The Nest

Ants dont scare me,and nor do spiders.But roaches are the one thing that freak me out. I think this movie had good special effects for 1988,and I thought it had a good cast of character actors.A good companion to this movie is the bug [1975] which has a similar plot about killer roaches.

In the sleepy island town of North Port, not much ever happens. Sheriff Richard Tarbell (Franc Luz) seems to have the easiest job in town. His only complication in life is whether to be involved with local waitress, Lillian (Nancy Morgan) or the mayor's daughter, Beth (Lisa Langlois). That is, until a gruesome discovery turns out to be the beginning of a coming slaughter.

Mayor Elias Johnson (Robert Lansing- 4D MAN, EMPIRE OF THE ANTS, ISLAND CLAWS) appears to know what's going on, having to do with a certain scientific installation called INTEC and its heartless Dr. Morgan Hubbard (Terri Treas). INTEC has been up to no good, attempting to create super-roaches for nefarious purposes. Grisly, disgusting horror ensues.

THE NEST is the perfect movie for the carnivorous cockroach connoisseur! Bug haters beware! These pests are shown in crawling piles and gobs! So, if insects make you squirm, and death by flensing isn't your thing, avoid this film!

BEST SCENES: #1- The diner cook in the dumpster! #2- Lillian defending the diner against the six-legged horde! #3- Oh yes! The mutant, cat roach! #4- Mayor Roach-enstein! #5- The hopelessly rushed final conflict!

Preposterous beyond all reason, this is 1980's schlock horror at its finest! Bon Appetit...

To be honest, I had too much whiskey prior to and during my viewing of this killer cockroach taking over a small town film, so key plot points remain a blur. That's fine, so when I view it again in a few years under the same circumstances it will be like a first viewing. While the film never lives up to the absurdly tasteless poster of a 5 ft tall roach mounting a scantily clad woman, it's still a fun cheesy creature feature. Throw in a mad scientist, a wacky exterminator and a whole lot of insect action and this ranks as one of the better late 80s output from Corman. The Scream Factory blu-ray seems to have put in more effort restoring the best looking version of this film, than the filmmakers put into making the actual film.

This mediocre sci-fi horror flick concerns hungry roaches chowing down on the residents of an island-based town. The story is absolutely standard to these types of things, and this one offers nothing new to horror fans, as the gore piles up. Not especially gory, although it definitely has its moments, and there is an eyeball scene that Lucio Fulci would be proud of. Despite this, this is not an especially good, or thrilling flick. Really for genre fans only.

Mutant-insects…isolated little town…gory make-up effects…Yup, `The Nest' looks like a prototype of cheap and redundant 80's horror. But I'm sure that, if you decide to give it a chance after all, you won't regret it. ! The obvious aspect to-love about it is the gore, naturally, but the screenplay actually contains some sub-plots and ingenious elements that you wouldn't immediately expect in a low-budget production like this. Northport is small, peaceful island outside L.A suddenly infested by a deadly plague of cockroaches. A mysterious female scientist arrives on the island and the mayor acts very ignorant about the on-growing bug problem. Events escalate into a true disaster when the cockroaches attack and devour inhabitants of the island and, if this isn't worse enough, mutate into what they eat. Looks like a genetic experiment gone horribly wrong? `The Nest' has tension and atmosphere, accompanied by a bit of good black humor and decent acting performances. Horror insiders might recognize Robert Lansing in the role of ignorant mayor, as he previously appeared in `Empire of the Ants'. The show is stolen, however, by Terri Treas as the morbid Dr. Hubbard. The creators of `The Nest' obviously learned a lot from watching horror highlights as `The Fly' and `Them!' but the film offers enough amusement to stand by itself. I certainly enjoyed it better than the similar `Mimic', which was made almost ten years later. If you're a sucker for gore-goodies, check out `the Nest'