Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988)

Ok... Let's be honest. It cannot be the best movie but is quite enjoyable. The movie has the potential to develop a great plot for future movies

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The first half (or more) of HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN plays out not unlike the second half of Harlan Ellison's A BOY AND HIS DOG (an infinitely superior film, by the way): with the population dwindling and Real Men in short supply, solos like Sam Hell (Rowdy Roddy Piper) are being snatched up and... uh... "milked" for all they're worth. Piper's even strapped with an electronic chastity belt to keep him from "givin' it away." Along the way to the Mutant Reservation ("Frog Town"), Piper takes turns offering his services to and denying them to the female soldiers escorting him across the desert. Piper does a decent enough job as Hell, and the Frogs are fun to watch, but I would've preferred to have seen them play it all a little straighter: a filmmaker with serious intent could make something like this an instant classic (let us not forget the first TEENAGE MUTANTS NINJA TURTLES movie).

In one of his first feature film appearances, former wrestler Roddy Piper plays Sam Hell, a highly fertile man in a post-apocalyptic world that has rendered most of its adult population infertile due to a devastating nuclear war. This being the late 1980's, and with Hell Comes To Frogtown being unashamedly B-movie ridiculousness, every long-legged female character wants to jump his bones, and do so wearing not very much at all. It is misogynistic, very, very silly (which I'm sure one would assume from the title) and Piper won't be receiving any Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Academy, but it is occasionally a lot of fun, and features one of most memorable titles in the B-movie canon.With male population numbers heavily reduced due to nuclear war, women now rule the Earth. After a group of warrior-nurses led by the bespectacled Spangle (Sandahl Bergman) capture nomad Sam Hell, they see their chance to do their part in helping re-populate the Earth due to Sam's high fertility rate. But when a group of fertile women are captured by a gang of rapey amphibian mutants who have been affected by the radiation, Sam is employed as a mercenary along with the tough-but- sexy Centinella (Cec Verrell) to enter a place known as 'Frogtown' in order to steal them back.Somehow, Hell Comes To Frogtown has managed to spawn three sequels, the latest being made in 2002. The years have made the film a cult favourite, and admittedly, for all it's many flaws and amateur direction, the idea of women piecing together the remnants of civilisation is quite an intriguing one. Of course, the plot isn't really why you would watch a film involving rubber-suited monsters and scantily-clad women, and ultimately, Frogtown suffers from long moments of tedium that plague low-budget films of its ilk. But there are still moments to enjoy in the 90 minutes of endless gun-fights and goofy Roddy Piper quotes, namely in Piper's obvious amusement at the film he is starring in. Best enjoyed with beer in hand.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

A few fertile men and women exist due to atomic fallout and, as a result, the government places a priority on those that can still breed. One man Sam Hell is sent under watchful eye of a nurse and guard into the wastelands to free a group of women from frog like mutant amphibians.Hell Comes to Frog Town Is an odd ball post apocalyptic B adventure with Rowdy Rody Piper as one of the last fertile men on earth. Sadly the budget appears to have gone into the surprisingly great makeup effects.Cheesy dialogue, wooden performances and clunky fights. Although for the most part playing on Hell's sexual prowess there's not enough wit or pace to give directors Donald G. Jackson and R. J. Kizer's Frog Town that cult status. While the concept is fun explosive tracker pants, horny frogs even with the women in control it still comes across for the most part sexist and falls flat.Piper is his amusing self but is wooden compared to his performance in They Live made the same year. Nurse Spangle is played by stunt woman, Conan star Sandahl Bergman  who is in great shape but isn't the best actress especially when put along side guards women Cec Verrell who has little screen-time. Big Bill William Smith appears and steals every scene with his presence.It's worth checking out to see what the fuss is about, you may even to want to revisit.

Hell Comes to Frogtown is set in a future world which has been all but destroyed in the wake of a nuclear war, the earth is now a barren wasteland populated by a few humans & mutant Frog men. Lone wanderer Sam Hellman (Roddy Piper) is recruited by a company called MedTech, as one of the few fertile men left on Earth his potency is vital in order to repopulate the planet, unfortunately there are few fertile women left either & several such ladies have been kidnapped by mutant Frog man Commander Toty (Brian Frank) who intends to hold them to ransom. Sam finds himself forced to undertake a mission to rescue the women from the grasp of Commander Toty in Frogtown located right in the mutant reservation, MedTech places Sam in an explosive chastity belt then will blow up if he tries to remove it or stray a few hundred yards from MedTech employee Spangle (Sandhal Bergman) who is taking control of the mission, a dangerous mission vital to the continuation of the human species...Directed by Donald G. Jackson & R.J. Kizer this desperately wants to be a cult film & almost makes it but just falls a little short, for a film with a title such as Hell Comes to Frogtown it isn't nearly as schlocky or exploitative or funny enough. Personally I'd have liked to have seen something resembling a cross between Mad Max 2 (1981) with it's amazing post apocalyptic set action scenes & the mutant creature aspect of Planet of the Apes (1968) but Hell Comes to Frogtown plays more like a silly sex comedy set at a desert & an old warehouse than anything else. Certainly the science fiction elements of the script are largely ignored beyond there are a few mutant Frogs running around & the action scenes are very low key & amount to little more than one explosion, a couple of brief shoot-outs & a couple of fist fights. Where Hell Comes to Frogtown really scores points is in it's light hearted & likable approach, there are numerous amusing one-liners & the sheer outrageousness of it's plot with exploding chastity belts, mutant Frog men, Frog strippers, Roddy Piper as one of the few fertile men on Earth, pink Morris Minor vans with machine guns on top of the roof & a great scene in which an evil mutant Frog man interrogates & tortures a tied up Roddy Piper with a chainsaw is worth at least the price of a rental all day long. At a shade over eighty minutes long you would think Hell Comes to Frogtwon would move like a rocket but alas that is not the case, while it's not exactly boring or slow the pace is a little sluggish & the simplistic & repetitive plot doesn't help, the gags about Roddy Piper & his sexual powers & fertility grow old & while amusing aren't exactly laugh out loud hilarious. I maybe expected a bit more action, a little bit more exploitation, a little bit more gross out humour & horror & gore, a little bit more outrageousness to go with the camp title & pink battle van & a little bit more inventiveness with the whole situation & set-up but then again maybe I was hoping for too much. Sure Hell Comes to Frogtown has some unforgettable moments & is a fun ride while it lasts but it's not as great as it could have been.Surprisingly quite well shot & put together Hell Comes to Frogtown as good production values & it looks as if some money was spent on it. The Frog mutant special make-up effects are pretty good, despite the odd stiff movement the mask's look great. Short on action & gore I wished the makers had upped the exploitation levels a bit but there's nothing they can do about it now. There's a little nudity, again not as much as maybe one might expect or hope for but it's better than nothing. There's a nice little homage to the twist ending of Planet of the Apes at the very start here which most sci-fi fans will pick up on straight away. Although Hell Comes to Frogtown went straight to video in the US it was intended for a wide theatrical release before production company New World Pictires went bankrupt.Filmed in California this is a nice enough looking film. The acting is alright, Roddy Piper has a few amusing one-liners but is mostly quite flat while Sandhal Bergman does OK as the love interest who warms to Piper as the film progresses.Hell Comes to Frogtown as a great title & is a well made, fun little post apocalyptic action film that somehow manages to just miss the mark, light on actual action & gore & nudity the silliness of it all keeps you watching but by the time the end credits rolled I felt a bit underwhelmed. Followed by three obscure sequels, Frogtown II (1992), Toad Warrior (1996) & Max Hell Frog Warrior (2002).