The Beginning is the End is the End of the Beginning

Title:  Beginning of the End

Actors/Director/Anything Worth Mentioning Right Away:  This movie has a young Peter Graves in it and is directed by Bert I. Gordon, who is apparently a great B movie director.

Introduction:  I got this movie from the library because as much as the case made a claim for it to be a horror movie, I knew it had B movie in it somewhere. 

Location:  It takes place in a town where 150 people disappeared.  It had some sort of budget for location, but not a big one.

Plot:  So there’s this place that’s using radioactive chemicals to make food bigger (like tomatoes) and some locusts happened to sneak into this place and get in the stuff.   So now there are these giant locusts running around and they’re PISSED.   Okay, the really funny part about this movie- which comes in at a whopping hour and seventeen minutes, by the way- is that the main scientist guy (who is played by Peter Graves) tells the reporter lady basically how the chemicals cause the food to get bigger.   It’s not so much a movie as it is a tenth grade science class.   It really doesn’t work on any level because science nerds are going “Duh, I don’t need this explained to me” while everyone else is saying “Less talking, more giant bugs!!”  (I was saying the latter)  The basic plot of this movie is a tale as old as time- man has created a monster it cannot control and now it has to figure out how to destroy said monster before the monster destroys mankind.   In this particular movie, the monster just happens to be giant locusts.  It’s really the best selling point for this movie.  Forget everything else; just think “Giant sized B movie bugs, hooray!”

Acting:  It’s not that bad, actually, which is kind of scary.   Okay, maybe the female lead isn’t all that great, but Peter Graves naturally does his job well.

Production:  This movie puzzles me because it was made in 1957.  It’s black and white, but I can’t tell if it looks fake because that’s just the best technology they could afford or if it was just the best technology at the time.   I’m going to meet somewhere in the middle though and say it’s a little bit of both.

Sex/Nudity:  No, not in this time frame, pal.

Special Effects:  This movie does what most B movies do (or movies of that time, I suppose) and uses perspective with the green screen effect to make ordinary sized bugs seem much, much larger.  Much of the movie is shot with the bugs outside an office window, which you can clearly tell is like an entirely different movie going on in the background.   I have decided- thanks to this movie though- that if I do ever decide to make a movie, even a short, it will be in this style partially to pay tribute to those who came before me and mostly because it’s hilarious.  There is one scene in particular where the locusts are climbing up the buildings.   You can tell that basically there is a picture of some buildings with the locusts just walking across it, and then it’s changed for perspective.   It’s a shot I could easily make with my cats or any animal to make them seem giant—it’s just a matter of how big the picture is.   The thing with this scene though is that the two buildings are uneven, so when the two locusts reach the same point one of them still looks to be crawling up the side of the building while the other appears to be somewhat floating in space/resting on things that aren’t big enough to support it.   You’ve gotta love it.

Overall Verdict:  This movie has a lot of talking and rather boring parts in the beginning, but once it finds its stride it’s definitely worth watching the locust effects.   However, I should note that by no means is this movie scary, only funny.   There is also this somewhat disturbing noise (even to my ears) that the locusts make.  It disturbed most of my cats that were in earshot and, yeah, it’s not something you want to hear at high volumes.   Off to watch other Bert I. Gordon movies now, as you should also do after seeing this.