FROGS

Wildlife photographer Pickett Smith is taking photographs of the local flora and fauna as he canoes through a swamp surrounding the island mansion estate of the wealthy and influential Crockett family. Through the swamp are numerous indicators of pollution, which Smith believes are connected to pesticide use on the island plantation. After Clint Crockett accidentally tips over Smith's canoe while hot-rodding in his speedboat, he and his sister, Karen, escort Smith to a mansion where he meets the entire family. The family's grouchy, wheelchair-using patriarch, Jason, intends to spend the next day enjoying both the Fourth of July and his birthday celebrations uninterrupted. Smith tries to call out with the household phone, but it is now dead. Then, Jason sends Grover to eliminate the overpopulating frogs. Smith later discovers Grover's corpse covered in snake bites in a nearby swamp not far from Jason's house. Jason orders him not to mention it to anyone else.

Early the next morning, Jason's grandson, Michael Martindale, sets out to check on a downed power line. Distracted by an impromptu hunting session, he accidentally shoots himself in the calf and is rendered immobile by strange Spanish moss, which comes to life and strangles him. Tarantulas descend from branches and bite him to death.

Back at Jason's house, Jason's daughter and Michael's mother, Iris, sends her other son, Ken, into a greenhouse to collect white daisies for a centerpiece. As he gathers the flowers, dozens of tokay gecko and tegu enter and knock over poison, whose toxic gas asphyxiates Michael. Seeing the danger posed by the animals, Smith suggests that everyone leave the island, but Jason is adamant that nothing will ruin his birthday.

While chasing a butterfly, Iris is frightened by snakes and baby alligators, and in a panic, falls into a puddle, where leeches latch on to her. Exhausted and badly injured, she falls near a rattlesnake, which kills her instantly with its venomous bite. Husband Stuart searches for her and blunders in a mud pit, where two alligators eat him.

On Smith's advice, family butler Charles and maid Maybelle decide to leave, along with Kenneth's fiancée, Bella Garrington. Clint takes them across the lake in his speedboat. As Clint investigates the abandoned dock, a flock of golden eagles attack Charles, Maybelle, and Bella, forcing them to flee. Clint discovers his boat is adrift and swims to reach it, but a water moccasin bites him to death. His wife Jenny tries to rescue him but gets stuck in the river bank, only to be attacked and killed by an alligator snapping turtle.

Karen and Smith decide to leave with Clint and Jenny's children; Jason refuses to join them. They cross the lake in Smith's canoe, encountering an alligator and water moccasins, which Smith dispatches with a boat paddle and a shotgun. They make it to shore, where they discover Charles, Maybelle, and Bella's bloodied belongings. They reach the road and hitch a ride with a woman and her son Bobby, who tell their guests about the absence of highway traffic. As they head towards Jefferson City, Bobby shows them a huge frog he took from summer camp.

That night, now alone in his mansion (with his dog, Colonel), Jason witnesses hundreds of frogs breaking into the house and staring at him. The phone rings, but the line is still dead when he answers it. As the atmosphere intensifies, he collapses and dies as the frogs swarm him. Every light in the mansion goes out.

In the ending credits, an animated frog appears with a human hand in its mouth. The frog swallows the hand before hopping away.

After numerous fatal animal attacks, Pickett Smith and Karen escape the island with the children, leaving the stubborn patriarch Jason behind as nature overtakes the mansion.

The ending sees nature exacting retribution on those who ignored its warnings, with the Crockett family decimated by their own arrogance and environmental neglect. Smith and Karen's escape suggests hope for those willing to respect nature's power, while Jason's fate underscores the cost of hubris. The film lands as a cautionary tale about environmental responsibility, wrapped in creature-feature suspense.