“Well maybe you oughta try making love to a complete
stranger in the middle of a hostile mutant territory and see how you like it!”
The 1980s saw (for a time at least) the last terrifying hurrah of the
threat posed by global nuclear decimation as slamming a fist upon the red
button gave way to deals, draw-downs, and perestroika. At the time, however,
the possibility of a radioactive apocalypse was still very real – perhaps as
real as it had been since the Cuban Missile Crisis (as detailed in Joe
Dante's Matinee) – and as such, the topic was ripe for plundering to
form the basis of many genre pictures that did gang busters business on the
video rental circuit. With the likes of Creepozoids (David DeCoteau,
1987), the atomic paranoia of the real world painted a bleak future to be
expressed on the silver screen – and sometimes that included gun-toting
man-sized frog men on the hunt for fertile women, as was the case with Hell
Comes To Frogtown...
Click “READ MORE” below to continue the review and see more
screenshots…
“In the latter days of the 20th Century
there arose a difference of opinion. In just ten days 10,000 years of human
progress was virtually blown to dust.” Mankind's situation is dark: a
nuclear war has resulted in the deaths of 68% of all men on the planet, and
fallout has left almost all of the population sterile. Now, the front line is
less about guns and bullets and more about heading south of the belt line in
search of strong swimmers. Plissken-ish rogue Sam Hell ('Rowdy' Roddy Piper,
They Live, in his first movie role) is in deep trouble with the law
after being caught in the sack with the daughter of Captain Devlin (William
Smith, Any Which Way You Can). However, when she surprisingly
becomes pregnant, the women of Medtech – where 'making babies is our only
business' – intervene and commandeer Sam's fun zone as government property,
replete with a chastity belt ready to shock him into submission should he get
out of line.
“On the other hand, I've always been a patriot.”
Lead by Spangle (Sandahl Bergman, All That Jazz), Sam ventures
into the wasteland to rescue a contingent of 'passives' who strayed into
'greener' territory and got themselves hauled into the harem of Commander Toty
(Brian Frank), a ribbiting war lord overseeing a lawless 'reservation'
for mutants. Their journey will be a perilous one, and more tiring that Sam
initially thinks, as he's tasked with maintaining his potency and honouring his
government contract to impregnate under less-than-romantic circumstances.
“I'm not a machine you can turn on and off whenever
you want to, you know.” Ambitiously stretching the limits of its modest
budget, Hell Comes To Frogtown is the cinematic equivalent of having
your cake and eating it too. Diving head first into gender politics, this
post-nuclear war society is run by the surviving women after most of the men
were slain on the battlefield, but never fear, because lingerie survived
the bomb, too! Playing with an odd couple dynamic between Sam and Spangle,
screenwriter Randall Frakes (story co-credit by Donald G. Jackson)
inverts gender roles – look no further than the machine-gun toting Centinella (Cec
Verrell) – while still playing it sexy for the young men in the audience –
again, look no further than Centinella in her short-shorts and figure-hugging
camo tank top! This was, naturally, never going to be a worthy piece of
hand-wringing academic discussion, but it does illustrate the power that
exploitation films have: you can enjoy yourselves and insert all kinds
of socio-political comment without turning into a pompous arse adorned with
over-sized spectacles and an exceedingly conservative haircut. Here in Frogtown
everyone gets to kick ass – from Sam's wrestlemania-esque tussles to Spangle's
leg-crossing answer to the 'dance of the three snakes'.
“I gotta tell you, you're one weird dude.” The
limits of the budget are evident throughout, but only in terms of scope when it
comes to the spectacle. The creature designs by Steve Wang are gleefully fun to
behold on screen from Toty's glistening and animated close-ups to the
chainsaw-wielding antics of second-in-command Bull (Nicholas Worth, Don't Answer The Phone). The car chase in the climax might only amount to two
vehicles yomping around the desert with a few explosions scattered about, but
how could anyone not enjoy the sight of a 6ft 4inch mutant frog snarling atop
an off-road truck as it roars in the wake of a modified pink hot rod with a
blazing machine gun mounted to the roof?
“Eat lead, froggies!” Bolstered by a game
supporting cast – including Kristi Somers as exotic dancer/frog woman Arabella,
and Rory Calhoun's ageing dweller of the wasteland Loony Tunes – this action comedy
could have used a few extra dollars in its production pockets, but the clash of
real-world nuclear fear and B-Movie entertainment make for a thoroughly
enjoyable 87 minutes that strikes out from the heart of the VHS rental era
where all kinds of weird and wonderful films could be found on a display
surrounded by dozens of other such movies, all of their outrageous covers
screaming for your attention.
“There's a flap.” Arrow Video's Blu-Ray
presentation features a generally solid audio/video presentation. Any problems
come down to the original production – such as some murky bits of absent sound
design, or the odd soft-focus shot – but Arrow do their tried-and-true best to
give the viewers an impressive-looking flick in high definition 1.78:1 widescreen
(note that these screenshots are from a trailer I dug up on YouTube – I
don't have a Blu-Ray drive from which to capture images). The extras are a
smidge on the lean side with three interviews, amounting to roughly 50 minutes,
accompanying an extended scene and a trailer. The interviews include Brian
Frank (Commander Toty), Steve Wang (creature creator), and Roddy
Piper (Sam Hell) and each interviewee assumes a warm affection for the
film, with Piper delivering some humorous dispatches from behind the scenes
with a wry sense of self-awareness.
N.B. Screenshots are not sourced from the Arrow Video Blu-Ray (obviously), as I don't have a Blu-Ray drive from which to capture screenshots from the actual source. To see screenshots and more technical specs about the Arrow Video HD release, visit DVDBeaver.
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