Morphman

In Host, Missouri, the newcomer Dr. of Veterinary Science Eli Rudkus (Vincent Ventresca) is called by the farmer Jacob Long (William Forsythe) to exam one of his cows. The veterinarian finds a strange parasite in the animal and sends it to a friend in the Department of Agriculture for research. Later, he finds the same parasite in a creek and he summons the population for a meeting, warning that the cause might be the animal food. However, Fletcher Odermatt (David Selby), the wealthy owner of the local Host Tender Meals that has been providing free animal food for the farmers, brings his lawyer Hayley Anderson (Rachel Hunter) and discredits Eli. When a huge mutant parasite attacks Eli and Jacob, they discover that the meals are actually an experimental genetic cocktail that is growing parasites inside the kettles and people.

"Larva" is a surprisingly funny and entertaining B-movie. The flawed story is silly and trash and it is hilarious to see, for example, the veterinarian Eli using his bare hands touching the mutant parasite that has just been killed, or the chase in the hospital. Nevertheless the absurdness of the plot, I believe that fans of B-movies may like "Larva". My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Homem Larva" ("Larva Man")

Having watched 1000+ movies, this one is just another one in the genre. It's has no exciting extra's at all. The story and plot are well known. Only a little different on the outside. Watching this movie is just as filling in the same mathematical formula, with other values for it's variables. Nothing new. The effect's are really bad done. Especially the 'monsters'. They just look like an old coat that is in someway washed but never ironed. The color is also not realistic. It's yellowed. Done with a meaning ? I don't know, it's just irritating to watch. I hate things like this to give a special setting to a movie. Do it with good acting, good special effects and a good story. Not with Yelowing the whole movie, I rather watch them in realistic coloring. All by all, if you're young and new to the movie-watching scene, it maybe worth a view. But if you're older and have seen a lot of movies, you really fall asleep by looking this one.

I'll be honest in saying that I wasn't expecting much, and although it was better than expected I didn't get much either. The opening scene is actually quite good having a nice atmosphere to it, the make-up is generally impressive and there are two actors who do try hard and on the most part succeed, Vincent Ventesca is a charismatic lead and William Forsythe plays his role with crusty demeanor that suits him and his character well. However, the monster effects seem cool on paper but look silly on screen, consequently I found it difficult to be menaced by them. The haphazard editing also doesn't help, nor the generic and sometimes sluggish-sounding music. The action and gore is actually not badly paced or done, just that they are derivative of other films that have done certain scenes better, such as Alien with the exploding stomach idea. But the real problems with Larva(or MorphMan) are the clichéd characters(plus none of them are really that likable or well-developed, just how many times are we going to have the "dumb" sheriff idea?), formulaic and very predictable story(the ending you can actually see coming well before it happens because again I have seen endings like that before), the terrible, cheesy script such as someone going back for candy when they are running for their lives and the lack of any real suspense or thrills. I have definitely seen much worse acting, but acting-wise here only Ventesca and Forsythe really stood out. So all in all, lame but at the end of the day not too bad. 4/10 Bethany Cox

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.