Meeker is particularly funny in a very one note and sleazy portrayal. The lovely Ms. Balaski does well as the young mother to be who feels no need to marry the father of her baby. Gordon does generate some atmosphere from the surroundings; this was filmed on location in the Canadian province of British Columbia.One thing's for sure: this will rub many animal rights activists the wrong way.Six out of 10.

It's hard to criticize a movie like The Food of the Gods. Meaning, it hits every low point: bad acting, cinematography, writing & dialogue, horrible special effects and worst of all, "suspenseful scenes" that literally will make you laugh out loud. Who needs Mystery Science Theater 3000 to make fun of this – just watch it for your own personal amusement.I did. I laughed very hard in spots, from the stilled framed credits to the opening dialogue ("My name is Morgan and I play football. We'd worked our butts off trying' to get it together for the big Sunday game…") to the big COCK fight between our hero and a large COCK. Also, the film pans from close-ups of "giant" rats to an actual sized car to now regular rats attacking a toy car. PRICELESS FX. Don't forget the TIDAL WAVE and wasps. Heck, the only thing (hilariously) convincing were the enlarged worms and even them, not so much.Footballer – American that is…or is it Canadian? – Morgan (Marjoe) is headed to "the country" (or in human terms, an island) to hunt or whatever male bonding he chooses with his two mates. One of them is inadvertently stung to death by giant wasps. Well, they strike and leave, thankfully, giving our heroes enough time to investigate.They take one of MANY very long trips on the ferry back to shore with their friend's body. Stop. Okay, even at only 88 minutes, this movie drags on far too long. And most of the time was spent, incredibly, on the ferryboat. Did they rent it? And did that take half their budget? But, I digress, for very weak reasons, the two remaining buddies travel back to the island (via ferry, AGAIN) to investigate the death and meet up with both the incredibly hilarious "Mrs. Skinner" (Lupino) who speaks of her (unbeknownst to her, late) husband as "Mr. Skinner" (McLiam) and a pair of coworkers, one of which is to (GASP) profit off a white goo pumping from the ground that caused all creatures to grow to huge proportions.(To speak like the villains in the first Scream movie: Horror Movie Rule #156b – Do NOT trust any bubbling white substance coming up from the ground. The Stuff – 'Enuff Said.) The main enemy, is the rats, but there's worms, wasps and chickens to add to the tension. But, let's think about this: who's the real enemy here? Are we being punished for polluting the Earth? Eh, that's their message at any rate.Spend the rest of the movie laughing at their lines, their driving and rats climbing on a miniature house just for kicks. One of the funniest scenes in the "climax" is a rat's trying to get into the room and a character's shutting the door on its head. It almost matched the JAWS spoof, Land Shark, from Saturday Night Live.Even though this movie is only allotted one out of five stars, I will admit, the finale (end credits,) though thoroughly predictable – heck, they mention it throughout, including the opening, was rather creepy. That almost granted it an additional ½ star.I wanted to see this movie again, as I was scared as a child and always had a thing for When Animals Attack movies (SEE: Empire of the Ants and ants!) but this movie is just simply horrible. Maybe a young toddler would be a'runnin', but no adult should be subjected to this: "You know, I used to think about dying a lot. I'd lie there in bed at night in the dark; I guess I've always had a fear of it. I'd used to fantasize the most horrible deaths. You know the most frightening. None of them come close to being eaten by a rat!"

Three friends with big faces go to an island to relax by chasing a deer to death with dogs. There's so many over-sized faces at the start of this movie it's like watching Easter Island statues bobbing around. This merry jaunt is interrupted when some giant wasps kill one of them.This film is full of laughs, most of which come from the unconvincing giant animals. The rats look OK in close up but the giant chicken is one of the funniest monsters I've ever seen and easily the highlight of the entire film.I liked the character development too. They want to show that the businessman is a real typical 70's businessman jerk so there's one line where he stands opening a gate and says "open the god dam gate" for no obvious reason. Granted it's not quite on a par with a giant chicken head pecking at you but it made me laugh all the same. The crazy religious woman is equally subtly sketched with her endless talk of sin. The ultra-hostile "female bacteriologist" is pretty funny too. Check out the bit where her biological clock goes off during a rat attack. Funny stuff.The whole movie is pretty much rats being shot with paint ball pellets while roaring like a tiger and climbing on a dolls house. The basic fact that rats can swim doesn't fit with the ending so there's a clunky scene where we get told that giant rats can't swim. They can't swim OK, and we're not just saying that because we've already filmed the ending before someone pointed out that they can swim.Also, how come there's a dam on an island in the first place? Geography wasn't my best subject but wouldn't that mean the island was lower than the level of the water? If you've seen any of Big Berts other movies you'll know what to expect. Definitely one for bad movie fans only!