Meet the Applegates is a 1991 black comedy film directed by Michael Lehmann. It was filmed in 1989, but not released until 1991. The movie takes a dark, satirical look at the end of the world, nuclear holocausts, Alienism and Terrorism. Meet the Applegates was filmed in Oshkosh and Neenah, Wisconsin.

Plot

The movie takes place in a normal Ohio suburb after new neighbors (The Applegates) move in. The movie starts off in a forest with a family being attacked by a family of huge Brazilian Cocorada bugs. It then moves to a typical looking family moving into a well-off neighborhood. The family is the bugs that were seen earlier in the film--they took on human form and met every "normality" standard from the magazine Family Bazaar. They moved to the suburbs after the husband Dick got a job at a nuclear power plant; he works there to one day cause an explosion that would rid the world of humans and let bugs be. But after a while the family drifts from its normalities--the son, a drug free well-off student, begins listening to Heavy metal music and becomes a bratty junkie; the husband and wife drift away from each other, the husband having an affair at work and the wife becoming attached to her credit card; lastly the pretty, smart and nice daughter becomes a stone-cold pregnant lesbian after being raped by a jock from the high school. They each show their true bug form at least once in the film--the son does while smoking marijuana with his metalhead buddies, the daughter while being raped by the jock (the whole experience seeming an appropriate punishment as the cute blonde morphs into a giant insect during the act.), the husband at the very last battle and the wife. As they drift away from normality (and nearly been found out by the neighbors) their Aunt is sent to help. She becomes a nuisance and they decide she should be taken care of. The husband (Dick) decides to not blow up the plant (due to his growing fondness of life) and kills the Aunt. At the end of the movie they return to their lives in Brazil, and are visited by the townspeople that grew to love them, although the plant did not blow, enough radiation was released to remove the hair from much of the population of the town.

Cast

• Ed Begley, Jr. as Richard P. Applegate
• Stockard Channing as Jane Applegate
• Dabney Coleman as Aunt Bea
• Robert Jayne as Johnny Applegate
• Camille Cooper as Sally Applegate
• Glenn Shadix as Greg Samson
• Susan Barnes as Opal Withers
• Roger Aaron Brown as Sheriff Heidegger
• Lee Garlington as Nita Samson

Release dates

• - February 1, 1991
• - February 22, 1991
• - August 1, 1992

External links