Locusts: The 8th Plague

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.

A swarm of bio-engineered locusts escape from a research centre in Bulgaria - sorry, I mean Idaho - and have a taste not for crops but for flesh! I expected this to be yet another bad Sci Fi creature feature and while this is hardly a good film I certainly would not call it terrible either, hence my 5/10. Acting wise the leads - Dan Cortese, Jeff Fahey & Julie Benz - do a good enough job. Some of the minor roles were played by Europeans & this does show. Lots of cheap CGI here including helicopters (I've seen more realistic ones on video games). Plenty of gaffs too - many of the vehicles are obviously European; there's a scene where our hero is driving along a dirt track but when the camera is inside his vehicle it's obvious that it was filmed on a proper road, buildings & other vehicles are visible. What I do like about this film is that it's not played with tongue in cheek, nor is it unintentionally fun. It's actually played straight & when the locust descend on human victims it is done efectively to scare.

I don't want to write a spoiler so I'll just say this. There are many "holes" in the story. Bad story, bad plot, bad graphics, bad acting. Most of the dialogue is laughable and pretty much and insult to the intelligence of a nine year old. Most of the lines try to use twenty dollar scientific words, but most are not used effectively. Some parts are so bad you almost laugh even though you want to cry. The movie's solution to the nemesis is fairly lame. If you watch the entire movie, your scalp will be hurting from scratching your noggin and asking "why" did I watch this movie? Do yourself a favor and push the button the remote until you find something else worthwhile to watch.

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.

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.