UNFORGETTABLE CREATURE FEATURE MONSTERS - Halloween W/0Oct 29 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line As Epinions violates our trust and its own contract there's still time for one last Pschovant sponsored Halloween Write-off. Enjoy.
The recent changes at Epinions are to say the least quite distressing to many of us. Not having control over our editorial content is wrong on several levels. I've also truly resented the recent changes that have brought about the title of Editor and the Most Helpful tag, which puts people into un-natural competition with one another. All of which matters much much less now. One of my all-time favorite write-offs is the Halloween one (why this one and the one last year too !!!) and I don't intend on letting anything spoil the party. Psychovant will not be stopped in encouraging the socially maladjusted amongst us to participate in this sick, utterly inappropriate and most wonderful of all write-offs. So here I am... At least one last time. There have been far too many real horrors in past months to want to explore the more realistic types of horror films. Escaping into the horror films of the 20's and 30's seems like a great idea and I've done some Reviews on them you can certainly go find and hopefully enjoy (about ten of you might remember those articles from about 18 months ago….. ). And then there are the creature feature monster movie type horror films. Not the Universal triumvirate of Frankie, Wolf and Drac, or the Hammer treatment of them, but the even more fantastic and ridiculous if you will. Some of my favorite creature features from the 50's like Attack of the Crab Monsters had pretty ridiculous paper mache'd looking creatures that wouldn't scare a sophisticated computer game playing 6 year old today. Yes I'm concentrating on the 50's and a few 60's era creature features mostly in this list. Damn it I probably won't take the time to slip in The Flesh Eaters either. Oh well. Honorable mentions would include things like the Dragon from Dragonslayer, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Monster of Piedras Blancas, the close up of the lips sewed shut from The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake, the gremlins from The Gremlin movies, Zombies from Romero's Dawn and Day of the Dead and Peter Jackson's Dead Alive (Brain Dead). . . . oh yeah and the Stay Puff Marshmellow Giant from Ghostbusters too. 10. JURASSIC PARK The dino's looked great in these movies. Almost too good. The films weren't quite as much fun for me as some of the movies that inspired this film, and I wasn't quite blown away in the same way I was when I was a young child watching the fantastic effects of Harryhausen on the big screen or even television, but that's because I'm older and much (cough cough) wiser now. 9. ALIEN (1979) and ALIENS (1986) Them face hugger things were pretty awesome and the rubber suited grown up versions were big budgeted versions of what Paul Blaisdel tried to do in so many 50's and early 60's films but with a whole lot more money. The insect/alien/ sharp toothed/ slime drippin' killing machines are among the finest rubber/. foam monster suit creations in the last 25 years. The whole thing was partially inspired by the silly 50's flick: IT THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE with some FIEND WITH A FACE thrown in. Alien inspired perhaps 50 or 60 Xtro type copycat creature features directly so a lot of folks forget how derivative the original film actually was to begin with. It started with pulp science fiction stories and novels and artwork of the 30's and 40's. 8, BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953) This one-thrilled audiences when it was first released and it kept kids riveted to their t.v. sets through the 1960's whenever it played. The stop motion Ray Harryhausen special effects were state of the art in the pre-computer animation days. It was based on a Ray Bradbury short story (the Fog Horn)and made by talented filmmakers who knew how to pace horror films so suspense builds at a steady pace and explodes in a thrilling climax. Most of the giant monster on the rampage cliché's started right here. It took the King Kong rampage of New York to brand new heights! This inspired all of the giant creature films of the 1950's including 1954's classic THEM (which I mentioned in last year's Halloween write-off) and Godzilla (not to mention the Giant Behemoth, Gorgo, It Came from Beneath the Sea, up to and including Jurassic Park, etc.). DON'T MISS IT. 7. JACK THE GIANT KILLER (1962) Nothing in this juvenile fantasy film tops the first 30 minutes where a small Cyclops creature in a music box under an evil spell grows and grows to gigantic proportions and carries away the princess. There's a showdown between Jack and this giant as well. The creature is a stop motion creation by a practitioner or the Ray Harryhausen/ Willis O'Brien school of effects. There was less time and money to do things as well as in the Sinbad film, but forgive the budget limitations, appreciate the imagination and creativity that went into this thing and enjoy. A couple of the ideas that don't work were remarkable in concept nonetheless and combination of animation with stop motion and other effects was a great idea. This one starred Kerwin Mathews and was directed by Nathan Juran (like 7th Voyage of Sinbad). There is an awful re-cut of this film in which it was turned in a musical and some of the special effect shots were edited out… avoid the musical version of this one at all costs. 6. 20 MILLION MILES TO EARTH (1957) The budget was pretty low, but this is simply one of the very best creature features ever made. The first spaceship to Venus returns and crashed into the Ocean near Sicily. The pilot survives but so does a creature called Ymir that grows into a gigantic and dangerous creature. There's lots of highlights, the creature is A wonderful looking Ray Harryhausen creation and the showdown-finale at the Coliseum in Rome is still a lot of fun. Directed by that Nathan Juran fella again. 5. FIEND WITHOUT A FACE (1958) Hey look I wrote an extremely enthusiastic and long review of this gem from the 1950's that's much better than you would ever believe possible back in April. Please look it up and read it when you get a chance okay? Good. It's actually available on a Criterion DVD (really!). The tension and suspense mounts until an orgy of what was then pretty gruesome gore, surreal effects, and (still) very effective sound effects wraps things up in memorable fashion. Some shots from this minor classic obviously inspired Night of the Living Dead. The creature here is mostly invisible until the finale where it's revealed to be a group of crawling brains that can attack -leap and hug your head kind of like those face huggers in the Alien movie !!!! (except they jump on the back of your neck to suck out your spinal cord… yummmmm). Sure it's more than a little silly, but try this one out in the near future if you're a fan of creature features. 4. PAUL BLAISDEL CREATURE FEATURES I didn't know too much about this guy except that he used to design some of the coolest AND some of the most laughable monsters I'd ever seen in 50's creature features. Two of his most enduring and truly incredible monster designs were INVASION OF THE SAUCER MEN and THE SHE CREATURE. Two of his most ridiculous were the monster cucumber in Roger Corman's IT CONQUERED THE WORLD and the monster tree stump from FROM HELL IT CAME. One of his last creations was the creature in IT; THE TERROR FROM BEYOND SPACE (the inspiration for Alien). Paul worked as the monster maker for American International Pictures for several years and never got much of a budget to work with and was never paid very much for what he did. His monsters were mostly made of rubber and carpet foam. He would often be the guy wearing the monster suit in the movies. He almost drowned once while making a movie. Eventually he got fed up with the hard work and low pay and left the movie business. After trying his hand at publishing a movie monster magazine he went on to have some success as a carpenter and contractor. He lived in the Topanga Canyon area of Los Angeles and died in 1983 of stomach cancer at the age of 55. 3. THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD (1951) AND THE THING (1982) Both versions. The first one featured James Arness as the Alien Creature. A kind of alien Frankenstein Monster who would grow back his limbs when they were cut off. The film was a claustrophobic masterpiece of horror that inspired hundreds of filmmakers and films. The re-make was a special effects gore-fest directed by John Carpenter. The re-make lacked the heart and warmth of the original but sure was packed with some incredible and though still effective, low budget effects. 2. JASON AND THE ARGONAUTS (1963) It remains one of the most enjoyable fantasy movies ever made and it features some of the best looking examples of Ray Harryhausen's stop motion technique you'll ever see. Remember that none of it was done by computer animation. JASON is part of a chess-like game being played by the Gods as he searches for Golden Fleece and encounters mythical monsters. A great Bernard Herrman score is added icing to this Classic. 1. THE 7TH VOYAGE OF SINBAD (1958) Two of my favorite creatures from the movies are in this movie. The Cyclops and The Dragon. I can only imagine how breaths taking the special effects were to audiences in the 1950's. It was probably as incredible as experience as seeing Star Wars was to teenagers in the late 70's. It you haven't seen this film a half dozen times then what kind of horror/fantasy film fan are you? If you're too young to have grown up with this on television you're temporarily forgiven for not being overly familiar with the film. There's time for you to rectify this huge gap in your knowledge and experience of the cinema fantastic. Nathan Juran directs, Kerwin Mathews stars and the music if by the Hitchcock's favorite maestro Bernard Herrman. Well what are you waiting for? After you finish reading the scribblings of the HALLOWEEN W/O participants…. Get your backside to the video store of your preference and rent/buy/beg for the opportunity to see some wonderful films. I mean heck Epinions is toast…. But these great movies are FOREVER. Thanks again Psychovant for reminding us what's important. HALLOWEEN MOVIE WRITE OFF'S OF COURSE !!!!! IT'S BEEN FUN. P.S. Sorry for the typo's and grammatical mishaps… I'll correct them later (wink, wink). Hey just be glad I decided against adding in a little joke at the end. You know at the end of my list I say. And TIED FOR THE MOST HORRIBLE CREATURE I'VE EVER SEEN ON FILM….. IT'S PAULY SHORE !!!!!!!! But I won't sink so low as to make a joke like that. Not I. BOO !!!!!!!!!! HERES SOME OTHER WRITERS THAT ARE PARTICIPATING IN WHAT WILL BE THE LAST EPINION HALLOWEEN WRITE-OFF FOR MOST (IF NOT ALL) OF US…. BOO (INDEED). ChainsawBoy ChrisJarmick DavidK93 ebrown2 Elerad eplovejoy freak369 kuuleimomi Granniemose hirohito99 kris_kochanski kristinafh machkick matt_harney Mike_Bracken MrsNormanMaine Redmaple Scott29 Shadow8 Sordid-1 susidee34 AND Psychovant (OUR WRITE-OFF HOST) I also can understand why the following writers who were scheduled to participate are probably going to sit things out until they are again able to have some editorial control over what they have written for display at the epinion site. It's outrageous that once something is posted, it can not be edited or deleted. BeeCharmer edgrover jkkelley lisaw1215  |
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