Director: Jeff Lieberman
Year: 1976
Country: USA
Alternate Titles: N/A
Genre: Nature-Run-Amok
Plot:
After a devastating rainstorm, a small Georgia town learns that downed power lines have seeped into the mud around town and charged a swarm of worms living there into ravenous killers, forcing the locals to band together to fight the creatures off.
Review:
This one here wasn't all that bad and really has some solid and enjoyable qualities to it. One of the film's better features is the fact that there's a rather exciting series of action scenes which are quite fun and wholly enjoyable. Setting the stage for this, as well as initiating the story proper, is the opening storm, which is a nice bit of spectacle with the tumbling towers and spark-showering explosions going off that makes for a rousing opening here. As well, there's the great attack on the couple out fishing were attacked and swarmed over by the creatures as we see them dangling from their wounds and sores, a chilling encounter in the bathroom where they pour out of the shower faucet preventing a character from showering with the creatures and the thrilling sequence of the creatures eating through a tree stump and sending it crashing into a nearby house while numerous residents are still inside, pondering their next move, which is a nice overall shock.
Other fun attacks include the nice brawl between the characters in the forest as well as the series of small attacks around town, from the couple in the jail cell to the diner swarming, which is all a prelude to the utter fun of the finale's house assault, as there's a lot of fun to be had with the completely oblivious set-up of the worms arriving in various sections of the house and appearing without them realizing it, which is all where the different searches are all mixed together with the action and escapes, all making for a really exciting scene.
These elements here all help to make the film so much fun and offset the few rather troubling flaws present. One of the film's biggest issues is the fact that there's just such a long set-up to the worms appearing that there's little of interest throughout this section. Though this is a problem caused by the fact that the film doesn't really have a true storyline that supports this kind of pace, there's still plenty of overlong scenes that just go by without much of any kind of interest during this section, as the setup of their investigations isn't really all that interesting, with them wandering around the town, which doesn't have a whole lot of interest.
These here make for a rather troubling beginning here and hold off the interesting parts for a longer time than it really should, though again that's also due to the extended storyline used. Along with these problems, there's also the fact that the storyline about the disgruntled former boyfriend coming back to torment him over and over again isn't really all that interesting and takes out some of the suspense in the finale by continuing on that storyline rather than dealing with the far more interesting giant worm attacks. These are what hold this one back.
Overview: ***.5/5
A fun if slightly flawed creature feature, there's some really worthwhile factors to be had here which makes this fun enough that overcomes but never completely diminishes the flaws present here. Those with an appreciation for this kind of genre fare, who are fine with the issues present, or who are fans of the creative crew will have the most to like here, while most others should heed caution.
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