Hell Comes to Frogtown
- ️Thu Jan 28 2021
Hell Comes to Frogtown is a 1988 American science fiction action movie directed by Donald G Jackson and RJ Kizer set in the aftermath of a nuclear war that left a majority of the male population dead and fertile men a rarity. Sam Hell (Roddy Piper), a scavenger and a very fertile man, is asked to help rescue a group of fertile women kidnapped by humanoid frogs.
The film also stars Sandahl Bergman, Cec Verrell, William Smith, Rory Calhoun, Nicholas Worth, and Kristi Somers.
It was released on January 1988. There was a direct-to-video sequel Return to Frogtown (aka Frogtown II), and Max Hell: Frog Warrior (aka Toad Warrior) which was Inspired by… the series.
Hell Comes to Frogtown provides examples of:
- Action Girl: The machine gun-toting Corporal Centinella, though as usual for these movies it's the hero who does most of the fighting.
- Assimilation Plot: In Frogtown II, the Big Bad plans to turn humanity into frogmen.
- Censor Steam: An (interrupted) almost-sex scene uses the shadow of the female character's own leg as her censor steam.
- Chainsaw Good: A frog-man called Bull (sporting an Eyepatch of Power, no less) uses a chainsaw to remove Sam's explosive codpiece. He somehow manages it without injuring Sam or himself.
- Cool Car: The Med-Tech vehicle used to travel to Frogtown is a pink '47 Chevy van that is best described as a mix of ambulance and APC, with an M-60 mounted on top. There's also the frogmen's car they unleash on the final act, a 1962 Plymouth Belvedere-turned-makeshift tank.
- Don't Celebrate Just Yet: Bull is in the middle of mocking Sam while holding up the mangled codpiece, when it explodes in his face.
- Double Standard: Rape, Sci-Fi: Sam and Spangle find one of the fertile women they're trying to rescue, but she's uncooperative and they end up tying her up and injecting her with hormones. For some reason they've brought Sam, one of the few fertile men left, on the trip and he's forced to "get to work". The next morning she's pregnant and grateful. This seems to be a theme with Sam; in the opening scene he's being accused by an angry father of sexual assault, but no one will press charges when it turns out the daughter is pregnant.
- Dramatic Unmask: Count Sodom is an Arms Dealer who wears a Post Apocalyptic Gasmask. He turns out to be Captain Devlin, who's selling arms in exchange for yellowcake so he can build nukes to rid the world of frogmen, mutants, Med-Tech and anyone else he doesn't like, such as the man who impregnated his daughter...
- Exotic Equipment: The frog men are revealed to have three-pointed penises during Spangle's harem dance sequence.
Frog Man Leader: [quite turned on by Spangle] You have aroused the three-headed snake!
- Explosive Leash: A particularly painful example, in that the bomb is strapped to Sam's groin.
- Fantastic Racism: Frogmen and mutants are forced to live in the desert wasteland and forbidden from owning firearms. Commander Toty has his own ideas about this and is stockpiling arms (and women) in the eponymous Frogtown.
- Freudian Threat: At the start of the movie Sam is being beaten up Captain Devlin who accuses him of raping his daughter and says he's going to cut Sam's balls off. Then Med-Tech turn up saying they want Sam's balls intact because he's one of the last fertile men on Earth, but to ensure his semen is reserved for government use they strap Sam into a high-tech codpiece that will zap his testicles with electric shocks if he tries to run away or have sex with a woman who isn't fertile, and explode if he tries to remove it.
- Frog Men: A world with very few fertile men also has an entire sub-race of mutated humanoid Frogs kept in the ghetto due to Fantastic Racism.
- Gendercide: At least of fertile men.
- Gender Rarity Value: Sam Hell is the most fertile man on Earth in a future where fertility is scarce. While valuable, he is forced into a government mission to rescue — and impregnate — a treasured group of fertile women.
- Intimate Healing: Sam and Spangle capture a feral woman who is so traumatized she can't even speak, but the morning after having sex with Sam she's feeling a lot better and is able to tell them the way to Frogtown.
- Kirk's Rock: The climax happens there, with a fight between the hero Sam Hell and a mutant frog leader as stand-in for the Gorn.
- Mandatory Motherhood: A rare both-gender version, with Sam Hell one of the last fertile men coerced into both signing over his reproductive organs to Med-Tech and rescuing a handful of fertile women from the titular Frogtown.
- Mars Needs Women: Arabella, a frogwoman exotic dancer tries to seduce Sam having heard of his reputation, while Spangle has to dance for Commander Toty, the leader of Frogtown, who gets sexually aroused by the sight (fortunately Sam does a Big Damn Heroes).
- Only You Can Repopulate My Race: Sam Hell is one of the rare fertile males after the nuclear war killed many and rendered most of the rest sterile. (Which is, admittedly, not really how radiation works, but the title should have told you what to expect.) The government — by this point a Lady Land — orders him to go to a city of froglike mutants and mate with a group of fertile females imprisoned there.
- Really Gets Around: Sam is a notorious womanizer. Good thing he's fertile, too!
- Rescue Sex: Despite losing his shock/explosive chastity belt, Sam still rescues Spangler and the other women held captive. Of course, Sam has to complete his "duties"...
Sam: I guess it's true what they say.
Spangle: What's that?
Sam: A soldier's work is never done.