Locusts: The 8th Plague

As I sat down to watch the 2005 movie "Locusts: The 8th Plague", I must admit that I weren't having much of any high hopes for the movie. Why? Well, the movie have a rather low IMDb rating. And let's just be honest, the cast ensemble wasn't exactly screaming high-end production worth here.

But still, I do enjoy monstrous creature features, so of course I sat down to watch "Locusts: The 8th Plague". But I can't claim to have been overly impressed or particularly entertained.

The storyline is pretty straight forward and generic actually, for better or worse. So you know exactly how this movie will play out and writer D. R. Rosen didn't even once veer off the generic path of how-to-make-a-killer-insect-movie blueprint. And it was something that the movie suffered from, leaving not much of anything for director Ian Gilmour to work with.

Movies such as "Locusts: The 8th Plague" need proper special effect, which was something that it actually didn't have. The locusts looked like something taken out of a mid-1990s computer game. Fairly horrible CGI textures, and not once did I actually buy into the feeling of this being a swarm of dangerous mutated locusts. It just didn't work out, and it took away so much enjoyment from the movie.

Now, I can't claim to be much of a fan of actor Dan Cortese.. But I must say that when I saw David Keith and Jeff Fahey on the screen, I thought that maybe, just maybe, the movie could pick up. But no, it didn't, and they had small and rather insignificant roles that hardly mattered for the outcome of the movie as a source of entertainment.

If you enjoy movies about killer animals - or insects, as it is with the case of this 2005 movie - do yourself a favor, and don't waste your time on "Locusts: The 8th Plague", because it just doesn't offer anything to the genre that haven't already been done and seen, and done and seen better in other similar movies.

My rating of "Locusts: The 8th Plague" lands on a three out of ten stars.

The attack scenes and carnage left is particularly nauseating and there's David Keith once again playing the main villain. I've seen him in at least two other Sci-Fi channel movies this weekend. Give this guy rest or a casting against type!

It's yet another show done by the sci-fi numbers including but not limited to: a dumb jock military group (God has any of these writers seen Aliens???) coming in with the common sense of one eighth of an amoeba's's brains and messing up the situation all the more and the two leads the only ones with all the sense and all the answers. Once again we have the villains who have the answers and won't care to provide jack-squat any. Well, God provided me with a remote. I've seen this film in it's entirety once before and don't have the endurance to watch it again.

This self conscious B movie is pure fun. Being a homage to the 50's bad sci-fi ficks, all in it works bad storyline, bad actings, awful effects, creatures going wild, loads of in your face flesh. Not to be taken seriously. Good enough for a 90 minutes stand.

Deep in rural Idaho, a swarm of genetically-enhanced Locusts escape from the government lab that they're being held in to wreck havoc on and eat the skin of pretty much everything they come across. It's up to local organic pesticide inventor Colt (Dan Cortese AKA: Dan Dan the Whopper Man Aka: Tony the Mimbo) and his girlfriend, Vicky (Dexter's Julie Benz, who should've known better) to find a way to take care of this '8th Plaque'

Filled to the brim with extremely hokey CGI (locust, blood, helicopters & even fire) and not much else, this is definitely not one of the better Sci-Fi Original films (I outright refuse to use the word 'SyFy') that I've seen by a long shot. The acting is bad all the way around, a very unconvincing story, and the fact that the film goes on too long all combine to make a rather unpleasant viewing experience for anyone, like myself, gullible enough to sit through it. David Keith should have been a Lord of Discipline and said no to his role in the film as both he and Jeff Fahey embarrass themselves here.

My Grade: D-

Image Entertainment DVD Extras: 3 short (and rather lame) 'before & after' special effects shots

This film is mainly fine for 'made for TV' fare. The biggest problem with this movie is the horrendous cgi effects. If it were not for the absolutely unwatchable special effects, "Locusts" would be worth it for the guilty pleasure factor. I will say that I am notoriously forgiving with regard to horror films. If I was entertained at all, I figure the movie did the job for which it was intended. I would have found this one very entertaining on the level of schlocky monster of the week movies, were it not for the extremely poor use of cgi. If you have nothing better to do and happen to find it on sci-fi... go ahead and give it a watch. There is enough unintended comedy to make use of a pizza and a couple of sodas or beers.