Director: David Willis
Year: 2020
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Creature Feature; Horror/Comedy
Plot:
Living in the middle of Los Angeles, a disgraced baseball star and his friends discover a mutated strain of gigantic cicada has arisen and are set to attack Los Angeles looking for blood and are forced to protect themselves and the remaining citizens from the creatures before they can mate and spread.
Review:
For the most part, this was a pretty fun and silly creature feature. What makes this one so fun is the inherently cheesy and goofy atmosphere which might not be appreciated by all but still has a lot to like. The opening flashback to their unleashing of the toxic chemical that mutates the creatures is the perfect idea of what to expect here as the lack of logic in how to properly handle the situation, a highly obvious low-budget approach that offers up numerous instances of outright lousy CGI and a series of over-the-top situations which favors cheesy jokes in every situation. His constant quips about the belief in the glory days of his playing career despite all evidence to the contrary, cheapskate manner and relationship with his girlfriend manages to continue the cheesy and silly atmosphere and situations present.
That leads into the series of fun and cheesy confrontations that emerge here which is what keeps this one fun with all the nice action. The first attacks in the bar and the old stripclub are quite fun with the creatures arriving and ripping their victims apart or carrying them away which is all quite fun with their generally appealing tactics trying to hold them off. With even more to like here involving the numerous shots trying to hold them off around the city with the confrontations at the police office, the abandoned factory and finally the big confrontation at the park with their mating rituals occurring in the background against the battle to stop them from spreading throughout the city. Coupled with tons of cheesy gore and a fun finale, there's quite a lot to like with this one.
There are a few issues with this one. As mentioned, the goofy atmosphere is the main problem where it’s not entirely funny for everyone out there. The fact that it manages to associate comedy with inherently stupid people making jokes or performing outrageous antics as a general outright rule for how to provide an entry in that genre means that it produces people and situations that are somewhat too stupid to live trying to survive and that can be a detrimental factor if that isn't funny. Combined with the utterly terrible CGI work that's used for the creatures or the gore which is somewhat goofy to the point of being able to distract and pull the viewer out of the scene, this is a big factor for the film even though it's intending to be a comedy with not everything hitting every time.
Overview: **/5
With a lot of cheesy, goofy creature feature action that sometimes borders on becoming somewhat unwatchable over time, this one comes off as a rather straightforward effort. This is simply for those who appreciate these cheesy comedic creature features or intrigued by this style of film, while those turned off by the flaws or general style here should heed caution.
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