Blu-ray + DVD

Hell Comes to Frogtown Blu-ray Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf, September 5, 2019

One might expect 1988's "Hell Comes to Frogtown" to be an irresistible mix of the violent and the bizarre. It's a ready-made cult offering that's blessed with an unmissable title, a wacky premise, and the bruised charms of its leading man, the great pro-wrestler, "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (who sadly passed away in 2015). While Piper brings his wildman attitude to the endeavor and screenwriter Randall Frakes does his part by inventing a post-apocalyptic wasteland populated with mutant frogs, director Donald G. Jackson (shadowed by R.J. Kizer) practically refuses to transform the effort into an unstoppable showcase of the absurd, struggling to overcome what appears to be a painfully underfunded production that doesn't do enough to secure a rip-roarin' pace with plenty of unusual encounters.As Earth recovers from a nuclear holocaust, sterilization rules, making an outlaw like Sam Hell ("Rowdy" Roddy Piper) a prize, with his virility leaving behind a string of pregnancies across the wasteland. The Med Tech unit of the government wants to use Sam's powers to repopulate the Earth, capturing the wanted man and slapping a chastity belt-like device on him, putting him into the care of Spangle (Sandahl Bergman). Learning of a hostage situation in mutant frog territory, where Commander Toty (Brian Frank) has turned a group of fertile humans into his harem, Spangle makes a plan to infiltrate his compound and rescue the young women with help from Sam, who's tasked with impregnating the group when the mission is completed."Hell Comes to Frogtown" doesn't have much money to spend on the basics of post-apocalyptic entertainment, though it does have a plot that could easily go to some appealingly disturbed areas of action and comedy. Instead of a romp, Jackson drags the material around, sticking to a routine of dimly lit rooms and featureless desert locations to help detail Sam's fight for dignity as his penis becomes government property, forced into a rescue and seduction mission he doesn't want anything to do with. "Hell Comes to Frogtown" has the working parts of a shoot-em-up farce, but the helmer doesn't have the ability to launch the picture in any distinct way, keeping things quite bland as Sam enjoys lengthy conversations with Spangle (his captor and secret admirer), Looney Tunes (Rory Calhoun) an inside man living in the mutant zone, and various walking and talking frogs. Creature design work from Steve Wang does well with no noticeable coin spent on the movie, giving frog encounters some visual lift, but Jackson doesn't make the film exciting, trying to get by on mild shenanigans, including repeated references to a frog seduction dance Spangle is forced to perform for a visibly excited Toty.