With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
This Roger Corman production, produced by Corman’s wife Julie, answers the question as to how to rid the world of pesticide-resistant cockroaches in the way only a Corman production could; by introducing cannibalistic cockroaches that mutate out of control. Based on the novel by Eli Cantor, The Nest follows a sort of Jaws blueprint in that it sees a small island town being terrorized by nature gone wrong, with only a sheriff to stand in its way.
For the first half, it’s a pretty paint-by-numbers plot filled with generic characters. Well, except for the opening scene that introduces Sheriff Richard Tarbell (Frank Luz) going through his morning routine. The viewer can see the cockroach in his coffee, cringing as he nearly takes a sip multiple times before getting interrupted, until finally getting a mouthful of gross bug with his morning coffee. In short, this movie is inundated with mass quantities of cockroaches and this was only the beginning. Before they completely take over the town, we get to know the Sheriff and his love triangle between town diner owner Lillian and his high school sweetheart Elizabeth, newly returned and still estranged from her father, the mayor. The mayor is in cahoots with shady corporation INTEC, who sends weird scientist Dr. Morgan Hubbard (Terri Treas) to study their creation. Then there’s the requisite cast of characters like the town drunk, the exterminator, and various other fodder for cockroach lunch.
Until halfway through, it appears that it’s just swarms of cockroaches that have outgrown their taste for fellow roaches and have moved on to devouring pets and humans. They’re unpleasant deaths, sure, but these mutated roaches seem to emulate piranha feeding frenzies and that’s about it. Then, the weird hybrids begin to appear, and that’s where the creature effects finally come into play. Cat corpse cockroach hybrids, human roach hybrids, all grotesquely fleshy skeletons with mandibles. It all builds up to the fun reveal of the roach queen, a massive collage of human victims and bug parts.
The special effects were helmed by James M. Navarra, an effects artist who only briefly worked in the industry for roughly two years, working mostly on other Corman productions like Not of This Earth and Saturday the 14th Strikes Back. Navarra’s work on The Nest isn’t always flawless, mainly the cat roach hybrid puppet, but as the film’s creatures got bigger the effects improved. The human roach and the fantastic roach queen absolutely saves the movie. It probably also helped how sparingly they showed the queen, giving glimpses of her horrors piecemeal.
Special mention to the animal wranglers of the film, too. The sheer volume of roaches, of various types, and even beetles being passed off as roaches is skin-crawling. The studio where this was filmed was rumored to have had a roach problem for years after production concluded, which wouldn’t be surprising considering how far spread they were in scenes.
If cockroaches make you squeamish, this will easily push your buttons. It’s typical Corman schlock with cookie cutter characters and stock footage from Corman’s library (many explosions were inserted into the film simply because Corman wanted the footage used). As with most creature features from the ‘80s, the saving grace for this movie were the weird bug monster hybrids that built up to an impressive, bizarre queen of the roaches.
