Humongous

For the dictionary definition, see Humongous
Humongous

Humongous movie poster
Directed by Paul Lynch
Produced by Anthony Kramreither (producer)
Michael Stevenson (executive producer) (as Michael M. Stevenson)
Written by William Gray
Starring Janet Julian
David Wallace
John Wildman
Page Fletcher
Music by John Mills-Cockell
Cinematography Brian R.R. Hebb
Edited by Nick Rotundo
Production
company
Humongous Films
Distributed by Astral Films
Embassy Pictures Corporation
Release dates
 June 11, 1982
Running time
 94 minutes/97 minutes (USA)
Country Canada
Language English
Budget CAD$2,000,000 (estimated)

Humongous is a 1982 horror film (also containing elements of splatter/slasher films), starring Janet Julian and David Wallace. The movie is directed by Paul Lynch. There are two versions of the film. The American version is rated R, and omits some violent scenes. The Canadian version is unrated and contains all of the footage removed from the US version.

Plot

It is Labor Day weekend, 1946. Young, virginal Ida Parsons innocuously plays as her father hosts a raucous party. Amid the festivities, an older, drunken man named Tom Rice staggers outside and propositions Ida. When she refuses, he chases her into the woods and brutally rapes her; her dogs break out of their pen and they attack and fatally maul Ida's rapist.

After the credits, the movie picks up in 1982. Preppy brothers Eric and Nick are borrowing their father's yacht to take their girlfriends, Sandy and Donna, on a weekend outing along with their sister, Carla. At the outset of the trip, Nick demonstrates his intent to be the "alpha male" of the trip, insisting that he be the one to pilot the yacht and at one point pulling a gun on Eric to demonstrate his authority. As the tensions rise between Nick and Eric, Donna and Sandy engage in girl-talk, and geeky Carla silently laments that she is the sole member of the cruise who came along without a significant other.

That night, fog settles in; Eric and Nick, hearing cries out on the water, discover and rescue a shipwrecked fisherman named Bert. Bert informs them that he wrecked offshore Dog Island, the home of lumber baroness Ida Parsons, who has used her family fortune to hole herself up on the island for the past thirty-five years; now she only makes two annual voyages onto the mainland for necessary supplies, and has never spoken to anyone during these trips. Recovering from the onset of hypothermia, Bert tells the quintet a campfire story about the savagery of the wild dogs which roam Ida's island, acting as her sentries. The story, coupled with the cries of wild animals coming from the nearby island, startle Nick enough that he runs on top of the yacht and tries to speed back to the mainland; instead, he wrecks it, damaging the fuel line and causing it to explode.

Donna, Eric, Sandy, Nick, and Bert wash up on Dog Island; Bert has been seriously wounded, and Carla is nowhere to be found. Seeking to reclaim his macho status, Nick wanders off into the woods, and is subsequently killed by a hulking figure that breaks down the shed where Nick hides. The next morning, Sandy and Eric go off onto the island, hoping that Ida Parsons will help them get back to the mainland. Shortly after they leave the beach, Bert goes into shock, and Donna desperately tries to warm him by stripping to the waist and lying topless across his shirtless torso; seconds later, the same figure which killed Nick sneaks up behind Donna and Bert, fatally hurling Donna against a rock wall and decapitating Bert.

At the center of the island, Sandy and Eric discover Ida's fortified cabin, as well as the fact that all of Ida's dogs have died long ago, their mutilated skeletons lying in their pens. In Ida's boathouse, the duo discover Carla alive hiding under a tarp; she apparently washed up at another point on the beach and made it to the compound in the middle of the night.

In the course of exploring Ida's compound, Eric, Sandy and Carla discover a dust-covered nursery full of antique toys, and a cobweb-covered crib; they also discover Ida Parson's diary, which contains insane, rambling passages about giving birth to a sick child, which she intends to keep sinless by secluding him from all the evils of the outside world. They figure something traumatic must've happened to Ida to cause her to write such things, and reach the conclusion that Ida's son has died, causing her to become delusional. As they continue exploring the house, Sandy comes across Ida's skeletal corpse, positioned in repose in her bedroom. The kids listen to something growling in the basement and become frightened, and decide to collect supplies and head back to the shore to collect the rest of their party so they can formulate an escape from the island in Ida's old rowboat. Even so, they go in the basement to see what they can use. But then they find the dead bodies of Nick and Donna, panic and run away back to the beach.

Eric and Sandy decide that the one who did it must be Ida Parson's son, left insane by his life of solitude under the care of the imbalanced Ida; with nothing to do but learn from Ida and explore the wilderness, he's become immensely strong, a capable tracker and hunter, and is thoroughly convinced that all outsiders are a threat to him and his mother. With the death of Ida, he was left without any basis for reality, and ended up eating the dogs to survive—and has now turned to people.

Eric and Sandy go back to the house and get the matches that Sandy dropped earlier. Ida's son attacks, breaking down the door. Eric attempts to fight using a broken branch, but the mutant grapples with him and fatally breaks Eric's back; once it has killed Eric, it turns it attention to Sandy and chases her upstairs into his mother's bedroom, where Sandy wraps a blanket around her head and, playing Ida, convinces the mutant to leave his mother's bedroom. But when Sandy leaves the room, the mutant is there and pursues Sandy out of the house and to the boathouse. Sandy runs headlong into Carla at the boathouse and the mutant, close behind, grabs Carla and crushes her face and kills her. Sandy manages to lure the man into Ida's boathouse, which she sets on fire; Ida's son is mortally burned in the blaze, but still manages to leap from the water and attack Sandy, chasing her up a hill where she yanks a sharp signpost from the ground and impales the mutant with it. As he dies, we finally see his burned and deformed face.

Traumatized by the death of her friends and the murder she has been forced to commit, Sandy sits alone on Ida's dock, strongly resembling a scarred and traumatized Ida.

Cast

Production

Filming took place on location in Ontario, Canada.[1] Humongous would be actress Janit Baldwin's last feature film, Humongous would also mark actress Page Fletcher's film debut. Because of the film's relatively low budget, the script which originally was set during a storm was changed to fog instead. Garry Robbins who plays the deformed killer (listed in the credits as Ida's son) has make-up applied to him before arriving on set and was driven to the set each day during filming. Two different houses stood in for Ida's house, one being a house located outside Toronto, Ontario while the other was an office building.[2]

Critical reception

Critical reception for the film has been mixed to negative. AllMovie's review of the film was negative, calling it a "plodding horror bore" and commenting, "whatever interest this deathly dull flick may have mustered is completely obscured by some of the murkiest cinematography on record; the fact that nearly every scene is shrouded in complete darkness may prove a blessing in disguise."[3]

Tim Brayton from Antagony & Ecstasy gave the film a negative review calling the film "Junk" and criticized the film's characterization as being "of limited interest" but complimented the film's unique villain and being better acted than most slasher films.[4] However the film has received some positive reviews, Kurt Dahlke from DVD Talk gave the film a positive review stating "Though derivative of other Slasher Movies, plagued by the annoying improbabilities of all A-to-B horror efforts, filled with bickering dorks, and pretty slow to get started, Humongous eventually gets to a weird, frenetic payoff".[5] Tom Becker from DVD Verdict also gave the film a positive review. In his review on the film Becker commented, "While it might not be the shocker it should be, Humongous is a pretty entertaining bit of horror fluff from the days when people took this stuff seriously".[6] Jack Sommersby from eFilmCritic.com awarded the film a score of 3 / 4 stating, "It's perfect for audiences looking for an undemanding, scary good time, along with those longing to see the drop-dead gorgeous Janet Julian in a skimpy bikini".[7]

The film currently has a 0% "Rotten" rating on Rotten tomatoes.[8]

DVD release

An uncut DVD was released in the U.S. on November 15, 2011.

References

  1. ↑ "Humongous (1982) - Filming Locations". IMDb.com. IMDb.com. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  2. ↑ "Humongous (1982) - Trivia". IMDb.com. IMDb.com. Retrieved 6 August 2014.
  3. ↑ Binion, Cavett. "Humongous - Trailers, Reviews, Synopsis, Showtimes and Cast - AllMovie". AllMovie. Retrieved 20 July 2012.
  4. ↑ Brayton, Tim. "Antagony & Ecstasy: SUMMER OF BLOOD: WHAT A BIG EVERYTHING YOU HAVE". Antagony & Ecstasy.com. Tim Brayton. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  5. ↑ Dahlke, Kurt. "Humongous : DVD Talk Review of the DVD Video". DVD Talk.com. Kurt Dahlke. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  6. ↑ Becker, Tom. "DVD Verdict Review - Katarina's Nightmare Theater: Humongous". DVD Verdict.com. Tom Becker. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  7. ↑ Sommersby, Jack. "Movie Review - Humongous - eFilmCritic". eFilmCritic.com. Jack Sommersby. Retrieved 24 October 2014.
  8. ↑ "Humongous - Rotten Tomatoes". Rotten Tomatoes.com. Rotten Tomatoes.com. Retrieved 24 October 2014.

External links