Classic Horrors Club

There’s a reason Locusts (1974) is not included as one of the “Television Fright Films of the 1970” in my bible for this series, the book by David Deal. Don’t let the IMDb category fool you; it’s not a horror film. Instead, it’s strictly a drama where turmoil in the family causes a bigger threat than that of nature. From the title alone, I thought it was going to be a nature gone wild disaster film. However, expectations aside, that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it.

Ron Howard plays Donny Fletcher, a navy pilot dishonorably discharged from active duty during the early 1940s because of a mental breakdown when his best friend was killed in front of him. He returns to the disappointment of the entire farming community and, most importantly, his father, Amos, played by Ben Johnson. The subsequent story is full of tropes that were probably tropes even 50 years ago.

While Amos is ashamed that his son has turned out to be nothing like him, Donny’s mother, Claire (Katherine Helmond), constantly reminds him the he is their son. Donny’s sister, Sissy(Lisa Gerritsen) is an intermediary of sorts, providing encouragement to both sides. The foursome join in varying combinations for arguing and introspection. If you don’t know how it’s all going to end, well, you may not be familiar with cinema.

At 20 years old in 1974, Ron Howard was a good-looking young man and his appeal goes a long way. He appeared in this TV movie during the fall after Happy Days had premiered in January. It’s likely the show had not yet become a ratings juggernaut. More nostalgia-inducing is when his character skips a rock across the stream, evoking the opening of The Andy Griffith Show with the titular actor as his father.

Yes, there is a swarm of locusts heading their way, but we see little of it other than a few close-ups of cute grasshoppers nibbling on leaves or splattered on the cars of people who drove into the swarms. They hit the Fletcher farm midway through the story, but it seems that was only an advance expedition. The real swarm is still coming and there’s no one to fly a plane to drop “powder,” that I assume is some kind of insecticide.

Or is there? You know the answer and it’s a heroic action that not only unites the family in the end, but gives hope to a community that had given up and were packing their cars to leave town. If this is a spoiler, I apologize, but how could you not see it coming? It’s predictable, yes, but it’s also how the movie needed to end, in a way as old-fashioned as the era in which it takes place.