WHERE HAVE ALL THE CREATURES GONE?
Science fiction movies over the past 20 years have changed in many ways from their black and white predecessors. Today’s films are undeniably faster, slicker, have higher production values and are more interesting to watch. Yet despite the amount of praise reserved for the modern day sci-fi flick, there is one major component that featured heavily in the golden era of science fiction movies which is totally lacking from the films of today. It's not spaceships, nor evil aliens, nor people fighting overwhelming odds to come up triumphant in the end; it is in fact ... Monsters. Not just any old monster either, I’m talking about big, massive creatures who emerge from somewhere within the bowels of the Earth to reek total havoc and mayhem amongst the citizens of the world.
Science fiction movies of the 30s, 40s and 50s were chock full of gargantuan beasts who roamed the Earth bringing terror to millions. Undoubtedly the most famous of all monsters is King Kong, from the 1939XX movie of the same name. In fact Kong was so famous, they even made a movie about his son, called, funnily enough, Son of Kong. However as we discovered, Kong was not like other monsters at all, he was essentially a "good guy" who was just a little misunderstood by the hordes of little people around him - which eventually brought about his untimely demise. In most of the other movies, Monsters were usually hell bent on destroying everyone and everything in the most lavious way possible. People never really tried to understand them in a sympathetic way, nor consider why they were so destructive in the first place. As far as the movie world was concerned, if it was big, it was evil, and if it was evil, it just had to go!
A lot of the monsters which featured in these movies were Earth-based lifeforms who just happened to be somewhat larger than normal (whether it be as a freak of nature, or by coming in contact with some man-made "get big quick" substance [usually it was the latter])". The best examples of giant Earth based monsters in films were: It Came From Beneath the Sea (Octopus/squid), Tarantula (spider), Them (ants), Day of the Triffids (plants), The Giant Leeches (you can probably figure that one out), The Deadly Mantis (praying mantis), Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (a beast?) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (lizards). Giant creature movies of recent times have included Night of the Leepus (rabbits), Alligator and the utterly appalling King Kong Lives (there was also a movie featuring giant grasshoppers and one about a giant prehistoric bird made way back when, but alas the titles elude me [probably a good thing too]).
As far as off-world monsters go, The Blob is a classic film about an out-of-town visitor who came here to sample the local human cuisine. Also the 80s remake of The Thing showed us (in the goriest way possible) the true worth of an extra-terrestrial monster who does not want to simply phone home.
There is no doubt that creature movies have a magic of their own, the thought of giant beasts running rampant through the cities of the Earth with mere mortals having to deal with them make them a joy to watch. However, giant beasts are not always limited to the creature variety. The Amazing Colossal Man is a picture about a giant man who loses his sense of reason after he gets too big and decides to run rampant through Las Vegas, eventually meeting his maker at the Hoover Dam. Of course it's always equal opportunity in the monster business, so Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman also came and went.
Big monsters, we all love 'em, especially the visual effects required to make them come to life. A variety of techniques have been used to bring giant beasts into existence, from men acting in suits, stop motion animation, extreme close up photography, articulated models and more recently computer graphics, consequently each picture has a certain individual flavour about it. It can be debated which effect is the most realistic (aside from CG). Stop motion animation has been used for practically every monster movie since day one, and has been a proven formula for those people with high demands of quality (and a lot of time on their hands). Close up photography is also another proven technique if only because the subject is alive and therefore very real. Tarantula is a classic example of special close up photography mixed in with long shots to give the image of a super normal sized beast, also Journey to the Centre of the Earth looked impressive using close up slow motion photography of the lizards. Full size articulated models often have the disadvantage of simply looking fake, however they did make a movie cheaper to produce as the need for visual effects were reduced, also the actors can work directly alongside their giant co-stars making the interaction more believable. Them is one movie that relied heavily on the use of full scale models, also the 1975 remake of King Kong featured the ambitious construction of a full size mega-huge Kong.
As far as stop motion animation goes, if any one person can be given credit for making the unreal look real, certainly the magnificent work of legendary animator Ray Harryhausen cannot be surpassed. Harryhausen’s brilliant work has featured prominently in the world’s best monster, fantasy and sci-fi movies. Despite the massive advances in technology over the years, he once said that it now takes a hundred people to achieve what he used to do by himself. So whenever you speak of monster flicks, get ready because Harry’s name will invariably get a mention.
There was alway one thing that you could count on in monster movies, and that was, no matter how big or powerful the beasts were, no matter how much death and destruction they caused, no matter how invincible they appeared, every monster would inevitably bite the bullet. Very few pictures have ever let their monsters die of old age, and it was the climactic battle between monster and man that would see the film to its satisfactory conclusion (this was necessary so the people could leave a cinema in the knowledge that the beast had fallen, and their homes were safe once more). The impending destruction of an almighty monster usually allowed the forces of the Earth to display a generous collection of juicy weaponry which were badly needing an air out after being forgotten since the Second World War. Large barrages of these machines and weapons would bring a creature down, usually in a less than subtle way.
Yet despite all of the monster movies listed so far, there is one conglomeration of big monster pics which have stood out from the crowd and have become famous for their style and flavour. These are of course the Godzilla movies. The Japanese, more than anyone else, know how make a monster truly fearful and immensely destructive, especially when they rampage through the cities of the Earth destroying everything. The Big G. isn’t always alone in his destructive ventures either, to aid him in his quest to wreck as much as possible are Rodan, Gamara, XXXXXXX. In fact in one movie, they set out to kill all of them off. The movie was titled DAM! or Destroy All Monsters! You can probably imagine how much havoc was wreaked by having multitudes of these huge beasts running around.
Without a doubt the Godzilla pictures would have to rate as the all-time best monster flicks - at least from an entertainment standpoint (some of their stories were rather lack lustre).
Sadly the glorious days of big monsters movies have vanish into obscurity, much to the ignorance of most people. Unfortunately due to the true-to-life style of modern film making, to create a credible monster film today would be very difficult indeed (whether it be serious or humorous). With the 90s attitude film goers have toward movies, gone are the days when most people could watch and enjoy the most ludicrous of concepts and ideas. So to those people who can’t stand seeing a giant ant terrorise innocent people, or the tentacle of a huge octopus squash hundreds of innocent bystanders on a city street, or a giant bird gobbling up parachutists in the sky, or a massive beast pulverising cars just by standing on them, well you just don’t know what you’re missing. The monsters themselves may be dead, but the movies still live on.