(aka, Gezora, Ganimes, and Kamoebas: Decisive Battle! Giant Monsters of the South Seas; Yog: Monster from Space) This is one of the stranger Kaiju Eiga films Toho made. One might almost be tempted to say the strangest if it weren’t for Godzilla’s Revenge and Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster. Although, as you’d expect, many of the […]
Read more "Space Amoeba [Gezora, Ganime, Kameba: Kessen! Nankai no daikaijû] (1970)"(Warning: explicit content ahead! And spoilers.) There’s a moment in Mike Judge’s brilliant dystopian comedy, Idiocracy, that comes to mind: when the hero, “Not Sure” tries to hold a private conference with the girl who was put into suspended animation with him, his guards want to know why. He gives them a few broad carnal […]
Read more "The Shape of Water (2017)"“Welcome to the Garden of Eden. We play God here.” Roger Corman: he started in the Fifties, making crude but interesting SF and Horror films for next to nothing. In the Sixties, he moved into far more polished (and expensive) Gothic Horror films. In the Seventies, he moved away from directing, instead producing a wide […]
Read more "Mutant [Forbidden World] (1982)"This is one of those films that are hard to believe. Hard to believe, that is, that anyone would ever make such a film. Seriously. I mean, a giant monster from outer space shows up, a bird the size of a battleship, and starts causing all sorts of chaos, and what does it look like? […]
Read more "The Giant Claw (1957)"It is familiar territory. Or at least that’s how it seems. A blonde barbarian warrior wanders through the savage lands, fighting dinosaurs, the Fire People and savage Ape men. But just when you’re thinking, oh, yet another Conan the Barbarian ripoff, we suddenly find out that wasn’t the movie they were stealing from at all. […]
Read more "Yor, the Hunter from the Future [Il mondo di Yor ] (1983)"(aka, Monster of Blood) It’s really amazing. Look at all they had to work with here: a scientist accidentally exposes himself to a deadly biowarfare virus that turns him into a blood-sucking mutant. The government sends troops in to seal off the town. The locals get so angry and frightened they nearly riot. And, in […]
Read more "Panic [Bakterion] (1982)"I’ve added a new film to my list of best Alien ripoffs. But it isn’t a movie I’ve never seen before. Instead, it’s a film I saw a few years ago and loved. I just never thought of how much it owed to Alien before (and probably wouldn’t have, if I hadn’t seen this article). […]
Read more "Death Machine (1994)"