The inconvenient truth is this: cinema has seen it coming for years. How else to account for the black-and-white bestiary that brought us ants the size of SUVs and buffed-up behemoths rising from the ocean floor? Or the more colorful contributions, like a grizzled bear as big as a phone booth, militarized piranhas with excited incisors, or a man-plant with its roots in horror? These are the queer consequences of messing with Mother Nature.
From the fearsome fifties right up to the carbon-coughing present, cinema has ogled the aftereffects of ecological abuse and genetic jerry-rigging. Eco-Amok! takes on this prescient patch of filmdom to relish the monstrosities, as well as considering the causes for consternation. Whether the anxiety arises from rogue radiation, environmental spoliation, or genomic manipulation, a movie can be found to match the menace. There are rarities like Saul Bass's Phase IV, an acute account of ants with larger-than-life intelligence; Jack Cardiff's The Mutations, in which a crazed botanist tries to meld folks and foliage; Michael Lehmann's Meet the Applegates, a tale of terrorist roaches that want to inherit the earth, even if it's radioactive; and Rene Daalder's harrowing Habitat, a greenhouse with effects, in which CGI meets horticultural hell.
Eco-Amok! conjures both Gore and gore, the timely message and the giddy mayhem. And that's the truth, conveniently.