New: 100 Million BC

Posted on Thursday, February 14, 2008 by Robert Hood

Blockbuster knock-off studio Asylum Pictures’ latest giant monster opus is 100 Million BC, which might appear to knock-off 10,000 BC, the upcoming Emmerich unofficial remake of the old Hammer film One Million Years BC (which was a remake of the 1940 One Million BC, with a primeval Victor Mature) — but actually appears to be some sort of combination of A Sound of Thunder (time travel to prehistoric times and nasty consequences for the present) and the 1998 Godzilla (monster rampant in Big City), with a touch of Jurassic Park: The Lost World (tyrannosaur rampant in Big City) and every film that features an elite military unit bringing “something” back from wherever and then having to deal with it:

100 Million BC poster

I must say that from the trailer (available here) the SFX don’t look half bad, whatever state the script might be in.

Posted in Daikaiju, Dinosaurs, Film, Giant Monsters, News | 11 Comments

New: Serpent Lake

Posted on Tuesday, February 12, 2008 by Robert Hood

JFT Productions Film Corporation (basically an independent writer/director/producer by the name of Joel Trujillo) has announced that a new giant monster film will go into production later this year, for a 2009 release. The film is called Serpent Lake and it is based on a Loch Ness-type cryptozoological critter said to appear in Astaire’s freshwater lake in Minnesota every 30 years.

Serpent Lake poster

You can find out about the filmmaker and watch a teaser trailer for the film (albeit somewhat less inspiring than the poster) on the JFT Productions website.

Trujillo has also made three zombie flicks: Dusk of the Living Dead (2006), Fields of the Living Dead (2006) and the most recent, Eclipse of the Dead (2007) — the latter of which at least sounds like it reworks the cannibal zombie apocalypse background enough to have potential.

 

Posted in Film, Giant Monsters, News, Teaser, Zombies | 4 Comments

New: Aztec Rex

Posted on Sunday, February 10, 2008 by Robert Hood

It seems that veteran antipodean B-film auteur Brian Trenchard-Smith has got in on the giant monster act with his latest SciFi Channel monsterfest Aztec Rex (2008; aka Tyrannosaurus Azteca). In an interview on the Fangoria site Trenchard-Smith describes it thus:

“This is the untold story of the first scouting expedition to central Mexico by imperialist colonizer Hernán Cortes and a small band of soldiers in 1522. They are captured by an Aztec tribe who placate the last remaining Tyrannosaurus rexes in the valley with virgin sacrifices. Shocking waste of virgins, if you ask me. Our hero, Rios, a somewhat progressive conquistador, tries to prevent Cortes from enslaving the Aztecs [this time] and put an end to the human sacrifices—a time-honored plot for costume pictures of the ’60s. But we have tried, without interfering with the fun of the piece, to inject a little more plot, character delineation and interesting historical detail.”

Trenchard-Smith has had a full and varied career in making films, but I’ll always remember him for the Aussie SF classics Turkey Shoot (1982) and Dead-End Drive-In (1986). In the giant monster mold, he directed Frog Dreaming [aka The Quest] (1986) — a tale of a boy and his Bunyip — and worked on the trailer for The Valley of Gwangi back in 1969, where he apparently developed a craving to direct his own dinosaur epic while watching Ray Harryhausen at work animating the titular monster of that pic. Aztec Rex looks to be the fulfilment of his craving, albeit at the cheap end of the production spectrum.

Aztec Rex at work

Posted in Dinosaurs, Film, Giant Monsters, News | 8 Comments

New: Reptisaurus

Posted on Thursday, February 7, 2008 by Robert Hood

Exploitation doyen Fred Olen Ray has announced that his son Chris — clearly walking in  the dad’s footsteps — has just finished directing his first film, a giant monster epic based on an old Charlton Comic from the 1960s. The film is called Reptisaurus; the comic it is based on was inspired by the Danish giant monster film, Reptilicus (1961; dir. Poul Bang and Sidney W. Pink) — at least for part of its rather short run.

Anyway, below are some pics from the film and some images from the original comic.

A scene of destruction:

Reptisaurus 1

The monster itself:

Reptisaurus 2

 

The cover of a Reptisaurus comic:

Reptisaurus comic cover

And a page from the comic:

Reptisaurus comic

 

Read more about the film at Dread Central.

Thanks, Avery, for the initial heads-up.

Addition — 9 Feb 2008:
Reptisaurus in flight (courtesy of Avery and tarstarkas.net):

Reptisaurus in flight

Posted in Comics, Daikaiju, Film, Giant Monsters, News | 34 Comments

Query: Baguzu

Posted on Monday, February 4, 2008 by Robert Hood

I’m looking for information on an independent Japanese film called Baguzu [aka Bugs], released in 1997 and starring Ren Yamamoto. It’s about giant insects.

In particular, if anyone knows who the director was, could you let me know?

Posted in Daikaiju, Film, Giant Monsters, Query | 3 Comments

Equinox

Posted on Sunday, February 3, 2008 by Robert Hood

Equinox [aka The Beast] (US-1970; dir. Jack Woods)

Equinox is a B-monster flick that manages to combine various giant monsters with surreal supernatural adventure, time travel, a Lovecraftian sensibility, holes in the space-time continuum, rampant cavemen, teenagers doing what teenagers do (in these movies anyway) and stop-motion SFX by Dave Allen, Jim Danforth and Dennis Muren. After being unavailable for so long, Criterion recently released it (at a rather high price) in a nice transfer. Here is a trailer:

And here are the stop-motion scenes, conveniently compiled for your enjoyment:

Posted in Animation, Film, Giant Monsters | Leave a comment

Query: Indian King Kong

Posted on Saturday, February 2, 2008 by Robert Hood

On a site about King Kong, I came across mention of a film made in India in 1962 under the title “King Kong”.

King Kong (India-1962; dir. Babubhai Mistri)

The film is listed on IMDB, but a plot summary there, written by Michael Barnum, describes the film thus:

No giant apes to be found, but a fun Bollywood adventure film with some fantasy elements. Dara Singh rescues a village maiden (played by KumKum) from a giant dinosaur (!) and is given the name “King Kong” by the ruler of the land who also desires that the hero marry his lovely daughter, the princess. Wrestler King Kong appears as the previously bestowed “King Kong” who is none too happy to lose his title to the muscular young upstart.

As I’m unlikely to ever see the film, I would love confirmation of its status, vis á vis giant monsters; is it a Kong film or a dinosaur flick? If anyone reading this has seen the film, please let me know.

Posted in Dinosaurs, Giant Monsters, King Kong, Query | 1 Comment

Black Box

Posted on Saturday, February 2, 2008 by Robert Hood

black box teaser

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Giant Snails!

Posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 by Robert Hood

This is probably the only film ever made about an invasion of Paris [well, some French city or other] by rampaging giant snails! A farmer cries!  The population flees, screaming! Bare-breasted women run, screaming! It’s all rather cute and delicately meaningful. Very French.

Les Escargots [aka The Snails] (France-1965; animated short; dir. René Laloux).

And it’s got giant rabbits, too!

Posted in Animation, Film, Giant Monsters | 2 Comments

Trailer: Strange World of Planet X

Posted on Wednesday, January 30, 2008 by Robert Hood

The Strange World of Planet X [aka Cosmic Monsters] (UK-1958; dir. Gilbert Gunn)

When the inevitable 1950s mad scientist blows a hole in the ionosphere, a swarm of photographically enlarged insects from another dimension invade Earth and cause women to scream a lot. Can Forrest Tucker save them with help from friendly alien, Martin Benson?

The film was based on a novel by actress René Ray. Why, I don’t know…

Posted in Daikaiju, Film, Giant Monsters, Trailers | Leave a comment