408th G-View: The Island of Giant Insects

So this is the third “Low-budget horror movie homage” OVA/movie I am reviewing. The others being GYO: Tokyo Fish Attack (Sharknado-ish) and Calamity of a Zombie Girl (Undead person out for revenge). For “Monster Mash” G-View #3 we will be taking a look at a giant monster creature movie in Island of the Giant Insects.

WARNING! The following movie contains scenes of graphic and sexual violence. Viewer discretion is advised.

Alternate Title: Kyochuu Rettou (Japanese)

Genres: Horror, Survival

Themes: Insects, Yuri

Objectionable content: nudity, sexual violence, PG-13 gore.

Length: 86 Minutes

G-Rating: 7/10 (Personal). 6/10 or lower for others.

Plot Summary: Group of teens go on a trip somewhere but the plane crashes on a seemingly deserted island, only for it to be infested with giant insects. Now Mutsumi and a group of token B Movie victims must try to work together and try to survive as long as possible in hopes of help arriving.

Three of these four are close enough to being likable.

To sum up the movie allow me to quickly name what viewers can expect from it: lesbians, boobies, violence, lessons on bugs and intentionally bad CGI bugs. That is the gist of it. Viewers follow a group where luckily there are more good/decent people than there are jerks. Said jerks are a pain in the butt as intended and like other B Movie jerks/bullies are too dumb to put their egos aside for the survival of the team and themselves while the heroes (most of them) do their best to face overcome the killer giants. To give the jerks some credit there are a few times they cooperate or take things seriously but for most of the movie they intentionally suck.

First victim.

On to the big bugs themselves. Our team come across a couple of creepy crawlies. Most of which are of the flying variety. Surprisingly no ants. One would think of all insects that would love to get revenge on humanity it would be ants, roaches, flies and mosquitoes but none of them are in this movie. The ones featured are still cool…in all their intentionally crappy CGI glory. I am exaggerating in the badness of the CGI but suffice to say viewers who are not fans of Japanese CGI will have a field day every time the titular big bugs attack. The rest of the presentation is solid with generic but catchy rock tunes every now and then and token horror movie tracks.

Like most low budget horror movies Giant Insects is nothing profound or epiphany inducing. It is a “what you see is what you get” kind of affair. Like giant bugs movies of old, think between the 50’s and 80’s, this one is enjoyably silly though there are some kills that can make some viewers uncomfortable. The jerks do some heinous things as well (or at least attempt to). There is an action (badass walk) montage for example that feels like it goes on forever…and it is hilarious. Oh, and the movie is a manga lure.

Mutsumi.

Leading lady Mutsumi is an apprentice entomologist with a cool hat that seems to give her confidence. She dislikes confrontations and fighting the insects causes her emotional pain but does her best as the unofficial leader of the group, specifically the people who acknowledge her invaluable knowledge on insect behavior. All but one of the girls were likable though one was tolerable at best. On the guys’ side it was the opposite (I only tolerated one).

Most of the main girls are lesbians. Nuff said.

Overall The Island of Giant Insects is an homage to low budget big bug horror movies. Most of the ladies are likable, the insects are magnificent in all their bad on purpose CGI, the presentation is average, the action solid, the violence not for everyone and the yuri nice. My favorite of these homage movies remains Calamity of a Zombie Girl but this one is recommended to the brave and curious. Nothing amazing but it is not meant to be.

PS: I do not know if there is a super uncensored version out there. The one I saw censored the gorier stuff. The breasts and booties were visible at least.