They Nest

Supergenres are genres that are so mature that the story is so predictable that it becomes a wrapper for a story within, or a situation within that is the implicit focus. The enclosing supergenre here is a bug horror movie. Its formulaic as it should be. Ho hum.

The situation within is a town populated dually with simple good folk, all extreme stereotypes denoted in the briefest of shorthands: the warm old woman who here is also the schoolmarm, in charge of the island's kids. The dumb old man who is borderline senile. The tough but honest town cop who by himself keeps the rest of the town in line. And that whole rest of the island? Well, they are 30 year old high school male dropouts, unemployed drunks with no sense whatever.

Normally these guys would be associated with some Southern setting, Confederate flags and perhaps some indication of sexual deviance or inbreeding. But here they are in the rural north, a relocation that underscores the importance of the stereotype apart from place. It makes the fact that they are drunken dopes significant.

In the midst of this is our woman, the whole point of this inner story. I'm interested in this because of all the actresses they could have chosen, the thousands upon thousands who could handle this slight part, they chose a specific type. They chose her because of how she looks — there can be no other reason. She's a redhead. She's a redhead of a specific type.

I'm interested in narrative structure, patterns, templates and bits of the visual grammar we use to covey complex notions by reference. Women in film are the most complex when it comes to this but within women and film, redheads are the simplest case. So I have a serious study of redheads underway, and what they mean if terms of shorthand, and how that shorthand references folding.

I think there are only a few slots for redheaded women. There's the freckled, sometimes almost pigtailed, puffylipped womanchild. There's the sexually powerful, tempestuous woman, sometimes self-destructive. She seems to be modeled on a sort or aristocratic face: significant forehead and eyes — and represented by women who know how to act with their upper face instead of the lower.

And there's a sort of in between, the girl-next-door type who represents possibilities, who carries latent qualities of these extremes and others, but who is happy in the theatrical representation of simply being a representation.

So, our character here is played by Kristen Dalton. Her qualities as an actress are that she has a pronounced chin and a magnificent, aristocratic bearing. She's learned to move with that chin — actually her mouth — as the center of gravity. She isn't a great actress but she does act with her eyes. In other words, she understands a redhead's place in film, and knows how to exploit it. Why do I focus on this one redheaded actress? Because Scorsese saw her (in this, I think) and cast her as Nicholson's girlfriend in his own movie about movies and acting, curiously titled unless you know his intent.

So we will see a lot of Kristen, and we will see her BE red and tell us red.

The key elements of the story here have her as essentially the only woman in a town of dopey rednecks. All are single of course. She holds her own, being the soul of the school, the chief merchant (you literally can't buy anything unless you find her), and the color at the docks, running a forklift.

There's a big city doctor in the story but he's there only to notice her and draw her into the story. She circulates among the dopes. That's the story: her among the dopes.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.

A rare species of African cockroaches turn up on an island in the US, infesting the homes and cavities of the local townsfolk. Recovering alcoholic surgeon, convalescing following a forced leave of absence, Thomas Calabro, has to compete with the doubting locals as well as the voracious bugs, when he discovers there may be a serious problem. His tempestuous relationship with a couple of the local hicks (most notably the chronically inebriated character of John Savage) causes some friction in the ensuing battle, leaving him to combat the threat with only the aid of the token town babe.

Reasonably good cast manage to inject some zip into this otherwise stock standard bug movie, with Dean Stockwell providing stoic support as the pragmatic local law enforcement, and John Savage just managing to not over-do it as an ostensibly harmless, yet antagonistic local bum (who somehow happens to control the island's electricity supply). The momentum is sometimes laboured, however when the siege eventually starts, there are sufficient thrills and shocks to please.

Picturesque locations and graphic special effects greatly support the film, which would otherwise be nothing more than just another bug infestation movie – there's nothing particularly original about "Creepy Crawlers", in fact, the method of gestation employed by the protagonists in this film, is very reminiscent of that used by the flesh-eating bugs of Roger Corman's "The Nest", almost some fifteen years its senior. Despite the lack of originality, and the fact that the film looks very much like a TV movie-of-the-week (which it was prior to a theatrical release), there's enough gore and suspense to sustain interest.

A lot of fun is inhabited in this movie. The jokes are funny and the plot isn't there! 'Mosquito' and 'Ticks' are a lot like this film. I would also recommend trying them out too. A doctor takes a break from work after losing his ability to cut people open.(He's a Pathologist) He then gets on the wrong foot with a bunch of rednecks and for no reason at all some killer cockroaches come scuttling into town. What we are left with is just plain fun! I like this movie and you should aswell. 7 out of 10.

Not a very original horror film, of course, but fairly entertaining and with a good tempo, this 'They Nest' easily belongs to the better efforts in the recent revival of the horror sub-genre of creature features. It is stuffed with clichés and stereotypes but try not to let this ruin the fun too much. All the ingredients that guarantee 90 minutes of unpretentious B-movie amusement are there: The over-stressed surgeon Dr. Cahill goes to a remote Maine island to find some peace and to decorate the old house he bought there. The hillbillies-inhabitants immediately hate him (except for the local beauty, naturally...) and, on top of all, a lethal cockroach-plague infests the island. These nasty little bugs turn out carnivores and use humans as hosts for their offspring! The cause and origin of the killer-roaches isn't really explained (no endless biological speeches or mutant-conspiracies this time) and the film obviously lacks a solid screenplay. On the other hand it features a fair amount of suspense and eeriness without going over the top with gore effects. I'm sure that people with a phobia for small, crawling insects will have trouble watching several atmospherically shot scenes....And that the best compliment you can get when delivering a horror film! The writers were even clever enough to insert some humor to put the whole killer-bug situation a bit into perspective. The abrupt ending is so silly it almost becomes brilliant! Ellory Elkayem once again turns out an above-average genre director. His atmospheric short film "Larger than Life" was very promising and with this film he proves being capable of directing bigger projects. Immediately after this, he moved on to the big-budget work with "Eight Legged Freaks". Melrose Place pretty-boy Thomas Calabro is rather decent in the lead role but the show is obviously stolen by Dean Stockwell and - especially - John Savage, who stars as local nutball n#1.

"They Nest" is a horror film worth watching and I'd even say it deserves a rating slightly higher than the one given on this site. If you really think it stinks, you should compare it with similar films made over the last few years. Compared to some of the junk found in video stores, this is quite a decent flick. If you're intrigued by the ugly creepiness of cockroaches, I also recommend checking out the 80's delight "The Nest".

Despite the low rating, I found this TV-film actually not that bad at all. It's about a stressed doctor, who has to take an unvoluntary vacation, so he goes to an island in Maine, where the locals are not very friendly towards strangers. Soon he discovers that some dead people have strange marks on their bodies, and after that he finds out that some insects, looking like cockroaches, have caused these marks. The insects are very deadly, but how is DR. Ben Cahill going to convince the locals of the serious problems....

I almost thought that the story for "They Nest" was written by Stephen King, because of the location, on a small island off the coast of Maine. Also 'cause I saw two actors who played in SK-films before: Dean Stockwell (The Langoliers), and Jeffrey DeMunn (Storm of the century, Shawshank Redemption, Green Mile), who only has a small part, on the ferry to the island. The fact that the movie takes place in Maine, creates a certain feeling, like in a Stephen King movie. Therefore I thought that this film was not bad at all!