The Deadly Mantis
One of my favorites. Even with the recycled music. (It’s the same music as is used in “The Monolith Monsters”.) It’s got one of the biggest bugs ever. “The beginning of the End” may have had a lot of grasshoppers, but they were puny compared to this bad boy. This is what I live for.
Mantis comes to us via number 2 on our “How to create a monster list”. Natural disaster such as an earthquake or volcano that releases a monster from suspended animation and/or frozen hibernation.
In this case an earthquake in Antarctica breaks off an ice sheath in the Arctic releasing the mantis from his frozen sleep. Remembering the laws of physics, which really don’t apply here even though the movie tells you they do, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction”. That’s OK. There’s no such thing nor has there ever been such a thing as a 50 foot Praying Mantis either. Animation is not the only thing suspended here. So is reality. OK now our mantis, freed from its frozen sleep, starts eating anybody it comes across. (Mantises are carnivorous.) Paleontologist Dr. Nedrick Jackson (William Hopper), Col Joe Parkman (Craig Stevens) and the armed forces must try to destroy this monster before it eats the world. Go team.
This movie is way up on my favorite “B” movie list. I love everything about it. The plethora of stock footage, the camp, the carnage, even the close up that big old bobble head mantis.