Genocide

I'm rating this movie higher than it probably deserves for a couple of reasons. Firs, one has to admire the audacious, lurching combination of genres and plot lines, hallucinatory in their variations. Secondly, the final two shots of this movie are stunning. I won't give them away, although I wish I could because they are just some of the coolest final images of any science fiction movie of that era, and make the entire movie worthwhile.

All of these impressions reflects some advice I would give if you choose to watch this movie. I don't think one ought to watch it literally, as a plot-driven film, because doing so could be frustrating given some of the illogic and seeming randomness of the events. Instead, I ultimately watched it for the imagery, the drunken, staggering wackiness of it all, and the utterly fascinating cultural aspects of the movie (for example, wow, do Americans not come off particularly well in this flick!).

I would also recommend Genocide for those who enjoy eco-horror or eco-scifi, such as Frogs, Phase IV, Bug (the Bradford Dillman flick), Food of the Gods, and even classic giant irradiated "bug" movies such as Them and Tarantula, which were among the first eco-scifi movies.

In GENOCIDE (aka: WAR OF THE INSECTS), a new insect species is discovered on an island. Disturbingly, the venom of these tiny creatures causes insanity in anyone bitten by them.

Meanwhile, a B-52 Bomber, complete with its full nuclear arsenal, crashes nearby, after being swarmed by the killer bugs. Carnage ensues, as nefarious men attempt to procure the bombs, and the insects begin destroying humanity.

The most interesting aspect of this movie is its diverse, unusual cast of characters. There are actual, flawed people inhabiting the island, some of whom are very damaged. Some are downright reprehensible! Especially, the wicked Annabelle (Cathy Horan), a concentration camp survivor who takes on the very characteristics of the Nazis from her tortured past. Her plot for global annihilation is the black center of the movie.

This is an ambitious project that suffers from its miniscule budget, as well as the merciless march of time. Released in the 1960's, it's certainly a movie of its period. Still, it's worth seeing at least once...

Maybe if the bugs had been big and/or radioactive, we could have had some fun set pieces, but eventually it sets in that maybe this doesn't want to be a fun, silly bug movie.

I mean, the premise of insects wanting to wipe out humanity before humanity wipes them out is absurd, but through this crazy premise, the film gets pretty serious, thematically, while looking at things like the atomic bomb attacks on Japan and the Holocaust, which must given this its title of Genocide.

Not sure I've ever had a B-movie like this go so heavy (especially when at the start it looked like it was going to be very silly), and I don't think it truly works, but it's an admirable effort.

It will surely stick out in my memory the more and more old Japanese horror movies I work through in the future.

Genocide (1968) is a movie that I recently watched on a random streaming service. The storyline follows a young lady who recently became pregnant and is planning to have an abortion when an insect outbreak occurs. All life becomes at risk as no one knows how to stop the bugs. A diabolical plan to take over the world becomes apparent and will anyone be able to stop the mastermind behind the plot?

This movie is directed by Kazui Nihonmatsu (The X from Outer Space) and stars Eiji Okada (Woman in the Dunes), Hiroshi Fujioka (Kamen Rider), Ryûji Kita (King Kong Escapes) and Reiko Mutô (Arcadia of My Youth).

This is one of those "almost good" movies that had all the ingredients to be fun but somehow falls short. The film starts with a fun model burning airplane crash scene that made me smile. The sets, settings and characters were fun. The villain was a smoking hot blond with a few screws loose...but somehow all the pieces of the puzzle weren't put together well. The storyline was a bit stale, slow and didn't have enough kills for me to get excited. The ending was cool and worked for me.

Overall this is a very average addition to the horror genre that's still a fun watch. I would score this a 4.5-5/10 and only recommend watching it if nothing better is available.

Exceptionally convoluted and deliriously nihilistic, Genocide is appropriately harrowing and periodically bonkers if a little middling around the second act. The second of only two movies from director Kazui Nihonmatsu, having previously helmed The X from Outer Space, Genocide is all over the place with enough hair-brained ideas to fill two movies let alone a single 84-minute one, primarily the hallucinogenic bees being bred by an insane holocaust survivor. Nihonmatsu handles the film with considerably more skill than his prior effort, there's a wider variety of shots and a better building of suspense thanks in part to the photography of Shizuo Hirase and the passable score from Shunsuke Kikuchi. It's very much an accident of a film, suitably ambitious and apocalyptic in its finality, ultimately hinging on the potential detonation of a hydrogen bomb and the single mother who may have to single-handedly repopulate a country. Genocide is an exhausting yet very rewarding experience, showcasing so pretty damn good filmmaking for its small budget but, as noted before, has too much plot for its own good.