Beginning of the End (Special Edition)

Beginning of the End (Special Edition) Review

I don't remember seeing this movie when I was 12 or 13 but then there were a lot in those days. This movie runs 76 minutes with a silly Rhino commercial at the beginning for almost two minutes. Rhino put out this movie in 1998 on VHS and I have a pristine copy. I wanted a DVD but then Amazon ran out of them and now only Marketplace sellers are offering them for .00 and up.

This has a good story, doesn't run too long, isn't idiotic and has "logical" premise. There were lots of movies about monster bugs, etc. (Ants in Them, Spiders in They), who came from nuclear bomb tests in those days but this one is different.

Yes, there are artifacts in the film but it doesn't jump and only the night scenes are hard to watch. I watched this on a 50" plasma so all of the defects were exagerated but I really didn't notice - I was paying attention to the story. Most people watching home videos in VHS in 1998 must have had 17" to 25" inch televisions so they might not have noticed the defects then.

I saw some complaints about special effects but geez! it is 1958! I thought they did a good job!

I recommend you watch this movie and if you can get the DVD - IF it is re-mastered, then you can enjoy it even more. It won't take much of your time. A small town demolished to the ground. Dozens of innocent people mysteriously missing. A monstrous secret covered up by the military. Lovely reporter Audrey Aimes (Peggy Castle) smells a scoop, and with the aid of Dr. Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves), the truth behind a titanic terror growing in the Illinois heartland is soon uncovered! Department of Agriculture experiments with radiation have created giant, man-eating grasshoppers, and now the oversized horrors are hopping their way to Chicago! Can this menace be stopped before the Windy City becomes another casualty? Or is this the Beginning of the End for mankind? This atomic drive-in favorite from mutant monster expert Bert I. Gordon (Village of the Giants, Earth vs. the Spider) delivers non-stop entertainment packed with creepy-crawly critters. Newly transferred from the original negative, this beautifully restored presentation brings all the big bug action bursting off your television screen like you've never seen it before!