A undeniably cheap, offbeat and trashy unrelated sequel to Bert I. Gordon's (Mr B.I.G) original 1976 film of H.G Wells 'The Food of the Gods' (which I haven't seen) sees a growth hormone accidentally transform a horde of rats into giant man-eating rodents that feed there way through a college campus. Those who love b-grade madness, gooey FX (with a splendid, if pointless melting scene) and graphically cheesy gore will have a field day. The fanatical rat attacks are unpleasant
that you'll find them irksome or laughable. While quite wonky (boom mike appearing at times and there's a scene where you can clearly see the FX dude in the corner of picture doing his thing), it was still better made than you would think. The script while serious, does take time out to add many tongue-in-cheek and blackly humorous distractions (which sometimes feels off-balanced) and this perfectly makes light of the situation. Still it's filled with stupidity and we end up with an abrupt open-ending (I'm sure a sequel was in mind) of a sub-plot (involving a young boy being injected with the growth hormone and College Professor Neil Hamilton being asked to help find a cure to stop the uncontrollable growth by use of experiments) that starts of proceedings, and is the main reason for the rat mayhem to occur and when it centres back on this angle, it glazes over it despite probably being more interesting than the rat chaos. Damien Lee's conventional direction remains assured and snappy enough. The electronic score while one-note is moodily pitched amongst a fitting campus setting and the soundtrack has a spunky embrace. Performances are largely forgettable, but in the end acceptable from the likes of Paul Coufos, Colin Fox, Karen Hines, Frank Pellegrino, Robert Kennedy, Michael Copeman and the beautiful Lisa Schrage with her piercing blue eyes. Also you got Jackie Borroughs showing up as the ill-fated professor. I found it fun the first time I watched it, and it's the same on this occasion.
Review of Food of the Gods II
