Nest, The (1987)
Starring: Robert Lansing, Lisa Langlois, Franc Luz, Terri Treas
Director: Terence H Winkless
Synopsis: Genetically enhanced cockroaches running amok
Reviewed by: Omar Khan

"It's no masterpiece, but in the last 40 minutes, fans of the genre get their money's worth." — Candice Russell, Sun-Sentinel

"Hatches its clever plot extremely successfully." — Leonard Klady, Los Angeles Times

"An unusually well-made cheapo shockeroo." — Michael H. Price, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Pumps enough vigor into a tired subgenre to make the old nature-gone-haywire premise seem fresh." — Michael H. Price, Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"Too familiar." — Ed Bank, The Pittsburgh Press

"Broke little in the way of new bug-movie ground." — New York Daily News

"An enjoyable little flick even if it doesn't do much to forward the genre." — Jon Abrams, Daily Grindhouse


Reasonably entertaining hokum featuring the obligatory mad scientist, who in this case has devoted his life to breeding a super-species of cockroaches for reasons best known to himself.

Naturally, as we all know only too well, whenever mankind starts tampering with Mother Nature in horror movies, disaster is never far behind. Before long, the roaches begin mutating and, with perfectly understandable vengeance, decide to turn upon their human creators.

Who knows? Perhaps one day, after we have finally succeeded in blowing ourselves to kingdom come with all our clever toys, the cockroaches really will inherit the Earth.

The special effects are surprisingly good considering the film's modest budget, particularly a wonderfully memorable transformation sequence. The story unfolds at a leisurely pace, making generous use of "roach-cam" photography and endless footage of swarming cockroaches noisily overrunning the town. It is all exceedingly silly but remains thoroughly good-natured, despite featuring scenes of dogs and cats being rather unpleasantly mutilated by the filthy little creatures.

Naturally, there is also time for romance to blossom as two former lovers rekindle their relationship amidst the ever-growing cockroach apocalypse.

The sleepy town of Northport soon finds itself overrun by flesh-eating mutant cockroaches that appear virtually unstoppable, having conveniently developed immunity to insecticides. It rapidly becomes a full-blown doomsday scenario before our battling lovebirds finally manage to turn the tables at the very last moment—but not before several spectacular man-to-roach transformations propel the film towards a magnificently laughable and thoroughly disgusting climax.

Our heroes eventually penetrate the Nest itself, only to discover that the Queen Cockroach remains very much alive—and she is neither an attractive sight nor in a particularly pleasant mood.

The Nest is an above-average creature feature containing enough laughs, gruesome deaths and gooey effects to keep B-movie devotees thoroughly entertained.

The film was produced by Julie Corman, whom I had the pleasure of spending a couple of days with at a film festival. At the time I had absolutely no idea she had followed in her husband Roger Corman's footsteps by producing wonderfully monstrous little B-movies of her own. She struck me as remarkably genteel and even shared her recipe for a cheesecake, which I have referred to ever since as the "Corman Cheesecake."

The Nest is really the sort of film that benefits enormously from a healthy quantity of alcohol—or perhaps something even stronger. Mutant cockroaches transforming human beings into giant insect hybrids are concepts best appreciated in an appropriately altered state of mind.

That said, the film remains an amiable little giggle. It is never remotely frightening, merely amusing in a gloriously silly way and unexpectedly grotesque during its wonderfully over-the-top final ten minutes.

This is cheap, unapologetically daft entertainment that will probably appeal most to viewers who enjoyed films such as Ticks, although that particular bug-fest was considerably more polished. It never reaches the glorious heights of the cockroach segment in Creepshow, nor is it anywhere near as thoughtful as Bug (1975).

Instead, The Nest is simply a gloriously goofy slice of creature-feature piffle that can be enjoyed in the right frame of mind, in the right company and perhaps after one drink too many.

Strictly for hardened B-movie enthusiasts.