I can’t believe it’s been nearly fifty years since Attack of the Killer Tomatoes came out. All that to say, I’m old. Now, original creator Costa Dillon and director David Ferino attempt to capture comedic lightning in a bottle nearly half a century later. I think the bar is set just low enough to make it happen.
As we all know, 66 million years ago, an asteroid struck Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs in what scientists call the K-T event. What we didn’t know is that this catastrophic event gave birth to the tomato, and as millennia passed, mankind domesticated and bred the small vegetable into something more sinister.
Now, it’s been fifty years since the forgotten attack on the city of San Diego by a harvest of killer tomatoes. One night, a woman and her friends are attacked by a tomato, which draws the attention of Federal Vegetable Investigation agents Admiral Grant (Daniel Roebuck) and Marina Sifuentes (Myrna Velasco). Grant was involved in covering up the first attack by taking archival footage and turning it into a low-budget ’70s comedy. The masses laughed it off and forgot about it. But Sifuentes is still haunted by nightmares of the tomatoes and will not let it go.
Meanwhile, at VegIntel Corporation, CEO Kate Patel (Samantha Bailey) is on the verge of launching the company’s flagship product, the MyTomato. It’s a home digital assistant device you can speak to directly and ask questions, but instead of being powered by artificial intelligence, it’s powered by organic intelligence. With government support behind it, soon everyone will have this organic, tomato-driven surveillance device.
Out in the San Diego harbor, VegIntel researchers Angela Kharsha (Noor Razooky) and Chad Rains (Zachary Roozen) collect data on the current harvest of MyTomato tomatoes. They soon discover that the tomatoes are becoming sentient, and when they report their findings to Patel, they learn she is in league not only with White House Press Secretary Richardson (David Koechner), but also with Professor Nicholas Mortimer Gangreen (John Astin).
An investigator studies a wall of tomato attack clippings and photos in Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence.
“Grant was involved in covering up the first attack by taking archival footage and turning it into a low-budget ’70s comedy.”
In 1978, Costa Dillon and Steve Peace created Attack of the Killer Tomatoes as a silly, ultra-low-budget monster movie. Now that the film is nearing its golden anniversary, Dillon had to make a sequel. In Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence, he returns to his monster roots and modernizes the formula with AI, biotech, corporate tech, and genetically engineered food.
I remember watching the original on cable television as a child. It was my first foray into comedy horror, and I was hooked. I still can’t get “Puberty Love” out of my head decades later. Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence brings the same comedic sensibility to the franchise. It builds on that nostalgia and turns the franchise into an even sillier tale.
For the most part, Organic Intelligence is a parody film akin to Airplane! At its core is a monster story where greedy capitalists see dollar signs in tech that will change the world, and a band of heroes steps in to save the day. Pair an absurd plot with a wacky cast of characters, and you get one sight gag and joke after another. We’ve got drones that are toy helicopters with a camcorder strapped to them, insane Spanish subtitles, and the lampooning of corporate greed and political cronyism.
Then there are the tomatoes. Watching our hapless actors get pelted with store-bought tomatoes is funny enough, but add monstrous tomato puppets and other vegetables, and you’ve pretty much checked all the boxes for what I want in a sequel.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence is not Shakespeare, but it’s good, silly fun. The jokes are silly, the story is silly, but it never reaches the groaner, shut-it-off level. If you love Troma and Full Moon films, then you’re in good hands here.
For screening information, visit the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence official website.
"…Watching our hapless actors get pelted with store-bought tomatoes is funny enough..."
