The Food of the Gods (film)

POV|date=July 2008Infobox Film
name = The Food of the Gods


image_size = 200px
caption = film poster by Tom Chantrell
director = Bert I. Gordon
producer = Samuel Z. Arkoff
Bert I. Gordon
writer = Bert I. Gordon
starring = Marjoe Gortner
Pamela Franklin
Ralph Meeker
John McLiam
Ida Lupino
music = Elliot Kaplan
cinematography = Reginald H. Morris
editing = Corky Ehlers
distributor = American International Pictures
released = flagicon|US June 18, 1976
flagicon|Japan January 22, 1977
flagicon|Philippines March 15
flagicon|Finland July 15
runtime = 88 min.
country = U.S.A.
language = English
budget =
followed_by =
amg_id = 1:18062
imdb_id = 0074540

"The Food of the Gods" is a 1976 film released by American International Pictures and was written, produced, and directed by Bert I. Gordon. The film starred Marjoe Gortner, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, John McLiam, and Ida Lupino, and was loosely based on a portion of the H. G. Wells novel "The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth". A sequel to the film was made in 1989 entitled "Food of the Gods II" (often referred to by its working title "Gnaw: Food of the Gods II").

The movie was not very successful. Michael Medved gave it a Golden Turkey Award for Worst Rodent Movie Of All Time, beating such competitors as "The Killer Shrews" (1959), "The Mole People" (1956), "The Nasty Rabbit" (1965), and "Night of the Lepus" (1972).

Interestingly, Bert I. Gordon had earlier written, produced, and directed (for Embassy Pictures) "Village of the Giants" (1965), also very loosely based on the book.

Plot summary

The film reduced the tale to an 'Ecology Strikes Back' scenario, common in science fiction movies at the time. The food mysteriously bubbles up from the ground on a remote island somewhere in British Columbia. The couple that discover it (McLiam and Lupino) consider it a gift from God, and promptly begin feeding it to their chickens. Soon, rats, wasps, and worms consume the substance, and the island is crawling with giant vermin. A professional football player (Gortner) and his buddies are camping on the island, and one of them is stung to death by the wasps. Also thrown into the mix are an expecting couple, the owner of a dog food company (Meeker) hoping to market the substance, and his assistant (Franklin), a "lady bacteriologist." Eventually, the survivors are trapped in the farmhouse with the rats swarming around outside (or at least swarming around a doll house) and Lupino promising God that she'll never sin again. The football player eventually blows up a nearby dam, flooding the area and drowning the rats (who can't swim due to their extra weight). But the food survives and is consumed by cows, who give tainted milk, which is then drunk by schoolchildren in the fishing-for-a-sequel ending.