The Locust is a story
about Clay, a drifter, who gets a job on a cattle ranch in a
shanty town outside Houston. Clay becomes entangled with the
family members, a mother and her son, and their problems which
include an incestuous relationship.
Animal Action:
Horses and cows are
seen throughout the film. In most scenes, the animals are in
the background used as atmosphere. Some horses are seen being
ridden in and around the ranch. Cows are seen in barns, pens
and being feed and watered by the ranch hands. There are
several scenes of a boy in his late teens taking care of an
old bull.
There is a scene in
the film where it is branding, dehorning, and castrating day
at the ranch. All of theses scenes were filmed documentary
style. The actual castrations and dehornings were filmed on a
working ranch where such procedures are the custom, and were
not staged for the making of the film. The production company,
accompanied by an American Humane Representative, set up a
camera at the spot where the work was to be done and merely
turned it on. The actors were filmed separately and inserted
into the scene during post-production. Any animal organs seen
in the film were fake.
In another scene,
the owner, Mrs. Potts, drives Jim, (the bull), from his pen
during a storm. Mrs. Potts supposedly whips the bull as she
moves him from his pen to the bull pen. This scene was shot in
cuts. The wrangler placed the bull in his corral. The actor
simulated whipping the bull as the wrangler coaxed him along
with a bucket of grain. The bull responded to the verbal
commands of the wrangler and the shaking of the bucket.
After the bull is in
the bull pen, the actor simulated the castration. Then there
is a brief shot of the bull in the dipping cage being lowered
into the antiseptic. The next morning the bull is seen lying
on the ground, blood splattered and dead. The wrangler had the
bull do a "lie down". The blood seen on and around
the bull was fake prop blood.
Other animal action
consists of a spider seen on a web and a bird flying from
point A to B.
