The Worm Eaters

Finally I bought this old flick just to see what it is all about. To be honest, I've seen the trailer and seen how weird some shots were and otherwise how bad it was. Is it a comedy, well, can't really, say that I had a smile on my face. Well, that's maybe not true, I laughed a lot but it was with the bad acting, this is really so awful, when they have to eat something that is infected with the worms you can see them laughing and when they drop unconscious you can see them act badly. Really, this is a turkey and one that I won't recommend to anybody wasn't it for some scene's. The ones were the worms are being eaten is really gruesome. You really see real worms going into mouths. And that's the reason why it has a cult status. To say, comedy, no, or to say horror no but one to see for the, sigh, worms.

A club-footed fellow named Ungar is displaced from his home, and latterly feeds some people live worms. For some unexplained reason, these people mutate into monsters with the upper body of a human and the lower region of a wriggling earthworm(a really cheaply done effect...it looks like people wearing waist-high feed-bags).

A film which was made solely for the purpose of presenting gross-out scenes involving live worms being slurped-up into people's mouths in almost-pornographic close-up shots. It's allegedly a comedy, although I have doubts that anyone with a cranial capacity above the "Beavis and Butthead" level would ever manage to find a single frame of THE WORM EATERS worth laughing, or even smiling about. This is nothing more than a "Hey, look, everybody...aren't we weird?" piece of poorly concocted idiocy...to be curious about it is understandable, but honestly, chain yourself to a tree or something if necessary.

2.5/10

Bad-movie lovers, beware …. Your standards will have to be set extremely low in case you want to remotely enjoy Herb Robins' "The Worm Eaters". This movie, produced by one of the über-gurus of crap cinema Ted V. Mikels – is BEYOND bad! It has an irredeemably dumb plot, a totally incoherent narrative structure, humorist elements that are horrid and horror elements that are painfully hilarious. It's easily one of the worst movies ever made, and it is truly incomprehensible how the hell it managed to build up a rather solid cult status over the years. Probably this exclusively has to do with the fact that Herb Robins insisted on using real, live worms for the on screen consumption. Much of the footage is just close-ups of people (often with really terrible dental hygiene) slurping down & chewing up worms, and the only goal is to disgust and gross-out the audience. Robins himself stars as the dim-witted hermit Umgar, living in a lakeside shed in a corrupted little town. He collects and breeds worms … and then feeds them to his opponents, like the town's council members that want to evict him and reclaim the lake zone. The consumption of the worms somehow transforms people into man-worm hybrids. "The Worm Eaters" introduces a seemingly endless series of demented supportive characters and – obviously – all the actors and actresses overact incredibly. The make-up effects are pathetic, as the hybrid monsters are simply imbeciles tightly wrapped in filthy brown sleeping bags and desperately trying not to use their feet when they crawl through the mud. But, as wrong as it may sound, the film isn't entirely without merit and there really are a couple of positive elements. Like the goofy but cheerful theme music ("You'll end up eating worms"), the creative animated opening credits and some of the gags that look like Benny Hill sketches. In conclusion, "The Worm Eaters" will undoubtedly one of the most bizarre low-budget, Z-grade schlock productions you'll ever encounter, so be careful who you recommend it to.

Writer / director / star Herb Robins (the creepy carny in Tobe Hoopers' "The Funhouse") concocted this inane cult horror-comedy that may well have been inspired by Jeff Lieberman's "Squirm". Robins plays Herman Umgar, a German hermit residing on highly coveted lakeside property which the uber-sleazy local mayor wants to develop. But Herman will get his revenge. It so happens that he can communicate with worms (!), and when he infects the towns' food supply with toxic worms, people end up turning into half-human, half-worm hybrids!

No-budget quirky stuff isn't as much fun as the B movie aficionado might like. It runs an hour and a half, but one can't help but wish that Robins had cut down a lot of the offbeat character detail; it takes this simple flick too long to get going, and the humour pretty much runs its course before long. As a director, Robins seemed to have encouraged his cast to go way over the top, whether or not the scene really calls for it. Still, Robins does know how to push SOME buttons: the most memorable images occur when people are chowing down, and he inserts close-ups of worms in peoples' mouths. Always a good way to gross an audience out. The special effects are hilariously crude.

All in all, there's a certain gleeful childishness about the whole thing, certain to make children and more immature adults giggle. The opening credits are accompanied by one of the most insidiously catchy ditties ("You'll End Up Eating Worms") that one is ever likely to hear. Robins doesn't deliver as good a time as these credits would seem to indicate, but it's hard to completely knock B pictures with these kinds of wacky premises. If you enjoy "Squirm" (whether ironically or not), you may be amused to some degree by this ridiculous nonsense.

Produced, and distributed, by Ted V. Mikels, himself a somewhat big name when it comes to similar entertainment ("Astro-Zombies", need I say more?).

Six out of 10.

Ignore those folks on here that say this movie blows. It is so great! I love every minute of it. What great characters! I am serious, there are some great characters. I love Herb Robins' character, he is so unique and he makes the greatest facial expressions. Great lines of dialogue. The husband of the weird fudgies lady is so funny. Everyone does over-act, but it's in a hilarious way. Kill me for saying this, but it's the kind of over-acting that John Waters is famous for - it's just too much! But in a good way. Yes, there's worm eating, but the story itself and the acting is really great. It doesn't even need the worm eating to be a stellar movie! If you like weird movies, you should see this one. I give it a 9/10!