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Released by: New Concorde
Released on: August 28, 2001.
Director: Terence H. Winkless
Cast: Robert Lansing, Lisa Langlois, Franc Luz, Terri Treas
Year: 1988
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The Movie:
Directed by Terence H. Winkless in 1988, The Nest is set in North Port, a small town on a coastal island where most people seem to make a living fishing. Things take a change for the worse when the town's mayor, Elias Johnson (Robert Lansing), sells off a large portion of the island to a sinister corporation called Intec who have dealings in gene splicing and other controversial technologies. Everything seems normal enough at first, but then some of the animals that live in and around the town turn up dead, apparently eaten by bugs that somehow develop the ability to mutate into whatever they eat!
As luck would have it, something going on at Intec has cause the cockroach population of North Port to start booming. Not only are they everywhere, but they've developed a taste for human flesh and goodness gracious but are they ever a hungry bunch! The local sheriff, Richard Tarbell (Frank Luz) doesn't know what to do and the surprise arrival of his old flame Elizabeth (Lisa Langlois) only makes things more complicated for the guy. Thankfully there's an Intec employee named Dr. Hubbard (Terri Treas) who knows enough about what's happening that, with a little bit of luck, those who haven't already been eaten by the bugs might just maybe make it out of this mess alive.
Though at times painfully obvious in its low budget roots, The Nest is a fun, if not entirely original, mix of science gone mad killer bugs and The Thing inspired mutations. The film moves at a pretty solid pace and if there isn't much in the way of legitimate suspense or tension the film isn't short on creepy bugs and gross imagery. Sometimes it's enough to make the movie work, our natural instincts for whatever reason teach us to be wigged out by bugs, particularly when there are loads of them as there are in this movie.
The performances are pretty average here, no better and no worse than thousands of other low budget creature features. Lisa Langlois, probably best known for Class Of 1984, is cute enough to work as the female lead and Terri Treas of Alien Nation fame isn't half bad as the lady scientist. Frank Luz is fine as the sheriff as well but you're not going into a movie like this for well developed characters to be played by an uber talented cast of thespians, you're going into it for gooey, gory bug attacks. That's probably for the best when discussing a movie like this as you get none of the first quality and loads of the second.
Video/Audio/Extras:
The 1.33.1 fullframe image isn't going to win any awards, it tends to be a bit too dark and muddy looking to the point where a lot of fine detail is obscured and buried. Colors are a bit faded, blacks are often times more like dark grays, and the image is noticeably cropped.
The only audio option on the disc is an English language Dolby Digital Mono track, there are no alternate language options or subtitles of any kind offered. Dialogue is easy enough to follow but there are moments where things sound flat and/or hollow that are obvious throughout.
Aside from menus and chapter stops, the disc includes some cast and crew biographies and trailers for a few other New Concorde DVDs, though strangely no trailer for the movie itself.
The Final Word:
The Nest is a decent low budget B-horror film that fans of killer bug movies (and we know you're out there) will probably enjoy but this DVD release from New Concorde is pretty rough around the edges.
