Larva (2005)

"A terror that gets under your skin."

Plot

Host, Missouri is a quiet ranching community where almost everyone earns their living from meat-processing company Huge Tender Meats. The company is secretly testing experimental new feed on the local livestock that is designed to make the meat healthier for consumption. But when local rancher Jacob Long calls out the new vet in town, Eli Rudkus, to come and check on some of his cattle that are behaving strangely, a mutant parasite is uncovered inside them that has been eating the feed. His attempts to warn the local community are thwarted by the owner of the company. But things are made worse when the parasitic organisms mutate further into bat-like creatures which deem human hosts as the new stage in the food chain.

---

I promised myself a while back that I would stop watching Sy Fy Originals for a short period of time, just to allow my brain the chance to let go of the resistance that I had built up to their overly repetitive and formulaic selves. I didn't realise Larva was one when I sat down to watch but as soon as the title credits hit, I knew I had duped myself and had no one else to blame. One of Sy Fy’s earlier films, Larva plays out more like one of those ‘monster-of-the-week’ episodes of The X-Files with a slightly bigger budget but it never quite shakes free of its TV shackles, nor the limited formula with which it's saddled.

Unsurprisingly, Larva runs like clockwork as per the Sy Fy norm. If it isn't snakes which break free of laboratories, its mythical monsters suddenly appearing on Earth or beach resorts being attacked by new species of sharks. Flying parasitic blood-sucking bat monsters make little different to the overall narrative. The chain of events is still the same. The stock characters are still the same. The set pieces are more less the same. And the end result is the same: wafer-thin entertainment for an hour and a half. So let’s see what we have: New doctor/teacher/sheriff arrives in a small town. Something sinister is on the loose. Random non-characters who appear in a scene only to be killed off at the end of the scene (or in the next scene) begin to disappear. New person is viewed with paranoia and mistrust. Evil corporate types refuse to believe there's a problem until it's too late (and usually end up on the receiving end of such problem). Cue some big local event which the evil corporate type had not wanted to cancel (town fete/fair/gala/celebration) but ends up regretting not cancelling as the ‘something sinister’ finally reveals itself to all of the doubters. Then new person takes it upon themselves to sort out the problem (usually after a close friend has been killed off in preceding town celebration). This leads to the inevitable confrontation between man and monster. All ends well for the humans…until a final plot twist where monster has laid eggs/survived/reformed and threatens sequel.

It’s been done to death so much that you could literally copy and paste that narrative into the majority of these Sy Fy films, given or take one or two minor alterations. Larva manages to tick off all the boxes without being overly generic and, despite me watching it after having seen dozens of more recent Sy Fy Films first, the material doesn’t feel as forced or stale as it does now. It appears that the cast and crew were at least trying with this one!

Larva features its fair share of splatter, though mainly in the form of mangled animal corpses at first. But then there's a gory Alien-style chest bursting moment as the parasites finally decide to exit one unlucky human host via his stomach. It’s hardly x-rated stuff but there’s enough feeding on show to more than allow Larva to beat similar genre films. The monsters themselves are at least different to what you’re used to seeing in this type of film and are presented in a number of different forms. The earlier worm-like creatures are more skin-crawling than anything but the final bat-like form is too heavily reliant on CGI to really be scary. There's a genuine sense of curiosity to see how and what they develop into next, giving Larva some brownie points for creativity. Perhaps they should have stuck with the worms a bit longer as the film does get progressively worse once they started flying.

Leading man Vincent Ventresca makes for a bland and weak hero, certainly not an inspirational figurehead for the film to base itself around. Rachel Hunter (more famous for being Rod Stewart's ex than anything cinematic) co-stars as the token love interest/blonde heroine/pointless damsel-in-distress. Only she doesn't become the love interest. She doesn't save the day. She doesn't even need rescuing. It's a pointless part, presumably designed to put a 'star name' in the publicity campaign. William Forsythe dons a crazy wig to be a local cattle farmer and is the best bit of the film - for a quality character actor like him, it's all in a day's work though.

---

Final Verdict

Larva is solid, if overly generic, entertainment which doesn't really take too many missteps with its TV movie budget. It's just that you've seen it all before. And, considering this was one of the earlier Sy Fy Originals, it's a shame to see how cheap and tacky they have become.

---

Larva Director(s): Abram Cox Writer(s): Ken Badish (story), Boaz Davidson (story), David Goodin (screenplay), Kevin Moore (screenplay), J. Paul V. Robert (screenplay), T.M. Van Ostrand (screenplay) Actor(s): Vincent Ventresca, Rachel Hunter, William Forsythe, David Selby, Jennifer Lyn Quackenbush, Robert Miano, James Daris, James Sheldon Duration: 96 mins