Despite lighting up the screen during his wrestling promos throughout the ‘80s, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper didn’t fully transition to film until 1988’s Hell Comes to Frogtown. While the low-budget B-movie didn’t exactly advance Piper’s career outside the ring, it opened the door for him to secure the lead role in John Carpenter’s They Live, which opened at #1 at the box office in 1988. Hell Comes to Frogtown may not have the same notoriety, but, warts and all, it’s a fun one - wars and all.
The film is set a decade after a nuclear war has left most of the United States a desolate wasteland. Male survivors are rare, and rarer still are those who remain potent for re-population. Enter Sam Hell (Piper), a scavenger with a high sperm count. The provisional government offers to wipe his lengthy record clean if he rescues and impregnates fertile women held captive in a ghetto of the wasteland dubbed Frogtown, so named for its humanoid-amphibian mutant inhabitants. Piper’s loyalty is ensured by an electric chastity belt of sorts that has a “flap” that allows him to perform when duty calls.