Sunday, August 30, 2020

The Hellstrom Chronicle - 1972


A visual feast of a documentary about insects. A fictitious and implausible Professor Hellstrom narrates and pleads his case. There is a twist at the end. Link in comments.

10 comments:

Edfray said...


*Here you go*

FiveGunsWest said...

Love this flick. Thanks Edfray!

Kwai Chang said...

Righteous!
Having recently viewed this movie...it scared me into making me think in ways I'd never done before. If Nature is God, then it seems to be the insects that exhibit perfection unknown elsewhere. My conclusion was that the Aliens from outer space are here already and if they aren't insects...then they are something even smaller that control the insects. The blind ants that flow like water across the landscape are definitely possessed and the footage is quite gruesome. Humans should spent a little bit of intelligent time pondering how these creatures would be dealt with if a sudden imbalance of the food web should occur. There is no crisis plan that I know of...and I live in the California desert where there are at least 20 species of ants. I have been bitten recently by yellow jackets(the population of which is the highest I've ever seen)...and a small red ant bit me on the toe two weeks ago. I've got to say, the ant induced more misery than the yellow jacket. But, I was also bitten by this movie...if it's dated...then it's more frightening than ever because it's not a relic...it seems to be quite current. Thank you, Edfray. It was your earlier post of this film that I'm speaking of.
Bzzzzzz!
KC

Mike said...

Frank "Dune" Herbert was inspired by this film to write a novel "Hellstrom's Hive" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hellstrom%27s_Hive

Mike said...

An amusing fable taking a spin on insect intelligence is Cixin Liu's recent novella "Of Ants and Dinosaurs": https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/15159960-of-ants-and-dinosaurs

Edfray said...

Thanks. I didn't connect the film and the book.

Delta Del said...

Thanks great video! Insects rule! And so does your blog. Recently discovered it and will be devoting some serious time to exploring its vast interior. Splendid!

Edfray said...

You are welcome. Tell your friends.

Lacey said...

One of those "talked aobut" films when it came out mainly on the radio as afternoon talk shows were still rare.
It was the time when Hollywood was making a host of "Mother Nature Strikes Back" films such as Frogs, and Night of the Lepus, and ZPG. Science gone mad and we all need to take off our makeup, wear muslin, and move to the commune.
(As long as we still bought tickets to movies that showed us how bad we all are).

Thanks for the memories.

Edfray said...


Thanks Lacey. I wonder now if this moment in our history has to do with Vietnam.