Frogs

PETA is probably the last thing anyone wants to think about when watching a mindless horror movie, but the militant animal rights group's influence is impossible to escape when watching "Frogs," a B movie depicting an upper-crust Southern family's destruction at the hands of the titular creatures and a host of other creepy-crawly reptiles from the adjoining swamps. The human-animal death ratio is roughly 12:1, and the movie presents itself as a cautionary tale of how nature strikes back when humans push her long and far enough with pollution.

The Crockett family presides over tracks of swamp and forest land in the American South that act as home to a number of exotic creatures. The family's patriarch, Jason Crockett (Ray Milland), hosts an annual celebration every July 4 to mark his and his country's birthday. This year, the Crocketts have an unexpected guest: Pickett Smith (Sam Elliott), a nature photographer who is invited to the festivities when Jason's drunkard son, Clint (Adam Roarke), tips over Pickett's canoe with his speedboat.

Shortly after Pickett's arrival, strange events begin besieging the Crockett compound. The telephone lines are dead, and hundreds of frogs move in herds ever closer to the house. Even as his kin become unnerved, and many members of the household disappear, though, Jason obstinately forbids anyone to leave, threatening them with disownment and exclusion from his will if they "betray" him.

To put it bluntly, "Frogs" is probably one of the most boring horror films ever committed to celluloid. Director George McCowan and screenwriter Robert Hutchison create no sense of tension or atmosphere, plopping wild animal attacks whenever it seems enough screen time and inane exposition has elapsed for one more cast member to die.

However, to be fair, this movie is one of wasted potential. Pickett's time with the Crocketts could have acted as a slow-burn introduction into a dark, Southern Gothic-style world of intrigue and deceit, juxtaposing the family's dirty secrets with nature's coming blitzkrieg.

It's also interesting to note that the frogs play a role very akin to the pigs in George Orwell's "Animal Farm." Though they are depicted in the title and all promotional materials for the film as being the principal antagonists who engage in the bloodletting, the frogs simply exert a presence of dread on the other characters; they are always around, but never attack. Lizards, snakes, spiders, alligators and even the odd snapping turtle are responsible for all of the onscreen deaths. Apparently, the film is named for the frogs because they masterminded the revolution against the Crocketts while never getting their slimy little paws dirty.

Unfortunately, these are not the angles the filmmakers chose to explore. And, thanks to the pacing, "Turtles" would have been a much more appropriate amphibian to serve as the film's namesake.