Welcome back to my Dark Corner of this Sick World.
'And I hope you have a strong stomach'
This week we’re watching Bert I Gordon's Beginning of the End with a powerful sense of déjà vu.
'It occurred to me that radiation of some sort might have caused the destruction out there.'
Investigating the mysterious destruction of a town,
reporter Audrey Aimes hooks up with scientist Ed Wainwright,
'I don't understand what good that will do, the authorities investigated it thoroughly'
Thoroughly.
'Maybe you'll see something the sheriff missed'
Yeah, some tiny apparently insignificant detail that only a scientist would spot.
Well that's easily missed.
'There was probably 2 or 3 hundred of them sir.'
Less easily missed.
'I've had enough'
This is a cautionary tale about GM crops.
‘Tell me, is this really a strawberry’
'Yes.'
They may seem a way to feed the world’s starving,
‘Can you eat it?’
‘No, not yet’
but what do they inevitably lead to?
‘Giant locusts’are responsible for all this.'
Where did they come from?
'Some locusts must have got into the lab.'
I think it likely he would have noticed 2-300 normal sized locusts breaking into his greenhouse and eating his giant strawberries.
‘Some time during the night the town of Ludlo was completely demolished.'
I find it impossible that no one noticed 2-300 8ft locusts eating an entire town.
'Only a couple of months ago it was warehouse.'
For a couple of month a swarm of giant locusts went unnoticed?
'Well they gotta be around here somewhere.'
This is more or less what I said about the amazing colossal man and the deadly mantis.
'You must be used to it by now'
You could say that.
Having done over 200 hundred of these reviews there is a risk of us repeating ourselves,
‘Aren’t you in danger of becoming unpopular’
and that’s particularly true of the 1950s nuclear giant genre.
‘These days they blame the atom for everything’
'Bad health, bad crops, bad weather,'
There's the scientist who takes surprising little responsibility for all the lives lost.'
'No I haven't. In a way I feel responsible Audrey.'
There's the obligatory, although in this case slightly baffling, voyeur shot,
the dramatic inconsistencies,
'Before the attack the locusts send forth this warning with a high pitch screech.'
Really?
#girl screams#
I'm pretty sure that was the girl.
'It's possible I suppose.'
Above all there's the fact that the army are as always helpless against them.
As they crawl over miniature sets...
And slippery postcards.
The only way to stop them short of the A bomb...
‘You can’t drop an atom bomb on Chicago’
is a to figure out the frequency of their call then use that to lure them to water where they will all drown.
'Now what's your problem?'
Similar in fact to the Swarm.
'There's one for bees too'
It's a convoluted plan but it's the only way, and it requires them to catch one of the giants to study it,
at this point, why is no one saying...
"Well these gas grenades seem to work, maybe we can just use these"
'There has to be a logical explanation for this.'
'Is there a logical explanation for this.'
Okay, I feel like I have to ask; if bullets work, exactly what has the army been using against them?
'I'm a soldier I know what guns can do.'
'Apparently not.'
'You won't believe ths.'
This is no worse than the Deadly Mantis, Monster From Green Hell and however many others there are,
'There could be countless others!'
But that really shouldn't be taken as a recommendation.
'Well it was a possibility.'
We've now seen ants, spiders, Wasps, praying mantis and we're down to grasshoppers
are there any insects that B-movies overlooked let me know in the comments below
All right, man into the woods