- 5th film in the franchise
- 1978 the original
- 96 minutes
- 6 Oct US on demand
Some franchises come back with a grim, gritty reimagining, and some, like Scary Movie 6, go all in on the silliness. The Killer Tomatoes franchise has come back with a satire about artificial intelligence, a genetically engineered vegetable, and tomatoes with an unreasonable number of teeth. I’m not mad about it.
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes: Organic Intelligence is the fifth film in a series that started in 1978 and has never once taken itself seriously. It had a limited run in US cinemas from August and lands on US video-on-demand on 6 October.
This Time, the Tomatoes Are Smart
A young biotech prodigy invents a revolutionary genetically engineered vegetable, MyTomato, meant to solve humanity’s biggest problems (especially the ones AI can’t fix). It goes about as well as you’d expect, and a new generation of killer tomatoes gets loose. The filmmakers pitch it as Jurassic Park meets Dr Strangelove. Oddly specific.
Bringing the chaos is franchise legend John Astin, back as Professor Gangreen, joined by David Koechner (Anchorman), Eric Roberts, Catherine Corcoran (Terrifier), Dan Bakkedahl (Veep), Myrna Velasco and Vernée Watson. It’s directed by David Ferino and written by the franchise’s original creators, Costa Dillon and J. Stephen Peace, and part of it was even shot aboard the USS Midway aircraft carrier museum in San Diego.
Side Quest Wait, How Many Killer Tomatoes Films Are There?
The Killer Tomatoes have had a wild ride for a franchise about angry produce:
- The original 1978 film was made for around US$100,000 and became a midnight-movie cult favourite.
- A young George Clooney turned up in the 1988 sequel, Return of the Killer Tomatoes!.
- The franchise got a Saturday morning animated series in 1990, plus a Nintendo game.
- John Astin played Gomez in the original 1960s TV series The Addams Family.
Where to Watch
- Director: David Ferino
- Writers: Costa Dillon and J. Stephen Peace
- Runtime: 96 minutes (rated PG-13 in the US)
- US on demand: 6 October 2026, on Amazon, DirecTV and more
- In Australia: no release date announced yet. Keep an eye on the official where-to-watch page
Side Quest Is a Tomato Legally a Vegetable?
Botanically, a tomato is a fruit. Legally, in the US, it’s a vegetable: in 1893 the Supreme Court ruled in Nix v. Hedden that tomatoes count as vegetables for import taxes, because that’s how people cook and eat them. The killer ones remain unclassified.
- Silly Scary
- Chill Chaos
Stay unruly.
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