The Nest

I am the first to say that we need more good horror flicks. But, in my opinion, a horror movie has to have a balance between gross things and alluring things in order to keep the emotions of the viewer from swinging quickly into a state of disgust, which makes the movie worthless. The Nest has the first part down right: you got your mutant cockroaches that eat everybody in sight, two rather nasty animal killing scenes, and the cockroach queen that I think is a masterpiece of grossness. Unfortunately, there is no counterbalance: there is almost no comic relief, absolutely no naked babes, and no smart dialogues. The outcome is a pure terror movie that scares you, disgusts you, but doesn't leave a good after-taste.

This flick is the Ultimate in Mutant Cockroach Terror! I love this one! Easily one of the best Roger Corman productions from the 80's! Sure it has a cheesy 80's synthesizer-score and displays ditto wardrobe and hairdos. But it also has a decent plot, well-drawn-out characters and... great gross gore effects! It follows the rules of a creature feature by the book, and the film benefits a lot from it. The puppetry and 'animatronics' might be rather static (not very lively), but the creature design is rather great and the 'mayor-roach' transformation scene is major fun to watch! There's also a 'cat-roach' in it, and just wait until you (briefly) see the final 'Über-mutant-roach' (which for some reason always reminds me of the final creature we get to see in John Carpenters "The Thing")! If you like all the afore-mentioned ingredients, then seek this baby out and have fun with it.

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.

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.

Who doesn't hate cockroaches? If you have a phobia for bugs, I suggest you steer clear of 'The Nest'!

The movie poster sends out a very different message to what the movie is actually all about. Cockroaches are NOT mating with women! The film revolves around an experiment gone wrong, causing cockroaches to feed on everything in its path. The film used over 2000 cockroaches... imagine being on set with so many cockroaches! Nowadays they'd use CGI, but back in the day they used REAL bugs, and practical effects - and the practical effects were amazing, especially during the final act.

I enjoyed Franc Luz as sheriff Richard Tarbell - he is so sexy! The acting from the entire cast was good. I thought Robert Lansing in particular was good as major Elias Johnson. I've literally seen hundreds of 80s horror movies, and 'The Nest' is one of the better 80s horror movies. This is a memorable film with interesting characters and a good script. The camerawork is effective in displaying bug movement. Cleverly done.

In general, 'The Nest' is a thoroughly enjoyable insect horror movie. There are so many out there, but only a few really stands out. 'The Nest' is one of them.

Would I watch it again? Yes.