Frogs
1972 Joan Van Ark
Teaser Storyline for Frogs
Great-grandfather Jason Crockett (RAY MILLAND) has gathered his family at the ancestral mansion on his island down South to celebrate his birthday and The Fourth of July. But the traditional reunion is somehow shadowed by a feeling of strangeness in the air. Nothing you could put your finger on. . . or want to.
Clint Crockett (ADAM ROARKE), one of Jason's grandsons, crashes his powerboat into the canoe of a stranger, Pickett Smith (SAM ELLIOTT), who claims to be doing research for an ecology article. The canoe is taken to the island and Pickett joins the family group, forming a relationship with Karen Crockett (JOAN VAN ARK), Clint's sister. A more intimate relationship exists between another grandson, Kenneth Wooster (NICHOLAS CORTLAND), and Bella Berenson (JUDY PACE), the Negro model he has brought for the holiday.
Tension within the family is heightened when the caretaker, who has been spraying poison to limit the expanding frog population, is found dead in the woods. Tiny Frogs and snakes are crawling
|
on him.
Frogs come up from the lake to join the party. Maybelle (MAE MERCER), the maid, and Charles (LANCE TAYLOR, SR.), the butler, discover a poisonous snake in the dining room. And Frogs hop into the mansion. Not many. Just enough to make you feel uneasy. Kenneth and Bella want to leave, but no one will take them to the mainland in the speedboat.
Grandson Michael Wooster (DAVID GILLIAM), Kenneth's brother, goes into the woods to find where the telephone wire has broken, as the phone has gone dead. He accidentally shoots himself in the leg. He can't get away when tarantulas and scorpions attack, and spiders spin a suffocating web around him, choking him to death.
Pickett realizes something sinister is pervading the island, but Jason insists on full speed ahead with the annual festivities.
Kenneth dies in a greenhouse when giant lizards knock over containers of deadly insecticide spray, poisoning him before he can get out.
Iris Crockett Wooster (HOLLY IRVING), Jason's daughter, is trying to net a butterfly when she is trapped by poisonous snakes, falls into the swamp, and is bled dry by leeches.
Frogs are everywhere now. And more and more lizards, all sizes. Alligators, too, have joined the revolt against man. Their first victim, Stuart Wooster (GEORGE SKAFF), Jason's son-in-law is devoured.
Snakes, Frogs, salamanders, toads, all are on the march. And lizards, spiders plus other things underfoot.
Using the powerboat, Clint takes Bella, Maybelle and Charles to a tourist camp across the lake, but it has a deserted, lifeless atmosphere as he leaves them there. Clint returns to the island. The boat suddenly drifts away from its mooring. Clint dives in the lake to retrieve it - but is eaten alive by fish. His wife, Jenny Crockett (LYNN BORDEN), rushes to the shore hoping to rescue him, only to be dragged to an underwater death by a huge alligator turtle.
Jason, in his mansion, is engulfed by Frogs, lizards, snakes . . . but he refuses to leave. Pickett and Karen take the boy, Jay Crockett (HAL HODGES), and his sister, Tina (DALE WILLINGHAM), who were orphaned by the death of Clint and Jenny, and paddle to the mainland.. . and perhaps to safety. But could nature be in revolt on the mainland too? What they don't know is whether nature everywhere, everywhere, has turned against man. Is there any way to escape? Who knows???
|
|
