Doom frogs and the dangers of farming: Strange Nature (2018)

Strange Nature is a terrific example of how nature can turn on us. This movie is all about frogs as harbingers of doom.

Strange Nature is a monster movie. And monsters are awesome. I don’t mean werewolves or vampires or aliens, I mean animals that we encounter sometimes on a daily basis turning on us. Whether it is The Meg, Big Ass Spider, Lake Placid or Anaconda, these movies delight us.

Even films like Sharknado and Sharktopus, as ridiculous as they are, have a following. Well, if you have wanted to encounter frogs as the harbingers of doom, then it’s your lucky day because I have just the movie for you called Strange Nature.

Written and directed by James Ojala, the movie stars Lisa Sheridan as Kim Sweet, Bruce Bohne as Chuck, Jonah Beres as Brody, Stephen Tobolowsky as Mayor Paulson, Carlos Alazraqui as Greg, John Hennigan as Sam, Faust Checho as Trent, and an appearance by Tiffany Shepis as Tina Stevens.

The story follows Kim and Brody, mother and son, as they head to Kim’s hometown to assist her father, Chuck, since he has cancer and will be getting surgery on his liver.

Due to a mistake in her past, Kim isn’t exactly welcomed in town but her father is ecstatic to have them there.

Image courtesy of Ojala Productions

When frogs start turning up with extra limbs and people in town start disappearing, Kim tries to get to the bottom of what is going on with the help of high school science teacher, Trent. Meanwhile, they have to keep clear of the local prejudice a**holes who keep causing trouble as things start to get worse.

It would be so easy to call this movie bad. The acting isn’t Oscar worthy and there are plot holes big enough to drive a bass boat into, but there’s just something fun and silly about this movie. Bohn’s performance was adorable as the redneck yokel of a grandfather and Beres did a great job keeping up with the adults around him. I’d love to know how they did the extra limbs on the frogs. They either gathered a crap ton of mutated frogs or super glued fake froggy limbs on to normal amphibians. The special effects in this movie were really good for the most part and they had a ton of mutated creatures. It doesn’t hurt that James Ojala is a well known special effects man, himself.

Image courtesy of Ojala Productions

The biggest flaw of this film was its story. I liked what it was going for: the chemicals we use in our farms are hurting the wildlife around us and will eventually get back to us. It’s simple enough but they didn’t stop there. Is it pesticides, is it parasites…the answer is sure! This movie is great as a campy monster movie but they tried to do too much all at once. The first hour and ten minutes is finding some weird frogs and then BOOM, all hell breaks loose. Maybe if they stepped back and chose one reason for the mutations, maybe if the editing wasn’t so chopping and confusing and maybe if they had paced it better, it would be a film to be taken more seriously.

As it stands, Strange Nature is a silly, goofy monster movie with no real scares but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad time. This isn’t the WORST way to spend an hour and a half and if you like wildlife monster movies like this, then you will probably enjoy it. Strange Nature is based on the real life mystery of these mutated amphibians and you can see it at select theaters today.

Have you seen Strange Nature? What did you think of it? Share your opinions in the comment section below.