The quiet town of North Port is being overrun by cockroaches! Sheriff Tarbell (
Franc Luz)
believes that genetic experiments being conducted by the INTEC
Corporation are the cause. Confronted with a potential disaster, Mayor
Johnson (
Robert Lansing) calls for help. When Dr. Hubbard (
Terri Treas) from INTEC arrives,
she realizes that an innocent experiment has gone terribly wrong.
Ordinary cockroaches are turning into creatures with a taste for blood.
Worse, the roaches are genetically mutating... literally becoming
whatever they eat!
Review: The Nest is another one of those films that always had the cover that stood out in the horror VHS section of my local video store when I was a kid, especially a woman in her underwear that looks like she being strangled by a cockroach and about to be raped by it. Of course a cover like that was made to catch attention because that never happens in this film. Instead you get a pretty skin crawling film about an advanced race of roaches that have a unquenchable thirst for blood and flesh. If your like me then you absolutely hate roaches and really for that it makes this film that much more frightening and creepy.
Like a decent amout of nature versus humans films out there you do get some B grade horror here, but that only goes so far because even with a silly plot of killer cockroaches you get some damn good scares as well as pretty good acting and dialogue. Since I had not seen this film since I was probably ten I thought The Nest was horror with a comedic twist to it, but what you actually get is a straight up horror flick that has a few good twists and some very grotesque gore effects. The main characters are a small bunch that have one thing or another in common with each other that helps to move the story along as well as setup a few twists to change the direction of the film. One thing I found that added to the feel of the film was that it takes place on a small island which adds to the feeling of doom because ever which way you turn there are the killer roaches.
I found my skin crawling many many times while watching which I liked because I want the film to creep me out and make me feel unsettled. Like I said before the gore effects are quite grotesque, there is a scene where one of the characters is attacked by a horde of roaches and is turned into a human and roach hybrid being that was very frightening actually. Some viewers may look at this film as just another B horror film with a silly plot and nothing more than a few gore scenes. Personally I think this is not like that as you probably already guessed. If you like films that are in this sub-genre of horror then I think you should give this film a serious chance and pick this release up.
Now when it comes to the presentation like the other releases from Scream Factory/Shout! Factory that I have reviewed before this one looks excellent. Both the Blu-ray and DVD look great. The film overall is quite cleaned up and clear. The audio consists of it's original Mono score that is in a DTS HD Master Audio Mono for the Blu-ray and a Dolby Digital Mono for the DVD. One thing I do want to mention that the only thing I really didn't like about The Nest was the horrible score of crappy synth sounds. The only special feature is an audio commentary by director Terence H. Winkles.
-Daniel "Damnation" Lee
Director: Terence H. Winkles
Genre: Horror
Blu-ray Release Year: 2013
Theatrical Release Year:1987
Time Length: 87 mins.
Company: Scream Factory (Shout! Factory)
ADDITIONAL SCREENSHOTS:
