''H.G. Wells' The Food of the Gods'', also billed as just ''The Food of the Gods'', is a 1976
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
thriller
Thriller may refer to:
* Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television
** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre
Comics
* ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...
Pamela Franklin
Pamela Franklin (born 3 February 1950) is a British former actress. She is best known for her role in the film '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' (1969), for which she won a NBR Award and received a BAFTA Award nomination.
Franklin made her ac ...
,
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 August 5, 1988) was an American film, stage, and television actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of '' Mister Roberts'' (1948–1951) and ''Picnic'' ...
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. T ...
. This film was loosely based on a portion of the 1904
The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth
''The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth'' is a science fiction novel by H. G. Wells, first published in 1904. Wells called it "a fantasia on the change of scale in human affairs. . . . I had hit upon he ideawhile working out ...
''. The film reduced Wells' tale to an "
Ecology
Ecology () is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment. Ecology considers organisms at the individual, population, community, ecosystem, and biosphere level. Ecology overlaps wi ...
Strikes Back" scenario, common in science fiction movies at the time.
Michael Medved gave it the
Golden Turkey Award
''The Golden Turkey Awards'' is a 1980 book by film critic Michael Medved and his brother Harry.
About
The book awards "Golden Turkey Awards" to films judged by the authors as poor in quality, and to directors and actors judged to have created a ...
for "Worst Rodent Movie of All Time".
Plot
The "food" mysteriously bubbles up from the ground on a remote island somewhere in
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
. Mr. and Mrs. Skinner (
John McLiam
John McLiam (born John Williams; January 24, 1918 – April 16, 1994) was a film and television actor noted for his skill at different accents. His film appearances include ''My Fair Lady'' (1964), ''In Cold Blood'' (1967), John Frankenheimer's ...
and
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. T ...
) consider it a gift from God, and feed it to their chickens, which grow larger than humans as a result. Rats, wasps, and grubs also consume the substance, and the island becomes infested with giant vermin. One night, a swarm of giant rats kill Mr. Skinner after his car tire is punctured in the forest.
A professional football player named Morgan ( Marjoe Gortner) is on the island for a hunting trip with his buddies when one of them is stung to death by giant wasps. After ferrying his friends back to the mainland, Morgan returns to investigate. Also thrown into the mix are Thomas and Rita (Tom Stovall and
Belinda Balaski
Belinda Balaski (born December 8, 1947 in Inglewood, California) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her large supporting role as Terri Fisher in Joe Dante's ''The Howling'' (1981), and has continued to appear in most of Dante ...
), an expecting couple; Jack Bensington (
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 August 5, 1988) was an American film, stage, and television actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of '' Mister Roberts'' (1948–1951) and ''Picnic'' ...
), the owner of a dog food company, who hopes to market the substance; and Bensington's assistant Lorna (
Pamela Franklin
Pamela Franklin (born 3 February 1950) is a British former actress. She is best known for her role in the film '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' (1969), for which she won a NBR Award and received a BAFTA Award nomination.
Franklin made her ac ...
), a bacteriologist. After Morgan locates and dynamites the giant wasps' enormous nest, he and the others become trapped in the Skinners' farmhouse, surrounded by giant rats. Morgan's friend Brian ( Jon Cypher), Bensington, and Mrs. Skinner are killed by the rats.
Morgan blows up a nearby dam, flooding the area and drowning the rats, whose size and weight render them unable to swim. After the waters clear, the survivors pile up the bodies of the rats, spilling the jars of "F.O.T.G." and gasoline on them before burning them. However, several of Mrs. Skinner's jars of "F.O.T.G." are swept away, drifting to a mainland farm. The substance is consumed by dairy cows, and in the film's closing scene, schoolchildren are shown unwittingly drinking the tainted milk, implying that they will also experience abnormal growth.
Pamela Franklin
Pamela Franklin (born 3 February 1950) is a British former actress. She is best known for her role in the film '' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie'' (1969), for which she won a NBR Award and received a BAFTA Award nomination.
Franklin made her ac ...
as Lorna
*
Ralph Meeker
Ralph Meeker (born Ralph Rathgeber; November 21, 1920 August 5, 1988) was an American film, stage, and television actor. He first rose to prominence for his roles in the Broadway productions of '' Mister Roberts'' (1948–1951) and ''Picnic'' ...
Ida Lupino
Ida Lupino (4 February 1918Recorded in ''Births Mar 1918'' Camberwell Vol. 1d, p. 1019 (Free BMD). Transcribed as "Lupine" in the official births index – 3 August 1995) was an English-American actress, singer, director, writer, and producer. T ...
as Mrs. Skinner
*
Belinda Balaski
Belinda Balaski (born December 8, 1947 in Inglewood, California) is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her large supporting role as Terri Fisher in Joe Dante's ''The Howling'' (1981), and has continued to appear in most of Dante ...
as Rita
* Tom Stovall as Thomas
*
John McLiam
John McLiam (born John Williams; January 24, 1918 – April 16, 1994) was a film and television actor noted for his skill at different accents. His film appearances include ''My Fair Lady'' (1964), ''In Cold Blood'' (1967), John Frankenheimer's ...
as Mr. Skinner
* Chuck Courtney as Davis
* Reg Tunnicliffe as ferry attendant
Release
The film premiered on in the United States.
Scream Factory
Shout! Factory is an American home video and music company founded in 2002 as Retropolis Entertainment. Its video releases include previously released feature films, classic and contemporary television series, animation, live music, and comedy ...
released the film for first time on
Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
The movie was AIP's most successful release of the year, causing them to make a series of films based on H. G. Wells novels.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film one star out of four.
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby (July 27, 1924 – October 15, 2000) was an American film and theatre critic who served as the chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' from 1969 until the early 1990s, then its chief theatre critic from 1994 until his death in ...
of ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' called the film "a stunningly ridiculous mixture of science-fiction and horror-film clichés."
Gene Siskel
Eugene Kal Siskel (January 26, 1946 – February 20, 1999) was an American film critic and journalist for the ''Chicago Tribune''. Along with colleague Roger Ebert, he hosted a series of movie review programs on television from 1975 until his d ...
of the ''
Chicago Tribune
The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...
'' gave the film half of one star out of four and wrote, "The heavy television ad campaign promises six-foot roosters and panther-sized rats. What it should promise, if truth-in-labeling applied to film ads, is rotten special effects and a laughable script." Arthur D. Murphy of '' Variety'' wrote, "Too much emphasis by Gordon on his good special visual effects combines with too little attention to his writing chores ... Every player has done better before; this script is atrocious." Kevin Thomas of the ''
Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote that "the entire picture is a joke—unintentionally."
Tom Milne
Tom Milne (2 April 1926 – 14 December 2005) was a British film critic. See also
After war service, he studied English and French at Aberdeen University and later at the Sorbonne. Interested in the theatre too, he wrote for the magazine '' ...
of '' The Monthly Film Bulletin'' called it "A truly appalling piece of s-f horror in which the cretinous dialogue, hopefully illuminating the follies of human greed and tampering with nature, poses more of a hazard to the cast than the crudely animated giant wasps or the monster rat and cockerel heads stiffly manipulated from the wings."
''The Food of the Gods'' was nominated for the Best Horror Film by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films in the 1976
Saturn Awards
The Saturn Awards are American awards presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. The awards were created to honor science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, but have since grown to reward other films be ...
.
It has a score of 18% at
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
from 17 reviewers, with an average score of 3.5/10.
AMC
AMC may refer to:
Film and television
* AMC Theatres, an American movie theater chain
* AMC Networks, an American entertainment company
** AMC (TV channel)
** AMC+, streaming service
** AMC Networks International, an entertainment company
*** AM ...