Backlash007 ~Spoiler~When I found out that there was a sequel made to The Food of the Gods some 13 years later, I thought it was one of those cases where someone had made a movie about giant rats and coincidentally owned the rights to use the title. But, believe it or not, Gnaw: Food of the Gods II actually stays pretty true to its goofy predecessor. If you remember the ending of the original, the possibility of giant children was threatened. Well, fear not, Gnaw delivers on the giant children promise; well, one giant child anyway. The important thing is that it's the best giant child actor of all time. It's not the dialogue the kid gets to say so much that made me laugh out loud, but the way he delivers it. Seriously some of the best line delivery ever. The scientists trying to find a cure for the child accidentally use lab rats which grow out of control and start feeding on students and faculty around a privately owned college campus. Another funny thing is in the scene involving the creation of the titular food where the music wholeheartedly rips off the Trioxin theme from Return of the Living Dead...but with a crappy synthesizer. The film also has one of the most hysterical and bizarre sex scenes that doesn't feature Rudy Ray Moore. It's just one of those things that must be seen. The film is bad, but like the original it made me giggle and kept me entertained. It's probably the best movie about giant rats who terrorize a synchronized swimming event only to be brutally gunned down by the police in a scene that rivals the sheer intensity of the finale to Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch. Okay, just kidding about The Wild Bunch.

Coventry Who could possibly have wished for a sequel to Bert I. Gordon's legendary bad trash-film "Food of the Gods"? Nobody, of course, but director Damien Lee thought it was a good idea, anyway, and he put together a belated sequel that stands as one of the most redundant movies in horror history. "Gnaw" is a sequel in name only, as the setting moved to a typical late 80's location (a university campus) and also the cheap & cheesy gore effects perfectly illustrates the 80's. This script hangs together by clichés, awfully written dialogs and plot situations that are not so subtly stolen from other (and more successful) horror classics. Neil Hamilton is a goody two shoes scientist who performs growing-experiments on ordinary rodents in order to do a fellow scientist a favor. Due to some incredibly stupid animal rights activists, the huge and ravenous rats escape and devour pretty much everyone on campus. Following the good old tradition that Spielberg's "Jaws" started, there's an obnoxious Dean who refuses to admit the problem even though severely mutilated corpses are turning up everywhere. During a hysterically grotesque climax, the rats invade the opening ceremony of the campus' new sport complex! "Gnaw: Food of the Gods 2" is terribly bad and therefore a lot of fun to watch! The characters do and say unimaginably stupid stuff (like descending into the sewers unarmed while they KNOW it's infested with rats), the acting is atrocious and there's a genuinely bizarre sequence involving the hero having sex under the influence of growth-serum! I wonder what Freud's theory would be on that! There's a satisfying amount of gore and sleaze and – it has to be said – the music is surprisingly atmospheric. In case you just can't get enough of this junk, there are quite a lot of creature-features revolving on mutated rats, like the Italian schlock film "Rats: Night of Terror", the modest 70's cult film "Willard" and its lame sequel "Ben", the 2003 "Willard" remake starring Crispin Glover and the surprisingly good recent rat-movies by once-famous directors Tibor Ticaks ("Rats") and John Lafia ("The Rats"). Go nuts!

Steve Nyland (Squonkamatic) Once again my ability to be entertained finds it's happy place at the near lowest common denominator one can possibly find: A movie about growth hormone mutated rats chewing their way through the supporting cast of an unnamed Canadian university. Packed with in jokes, sight-gags and made by people who were using their brains for more than shoulder ballast, I found this to be a rip-roaring entertainment heightened by the ingenious way that miniature sets, forced perspective shots and other gimmicks were used to create monster rats, an over-sized university professor, and a giant mutant kid who's escape at the conclusion of the film was the perfect open ending. And I hope nobody ever makes a FOTG Pt3 to show what happens to him: some things are best left to the imagination.Anyone familiar with the abysmal 1976 film of more or less the same name can rest assured: Part 2 has absolutely nothing to do with the original FOTG, setting off on a totally independent storyline which produces more or less the same results -- giant rats eating people, a universally frightening concept -- though this film is correctly played for laughs where the original was a semi-serious ecological horror flick unable to overcome it's underlying stupidity.This one works because it embraced that stupidity & went with it.THE PLOT: An overachieving researcher develops a growth hormone formula, tests it on some tomatoes which are then eaten by a cage full of lab rats who get big and eat people. End of story.Along the way, the film takes hilarious pot-shots at such deserving targets as animal rights activists, liberal university administrations, the police, Clint Eastwood, and synchronized swimming. In fact the minute that the evil Dean character voiced concern that an effort to corral the mutant rats might interfere with the opening of a new pool complex I knew that the climax would be fun, though the bigger laugh came when he referred to "all the rich alumni with their checkbooks" who would be in attendance. Everyone whom I went to college with is as broke as I am, except the worms who weaseled their way into teaching or other academic positions. Like research work.Look, if you're going to be sitting down and watching a film about mutant rats on the rampage the last thing in the world you're really going to fret over are convincing performances, slick special effects and a coherent plot, so why not approach the material at an angle & have some fun? On that level of consideration this film is a minor masterpiece, and anyone who finds it to be prurient or juvenile in nature is simply refusing to play along with the fun.Highly recommended as a "party movie", with plenty of laughs, some repulsive gore and even a few bared breasts here & there.But if you're looking for a serious film, well that's why they make DVDs of CITIZEN KANE, and you'd be advised to stick with that. But for those with a sense of humor and a love for low-middle budget horror this flick is very hard to beat, and I've even seen DEATH SHIP.***1/2 out of ****

Mr Parker This movie stinks but I'd like to bring up a scene that comes to mind. The climactic set piece involves giant rats terrorizing a synchronized swimming display commemorating the grand opening of the college swimming pool (that was a mouthful!). The rats come out, people start freaking out and all hell breaks loose. At some point, an armed guard (or a cop, I can't remember) loses his gun and one of the spectators picks it up and starts firing blindly into the crowd, trying to hit the rats but hitting people instead. This scene stands out because it leaves you slack-jawed with disbelief at just how ridiculous this movie can get. The rest of the movie itself is just plain stupid. I don't recommend this movie but I wont give it a complete zero. Rating 1/2* out of *****.