Humongous starts on Labour Day Weekend 1946 as the Parson family hold a party at their island lodge, their daughter Ida (Mary Sullivan) is brutally raped by a guy named Tom Rice (Page Fletcher) who is then savaged by the Parson family guard dogs & then fished off by Ida who whacks him over the head with a rock several times... Jump forward 36 Year Later & five teenage friends Nick (John Wildman), Eric (David Wallace), Carla (Janet Baldwin) & Sandy (Janet Julian) are out on a yacht enjoying themselves when they run into fog & get lost. They also run into stranded boater Bert Defoe (Layne Coleman), after generally being stupid they manage to crash the yacht on some rocks on the shore of a mysterious island which has sinister legends surrounding it. Stranded there they have to wait for help but it seems they are on the Parson island where some deformed monster stalks looking for food...
This Canadian production was directed by Paul Lynch who is also credited with the title design & one has to say Humongous isn't an overly impressive film with which to spend ninety minutes of your life but by slasher standards it's not the worst example out there. The script by William Gray is your typical 80's slasher material, from the teen victims to the isolated location to the mysterious deformed killer. It's all there. Gray seems to spend a lot of the time on the killers back-story & the teens working out the mystery, the problem is any seasoned slasher fan will be way ahead of both Gray & his character's. To be fair the script itself isn't really any worse than any other 80's slasher although there are a few poor decisions which ultimately sink Humongous. For a start there is a criminal lack of blood or gore, there simply isn't any sort of pay-off for sticking with it, the character's are pretty faceless & have no real development to the extent that I found it hard to know who was who simply because most of them had no discernible personality or features, the way the kids end up on the island is contrived to say the least & the vast majority of the film is spent showing these teens wander around the island for what seems like an eternity. I must admit I did think the film opened quite well with a brutal rape & death but that's as good as it gets I'm afraid, it's pretty much all downhill after that & the film never recapture the brutality of sleaziness of that opening sequence. The kills are unimaginative & mostly off screen too which doesn't help. Also I am wondering why is the film called Humongous? There doesn't seem to be any reason I can think of as to why it's called Humongous at all.
Director Lynch ruins any chance the script might have had, everyone but everyone who has seen & commented on Humongous mentions the fact that it is so dark which it is. The daytime scenes are fine so it's not just bad VHS tapes or prints Lynch just must have made a monumental misjudgement with his lighting. The last twenty minutes in particular are so frustrating to watch & more often than not you find yourself looking a totally black screen. I can't see anyone watching Humongous & not noticing how dark & frankly unwatchable it is. Released in the US in both 'R' rated & 'Unrated' versions the opening rape & killing of Tom is as graphic as it gets, all of the subsequent murders happen off screen, a mummified corpse is seen, three bodies are seen on meat hooks, there's a bit of blood, someone is impaled on a signpost &, well, that's it. Basically there's a lot of film of teenagers running around with very little reward. All the slasher clichés are here, Lynch often films from the point-of-view of the killer, people jump out of the dark to scare their mates, loud noises are heard at tense moments & the teens keep on separating which makes it easier for the killer. The killers face is only ever shown right at the end although I am not sure if that was on purpose or the fact that it's so dark you can't see anything anyway. There is one odd scene though when a girl collects blueberries & then uses her breast's squished together as a natural 'plate' to carry them on! Then after she notices her mate is cold she undoes her top to expose her breast's & lies on top of him in an effort to warm him up!
Technically the film is alright, it's well made I suppose but there's not much style. Apparently filmed on location in Ontario in Canada. The acting is alright considering it's an 80's slasher but no-one in this has exactly gone on to be stars which isn't surprising.
Humongous (Why Humongous? Why?) is an average sort of 80's slasher, the whole deformed killer on an isolated island set-up is quite neat & fairly well done but it was just too uneventful to maintain ones interest for over ninety minutes.
This Canadian production was directed by Paul Lynch who is also credited with the title design & one has to say Humongous isn't an overly impressive film with which to spend ninety minutes of your life but by slasher standards it's not the worst example out there. The script by William Gray is your typical 80's slasher material, from the teen victims to the isolated location to the mysterious deformed killer. It's all there. Gray seems to spend a lot of the time on the killers back-story & the teens working out the mystery, the problem is any seasoned slasher fan will be way ahead of both Gray & his character's. To be fair the script itself isn't really any worse than any other 80's slasher although there are a few poor decisions which ultimately sink Humongous. For a start there is a criminal lack of blood or gore, there simply isn't any sort of pay-off for sticking with it, the character's are pretty faceless & have no real development to the extent that I found it hard to know who was who simply because most of them had no discernible personality or features, the way the kids end up on the island is contrived to say the least & the vast majority of the film is spent showing these teens wander around the island for what seems like an eternity. I must admit I did think the film opened quite well with a brutal rape & death but that's as good as it gets I'm afraid, it's pretty much all downhill after that & the film never recapture the brutality of sleaziness of that opening sequence. The kills are unimaginative & mostly off screen too which doesn't help. Also I am wondering why is the film called Humongous? There doesn't seem to be any reason I can think of as to why it's called Humongous at all.
Director Lynch ruins any chance the script might have had, everyone but everyone who has seen & commented on Humongous mentions the fact that it is so dark which it is. The daytime scenes are fine so it's not just bad VHS tapes or prints Lynch just must have made a monumental misjudgement with his lighting. The last twenty minutes in particular are so frustrating to watch & more often than not you find yourself looking a totally black screen. I can't see anyone watching Humongous & not noticing how dark & frankly unwatchable it is. Released in the US in both 'R' rated & 'Unrated' versions the opening rape & killing of Tom is as graphic as it gets, all of the subsequent murders happen off screen, a mummified corpse is seen, three bodies are seen on meat hooks, there's a bit of blood, someone is impaled on a signpost &, well, that's it. Basically there's a lot of film of teenagers running around with very little reward. All the slasher clichés are here, Lynch often films from the point-of-view of the killer, people jump out of the dark to scare their mates, loud noises are heard at tense moments & the teens keep on separating which makes it easier for the killer. The killers face is only ever shown right at the end although I am not sure if that was on purpose or the fact that it's so dark you can't see anything anyway. There is one odd scene though when a girl collects blueberries & then uses her breast's squished together as a natural 'plate' to carry them on! Then after she notices her mate is cold she undoes her top to expose her breast's & lies on top of him in an effort to warm him up!
Technically the film is alright, it's well made I suppose but there's not much style. Apparently filmed on location in Ontario in Canada. The acting is alright considering it's an 80's slasher but no-one in this has exactly gone on to be stars which isn't surprising.
Humongous (Why Humongous? Why?) is an average sort of 80's slasher, the whole deformed killer on an isolated island set-up is quite neat & fairly well done but it was just too uneventful to maintain ones interest for over ninety minutes.