Hell Comes to Frogtown

Summary

“Eat lead, froggies!”

The last few years have been an incredible time to love cult films. Dedicated labels like Arrow Video, Shout!Factory, and Vinegar Syndrome have dedicated themselves to unearthing seemingly every single weird film committed to celluloid. For myself, cult films are a passion. The stranger they are, typically the more I like them. That is why I have been wanting for years to see the “Rowdy” Roddy Piper film Hell Comes to Frogtown. Filmed the same year that Roddy would star in John Carpenter’s classic They Live, Hell Comes to Frogtown is a  New World Pictures produced blast of Eighties post-apocalyptic nonsense that should please the cult film lovers in your life. 

Until this last year, the only way to see Hell Comes to Frogtown was to import the Arrow Video Blu-ray from the UK that was released in 2016. In a stunning development, Vinegar Syndrome produced a brand new 4K scan of the film elements and received permission to use the excellent supplemental materials from the Arrow Video release. I had been waiting to see this film for years, so the other night I watched it. It lived up to about what I had expected.

In the future, ten thousand years of progress have been destroyed by nuclear blasts. The remaining survivors are divided into two camps: humans and mutants that resemble frogs. The blasts have also had an effect on the male population. Men have been made infertile. Sam Hell (Roddy Piper) is controlled by his female handlers. He has already helped nineteen women conceive. Spangle (Sandahl Bergman) is assigned to take Sam into Frog Town to rescue a group of fertile women from a harem run by the evil mutant Captain Devlin. Sam Hell has an explosive device attached to his crotch that will detonate if he goes more than one hundred yards from his handler.

If you read the plot above and are still interested in watching the film, it will probably appeal to you like it did me. This is an absolutely ridiculous mashup of Mad Max meets Escape from New York meets Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Roddy Piper brings a good sense of humor to the role and was the right man for the part. A movie this over the top definitely benefits from having a legendary wrestler in the lead role. Piper plays the role with aplomb and allows himself to ham it up and be goofy. It is also very funny to see him refusing the constant advances of the women in the film. This is a pretty funny role reversal from your more typical alpha male action characters. Sandahl Bergman had starred in Conan the Barbarian and She, so she was up to the task of playing Spangle and shooting a film in the dessert. Cec Verrell plays a machine gunner in the squad and is enjoyable and striking in her role. 

The writing for the film by Randall Frakes is very off beat and fun. I wonder what the film would have been like if he had been able to get every one of his more bizarre ideas from the original script into the film. The direction by Donald G. Jackson fits the project well. Most impressive are the animatronic frog creatures made for the film for an astoundingly low budget by Steve Wang and Johnny Saiko and his team. They should have won some sort of award for working within such a minuscule budget.

Overall with a title like Hell Comes to Frogtown and a plot that involves post-apocalyptic mutant frog people, this is meant to be a cult film and I think it largely succeeds.

Video

Arrow Video had released a this film a few years ago on Blu-ray, but it was only available in the UK. The new release by Vinegar Syndrome has a new 4K transfer that looks fantastic and blows away any prior release. This can be easily tested by looking at the supplemental materials which feature video footage from the Arrow release. The film is presented in 1.85:1 aspect ratio and the print was in good shape. There is a fine level of grain over the film that enhances the experience and never becomes chunky. Vinegar Syndrome are working hard to become one of the best cult film labels on the planet and this release shows just how far they have come already.

Audio

Vinegar Syndrome have provided a DTS-HD MA Mono track and a DTS-HD MA 2.0 track in English. I found both tracks satisfying. As you would expect, range is limited and some of the effects are pretty low rent. Fans should be pleased with the efforts put in to clean up these tracks.

Supplements:

• Commentary – writer Randall Frakes and co-writer/director Donald G. Jackson.
• “Mean and Green” – writer Randall Frakes gives an in-depth interview where he discusses the entire process of writing the picture and how it escalated from a cheap B-picture to a more expensive B-movie with Roddy Piper.
• “Grappling with Green” – the late “Rowdy” Roddy Piper discusses how he landed the role and how he navigated some of the more risqué elements while happily married. This is a nice piece.
• “Amphibian Armageddon” – Brian Frank, who played Commander Toty, sits down for a brief interview.
• “Creature Feature Creator” – special effects artist Steve Wang gives an enjoyable interview where he discusses working on the creature effects in the film.
• Alternate Scene 
• Theatrical Trailer

Overall Scores:

Video – 4.5/5

Audio – 4/5

Supplements – 5/5

Overall – 4.5/5

Hell Comes to Frogtown is a truly ridiculous oddity from New World Pictures. While the picture itself is worthy of about a “B-“ grade, the restoration undertaken by Vinegar Syndrome and the wealth of supplements produced by Arrow Video make this a really attractive package for fans of the film. The new 4K scan by Vinegar Syndrome is a great example of exactly how far Vinegar Syndrome have advanced in their abilities in a short time. Fans will definitely want to add this set to their collection. Cult film collectors will find plenty to enjoy with this release.