The Food of the Gods (1976) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - August 4, 1976

While there were all kinds of newspaper ads and television spots that would unnerve or frighten me, only two managed to out and out terrify me. One was the television spot(s) for the 1977 re-release of Larry Cohen's It's Alive (1974). The other was the poster art and television spots for today's subject, Bert I. Gordon's film version of H.G. Well's The Food of the Gods.

I do have a memory of being in the back seat of our Ford Pinto station wagon and spying a theater marquee displaying The Food of the Gods and commenting about. Chances are it was the Lux theater in Oakland.

It would not be until a truncated version of the film debuted on The 3:30 Movie, with Gordon's 1977 follow-up feature Empire of the Ants airing the very next day, that my jaw would drop at how silly the movie whose ad campaign had terrified me so turned out to be.