Larva

Okay this is my first review. Till now I have never had the need to write one but this movie was too much for me.

The only reason I watched it to the end is because I put on it 5% of my brain. The other 95% was focused on working on my laptop.

I would like to say I have no problem with bad movies, usually I even enjoy them. The problem is when a really bad movie takes himself death seriously. Then you got a crime.

The main flaw of Larva is a really bad, absurd, lame, boring script *PLUS* the director shot it thinking he was going to make Alien. You get colored shots (T2 - blue, Matrix - green, Larva - Yellow), good non-cgi special effects, and acceptable acting. But instead of working for the movie it all goes against it.

About the script... where to begin? Well the intro scene is so stupid one has to choose between instantly forgetting it or immediately stopping the player. The whole movie is plagued with the most stupid lines I have ever heard. Just a quick example: typical running_away_from_the_monster scene. One can expect to see someone getting back to get his asthma thing, to warn someone, whatever. But never, never, never, "to get my candy". "TO GET MY CANDY" !?!

To finish with the review... to say that the script doesn't deliver what was promised would be a bad joke. Take this concept, multiply it by one trillion and you get Larba's ending.

2/10

A leading meat-providing corporation takes a turn for the worst when an experiment involving seeds that beef-up cattle end up creating mutant creatures within the stomach's of those who ingest the beef. I caught "Larva" by accident this afternoon, sat down and watched it and was reasonably impressed. The plot offers nothing new, that's for sure. You've got your usual collection of characters--the greedy company CEO, the disbelieving sheriff, the throw-away creature fodder victims, etc. the film is also quite predictable. But the technical aspects of the film are well done. Director Tim Cox's visual style is strong and adds lots of credibility to the films. I loved the yellow-golden Cinematography that he bathes the film in. Acting is all-around decent, especially William Forsythe who's quite amusing as the clichéd wacko farmer. The special effects were pretty neat. Once we actually see the creatures, their somewhat disappointing, kind of like a Horseshoe crab spliced with a sting ray. Sounds pretty cool, looks rather silly and unbelievable. The make-up effects were quite impressive. Don't be fooled by the fact it's a made-for-cable monster movie, it's gory as hell (Can't wait for the DVD release). I dug all the yucky parasite business as well.

Despite the clichéd plot and characters, it's a pretty decent, watchable movie, especially for fans of gore. Worth a viewing.

6/10.

Best line: "Um, sheriff, their's aliens in my backyard. They look like kites."

Larva (2005) is a movie that I recently watched on Tubi. The storyline follows some experiments on larva that get out of the lab and into the local cattle. As the cattle are slaughtered and turned into meat for the locals the cattle might not be the only ones infected by the parasites.

This movie is directed by Abram Cox (Mammoth) and stars Vincent Ventresca (The Invisible Man), Rachel Hunter (The Benchwarmers), William Forsythe (Raising Arizona) and Mercedes Peterson (Rattlers 2).

This has one of those predictable storylines where the entire movie you're waiting for the "experiment gone wrong" explanation. The acting is better than the writing and the dialogue is frustrating at times. The horror scenes are disappointing and the CGI isn't very good. The kills are just okay, which is too bad because there's a worthwhile concept buried deep in here.

Overall, this had a worthwhile premise that with better execution could have been very good. Unfortunately this falls short of its potential. I would score this a 3/10 and recommend skipping it.

Another evil conspiracy is in the works. This time it's a rich guy who owns a beef distibuting company, in league with genetic engineers, trying to make his product sell more, or better, or something. In any event, they're messing with the beef, by treating it with some kind of parasite. Guess what? Something goes wrong, and the parasites go on a rampage.

It's actually creepy and scary enough to work, in spite of the recycled plot devices. The movie offers exploding stomachs (Alien), the conspirators covering up their actions at the expense of more lives (X Files), dumb sheriffs (lots of movies), and dumber townspeople (also lots of movies). There's also lots of bloody bodies, both humans and creatures. The acting is fairly decent, and the quasi-bat like design of the rapidly proliferating monsters is ugly enough for this sort of flick. The action is paced rather well, gory scenes balanced with scientific analysis exposition, even some "Don't look behind that door!" type stuff. Of course, they run the obligatory victim mauling scenes, including the usual couple-making-out-gets-killed routine.

All in all, a capably managed low budget horror movie, which manages a fair number of good old fashioned scares.

The plot here is typical of its genre, experiments gone bad, quick-witted scientist/good guy, action side-kicks, a few silly teenagers caught up in it all. Unlike a lot of monster movies of its day you don't have to wait right to the end to see the monster, or the monster growing up, so to speak, and toward the end the thrills do start flying, so to speak. The actors are good, well cast. The horror is gory and plenty of splatter, though the tension needed to be better done. That might have been achieved with better film, but perhaps that was just my dvd, which seemed to have been bleached of some clarity and the colour blue (everything seemed to be a 'midwest red'). It's not a bad movie, though one can't approach it with too much anticipation, and certainly if one is into collecting classic monster movies, then you do need a copy of Larva, if only for a look at Rod Stewart's old girlfriend.