The Nest takes place in a small New England town that is overrun by genetically engineered killer cockroaches. The local sheriff (Luz) joins forces with his former girlfriend (Langlois) and a pest control agent (Stephen Davies) to defeat the carnivorous insects. The film was released in the United States on May 13, 1988, by Concorde Pictures, and received mixed reviews from critics.
Plot
Richard Tarbell, the sheriff of a small island town called North Port, wakes up one morning to find several cockroaches in his house. He goes to the airport to pick up Elizabeth Johnson, the daughter of town mayor Elias Johnson and a former girlfriend of Richard, who is returning from a four-year absence in time for her father's birthday. Strange occurrences happen around the town—the bindings of every book in the local library have been damaged, and several dogs have been reduced to bloody carcasses.
Dr. Morgan Hubbard arrives in town to investigate the dog deaths. She places a trap containing a live cat as bait; a number of cockroaches are lured to the trap, wherein they attack and devour the cat. While Hubbard studies the insects, Elizabeth visits the local diner, owned by Richard's current girlfriend, Lillian. Homer, the local pest control agent, attempts to exterminate some cockroaches inside the establishment.
Hubbard notes that the cockroaches can reproduce asexually, and her hand is wounded by cockroach bites as she studies them. She sprays the insects with rotenone, but is only able to kill them using a dosage also lethal to humans. Elias suggests they evacuate the island, but Hubbard persuades him not to. Meanwhile, Richard shows a number of small objects found on a dog carcass to Homer, who identifies them as Periplaneta droppings. Richard's secretary Millie informs him that Hubbard worked in genetics at MIT, and that she performed illegal experiments.
Elizabeth ventures into a cave and discovers equipment belonging to INTEC, a corporation with whom Elias made a deal to develop the island. After being chased from the cave by flesh-eating cockroaches, she and Richard confront Elias and Hubbard. When Elias demands that Richard cease his investigations, Richard resigns from his position as sheriff. At the diner, an employee named Church is eaten alive by cockroaches. Elsewhere, Homer finds his friend Jake dead, with cockroaches crawling on his corpse. At Richard's house, Richard and Elizabeth find the bathroom toilet swarming with cockroaches. The local librarian, Mrs. Pennington, is attacked in bed by the insects. This goes unnoticed by her niece, who was staying with her for the summer, as her headphones cancel the screams of Mrs. Pennington.
Elias calls Mr. Hauser, a representative at INTEC, and demands that they take action against the cockroaches, or else he will reveal information to the national media. Hauser agrees to spray the island with lethal insecticide at 5a.m. Elias adds that if residents are unable to evacuate, they will turn on the local lighthouse beam; if the beam is on, they are not to spray the island. Hubbard notices that cockroach egg capsules which survived the rotenone have hatched, and are now immune to the chemical.
Richard finds both Millie and Lillian dead. Homer, in an attempt to kill cockroaches, accidentally sets a flammable insecticide aflame, causing his own house to explode. Richard and Homer confront Hubbard, who reveals that INTEC created a species of cockroach designed to eat other cockroaches and then die after one generation; however, the engineered cockroaches did not die after one generation. In order to prevent INTEC from spraying the island and thereby making the eggs located in a nest in the cave immune to the spray, Richard and Homer set out to turn the lighthouse beam on.
Elias and Elizabeth are attacked by cockroaches in Elias's home. Richard, Homer, and Hubbard find a cat-cockroach hybrid that attacks Richard and is crushed by Homer. Here it is revealed that cockroaches after a while genetically mutate into whatever mishmash forms of preys they ate. Elias is killed by the cockroaches and returns as a human-cockroach hybrid, which Elizabeth kills using a shotgun. Elizabeth and Hubbard drive to the cave and find the insects' nest. Richard follows them there, while Homer heads to the lighthouse. In the cave, Hubbard is killed by a queen cockroach-human hybrid. Elizabeth and Richard detonate an explosive inside the cave, incinerating all killer insects lured into the cave and Homer turns on the lighthouse beam, stopping INTEC from spraying the island.
However, before the screen fades to black one cockroach is seen in close-up, indicating that one mutant cockroach survived and the cycle of terror will start over again in time.
The filmmakers used 2,000 flying cockroaches during filming at Quicksilver Studios in Venice, Los Angeles. When some of the insects escaped into nearby dressing rooms, the American Humane Association were unable to assist them as the organization must be contacted prior to shooting on matters concerning insects.[1][3] The cockroaches had been provided by World of Animals.[3]
Lead actress, Lisa Langlois afterwards expressed her disdain for the movie poster used for The Nest, which showed a woman in underwear being ravaged by a giant cockroach, and pointed out that her character appeared in no such scene. She complained that the poster made it look like she was being seduced by a giant cockroach. "I think as a woman," she said, "I was feeling really exploited. But now...I can laugh at it."[4]
Release
Critical response
The film received a mixed response from film critics.[1] Candice Russell of the Sun-Sentinel wrote: "Fulfilling the promise of The Hellstrom Chronicle, The Nest is a roach rout. It's no masterpiece, but in the last 40 minutes, fans of the genre get their money's worth."[5] The Los Angeles Times' Leonard Klady praised Winkless' direction and King's screenplay, noting that the film "hatches its clever plot extremely successfully."[6] Writing for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Michael H. Price gave the film a score of seven out of ten, commending its special effects and calling it an "unusually well-made cheapo shockeroo" that "pumps enough vigor into a tired subgenre [...] to make the old nature-gone-haywire premise seem fresh."[7]
Ed Bank of The Pittsburgh Press awarded the film one-and-a-half stars, criticizing its storyline as being "too familiar."[8] A reviewer for the New York Daily News wrote that the film "broke little in the way of new bug-movie ground."[1]
In 2013, Jon Abrams of Daily Grindhouse thought the film was enjoyable, though not inventive; he wrote, "The Nest is neither the first nor the best horror film about killer cockroaches, and it doesn't rank with the likes of the final segment of Creepshow or Jeannot Szwarc's Bug in terms of 'ew' factor, but it's still an enjoyable little flick even if it doesn't do much to forward the genre."[9]
Roach bait is a modern pest control used for the extermination of cockroaches at indoor locations. The effectiveness of this method of pest control exploits the cannibalistic and coprophagic tendencies of cockroaches.
Ailsa Craig is an island of 99 ha in the outer Firth of Clyde, 16 km west of mainland Scotland, upon which microgranite has long been quarried to make curling stones. The now-uninhabited island comprises the remains of a magmatic pluton formed during the same period of igneous activity as magmatic rocks on the nearby Isle of Arran.
Creepshow is a 1982 American horror comedy anthology film directed by George A. Romero and written by Stephen King, making this film his screenwriting debut. The film's ensemble cast includes Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, Fritz Weaver, Leslie Nielsen, Carrie Nye, E. G. Marshall, Viveca Lindfors, Ted Danson and Ed Harris, as well as King himself. The film was primarily shot on location in Pittsburgh and its suburbs, including Monroeville, where Romero leased an old boys' academy to build extensive sets for the film.
Claire Littleton is a fictional character played by Emilie de Ravin on the ABC drama television series Lost, which chronicles the lives of the survivors of a plane crash in the South Pacific. Claire is introduced in the pilot episode as a pregnant crash survivor. She is a series regular until her disappearance in the fourth season finale. The character returned as a regular in the sixth season.
Blattodea is an order of insects that contains cockroaches and termites. Formerly, termites were considered a separate order, Isoptera, but genetic and molecular evidence suggests they evolved from within the cockroach lineage, cladistically making them cockroaches as well. The Blattodea and the mantis are now all considered part of the superorder Dictyoptera. Blattodea includes approximately 4,400 species of cockroach in almost 500 genera, and about 3,000 species of termite in around 300 genera.
Cockroaches are insects belonging to the order Blattodea (Blattaria). About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known pests.
Frankenstein Unbound is a 1990 science fiction horror film based on Brian Aldiss' 1973 novel of the same name, starring John Hurt, Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda, Jason Patric, and Nick Brimble. The film is co-written and directed by Roger Corman, returning to the director's chair after a hiatus of almost fifteen years. This is his final film as a director before his death in 2024. He was paid $1 million to direct.
Cape Poge Wildlife Refuge is a wildlife refuge on Chappaquiddick Island owned and managed by The Trustees of Reservations. The refuge consists of 516 acres (2.09 km2) and includes the 1893 Cape Poge Lighthouse.
Bloodfist is a 1989 American martial arts film directed by Terence H. Winkless, starring Don "The Dragon" Wilson, Rob Kaman, Billy Blanks and Cris Aguilar. The plot sees an American former kickboxer travel to Manila, where he re-enters competition to avenge the murder of his brother and fellow fighter.
Tormented is a 1960 American horror film directed and produced by Bert I. Gordon for Allied Artists Pictures Corporation, and starring Richard Carlson. The film was featured in the fourth season of the television series Mystery Science Theater 3000.
White Wolves II: Legend of the Wild is a 1996 American coming-of-age survival drama film directed by Terence H. Winkless and starring Ele Keats, Elizabeth Berkley and Jeremy London. It is the second straight-to-video sequel to A Cry in the Wild. The plot follows a group of troubled teenagers trying to survive in the wilderness of the Cascade Mountains.
Terence H. Winkless is an American producer, director, actor and writer of motion pictures and television, and a cast member of The Banana Splits Adventure Hour, playing Bingo the Gorilla, also a cast member in Trade Routes, and Goreyan Nu Daffa Karo, among others.
Henry Guernsey Hubbard was an American entomologist and horticulturist. He was both a field entomologist and an applied entomologist. He is most noted for the work he did to identify and control the agricultural pests in the Florida citrus industry. He was also an early pioneer in the study of cave insects.
They Nest is a 2000 American science fiction horror film directed by Ellory Elkayem and starring Thomas Calabro, Dean Stockwell, John Savage, and Kristen Dalton.
Tower of Evil is a 1972 British horror film directed and written by Jim O'Connolly and starring Bryant Haliday and Jill Haworth.
The Man in Black is the main antagonist of the American ABC television series Lost. He appeared as a cloud of black smoke until the final episode of season five where he appeared as a middle-aged man dressed in black. In season six, he appeared in the physical form of John Locke. He exhibited the ability to scan the minds and memories of others, allowing him to confront characters such as Mr. Eko and Ben Linus, with "judgement", and assume the appearances and memories of the dead, such as Christian Shephard, Yemi, Alex Rousseau, and Locke. According to Jacob, it is the incarnation of evil, and its primary goal—to escape from the island—would be the "end of everything good".
Swarmed is a 2005 Canadian film directed by Paul Ziller and starring Michael Shanks as a scientist trying to save a town from yellow jacket wasps. The film was made for television by Sci Fi Pictures. It first aired on April 6, 2005.
Last Day of the Dinosaurs is a 2010 Discovery Channel television documentary about the K-T extinction, which resulted in the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. It portrays the Alvarez hypothesis as the cause of extinction. The documentary was released on August 28, 2010 and narrated by Bill Mondy.
The Dreaming is a 1988 Australian horror film directed by Mario Andreacchio and starring Arthur Dignam, Penny Cook, and Gary Sweet.
Terra Formars is a 2016 Japanese science fiction film directed by Takashi Miike and based on the manga series of the same name by Yū Sasuga & Kenichi Tachibana. It was released in Japan on Friday, April 29, 2016.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
