Creature Monsters
Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
Gojira aka
Godzilla (1954)
"Great horror hits on our deepest feelings and reminds us of the depths of suffering that can occur. Inoshiro Honda's
Gojira does this in ways that few other horror films manage to.
Honda, the son of Buddhist priest and a soldier in World War 2, was a sensitive, caring and deeply concerned person given the task of creating a monster. With radiation scarred victims in Nagasaki and Hiroshima and a history of war related traumas, Japan had already encountered one. The best monsters are the ones that barely need fabrication, the ones that are as real as we are, as real as history. Honda's monster couldn't help but be this way, and his chronicle of its devastation proves this.
Other giant monster films have played up the monster rather than the collateral damage, but
Gojira doesn't remotely do this. There is a harrowing hospital scene and a long shot of a blasted and devastated landscape that reveal the deep humanitarian intent of the filmmaker, which creates moments of chilling intimacy.
The American version inserts Raymond Burr who gives a capable but extraneous performance for American directors hoping to make the movie accessible. This, I feel is unnecessary.
Gojira is meant to be enjoyed as a visceral and thoroughly Japanese experience with an ending that is simultaneously foreboding.
Gojira translates into gorilla-whale, hearkening back to both King Kong and Moby Dick, which this movie does, with its giant monster destroying a city and a man facing a force of nature that represents the opposite of what he believes in.
Great monster stories show us the great heroism that is needed to conquer our fears and the things that plague us, and
Gojira more than accomplishes this, reminding us both that war is a force of horrible, gigantic chaos, but it is our duty to be fearless and vigilant in the pursuit of peace.
Good message, good camerawork and a memorable monster. What more can we ask for from the genre? This movie cast a rubber suited shadow over half a century and will no doubt continue to do so." -
Doc Faustus
Jaws (1975)
King Kong (1933)
"Years before Coppola turned
Heart of Darkness into
Apocalypse Now, there was a quest for a jungle god even larger than Marlon Brando.
But, the tale of explorers descending into the primeval jungle was cleverly inverted. It was not the lawlessness of the jungle that made the god mad, it was instead the amorality of civilization. Enlightenment philosophers would beam at the idea.
So did America.
This ambitious story written by an English mystery writer couldn't help but captivate audiences; it took a familiar story to a new level, it featured action, adventure and romance, and it featured something really special. Fay Wray is a creature of pure innocence and precocious sexuality throughout the film, grasping the character's purpose instinctually in ways that Jessica Lange and Naomi Watts lost touch with in the later remakes. In diaphanous dresses and at one point, in total undress, she is archetypal and skillful at the same time with her acting. She shows human sexuality as something pure and beautiful, not obscene in the least. So, she works as a love object for a giant primal creature and helps show the tenderness of Willis O' Brien's excellent monster.
O' Brien's
Kong is wonderful in that it is a stop motion monster capable of moving and emoting in ways that many actors don't quite manage. The special effects feed the story and the acting and not vice versa, making
King Kong a perfect example of what horror filmmaking can be. It can be intellectual without being dull, it can be overtly sexual without being obscene and it can be laden with effects without being mere eyecandy.
King Kong is not just a classic and a masterwork, it's a blueprint for success." -
Doc Faustus
The Birds (1963)
Honorable Mentions:
Cloverfield (2008)
The Descent (2005)