When Faux Cicadas Get Real: A Backbrain Exclusive

At the moment The Attack of the Giant Killer Cicadas is the subject of a faux movie trailer for a 1950s style sci-fi/horror movie that doesn’t exist … but which, in the words of its creator “probably should!” You know the sort of film it’s pretending to advertise: 16mm black-and-white film stock, all effects done in-camera, with live (small) cicadas crawling over miniature sets and photographic backdrops, stereotypical characters, melodramatic dialogue, and a simplistic plot that is more interested in getting on with the story than making scientific sense. [Use the link to YouTube if the video won’t play here.]

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The Backbrain mentioned it back in 2008. Kaiju Search-Robot Avery (in that squeaky mechanised voice of his) commented:

Remember this? We thought it might’ve been the trailer for David “The Rock” Nelson’s films, “Killer Cicadas” and “Attack Of The Giant Cicadas”, which are still forthcoming … Well, we know now that it wasn’t, huh? It’s still a faux trailer for a non-existent film but all of our enthusiasm, plus the endless commenters on the vid’s YouTube page and the director’s love for classic 50’s atomic monster flicks, has convinced the director to expand on it. He hopes to turn it into a feature film and is still attempting to secure funding. Any interested investors should contact him through his two websites [linked below]. Awesome, huh?

Awesome? Sure! Director Jeff Barklage has provided us with some neat images and new test footage that looks like it came straight from a 1950s low-budget exploitation studio — actually it looks better than the output of many original films of this kind.

First off, here are some new miniature effects shots that Barklage and his crew have been shooting for their retro creature feature about “giant insects attacking mankind, what else?” [Note: If the following video doesn’t run on this page, go here to view it.]

He explained: “I shot this with my RED ONE camera… .yet went totally old school in the way it was shot: real living cicadas crawling on and around miniature set pieces I constructed, shot outdoors using real backgrounds and skies in a forced-perspective manner to integrate the miniatures into reality and to meld the illusion together. They were also overcranked to give a sense of scale in the insect’s motion.”

Like this….