Eco-Insect+Films

= Eco Insect Movies = **1. Insects/Arachnids infected by toxic waste/radiation: ** Slugs (1988)focuses on toxic waste grown slugs attacking humans in a river and through the sewer system.

In Empire of the Ants (1977), radioactive waste is the source of the ants’ giant size, but they’re also smart enough to enslave humans at a sugar plant

Glass Trap (2005) also highlights giant ants, this time enlarged by plutonium brought in by terrorists.

Them (1954) (more radioactive ants): “If these monsters are a result of the first atomic bomb, what about the others? We entered the atomic age and opened a door to a new world. What we’ll eventually out find in that world no one can predict.”

Based on a novel by science fiction writer Roger Zelazny, Damnation Alley (1977) illustrates the various insect monsters that may appear after a nuclear holocaust destroys most life on Earth and tilts the planet’s axis.




 * 2. Insects altered by humanity’s greed for resources: **

Kingdom of the Spiders (1977) argues that food is the reason spiders are killing livestock and humans. Excessive use of DDT is killing off the spiders’ natural sources of food, so they are becoming more aggressive and grouping as social beings to fight the enemies stealing their food.

The Bone Snatcher (2003) highlights a supernatural response to humanity’s exploitation of the natural world: “Tokoloshit takes what belongs to her. The animals, the people. She drinks their blood. Tears people apart.”


 * 3. Deliberate Evolutionary Transformation—Merging Insects/Arachnids with Humans **



The Wasp Woman (1959): As a Roger Corman film, The Wasp Woman takes pains to provide a good back story and at least some character development. Royal jelly slows the aging process and may reverse it entirely, but after injected repetitively, turns a woman into a violent blood sucking wasp.

Mesa of Lost Women (1953) is an odd film exploring a scientists attempts to merge women with tarantulas.

Tarantula (1955) highlights the failed attempts made by a scientist to help feed the world with a manufactured “food,” experiments that create a giant deadly tarantula. Then different sightings of the tarantula occur in the desert. The doc gets back just as power lines are

Based on the novel, The Hephaestus Plague, Bug (1975) highlights what happens when a scientist messes with nature—superhuman cockroaches.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Mimic (1997) illustrates some of the negative repercussions of genetic engineering, even with good intentions.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Black Swarm (2007) centers on killer bees.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Set on a cargo ship, Spiders II: Breeding Ground (2001) brings back a mad scientist like that in other monster movies. This time he’s attempting to redefine genetic science and invest in the future by planting spider eggs in humans to create a disease free world.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;"> Killer Buzz (2001), the U.S. military and State Department have paired up with an oil company to develop genetically altered bees that will chase off indigenous tribes in Brazil so they can build a highway across the rainforest instead of maintaining an agreement to hold to 100 miles of road.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">Cronos (1993) focuses on the dangers of using a cockroach driven device to gain eternal life.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%;">In The Nest (1988), cockroaches become super-powered after exposure to experimental products.