Who Says the Space Monsters Must Die?

So what do you get when you toss a gaggle of giant monsters into the one film? Pacific Rim? Well, yeah, but not this time. Destroy All Monsters? That’s more like it, at least according to the director of a new, mainly “old-school” giant monster pic called…

Directed by John Migliore, Space Monsters Must Die is the third feature from Survival Zombie Films. Rumour has it Space Monsters is a serious (as in “seriously awesome”) science-fiction comedy “in the vein of Destroy All Monsters and Airplane!“

I don’t have details about the actual plot, but clearly it involves giant monsters from outer space fighting both humanity and other monsters. Currently in production, it will be a homage to kaiju eiga and other great monster flicks of the ’50s/’60s. Below is one of the key monsters, Golgothra the Conqueror:

“I was influenced by Japanese monster films,” director Migliore told the Backbrain, “but also the big bug movies of the 50’s and 60’s like The Deadly Mantis, Them and Tarantula. I was heavily influenced by comics and Jack Kirby monsters, too. I was a comic writer for a number of years and even wrote the Stargate film comic book sequels for Entity Comics. Humans fight monsters and monsters fight monsters.”

A Diversion into Kirby Land

Personally, I’m a big fan of all of the above-mentioned — as well as Godzilla and his many kaiju mates. But the wonderful absurdity of Kirby’s monsters in comics such as Tales to Astonish, Strange Tales and Where Monsters Dwell, along with those that appeared in Marvel’s superhero comics, is something else again. One of the examples below became rather more famous, and less monstrous, as part of the Guardians of the Galaxy team. Guess which one (it’s not hard)!

Fin Fang Foom, of course, went on to have quite an illustrious career (see the two-part Backbrain article “He Whose Limbs Shatter Mountains”). I keep hoping he will appear in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at some point.

Then there’s this critter, from the famous first issue of The Fantastic Four:

But I digress.

Back to Space Monsters Must Die

“I believe there will be seven monsters in all [in Space Monsters Must Die],” Migliore told the Backbrain. As to the use of “rubber suits” and miniature sets vs. digital work, he added: “Most of the movie will be suitmation. I may employ other methods, but it’s too early to tell for sure.”

Here’s a few of the other monsters, who all have appropriately odd names, of course:

There will also be a mermaid called Marinna, played by MarieBeth Young:

Is she a giant, too? One can only imagine…

Other Films By Migliore

Migliore’s first feature film was Johnny Ghoulash Escapes From Creightonville, which will be released on DVD soon. Here’s the trailer:

“I have another film on the festival circuit right now,” Migliore added. “It’s called The Friday Night Death Slot.”  And that one’s got a trailer, too. Here it is:

Back to Space Monsters Must Die … Again: The Music

Mike Trebilcock will be providing the score for Space Monsters Must Die. Trebilcock composed the music for the official stage adaptation of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead Live and arranged the music for the hit Toronto production of Cannibal! The Musical. He’s also known as the former frontman of the Juno-winning rock band, The Killjoys.

On the film’s soundtrack will be a hard rock song titled “Die, Monster, Die”, written by Jerry Moore and Sammy Sosa, performed by the Monster Madhouse Band, with TV Horror Host Karlos Borloff on vocals and guitar. I think that’s the one you can hear (or maybe just a version of it) in the trailer for Johnny Ghoulash above.

A Clone of Cygan the Enslaver? It’s Danger Force

One of the central monsters of Space Monsters Must Die is Cygan the Enslaver (seen in image No. 10 above). It seems that there’s a look-alike out there, as “Cygan” is to appear in another film — this one directed by Brett Kelly. It’s called Danger Force.

Danger Force is a short film about an 1980s mercenary team that is dispatched to stop a deadly alien invader. In short, says the publicity, “think Megaforce vs Creepozoids. It’s a loving homage to movies of the 80’s”.

In the tradition of using a monster suit from one franchise in another — most famously, a slightly modified Godzilla suit appearing as a different monster in an episode of Ultraman — Space Monsters Must Die‘s Cygan is being re-used for Danger Force.

Migliore explained. “Originally, the monster that became Cygan [which Migliore designed and built] for my film was slated for a different Brett Kelly film that unfortunately fell apart. Subsequently, Brett came up with the idea of using it in Danger Force. We decided it would appear in both films.

“Danger Force will be a short, but not sure how long at this point. Space Monster Must Die , however, is a feature film.”

Source: Film publicist Avery Guerra and Director John Migliore. Official Facebook page for Space Monsters Must Die; and FB page for Danger Force.