The Food of the Gods (1976)

"We've sinned against nature." - Mrs. Skinner

Giant killer animals terrorize a small island.
Starring: Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, Ida Lupino, Jon Cypher

Link to IMDB

Morgan

Morgan and his buddies are enjoying the outdoors for the weekend on a remote island, but terror strikes when one of the guys gets killed by a wasp the size of a dog! Morgan goes to a nearby farm for help where he's promptly attacked by a giant chicken!! This movie's already bat-shit crazy, and this is still the first ten minutes!
Anyways, the lady on the farm, Mrs. Skinner, has discovered some weird ooze coming from the ground, and anything that eats it grows to a huge size. Morgan warns her of the dangers, but she believes the ooze is a gift from God.

While Morgan goes off to tend to his dead buddy, more trouble arrives on the Skinner farm; a herd of giant rats are now roaming the island, destroying everything in their path!

"Where the hell did you get those goddamn chickens!" - Morgan

Arriving on the island next is a shrewd business man, Jack Bensington, and his assistant Lorna. Bensington has heard of Mrs. Fisher's ooze, and he's here to find a way to make himself rich from this rare "super food" discovery.
Morgan returns to the farm with his guns locked and loaded, eager to stop the spread of the ooze, but the hungry herd of rampaging rats is growing larger and it's a problem more deadlier than anyone on the island is prepared for!

Lorna                                      Mrs. Fisher                               Bensington

This movie gets very crazy, even more crazier than I was expecting. It becomes a brutal (but also laughable) survival story as the handful of people on the farm have to work together to try to stop giants rats and wasps from eating them. The special effects are pretty dated, but they still do a good job of creating many scenes of action between the humans and rats. The violence is also more graphic than I was expecting, with lots of blood flowing.

A small fraction of the insanity

The plot is portrayed with dead seriousness, but the entire movie is quite hilarious. The mostly decent cast keep the tense story from flying off the rails into sheer stupidity, and helps make the dangers feel real.
I say "mostly decent cast" because the main guy, Morgan, is about as charismatic as burnt toast, and he has a complete lack of reaction to the insanity going on around him.

As far as animal-attack B-movies go, this is one of the best I've seen. It's ambitious and memorable, and doesn't hold back on the absolute craziness of the premise.


Be sure not to miss:
- Lorna gets horny at the weirdest time.
- The face of the guy killed by wasps.
- RATS ENOUGH!

Internet review:
"Pure cinematic gold for us trash enthusiasts." - Demonica

Should I watch it?
Recommended!

Where can I find it?
Links here.

Food of the Gods gets...