God of Frogs Review – Less Kermit, More A Giant Shape-Shifting Amphibian Nightmare | film

TThere is a long-discredited theory known as “ontogenesis recapitulates phylogeny” which posits that the development of an organism in the womb or egg (i.e. embryogenesis) reenacts the evolution of its species (phylogeny). In other words, it is a theory developed to explain how organisms start out in a single cell, eventually look like newts, wombats, or other genetic descendants, and then finally reach their final form for their species, whether platypus, snake, or human.

That might be a vague way of saying that this multi-part film, which essentially consists of four stories all related to a person-sized frog monster, encapsulates the horror movie sequence as it goes along. The first, set in 1969, returns to Rosemary’s Baby as Lilith (Ali Chappelle, also the director of this section) is impregnated by the frog god while he takes the form of her community mentor (James Gilbert). It’s all pseudo-drugs, with an actor in a giant latex and slime costume mating with Lilith, like Satan making a monster with two backs with Mia Farrow.

The next chapter takes us through the evolutionary horror series into the 1990s, a time when horror movies ruled the roost. Lilith’s daughter Eve (Ilana Haley) has grown up to be a biology graduate student specializing in amphibians; She ends up being one of only two survivors from the film crew (gotta get into that ’90s self-referential stuff) who encounters our randy adversary in the Florida swamps where we started.

The third part, set roughly in the present, is about a corrupt businessman (Christian Lloyd) and his wayward son (Curtion Moore) and it’s all modern day treatment talking about lockdown and things like that. The final part takes up the entire dystopia of the future in the year 2044, like an Alien movie but on a much smaller budget. There’s a similar relative sophistication to film stock, so we start with what appears to be poor 16mm and move up to high definition, but it’s clear that the budget never extended beyond the physical effects of the monster.

The whole shebang is clearly ridiculous, and the great pantomime suggests that the cast knows it well, but everyone seems to be having fun so it’s hard to get too angry about the outcome.