The Deadly Mantis

Poster tagline: THIS WAS THE DAY THAT ENGULFED THE WORLD IN TERROR! Starring a giant praying mantis, scared Eskimos, horny soldiers, lots of documentary footage of fighter jets and military bases, and a very nice rear projection at the end. Otherwise, Juran's film does not stand out from the monster-movies of its time. It copies a lot from its more famous predecessor Them!, especially in the first half, when we hardly see the monster, a giant praying mantis, only the consequences of its attacks on an Arctic base. The existence of the mantis is explained in a rather ridiculous way, in a nutshell, its frozen body, hidden in the ice at the North Pole, has come to life due to "vibrations" caused by volcanic activity on an island. During its rampage on the ground, the mantis, embodied by an animatronic model, flips over model cars, and the during the aerial scenes, flying with its adorably fluttering wings, it doesn’t interact with the planes, not even by means of rear projection; there are only white strips around it, representing missiles. There is also a brilliant scientist and the mandatory female element, a nature magazine photographer, harassed by horny soldiers from an Arctic base where a woman has not been seen for months. The Arctic landscape is represented by a few studio scenes with white sawdust and sped-up shots with paddling Eskimos. The presence of the mantis could be summed up in one minute in the first hour (the attack on the base and on the Eskimos), but it’s all made up for by the final showdown in the road tunnel. Final summary: a standard addition to the monster-movie series, bringing nothing new, with perhaps only one genre nuance: the giant size of the praying mantis is not the result of a radioactive mutation, as it was usually explained at the time. (2008.05.29)

Even though the American film The Deadly Mantis is a B-movie, where quite a few scenes without the monster take place and the plot is all about conversation, the monster does in fact appear quite often, which is great. That giant praying mantis is really cool to look at, and this is one of the monsters I personally really like. Sure, they use a lot of miniatures, which are too simple, but it was still enough for me in terms of special effects. (2019.05.31)