The Food of the Gods (film)

The Food of the Gods is a 1976 film released by American International Pictures and was written, produced, and directed by Bert I. Gordon.

The Food of the Gods starred Marjoe Gortner of Earthquake, Pamela Franklin, Ralph Meeker, Jon Cypher, John McLiam, and Ida Lupino. This film was loosely based on a portion of the H. G. Wells novel The Food of the Gods and How It Came to Earth. A sequel to the film was made in 1989, entitled Food of the Gods II.

The film was not very successful. Michael Medved gave it the Golden Turkey Award for Worst Rodent Movie Of All Time.

Interestingly, Bert I. Gordon had earlier written, produced, and directed (for Embassy Pictures) Village of the Giants (1965), which was also very loosely based on the book.

Plot
The film reduced the tale to an 'Ecology Strikes Back' scenario, common in science fiction movies at the time. The food mysteriously bubbles up from the ground on a remote island somewhere in British Columbia. The couple that discover it, Mr. and Mrs. Skinner (McLiam and Lupino) consider it a gift from God, and promptly begin feeding it to their chickens. Soon, rats, wasps, and worms consume the substance, and the island is crawling with giant vermin. Some of them later kill Mr. Skinner one night.

Morgan, a professional football player (Gortner), and his buddies are camping on the island, and one of them is stung to death by giant wasps. After ferrying his friends back to the mainland, Morgan returns to investigate. Also thrown into the mix are Thomas and Rita, an expecting couple, Jack Bensington, the owner of a dog food company (Meeker) hoping to market the substance, and his assistant Lorna (Franklin), a "lady bacteriologist." Eventually, the survivors are trapped in the farmhouse with the rats swarming around outside, and Mrs. Skinner and Bensington are killed by the rats.

Morgan eventually blows up a nearby dam, flooding the area and drowning the rats, whose size and weight renders them unable to swim. The food, however, survives, is swept into a river and is consumed by cows, who give tainted milk, which is then drunk by schoolchildren.