Of Monsters and the Mafia

Indie stalwart Mark Polonia of the Polonia Bros has just finished major photography on a film that features the mob and a dinosaurian monster. It’s called Meateaters, which probably indicates that we’re not dealing with a herbavore.

There’s something intriguingly appropriate, storywise, about combining crime/noir and giant monster tropes. My favourite of this particular cross-genre chimera is probably Uchu daikaiju Dogora [Space Giant Monster Dogora] (1964; dir. Ishiro Honda) [aka Dagora, the Space Monster (US, 1965)], which also wins on the strangeness stakes as it pits a bunch of petty crims and the cop trying to hunt them down against a gargantuan jellyfish kaiju that drifts among the clouds and sucks up everything beneath it [see Backbrain review].

Basically, these guys:

versus:

More recently, the Cran Brothers gave us The Millennium Bug (US-2010; dir. Kenneth Cran). This one does not deal with a criminal gang as such, but with a bunch of inbred, homicidal hillbillys who have their murderous activities curtailed by a huge “bug” that awakens at the start of the new millennium [see this Backbrain article].

And then there’s IDW’s Godzilla graphic novel, Godzilla: Gangsters & Goliaths:

Synopsis:

Detective Makoto Sato is on a quest to bring down the Takahashi crime syndicate. Sato’s efforts earn him a one-way trip to a tropical getaway, courtesy of the Tokyo criminal underworld. The exotic locale? MONSTER ISLAND! Alone and facing death at the hands of both gangsters and goliaths, Sato must use his wits to survive—and enlist the aid of some most unusual friends. Join superstar creators John Layman (Chew) and Alberto Ponticelli (Unknown Soldier) for this unusual and exciting miniseries of monster mayhem!

Back to the matter at hand. Mark Polonia’s Meateaters features an ensemble cast and intersecting stories, set against a noirish crime background — sort of Pulp Fiction meets Carnosaur:

Synopsis:

A woman steals money from her mob boss husband hoping to start a new life with her lover… A washed-up former child star and his buddies rob a bank with a police detective hot on their trail… all the while a ferocious monster roams the area!

Directed by Mark Polonia (Feeders, The House That Screamed, Razorteeth, E.V.E. of Destruction, Splatter Beach) and written by John Oak Dalton (Among Us, Peter Rottentail, Razorteeth), Meateaters stars Danielle Donahue (Muckman, Queen Crab), Jeff Kirkendall (The Temptress, Empire of the Apes), Bob Dennis (The House That Screamed, Muckman, Dinosaur Chronicles), James Carolus (The Temptress, Empire of the Apes), Steve Diasparra (Muckman, E.V.E. of Destruction, Queen Crab) [pictured below, facing off monster]  and Ken Van Sant (Razorteeth, Muckman, Splatter Beach, Monster Movie).

Above: Steve Diasparra, with attitude

Above: Steve’s about the get chucked in the lake covered in two cups of blood

Above: After the blood and lake shot

The monster is said to bear a family resemblance to the monster in the Polonia Bros’ 2008 flick Monster Movie:

Anyway, check out the newly released trailer and see what you think:

[youtube sWH-7QV-jxI]

Source: Via Avery Guerra.