Movie Review: Trog (1970)
Synopsis: A group of college students discover a living troglodyte living in a newly discovered cave in Britain and are immediately attacked, leaving one dead. Anthropologist Dr. Brockton manages to capture the missing link and brings it back to her lab for study. However, her research is met with opposition from many of the townspeople, who view the creature as a monster. Any progress Brockton made toward dispelling that opinion is then lost when a local businessman releases Trog in the hopes it will be killed, only to have the creature go on its own killing spree before abducting a child.
Who's in it? The movie stars Joan Crawford, Michael Gough, Bernard Kay, Joe Cornelius and Kim Braden.
Review: My search for a monster movie resulted in me considering Trog multiple times, only to decide to watch a movie from a different genre instead. I finally decided to give it a try this morning and it turned out to pretty much confirm the doubts I had about it.
To be fair, this movie wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. The plot is reasonably realistic (at least for a monster movie) and the acting exceeded my expectations. The main problem I ultimately had with it was it fell short of what I thought it could be.
This is basically one of those films where the real "monsters" are the people. That's great from a moral standpoint but doesn't always work so well from an entertainment standpoint. How am I supposed to enjoy a ferocious beast going on a killing spree when the movie goes out of its way to make that beast into the victim?
The reasons the movie unfolded the way it did were also kind of ridiculous if you put any thought into it. The main villain, Sam Murdock's (Gough), motivation was he was afraid having a monster at the university would be bad for business. Maybe it's just me, but it kind of feels like having the last of a prehistoric species would result in a tourist boom.
And let's face it, it wasn't as though Trog (Cornelius) was really all that scary. I personally thought he looked a lot like a guy wearing a bad Halloween mask. In fact, I thought the local authorities gave up on their hoax theory a bit too fast as a result of that. Perhaps people in 1970's Britain scared easier?
Final Opinion: I'm not saying the movie wasn't entertaining, just that it was entertaining for the wrong reasons. It just didn't work for me as a result.
My Grade: C-
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Here are some reviews of other movies from the 1970s:
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