The Worm Eaters (1977)

Wonderful character development!

Let's be realistic.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

The acting is good, and the firecracker script has some excellent ideas.

Flaky clubfooted hermit Herman Umgar (beautifully played with exceptional depth and feeling by Herb Robbins, who also wrote the profound script and did the masterful direction) gets revenge on several people who want to take away his land by putting worms in their food. This causes everyone who eats said worms to transform into grotesque humanoid worm beings. The rank amateur community theater level histrionic acting rates as Oscar caliber stuff. The puerile humor and silly slapstick gags possess a wit and sophistication that's nothing short of sublime. The libidinous worm men with their primordial need and desire for female mates really bring on the sexy, with the definite erotic highlight occurring when one worm dude attacks a woman while she's taking a shower. The story about evil and greedy folks who want Herman's land so they can build condominiums provides a provocative and substantial little man versus the system socio-political subtext. The cast display an astonishing sense of commitment that goes above and beyond the call of duty by actually putting gross slimy'n'squishy worms in their mouths. The tragic ending packs a devastating punch. The scrappy cinematography by Willis Hawkins gives this picture a gorgeously grainy look. The bouncy'n'catchy theme song hits the jaunty spot. As the tagline aptly states, it's an immortal film of our time.

Finally I bought this old flick just to see what it is all about. To be honest, I've seen the trailer and seen how weird some shots were and otherwise how bad it was. Is it a comedy, well, can't really, say that I had a smile on my face. Well, that's maybe not true, I laughed a lot but it was with the bad acting, this is really so awful, when they have to eat something that is infected with the worms you can see them laughing and when they drop unconscious you can see them act badly. Really, this is a turkey and one that I won't recommend to anybody wasn't it for some scene's. The ones were the worms are being eaten is really gruesome. You really see real worms going into mouths. And that's the reason why it has a cult status. To say, comedy, no, or to say horror no but one to see for the, sigh, worms.

I think that it's a shame that collectors of movies such as this are steering good folk like you away from "The Worm Eaters." As far as I can tell this is a love it or hate it kind of movie, as is the case with any movie of its ilk. I think that it lacks respect to tell people not to bother with this film. Look, if you are into movies like "Big Meat Eater" or "Cannibal Campout" do yourself a favor and get your hands on "The Worm Eaters." You may not like it, but it may end up becoming one of your favorite movies! You know the deal with films like these. Jeez, "Flesh Eating Mothers" was awful, but I would never tell anyone to avoid it! I think this movie is downright hilarious, and the overacting (which I'm sure is not too unintentional) just makes the camp/slash/fun level sky-rocket.And to all of those people who thought this comment wasn't useful (though I know you will probably never read this): You can sit and spin!

A club-footed fellow named Ungar is displaced from his home, and latterly feeds some people live worms. For some unexplained reason, these people mutate into monsters with the upper body of a human and the lower region of a wriggling earthworm(a really cheaply done effect...it looks like people wearing waist-high feed-bags). A film which was made solely for the purpose of presenting gross-out scenes involving live worms being slurped-up into people's mouths in almost-pornographic close-up shots. It's allegedly a comedy, although I have doubts that anyone with a cranial capacity above the "Beavis and Butthead" level would ever manage to find a single frame of THE WORM EATERS worth laughing, or even smiling about. This is nothing more than a "Hey, look, everybody...aren't we weird?" piece of poorly concocted idiocy...to be curious about it is understandable, but honestly, chain yourself to a tree or something if necessary.2.5/10