Frogs aren’t really scary. Well, unless they’re telepathically controlling lizards, alligators, snakes, and other reptiles and commanding them to attack humans. I mean, these are humans with lots of hubris and a very unfavorable view of Nature in general, so I guess the victims in George McCowan’s 1972 eco-horror film “Frogs” deserve it. But how true to reality are the settings and wildlife depicted in this movie, set and filmed in the Florida Panhandle? I’m joined by two Florida natives who viewed the film and share their thoughts.
“I don’t know that I would watch it again.”
Amanda Young
Further Reading
- “Frogs” original trailer
- Watch “Frogs” on Prime Video (available as of December 2020)
Episode Transcript
Christopher Nank: Do frogs scare you? What if they were malevolent frogs striking back against the human to a degraded and polluted their habitat? Granted, frogs can’t do much to hurt you, but the angry frogs and they’re really mostly non-native toads in George McCowen’s 1972 eco horror film frogs. They can telepathic. We control all the snakes, Gators, lizards, and other reptiles on the grounds, a lush, Florida plantation, and that spells trouble for the crock and family and their arrogance, swamp polluting patriarch. Jason, if you weren’t familiar with Florida wildlife, this might seem to confirm all your worst fears about the state’s animal Denisovans, but I’m joined today by two Florida natives to break down some of the inconsistencies and any accuracies of the film as they see them and what the movie might have to offer to various audiences. I’m Christopher Nik and welcome to Florida book club.
CN: Okay. Before our guests join us, a bit of backstory. I first saw frogs in age 12 during the sleepover middle of the night on some now to folk UHF channel. Having lived in Ohio my whole life, I was stunned by the array of hostile wildlife on display, not knowing at the time, of course, that a good deal of those animals were not even from Florida. And it had been important just for the movie. I was traveling by myself to Tampa and Fort Lauderdale, the following summer, and the notion that this film might be in any way, an accurate portrayal of the state’s foreign. A really unnerved me arriving at my aunt’s house in Tampa and seeing the art crawling with lizards did not put my mind at ease, even though I have lived in Florida since 1998. And I’m well aware of how ludicrous most of the scenes in the movie are.
CN: I can’t shake the impression that’s left on me when I’m walking in the woods or alongside upon. For instance, I sort of uneasily think to myself about some of the characters deaths at the hands of alligators, lizards, snakes, and so on my guests today who are new to the film and fully grown adults were born and raised in Florida. Well, let’s just say they did not find frogs to be terrified or really scary at all, or remotely plausible for the most part. It’s funny how things impressed upon you as a child can hog you into adulthood. I was hoping my guests could alleviate those impressions of the movie by pointing out its flaws and numerous inaccuracies. So let’s see, here we go.
Speaker 2 (02:17):
I am joined today by
Speaker 1 (02:18):
Florida native Amanda Young to discuss her view on the classic film frogs. So welcome to the club, Amanda. Okay. So give your history in Florida. Where, where were you born? Where did you grow up? I was born in Inverness, Florida, which is in a central part of Florida. Um, grew up there between rural city, kind of in that general citrus County region. Okay. Now you watched frogs and I would ask, I mean, did this feel frighten you at all? I would say maybe grossed or creeped out. Did it make you see Florida any necessarily? I mean, granted, granted it is 47 years old.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
Well, it was interesting because after I watched it, I actually did a little research on like the Florida sugar plantations and some of the history of it, because I was like, really, this looks like it was maybe sad in the seventies and yet they still have these like black servants. Right. So I was like, how realistic is that? First of all, like, you know, so I, and then I started going down a rabbit hole with that and came frogs and how they were brought into Florida. So, but I wouldn’t say I see it differently. I liked how they showed like the, the more Florida like woodsy landscape. Cause you don’t see that in a lot of movies. So, you know, you did like the beautiful beaches and stuff like that. Um,
Speaker 1 (03:47):
But I don’t
Speaker 2 (03:48):
Necessarily know that I liked how they portrayed some of the animals and like that they were going to attack you or something like that. Cause that’s never realistic. I don’t feel
Speaker 1 (03:59):
We’ll get, we will get to that for sure. It’s worth pointing out. Um, but I thought that there were the racial subtexts in the film with the servants. And I remember the one guy’s girlfriend that he brought as his date to the, you know, the birthday party on the plantation to sort of off his elderly patriarch. She like sort of dressed down those servants for like, you know, how are you doing this kind of work? So, you know, I mean, I thought it was kind of sociologically aware in that. Right.
Speaker 2 (04:27):
I liked it, the part, the part at, toward the end when he like people are trying to leave the Island and he’s like, I forbid it. And so then she walks over to the service. She’s like, you know, like four score and seven years ago people were given the right to make their own choice.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Yeah, yeah. Know, that was one of the things, I guess I’ve found as a sticking point though. Like you’re talking about the, the, the, the, the, the, the old man, you know, patriotic, um, Jason Crockett, like saying, uh, all the sudden, like acting like a dictator towards his own family and everything. Like, I mean, his grandson died, you know, and he still wants to go ahead with this birthday party. Like it’s not a big deal or something. Yeah. Yeah. It was like ordering an old fashioned and everything. Like, don’t wake me a drink, you know? So, uh, yeah, certainly. I mean, well, that kind of gets to what I was asking what you said about the wildlife. I mean, would you consider any of these animals scary necessarily? I mean, the way they’re portrayed in the film obviously is kind of malevolent
Speaker 2 (05:21):
And Janice snakes. So I wouldn’t like, yeah, I consider snake scary, but I’m not really like frayed of them afraid of usually, like, if I see one I’ll scream and I’ll run the other way, like I’m going to go poke at it. You know what I mean? Um, and then the, like the alligators, no, I’ve never, like, I’ve seen plenty of alligators. I’m not afraid of them. Like usually they just go the other way, you know, unless there’s something like people have been feeding it or something stupid, but, and then the frogs, if I had one land on me. Sure. But I’m not going to be afraid of it. Just like seeing it in the woods.
Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah. There’s not a whole lot of fraud can do to you, I guess. Yeah. That was the part,
Speaker 2 (05:58):
I think when the grandson was in a greenhouse and he got like the lizards kill them,
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Knocked over those jars and then the cloud was like magically gone.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
So I was like, that’s pretty cheesy, but like really tacky, but kind of funny and just stupid. Right.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
I guess. Yeah. I guess seeing it as an adult, you probably, it probably seems, you know, silly,
Speaker 2 (06:22):
The lizard can like manage to figure all that out. Like usually they can’t even get out of the window. So,
Speaker 1 (06:29):
You know, it’s worth pointing out that none of those lizards in there are native to Florida. Like even at the time, you know, the, the, the irony is that they are here now. They are established now. But at the time that film was made, you could, you would never find what are like a taboo
Speaker 2 (06:44):
Tokay, gecko. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
Yeah. They, they just weren’t there. Or that, like that lizard, that chewed through the, um, boat and the dock, like the monitor lizard. Take it. Yeah. They’re here now, but they weren’t there. So in the 1970s, if you were just traipsing through a swamp, it’s already, you would encounter none of those animals. Now, of course, when I was 12 and saw that film, I didn’t know that. So I think that may have affected.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Right. But Florida really was like, well, you know,
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Did, I was scheduled to take this trip down here to Tampa, to this area to see my aunt, like the following year. And, uh, yeah. I was like, Oh my God, is this what it’s really like down there? Like there’s snakes around every corner waiting to just, you know, attack you and stuff.
Speaker 2 (07:27):
Well, that’s why I look at it and go, really. That is not a thing to, I mean,
Speaker 1 (07:32):
Were you ever taught to be aware of made of wildlife or to like avoid situations? Like the ones that these characters were? Yeah,
Speaker 2 (07:38):
Absolutely. That was just like part of you, you don’t go up to an alligator. If you see one coming towards you, you walk the other way as fast as you can and is exact, you know, and you don’t swim in lakes. Like that’s just a given. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:51):
One of the things I thought it seemed like these characters in these films just did remarkably naive and dumb things, and then that’s not unique to frogs. I mean, you know, you see that in a lot of horror films that people like basically putting themselves in the path of the oncoming train, more or less.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Yeah. Yeah. I wondered about that because like the butterfly catching lady, like she just like wandering out there completely clueless. And I’m like, if she tells us all the time, like, you know, to just keep walking that way. Right.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
Do they not notice? They seem like they’re from the area, they seem to act in ways that are just remarkably,
Speaker 2 (08:29):
You know, who’s really going to do that. Nobody. Right. Like, I don’t know,
Speaker 1 (08:32):
Kind of blunted the message of the film a little bit, which I thought was, I mean, to me, at least the way I saw it was this sort of ecological, you know, don’t cause I mean, you know, the old man had been, you know, deploying all those poisons and toxins to kill all the frogs. He just couldn’t stand the noise of it. I mean, so I thought there was like this eco-friendly message, you know, like, Oh, we’re all striking back at that, that him and his family now. But yeah, I think, you know, some of the ludicrous situations that these characters found themselves, it just didn’t seem to make sense, I guess sort of, kind of dulled the, that edge of that message.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
Wait, like softening it a little bit or making it a little, like, I don’t know was almost kind of humorous. It was so silly, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:13):
Yeah. Look, that’s the thing I wish I could somehow like, just see it, the new as an adult because it’s, you know, I’m sure I would see it that way and not having seen it. You know, if I hadn’t seen it in my formative years,
Speaker 2 (09:28):
You already had this like preconceived notion from it from logic.
Speaker 1 (09:31):
Yeah. Yeah. I think so. Like in that scene with that alligator snapping turtle where the woman just got her foot stuck and then I was like, I think God, can they really do that? Like, could a turtle pull someone underwater or something?
Speaker 2 (09:41):
I saw that I was just like, come on, their mouth is open like this. Like it’s not going to get you like that. So,
Speaker 1 (09:47):
Well, Lynn Borden, the actress and that scene. I remember reading an interview with her where she was humorously recounting how that, that they did that scene. They had the turtle like on a leash or something. And she was like, right. Stand there. And she’s like, okay, don’t let it come near me. Like it was, it was kind of fun.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Ah, no, there they are creepy looking, but I don’t think they could actually really hurt you.
Speaker 1 (10:08):
The thing. I mean, I saw that and then kind of like was worried like my, at the time my, my cousin is now in his thirties, but he was like three or something or two when I was like, Oh my God, you know, I know he lives in Fort Lauderdale and they play on the water all the time. Like what if like he stepped near one of those things and it cracked his foot. Like I seriously, like it filled me with dread for him. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
Yeah. That’s what you told swim in the Lake.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
That’s basically to get back to what I asked you earlier, you know, about weather, you know, you learn these things about animals and wildlife living here, you know, like is, is there, I wondered through that lens, how you viewed the events of the film, you know, knowing that you’ve grown up here and you have some experience probably with the landscape and the wildlife. So yeah, I don’t know. I mean, are those spiders to you remember the, those tranches that dropped, you will never find this
Speaker 2 (11:07):
Moss like, like suffocating and like burying them and like Spanish doesn’t move,
Speaker 1 (11:11):
The spiders were making or the train and show those trenches are not found in Florida at all. So I don’t know unless the message of the film was intended was, was like saying, look what you’ve done caused all these bizarre invasive species to just suddenly supernaturally appear or something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
I was trying to figure out like where the frogs like coordinating these efforts. Cause it seemed like, you know, before somebody was about to get tackled, whenever the frogs would be
Speaker 1 (11:36):
Croaky.
Speaker 2 (11:40):
Yeah. That’s what I guess I was like, I guess the frogs are like, they’re mad because they’re trying to kill them all. So they’re like all the animals are coming back together. The frogs are watching out and telling them what to do.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
There were some genuinely unnerving moments, even that I think about like, um, you’re right. I mean, see it didn’t frogs are harmless. And I even before seeing this movie as a kid, I never would have even thought twice about it, but I mean, seeing them all hopping on masks toward the house, that was a little creepy, but, uh, those were all toads by the way, not a single one of those was a native frog. Um, so there’s that, but um, when they were hopping across the cake and everything on the table, like desecrated, but I was like, Oh, that’s
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Was like that scene. I felt like it was like, all right, the frauds they’ve like seize control of the situation
Speaker 1 (12:24):
And all over the food and stuff. I thought it was a, I thought that was kind of a nerving in a way. So I don’t know the soundtrack with all those weird synthesized, like echoes and things like that.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Yeah. Then the random, like just fog parts, like Florida, doesn’t just randomly fog up in the middle of the afternoon.
Speaker 1 (12:46):
Certainly. I think it’s, it’s pretty clear. They took liberties with, with, with the environment and everything. And uh, you know, I don’t think getting bit by a water moccasin would kill you within five seconds either.
Speaker 2 (12:57):
Oh yeah. This is the butterfly lady turning into like the zombie, like two seconds after she’s dead. She’s gray and ghostly.
Speaker 1 (13:03):
Yeah. And then the spiders funnel those webs around like that. I don’t know. I mean, I keep revisiting another point about, you know, the overall intent of the film. I’m not George McGowan, who’s the director. I don’t think he I’m assuming he did not have any grand ambitions to make some sort of EPA friendly, uh, you know, PSA about respecting nature or anything like that. And I think that was maybe an afterthought and the dialogue, but I mean, I do think like, I don’t know, did that anti-pollution or environmental message resonate with you at all?
Speaker 2 (13:40):
In some regards? I mean, cause it starts out with him taking the picture. So I thought there was like a good contrast between what was his name, Mr. Smith or whatever, and then like the granddad, you know, so like here’s this like stranger coming in and recognizing all the crap that’s happening on your Island. And then like the granddaddy of course being his Tyrone T. So it was just sort of like condemning him for it, you know?
Speaker 1 (14:03):
Yeah. Yeah. I, um, it, it did present those in a pretty stark way, I guess. So I, um, I think for even casual viewers you would pick up on that or at least as some sort of right.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
I think it was kind of like a minor underlying message unless you sit down or like, and I don’t know who the audience originally was for this. Like, was it
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Drive-ins um, you know, um, on double features and things like that with like, you know, monster movies and other kind of B level there.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah. They may know might’ve been that little undertone, but definitely, I don’t know. I wouldn’t say it was, I don’t know what the main thing would be. Just all kind of craziness world together.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
Yeah. Well, I’ll tell you to give you a sort of idea. It was, uh, when it was offered on a Blu-ray, which is now out of print and I can’t get, but, uh, it was, it was paired with food of the gods that what about the animals that grow to huge proportions from those experiments that, uh, to, to, to, um, make a better food supply, but you know,
Speaker 2 (15:03):
Movies, this is my first one, I think I’ve watched.
Speaker 1 (15:06):
Well, it’s weird. So the 1970s though, was pretty rife with like nature attack films and sort of, uh, you know, you had jaws, you had this film empire of the ants, grizzly day of the animals, you know, a prophecy, I’m sure you’ve seen all of these. Right. But, um, and the EPA had been formed in 1970, the environmental protection agency. And I think, you know, you see this in a lot of the pop culture of that time, you know, that was at least as a as background noise, there was, you know, a lot of things back pollution about the environment, about respecting nature, those sorts of things. If you’ve ever seen the movie, the birds, the Alfred Hitchcock film, the adaptation of that definitely Demauria story. Um, he Hitchcock I think took a much better approach to this. And not that like, there was only that one conversation in the cafe, in the birds where, you know, someone played, they speculated for like 10 minutes, why this was happening. And the one woman was like, no, it’s mankind that actually, you know, is a danger to the birds and environment. I mean, it’s just a throwaway moment. It doesn’t make it the focus. I think, you know, you could almost argue this film was a little too heavy handed with all the, uh, you know, mankind is causing all this pollution. And so the animals are fighting back. So any final thoughts about the film or whether you would recommend it or watch it again, or thought it was instructive or enlightening in any way?
Speaker 2 (16:30):
I don’t know that I would watch it again. Like it’s just not my Don bruh though. So, and actually before I was coming here, I was telling the kids, I’m going to go talk to Chris about this problem movie. And I told Kayla what it was about. And she looked at me like, what?
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Okay, well, fair enough.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
But it was interesting and it was good to be exposed
Speaker 1 (16:50):
To it. Okay, good. I have maybe, maybe you have a more, you know, more well-rounded and, uh, enriched view of your home.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
And I’d never thought about like, if you grew up outside of Florida, what your perception of it might’ve been right.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Yeah. In a sense. I still wanted to go. All right, well, thank you, Amanda Young. You’re now a member of the Florida book club. Now joining me is Florida native Nicole Reed to discuss her view on the film masterpiece, frogs, welcome to the club, Nicole. So give me your history in Florida, where you were born and grew up.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
Okay. Yes. So I was born in winter Haven, Florida, which is in Polk County, uh, central Florida. Uh, from there I moved Lakeland
Speaker 3 (17:50):
And then made my way up to Tallahassee, Florida for college. I went to Florida state and then I made my way back down to central Florida to Tampa.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
There you go. So you’re you’re you would consider yourself familiar with a lot of areas of the state very much. I mean second generation Florida. Okay. So when watching the movie frogs did the setting depicted there resemble any of the Florida habitats you’ve known and experienced.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
That is very much Polk County. That is very much where my dad lives out in Lake in hall. Um, so yes, I’m very familiar with those areas.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Well, if not specifically, the film was actually filmed up in the panhandle. So, uh, but, but you’re right in terms of character on beyond
Speaker 3 (18:36):
It’s, that’s, that’s our, that was our backyard. Yes.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
All the way, even it even sounds like you’re talking about maybe the social values and behaviors and mode of speaking, perhaps, I guess too. I don’t know if you’re including that.
Speaker 3 (18:50):
No, it’s mainly the, the people were very different for the people I needed to.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
It was filmed in 1972. So, and then certain certainly aspects of, of that are pretty obvious. Uh, you know, it’s, it’s very, it’s a movie that’s very much of its time in place and more ways than one. So, um, I, I guess I was curious too, were you ever taught to be aware of native wildlife or to avoid situations like the ones that characters in this movie encounter? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Yes and no. Um, you know, we were told to be careful of water moccasins, um, obviously Gators, but did we listen all the time? No, not so much. Um, there’s plenty of them lakes. I went swimming in with Gators all around and snakes all around. So
Speaker 1 (19:36):
Yeah. Well put you’re alive, I’m alive
Speaker 3 (19:40):
36 years of age.
Speaker 1 (19:41):
I know. And I mean, it just seems like most of the, any time a character in this film, even wanders a little bit off of a marked path, you know, they’re immediately like these set by snakes, Gators, Trey Angela’s lizards that aren’t actually native to Florida, but yet the film is sufficiently scary. So, but, but that never happened to you. You were never like, uh, worried about anything like that happening to you. Where are you ever?
Speaker 3 (20:11):
I became more afraid of those things like alligators. Um, when I became older than I was when I was younger.
Speaker 1 (20:20):
Yeah. It took me living here for a while to realize that you throw a rock in the direction of alligators and they’ll run like 50 yards away. You know, I got a mistaken impression about Florida from this film when I was like 12 years old. So it was, um, you know, when I first visited my aunt’s house in Tampa, you know, when I first saw that swarming with lizards crawling all over the bushes and fences, I thought like my worst fears as represented by movie where we’re sort of realized. So, uh,
Speaker 3 (20:51):
No,
Speaker 1 (20:51):
No, no. I guess not to mention that. I mean, you know, like, you know, that scene where the spiders all come down and descend on that guy, I mean, none of them, you would never find any of those fighters living in Florida or like, you know, that, that giant taboo or monitor lizard that chews through the rope of the boat.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
I was curious, I was like, is that a monitor? Because we don’t have with them.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Well, here’s the thing they do. They have been established in Southwest Florida for quite a while now, but at the time of the film was made, no, you would never find any of them there or those geckos, those Tokay geckos that get into the greenhouse and knock over that jar of poison that kills the one guy. Um, yeah, those, those are not native to Florida either.
Speaker 3 (21:32):
There was one gigantic lizard, which I thought it was a Komodo dragon for a second. How big it was that went into the, uh, green?
Speaker 1 (21:41):
Yeah, no, no. None of those animals are native to Florida.
Speaker 3 (21:45):
Well, correct. We do not have competitor drivers.
Speaker 1 (21:48):
No, as I discussed before, I mean, frogs themselves are not very intimidating. I know that, um, you’ve said your mother is scared of frogs
Speaker 3 (21:56):
Other in sister-in-law,
Speaker 1 (21:58):
But the thing is, I don’t know, I find this even intimidating now. Like I think if there were like, there’s like an army of them hopping across the lawn towards the house that might appear kind of frightening, I guess, or ominous as they’re in the film or when they’re piled up so much against the door that they break the glass and come in. But yeah, I mean, generally speaking frogs, aren’t very
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Well one scene that was hilarious to me because it would never happen is when, um, the, the two servants and the girlfriend were trying to leave and they were all the frogs, there were like hundreds of them all hopping with them that would never happen.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
I know the, the, um, yeah, the, the social, the social justice messages of that whole scene too were very much 1970s, I think. But, uh, anyway, yeah, I’m always more interested in the ecological and sort of depictions of wildlife, those aspects of this film, or really of most works. I tend to find the scenes and, and imagery like that as gems and, and otherwise, you know, maybe forgettable book or movie. Um, but did this film frightened you at all?
Speaker 3 (23:07):
Not at all. How come? Um, you know, I think the one part that I got nervous about is when, um, I don’t, I honestly, I apologize. I can’t remember the characters names, but I think it was the son of the kernel guy. Um, and he was walking and that’s when you hear the hiss of the Gator and then it starts following them. That is a nightmare to me. I don’t like Gators. Um, but I think that, that was the only one that was, that could have been real, I guess, that I would have experienced. Maybe it’s also, I, you
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Know, there was a scene right before that, where that guy, his wife was killed by some rattlesnakes. I remember. And, um, yeah, the idea of just like blindly walking along with your butterfly net, and there’s this giant rattlesnake just sitting in the path and you didn’t see it until you practically stepped on it. Um, but no, that scene kind of unnerved me in the same way you talked about until I thought about it, you know, and I was like, you know, if you’ve ever gone, if you’ve ever gone hiking, like Lake Louisa or some of these other very beautiful environments in our central Florida area, they have like, there’s parks. They have clear signs that say there are rattlesnakes in this area and I’ve hiked through there like three or four times. I’ve never seen a single one. And you know, and then you, you, you see films like this where like, there’s all these snakes just following people. And you know, again, it’s sort of in the immediate visceral sense, a little bit unsettling, but you’re right. These are fairly impossible scenarios. I don’t think an alligator would start following someone on land either in a way,
Speaker 3 (24:49):
What scares me is that it could, if he was anywhere around its nest, you don’t mess with mom Gators. And that that’s just seemed like a real, it could have happened.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yes, no, I agree. I would like to think that this is, this is something I talked about with my other guests on this, uh, this particular episode is that it just kind of boggles my mind is that you have to think that this family has lived here for a long time, you know, and yet they seem to do the most. They put themselves in the most stupidly, dangerous situations
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Growing up in Florida. I did the same.
Speaker 1 (25:24):
Okay. Okay. Well, like you said, you went swimming in Gator infested lakes that could very well have been you, did it make you, did it make you see the habitat or the state any differently or change your opinions about it at all?
Speaker 3 (25:41):
You know, not really. Cause you know, like I said before, that whole environment just looks like my dad’s backyard, that’s it? Yeah. It’s just something it’s very familiar though. And that, that part, I enjoyed it just because it was set back so far in the day, um, it was kind of cool to see not a lot of, um, construction or anything built up all around. It was very, very secluded,
Speaker 1 (26:05):
Which I like sometimes. So like a secluded value or Lake, you know, you’re right. There were like a million developments along the shores of it as there probably would be now. Yep. Yeah. The actually the, um, the estate that, that was filmed on, it was part of a state park up in the planet handle. So I’m hoping to visit it someday. And I don’t know, hopefully it won’t trigger me or think that surrounded by hostile. Would you recommend this film to anyone? I would.
Speaker 3 (26:36):
I recommend it for what I got out of the movie. And I apologize if this is a question, but what I take from the movies, it was the frogs and all the animals getting back at them for murdering them.
Speaker 1 (26:50):
Yeah, exactly,
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Exactly. So I thought that was a cool, I really did like that part because you know, the moment I saw at the way beginning when he’s canoeing through, um, the Creek and everything, where he sees all the trash everywhere, I knew that was going to be tied into it somehow, you know how wasteful we are
Speaker 1 (27:07):
Telegraph.
Speaker 3 (27:08):
Exactly. Exactly. And then you see all the poison, um, you know, spread all around. Which why the heck would you poison snakes and frogs and stuff? Cause they kill Gratz. They kill mosquitoes, they kill cockroaches. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
There’s zero ecological awareness on the part of the protagonist in this film. I don’t know if he’s a protagonist, but the, you know, the crotchety old patriarch.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah. And then just, just cared about himself and that. Yeah. But it, it, that I thought that that was really interesting. Um, so I think in that matter, I would recommend it. I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who like you were not, did not know Florida and thought that that was a normal event where we have all of our animals attack us. I wouldn’t do it for those people. Cause I don’t want them to think that that’s that happens.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah. Well, well, as long as you don’t go throwing too many candy wrappers or cans or, you know, dumping industrial waste in the rivers, I guess you’d probably have the kind of, um, ecological environmental message of the film. I mean it’s incredibly heavy handed and obvious, but yeah, I did. I did appreciate that though. The cinematography was pretty nice too. I guess, you know, the shots of the, like you’re saying the shots of the grounds and things like that. Whereas you know, someone on, on uh IMDV or right in some forum talking about this film, as you can see, you’re not the first people I’ve discussed it with, you know, um, either, either, uh, you know, via text or conversation, but someone pointed out, you know, if this guy hates reptiles and frogs so much, why the hell does he live on this Island? Body is surrounded by a swamp. Basically.
Speaker 3 (28:48):
You like, why doesn’t he live in some concrete, you know, New York city or something like that where there’s no frogs like that whatsoever. Exactly. Because that’s what I laugh about. My mom for being so terrified of frogs and lizards. It’s like, you’re from Florida. Like that is us. Let’s what we have. I don’t get it.
Speaker 1 (29:08):
Yeah. I, unless, unless that they’re trying to send some message about the character like that this guy is like so arrogant and so domineering that it’s like, I want to live here and I will force the natural environment to my will or something
Speaker 3 (29:22):
Smiley and not your land, even though I came thousands of years after you. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (29:27):
Yeah. Yes, exactly. I do. I thought that that was a pretty, uh, pretty, you know, pretty effectively conveyed there too. And that sort of preempts my next question was I was like going to say, who do you think this film would be most effective? You know, because I mean, I, like I said, if I saw it as an adult, I think I would probably just be like men, you know, but yeah, you’re right. I think someone with a maybe underdeveloped idea of what the state or the habitats here actually, while he could, uh, would, would probably be sort of scared by it. It was sort of like watching, um, maybe another film I’ll discuss with people somewhere down the road, a classic, uh, spring break, shark attack. Uh, do you remember a TV movie from CBS? No. You didn’t see it. Yeah. It’s it was filmed in South Africa, but set in quote unquote, South Florida.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
So, you know, you get the mountains behind the beach there and stuff. Like that’s a normal thing in Florida, you know, like the sharp, these shirts are just swarming this beach and all over the place. And I was like, thinking, you know, if I’d seen this when I was maybe 10 or 11, you know that my, I might think, Oh my God, I’m never swimming again. But seeing it as an adult, you know, you’re just like, yeah, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. You saw it at the wrong point in your life for it to be truly effective.
Speaker 1 (30:46):
Anything else you want to add? You know, I, it was definitely an interesting movie. I, I wish they had kind of tied more back into the reason why the frogs were flipping out on people. Um, it was because of the pollution and then not caring about their world. I don’t think it ended the right way there. It just made them all be mad. And that was like, well, what were they mad at? And what, what did they prove? What did they change by murdering all these people? Well, the lights went out at the, uh, the mansion at the very end. Remember they got rid of electricity. That’s symbolic, you know, we’re, we’re turning up to nature. You’re right. We got, we got our land back. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:30):
All right. Well, Nicole Reed, you’re now a member of the Florida book club. Thank you for joining us. Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for attending this meeting, the Florida boat club. I hope you enjoyed our conversations about this movie that has so disturbed me. There’s a link to the trailer, courtesy of YouTube on our website and the film itself is available for viewing on Amazon prime. Watch it. If you’re as creeped out about swamps and reptiles as I was back to the deck and I’ll discuss it with anyone who cares to contact me, thank you. Comments and reviews of their own suggestions or Rebekah, and remember to support local, independent bookstores and public libraries. See you at the next meeting.
