Nikolay Rudoplavov

Монстры

Sergey Kuchkov

Vladimir Antonik, Boris Shcherbakov

Writer/director Sergey Kuchkov's obscure Russian science fiction effort from 1993, simply called MONSTERS in English, has a photographer joining a team of scientists and a couple of military dudes to check out a town where a nuclear meltdown has led to a mass evacuation (shades of Chernobyl) and the ludicrous mutation of rats, snakes, crayfish, crows and a hopelessly unfrightening tortoise. With FX that looked primitive in FOOD OF THE GODS (1976) rendered even more primitively, this is worth it for the tortoise, which is meant to be scary as our protagonists run (???) from it and try to avoid its rubbery head as the thing looms in a window by way of a very obvious broomstick.