Locuste - L'ottava piaga

I have made no secret of disliking SyFy's movies, but I still watch them to see if they ever make anything tolerable. They've made a few, but a vast majority of them are not worth bothering with. And that is the case with Wild Swarms, which has everything I hate about SyFy and more. The acting is really uninspired, even from Jeff Fahey, who has saved a bad movie more than once but not this time, with David Keith trying and failing to give credibility to a one-dimensional and stereotypical a villain as you could get and Dan Cortese a wooden lead. The rest of the characters are also clichéd and none of them are likable in any way. Wild Swarms is also badly made, I have often criticised SyFy's films for having choppy or hackneyed editing, Wild Swarms's editing is an insult to those words, while the special effects, of which the film is heavily reliant on, are terrible never once coming across as believable. The dialogue is cheesy and stilted, the direction is lazy and the story is predictable, often ridiculous and with all the morality I am going to set a task to find a more preachy SyFy movie than this one, my prediction is that I'm never going to find it. Overall, an awful movie that is difficult to begin criticising as everything is wrong with it. 1/10 Bethany Cox

A swarm of bio-engineered locusts escape from a research centre in Bulgaria - sorry, I mean Idaho - and have a taste not for crops but for flesh! I expected this to be yet another bad Sci Fi creature feature and while this is hardly a good film I certainly would not call it terrible either, hence my 5/10. Acting wise the leads - Dan Cortese, Jeff Fahey & Julie Benz - do a good enough job. Some of the minor roles were played by Europeans & this does show. Lots of cheap CGI here including helicopters (I've seen more realistic ones on video games). Plenty of gaffs too - many of the vehicles are obviously European; there's a scene where our hero is driving along a dirt track but when the camera is inside his vehicle it's obvious that it was filmed on a proper road, buildings & other vehicles are visible. What I do like about this film is that it's not played with tongue in cheek, nor is it unintentionally fun. It's actually played straight & when the locust descend on human victims it is done efectively to scare.

This film is mainly fine for 'made for TV' fare. The biggest problem with this movie is the horrendous cgi effects. If it were not for the absolutely unwatchable special effects, "Locusts" would be worth it for the guilty pleasure factor. I will say that I am notoriously forgiving with regard to horror films. If I was entertained at all, I figure the movie did the job for which it was intended. I would have found this one very entertaining on the level of schlocky monster of the week movies, were it not for the extremely poor use of cgi. If you have nothing better to do and happen to find it on sci-fi... go ahead and give it a watch. There is enough unintended comedy to make use of a pizza and a couple of sodas or beers.

The Sci-Fi Channel has once again cranked out another "made for TV" movie in their tired formula of species versus human engagements. As the film title indicates, the locusts have the honor of being man's nemesis this time.

A good director, cast, crew, writer, et al could have made this a passable piece of entertainment, but alas not in this case. The writing is predictable. The editing and photography are generic. The special effects are far, far from special. These scenes are particularly disappointing for a science fiction movie. While acceptable for a student film or a sci-fi spoof, they lack believability and appear to indicate a project with a meager budget.

David Keith does a good job as Gary Wolf, the corporate head. He has become a staple of The Sci-Fi Channel's flicks. Among this swarm of bad acting, he is a welcome relief, but has a limited amount of screen time.

Dan Cortese is very disappointing as Colt, the organic researcher and "good guy." His performance was stilted and uninspiring.

However, this is not unique in this film that lacks originality and recycles old themes. The evil cooperation versus the little guy. The government drone versus the civilian. The testosterone toxic military type versus the rebel. The industry versus the environmentalist. The geneticists verses the organic farmers. ... The banal list continues culminating in the human versus species of the week theme that is reflected in the title.

If you have a free moment with nothing to do and are bored out of your mind, consider this as a possible option.

Deep in rural Idaho, a swarm of genetically-enhanced Locusts escape from the government lab that they're being held in to wreck havoc on and eat the skin of pretty much everything they come across. It's up to local organic pesticide inventor Colt (Dan Cortese AKA: Dan Dan the Whopper Man Aka: Tony the Mimbo) and his girlfriend, Vicky (Dexter's Julie Benz, who should've known better) to find a way to take care of this '8th Plaque'

Filled to the brim with extremely hokey CGI (locust, blood, helicopters & even fire) and not much else, this is definitely not one of the better Sci-Fi Original films (I outright refuse to use the word 'SyFy') that I've seen by a long shot. The acting is bad all the way around, a very unconvincing story, and the fact that the film goes on too long all combine to make a rather unpleasant viewing experience for anyone, like myself, gullible enough to sit through it. David Keith should have been a Lord of Discipline and said no to his role in the film as both he and Jeff Fahey embarrass themselves here.

My Grade: D-

Image Entertainment DVD Extras: 3 short (and rather lame) 'before & after' special effects shots