Verdict
Summary
Goofy on the surface, but with some early ecological subtext making it more relevant today than it likely was in the early ’70s, Frogs takes its sweet time to get warmed up, and it sometimes feels like a Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie come to life, which can be fun if you’re in the mood for it.
Plot:
A photographer is waylaid on the estate of a wealthy landowner, whose property is overrun with angry creatures.
Review:
Ecology photographer Pickett Smith (Sam Elliot) is out on a canoe during the Fourth of July weekend, taking photos of the watery grounds belonging to a crotchety, wheelchair-bound millionaire named Jason Crockett (Ray Milland) who takes offense that anyone would be trespassing on his land without permission. Fate lands Pickett an audience with Crockett when one of Crockett’s sons almost has a boating accident with Pickett, and without much choice but to go along with it, Pickett finds himself in the middle of a big Independence Day / birthday celebration that Crockett is hosting for his family. Pickett is sent on an errand to help find the missing groundskeeper who’d been spraying pesticides in the woods, and that’s when he finds not only the dead groundskeeper, but a host of creepy crawly creatures that range from frogs, snakes, lizards, and even spiders, some of which have perished from the poisons sprayed on the property. When Picket returns with the bad news, Crockett’s home is already beginning to show signs of infestations: snakes are in the kitchen, frogs are tapping against the windows, and Crockett’s guests start freaking out. When one of Crockett’s other grown sons dies when a bunch of lizards cause his asphyxiation, Pickett warns everyone that it’s time to leave because nature is fighting back against them! But Crockett is a stubborn old coot, and it won’t just be a simple exodus for this “ugly rich” family as the frogs come home to roost!
Goofy on the surface, but with some early ecological subtext making it more relevant today than it likely was in the early ’70s, Frogs takes its sweet time to get warmed up, and it sometimes feels like a Mystery Science Theater 3000 movie come to life, which can be fun if you’re in the mood for it. This was one of Sam Elliot’s first leading roles in a film, and he’s dead serious in it, not seeming to be in on the goober premise, but it looks like top-billed Milland was grinding his teeth through his every scene, likely believing he was appearing in a movie that was beneath him. If you have a fear or phobia of snakes, lizards, frogs, or spiders, this movie is full of them, but it never quite achieves plague-levels of Biblical proportions the way I expected it to. Characters die of spider bites, snakebites, and by being stupid and falling into traps the creatures set, and audiences will likely find themselves falling into a similar trap when they sit down to watch … Frogs! From director George McCowan.
Kino Lorber’s brand new Blu-ray edition of Frogs brings the film back in print, and it’s part of their new “Kino Cult” label, numbered #12 on the spine. The high definition transfer is adequate, and there’s a new audio commentary by two film historians, plus an interview with one of the actresses in the film as well as a trailer, a reversible sleeve and a slipcover.
