Released Year: 1972
Directed by George McCowan
Casted by:
Sam Elliott as Pickett Smith
Ray Milland as Jason Crockett
Joan Van Ark as Karen Crockett
Adam Roarke as Clint Crockett
Judy Pace as Bella Garrington
Lynn Borden as Jenny Crockett
Story:
Wildlife photographer Pickett Smith is taking photographs of the local flora and fauna as he canoes through a swamp surrounding an island upon which the affluent mansion estate of the wealthy and influential Crockett family is located. Also evident throughout the swamp are numerous indicators of pollution, which Pickett believes are connected to the pesticides the Crockett's use on their island plantation. After Clint accidentally tips over Smith's canoe, he and his sister Karen escort Smith to the family mansion, where he meets the entire Crockett family. The grouchy, wheelchair-bound patriarch, Jason, intends on spending the next day enjoying both the 4th of July and his own birthday celebrations uninterrupted. Due to the mutual dislike of the fauna around the mansion, Jason has sent a man named Grover to spray pesticide in order to get rid of the amphibians. Pickett later discovers Grover's corpse covered in snake bites in the swamp not far from the house. Despite this warning, Jason continues with his celebrations the next day.
Early the following morning, Michael Crockett sets out to check on a downed telephone line. He discovers that the phone connection is dead but, before he can return home, he finds himself distracted by flocks of aggressive birds. Aiming to scare off the intimidating avian menace with gunfire, he accidentally shoots himself in the leg and is rendered immobile beneath a tree which is almost completely covered with an strangely-colored, low-hanging moss. To Michael's horror, a horde of tarantulas descend from the branches and begin to swarm over him. With their fangs piercing his flesh, the strange moss seems to attack him also, binding him tightly as the spider's paralyzing venom overwhelms his nervous system. From within the cocoon of webbing and moss the tarantulas begin to feed.
Back on the estate, Jason's sister, Iris, sends her son, Kenneth, into the greenhouse to collect flowers for a centerpiece. As he gathers up the flowers he fails to notice the dozens of large, black lizards entering behind him. The lizards swarm over the stacked shelves, knocking over numerous jars of powerful chemicals, startling Kenneth. In his panic he falls into the shelves, sending further bottles of noxious compounds crashing to the ground. The pungent liquids quickly coalesce into a lethal gas, and Kenneth is asphyxiated by the toxic cloud.
Seeing the danger posed by the animals, Pickett suggests that everyone should leave the island, but Jason is adamant that nothing will ruin his day. Meanwhile, Iris is lured into the path of several frogs and snakes while chasing after a butterfly. Trying to escape, she falls into a small swamp of leeches which latch on to her until she manages to pull them off. Massively fatigued, she falls near a rattlesnake which promptly bites and kills her. Her husband Stuart comes looking for her, only to meet a grisly end when he falls into the swamp and is eaten by an alligator.
Charles and Maybelle, Jason's long-suffering butler and cook, decide to leave along with Kenneth's fiancee, Bella, on Pickett's advice. Clint takes them across the lake in his speedboat. Clint stays behind and searches the nearby grocery store while the others walk on. A flock of birds appear and they run off behind a building. Their fate is left unknown. Clint discovers his boat has been untethered and swims to reach it, but a water moccasin kills him in the water. His wife, Jenny (Lynn Borden), witnesses this through binoculars and attempts to rescue him, but gets stuck in the lake mud and is killed by a large snapping turtle.
Karen and Pickett decide to leave with Clint and Jenny's children, leaving Jason behind due to his refusal to join them, his mind still intent on celebrating. They cross the lake in Pickett's canoe encountering alligators and more water snakes, which Pickett dispatches with the boat paddle as well as a shotgun. They eventually make it ashore and to a road where they hitch a ride with a woman and her son. As the woman tells the four survivors that they are driving towards Jefferson City and have not seen a single person or car on the road all day, the boy shows them a huge frog he took from summer camp where his mother picked him up. Their fate is left unknown.
Later that night, Jason, now alone in his mansion (save for his dog Colonel), witnesses hundreds of frogs breaking into the house and staring at him. Looking around the room at his stuffed animal trophies adds to his tension and he collapses out of his wheelchair from a heart attack. The frogs croak louder and louder as they hop over his corpse. The final shot shows all the lights in the mansion flickering out for good. A post-credit scene shows an animated frog swallowing a human hand before hopping off-screen.
L² Scored: 0/10
L² Comment:
OMG~ this is such a rubbish horror movie that I have watch lately... Not only the whole idea is stupid, it definitely treat the audience as a fool as well~ sorry... i'm gonna puke now !!!
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