Hell Comes to Frogtown, 1988.
Directed by Donald G. Jackson and R.J. Kizer.
Starring Roddy Piper, William Smith, Sandahl Bergman, Eyde Byrde and Cec Verrell.
SYNOPSIS:
Sam Hell is a prisoner of the female faction who took over the US after nuclear war. Mutants thrive in the wasteland while humans face possible extinction due to infertility. Bomb strapped to his crotch, Hell is forced to rescue a group of fertile women from a harem ran by an evil mutant gang.
Imagine if Planet of the Apes didn’t have the social commentary, was a lot simpler, more misogynistic, with less character and frogs instead of apes and you should get a good idea of what to expect from Hell Comes to Frogtown. A dumb (but campy fun) 80s action-comedy starring wrestling legend Roddy Piper.
To call Hell Comes to Frogtown an exercise in female exploitation cinema would be a slight understatement. While the shine of the movie is an empowerment fantasy where women dominate the world, their main role in the picture is to flaunt and fawn over Piper’s Sam Hell. Not a scene goes by where a woman isn’t trying to make a pass at the mullet-sporting beefcake and the end of the movie features our heroic male character standing tall having rescued half a dozen damsels in distress. With that said, it is an exploitation comedy movie made in the late 80s, so what should we really expect?
The fact of the matter is, Hell Comes to Frogtown is an incredibly stupid movie but it’s also quite a lot of fun. Once you immerse yourself into the hyper-realistic, almost Troma-like world filled with anthropomorphic frogs and exploding metal pants you’ll have a blast (no pun intended). Piper is suitably wooden in the role (he isn’t as good here as he is in They Live) and his almost all-female supporting cast do a serviceable job of making him look like an appealing sex object. The script is functional, the directing is clean and there is a great light-hearted tone throughout the movie which just makes it fun to watch. Taking it seriously would be a fool’s errand because the directors themselves were not taking the subject matter seriously and like all good “so bad it’s good” movies, Jackson and Kizer tried to make a movie that would entertain people. And to that end, they succeeded.
Getting yourself into this mindset when watching a movie like Hell Comes to Frogtown is almost essential when trying to get past the lame make-up effects for the evil frog characters. While the rest of the movie is silly fun, the frogs themselves are pretty laughable. At best they’re Howard The Duck, but at their worst they’re Garbage Pail Kids. Lips movements don’t match up and they’re all expressionless, but it really doesn’t matter. Because everyone on set and in the movie believes they are real-life frog mutants talking, you as an audience buy into it.
Hell Comes to Frogtown is as dumb as a bag of spanners and about about as subtle. Its gender politics may seem passé here in 2014, but there is enough in this dumb-but-fun meathead comedy that makes Hell Comes to Frogtown somewhat charming. Leave your senses at the door as they won’t serve you well in this strange world, but do bring your smile as it will be spread across your face from start to end.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Luke Owen is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors and the host of the Flickering Myth Podcast. You can follow him on Twitter @LukeWritesStuff.
Originally published February 3, 2014. Updated November 8, 2019.
