Review of Megafault (US-2009; dir. David Michael Latt)
by Robert Hood
The development of CGI as the standard methodology for SFX films, big and small, has not only increased the number of films that include giant monsters, even if only by way of destructive cameos, but has given a huge boost to the “apocalyptic disaster” flick generally — no doubt aided and abetted by the plethora of social, political and environmental uncertainties currently thundering around in the Zeitgeist.
Once upon a time the ability to convincingly show massive destruction on a grand scale was confined to well-cashed-up productions that nevertheless were limited in what they could manage — with infrastructural destruction confined to the collapse of miniature buildings plus live-action superimposition or other double-exposure antics. Now, as computer imaging and digital manipulation gets more and more sophisticated audiences get to see, with reasonable-to-astonishing results, destruction even at the scale of Emmerich’s utterly over-the-top exercise in global vandalism, 2012 (US-2009; dir. Roland Emmerich).
Moreover, as the techniques developed for the big-budget films become generic and available as templates, small low-budget productions can manage higher and higher levels of SFX destruction — after all, in their most basic form pixels are reasonably cheap, or at least reasonably accessible. The results are never as detailed as those of the best of the Big Flicks, as this requires time and it is via the need for time that budget costs escalate (leaving aside the problem of obtaining expensive talent). Hence, low-budget CGI scenes of destruction are rarely as inventive or as extensive as those featured in the upmarket films that they shadow. Nevertheless, a higher level of FX sophistication is possible than has ever been possible before and occasionally the results are pleasingly entertaining in their own right, depending on ordinary cinematic qualities (such as those governed by script, acting and direction). The Syfy Channel has been clogged with world-annihilating movies for some time now.
Megafault (US-2009; dir. David Michael Latt) is one of the more effective of exploitation film company the Asylum’s oeuvre. Recalling conceptually if not dramatically or politically that disaster film from a previous era, Crack in the World (US-1965; dir. Andrew Marton), Megafault features a very destructive crack in the Earth’s crust that is expanding through the middle of the US and threatening to ignite the super-volcano that lies in wait in Yellowstone National Park. In the process it destroys buildings, ignites explosions and causes avalanches. As such, it is the latest in the Asylum’s series of apocalypse-themed films, which show the End of the World via exploding sun (2012: Supernova), polar shift (2012: Doomsday), asteroid (The Apocalypse), general global instability (Countdown: Jerusalem) and meteor showers (Meteor Apocalypse) — most of which add some mix of mega-weather, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruption and whatever else springs to the globally destructive mind.
Megafault is reputedly one of the most expensive of the Asylum’s films to date and it shows more in the quantity of SFX shots than in their quality — though there is an increase there, too. Written by producer Paul Bales, the script is reasonably well structured, with decent dialogue and characterisation, and a gradual build that generates suspense enough to sustain the run toward its unlikely, yet quite affecting, climax. Despite a larger budget the SFX are limited, sometimes a little repetitious, sometimes unconvincing — with fiery explosions that don’t quite sit in the picture and moments of superimposition that are not colour-graded well enough to meld their components together in a convincing way.
Yet despite this, the major SFX — huge cracks in the ground and falling buildings — work well enough to allow anyone who wants to run with the film to do so. They’re not good enough to completely stifle criticism, but I found them sufficiently consistent to allow me to accept their artificiality — which is all I need really.
With few exceptions, even mega-budgeted SFX films don’t look completely real, so why should we expect miracles from B-movies? And most importantly the scenes of destruction come at regular intervals, well spaced through the scenes of human drama so that we don’t feel too cheated. After all, apocalyptic films are about destruction, so we need to see enough of it to satisfy our primal need for vicarious danger, even though the humans affected by it are what makes us care.
We certainly get lots of unlikely scenes of the protagonists running ahead of the rapidly moving crack (a generator of suspense that was done to death in Emmerich’s 2012). This is one of those earthquake-film tropes that now seems de rigueur. At least here — in a low-budget context — the missed-getting-killed-by-a-hairs-breadth suspense of it all isn’t driven into overkill by endless variations on the theme.
The late Brittany Murphy (pictured below) — who died on 20 December last year, a month after the film’s release — does an energetic job of making the usual contemporary disaster-film role of the attractive young female scientist tolerable (and sometimes even believable), playing a seismologist whose knowledge may hold the key to avoiding world-class disaster.
Eriq LaSalle plays an “ordinary Joe” miner and explosives expert, caught up in events when he detonates a massive series of explosions for some vague geological purpose, and who hence feels as though he is responsible, despite reassurances to the contrary from Murphy’s expert. At any rate he’s an interesting character and a main driver in the film’s human drama. These two help us get emotionally involved enough that the film’s measured attempts at generating suspense actually work (most of the time anyway). In the end, we may even get close to overlooking the nonsensical, and visually limited, nature of the final sequence.
All-in-all a decent B-movie, exploitation-genre effort from in-house director David Latt. While suffering from the generic faults of the disaster film sub-class of action adventure, 2012 included — science that strains credibility, an unlikely level of narrow escapes, poorly developed political background, etc. — Megafault is an entertaining example of doing big-scale action on a small-scale budget. Are you willing to go with the exploitation requirement that we believe an artificial hole in the ground the size of the Grand Canyon can be created in a matter of hours? If so, you’ll probably enjoy this.
Ready for this? Undead Backbrain brings you an exclusive preview of the infamous Asylum’s version of the world’s most famous consulting detective, hot on the heels of Guy Ritchie’s big budget release.
Sherlock Holmes (US-2010; dir. Rachel Goldenberg)
Synopsis:
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s famous detective faces the ultimate challenge when enormous monsters attack London.
Trailer:
Not bad at all. I must say, I’m impressed at this stage and anticipate seeing the film even more. I’ve just finished reading an excellent Holmesian anthology entitled The Improbable Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Night Shade Books, 2009), edited by John Joseph Adams and featuring writers such as Stephen King, Neil Gaiman, Anthony Burgess, Tanith Lee, Naomi Novik, Stephen Baxter and Robert J. Sawyer (whose story, the last in the book, is a cracker). The stories feature the sort of adventures that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle did not allow his fictional detective to engage in, adventures he saved for his other works (such as The Lost World) — with dinosaurs, ghosts, aliens and assorted oddities that Dr Watson only revealed after the famous detective’s death (as it were).
This tale from the Asylum fits right in to this tradition! A huge mechanical dragon, dinosaurs, a giant octopus, steam-punk aesthetics and Spring Heeled Jack as a sort of nascent Iron Man.
Written by Asylum producer Paul Bales, directed by Rachel Goldenberg (who actually worked as a production assistant on James Cameron’s mega-hit Avatar) and starring Gareth David-Lloyd (Torchwood), Dominic Keating (Heroes) and Ben Syder, the film looks to be a few rungs up the quality ladder from the exploitation film company’s best fare.
Its release date is 26 January 2010.
For more information and images from the film, check out these previous Backbrain articles: here and here.
Scifi artist Frank Wu — whose story “The Tragical History of Guidolon, the Giant Space Chicken” was a highlight of the giant monster anthology Daikaiju! Giant Monsters Tales (edited by myself and Robin Pen, Agog! Press, 2005; reprinted Prime Books, 2007) — has just released a sampler of design and animation work for the in-development Guidolon project:
The sampler summarizes work done over the last couple years by yours truly, tech guru/technomage extraordinaire Brianna Spacekat Wu, without whom this project would have been impossible, Todd Tennant, who designed Guidolon, Number One, Jerora and Takashi Tamaal (the world’s greatest Shakespearean actor in a chicken suit), Jonah Gray, who did tons of character builds and animation, Sergio Sykes, who rigged the Takashi model, Terry Rosen, who, in a flurry of activity just before the con, did massive work on projects he’d been working on before: the weird centipede-like “Eagle” ship, and the XK-Omega-10 Jet Bug, and David Fleminger, who did the music, as surf guitar versions of “The Chicken Dance” (used with permission).
The animated film is about a giant space chicken who is making a film about a giant space chicken.
An archive of earlier images — a sort of pseudo-history of the project — is available on the Daikaiju! part of my website. This includes the first animation done.
The new material is looking fantastic and certainly augurs well for the final product.
Amazon link to purchase Daikaiju! anthology. Note that the very rare Australian first edition includes colour Guidolon artwork by Todd Tennant that is not included in the US edition. Plus a cover (which is by Bob Eggleston) that has better colour grading than that of the US edition.
Scottish-born Peter Montgomery is a man with an obsession. He is engaged in a cinematic project that’s been in the making for 8 years — though its origins go back much further. The project is called B.L.I. (Bizarre Life Institute) — an ambitious trilogy that utilises the techniques of one of his greatest sources of inspiration, stop-motion animator Ray Harryhausen, to tell a multi-part story about an Earth transformed into the surreal habitat of strange and dangerous mutations. Since 2002, Montgomery (pictured below with the model for one of the monsters, a “Grub”, appearing in B.L.I.) has immersed himself in his self-developed film world whenever possible, completing almost single-handedly one part of the trilogy and much of the preliminary work for the other parts. It has been a long process, which he hopes will speed up once people see what has been achieved so far.
“There isn’t a group of film makers making these films,” he commented. “I do it all myself. The directing, the writing, the producing. I even act in them [though obviously there are other actors as well]. I do the editing, visual effects, and the stop-motion work, all from scratch. Everything.”
Now that’s ambitious!
The films are low budget, and driven by passion rather than studio backing, but they reflect a belief that the old-style stop-motion animation (suitably modified by a technique of Montgomery’s own devising) is still a viable SFX technique in the age of CGI. Scifi adventure fantasies, set in a sort of post-apocalyptic environment inhabited by giant monsters of all kinds and weird surreal creatures that are the product of a mysterious radiation that has bathed the Earth, the B.L.I. films offer the perfect “playground” for Montgomery to explore the technique and to realise the imagery that has churned about in his imagination for so long.
The B.L.I. Trilogy
General Background:
The Cape War was in full swing until the arrival of a strange form of radiation that put everything on hold, as vast areas of land and the animals that inhabit them were mutated beyond recognition. It was decided that all efforts be re-directed from the world’s conflicts into a global collaboration to study the strange phenomena and hopefully find a way to reverse it.
Two years later the Bizarre Life Institute (or B.L.I.) was formed, made up of game hunters, trappers, crypotzoologists and scientists whose job it was to work together in an attempt to find a way of returning the Earth to its natural state. To this end outposts were set up around the world to facilitate the B.L.I. mission.
Part 1:
B.L.I. Outpost (UK; approx. 60 min.; dir. Peter Andrew Montgomery)
“This is the first film set back in the days of old — Victorian times, when the B.L.I. was outposting the globe for the study of the strange mutations. This film has dinosaurs and the rest of the creatures are surreal Dali-like things. This is my favourite screenplay.
The only existing footage of B.L.I. Outpost was shot in 1997. No stop-motion FX have been created for this film yet. The footage of the live-action stuff is unrepresentative as I intend to undertake a full reworking of the original screenplay later in the coming decade. What exists represents a sort of test-run but it was far too visually complex for the technology available to me at that time.
The screenplay for B.L.I. Outpost is written and design is finalised.”
Synopsis:
In the year 1901, some time after the coming of the strange mutating radiation, the B.L.I. have nearly completed outposting the entire planet. One of the first outposts is headed by hunter and trapper William McShea, great grandfather of Bill McShea (who will be significant in the subsequent films). His team is expecting the arrival of a new member to replace recent losses — namely James Doyle, still a young B.L.I. member hoping to gain experience at McShea’s outpost. McShea doesn’t like the B.L.I. sending him “cannon fodder”, as he puts it, as such personnel endanger the lives of everyone. Doyle does his best to impress McShea, but trouble is on the horizon in more ways than one.
It seems that the Company has sent an inspector by the name of Brock with new instructions, as McShea’s outpost has not been doing well as far as the collection of specimens is concerned. Inspector Brock says that their B.L.I. leaders want McShea and his team, including Doyle, to trap an Arogarguss — a huge subterranean Earth worm of titanic size [see conceptual drawing below — an image used in the movie]. However, according to Steven Dempson, a relative of another of the B.L.I.’s later heroes, attempting to trap the great monster has not been endorsed by the B.L.I. and such attempts in the past have never been a success, bringing only death to all who face the beast. The inspector, he claims, wants the team out of the way for some other reason.
Horns lock and traitors emerge as McShea, Dempson, Doyle and Inspector Brock venture out to capture the legendary beast of the Montantay Hills. Along the way they must pass through some terrible domains, including Birbarious and its insect giants, the Land of the Strange, Harconia, where lives the Drone [see picture below of Montgomery with the Drone] and other wonders, and Montantay itself, with its dinosaurs and other huge monsters. Here the attempted trapping of the Arogarguss and a final showdown between McShea and the Imperialist Brock will take place. But who’s on who’s side?
Part 2:
The People from the B.L.I. (UK; 42 min.; dir. Peter Andrew Montgomery)
“This is the second film — and it has now been completed. It is set in 1979 some years after the B.L.I. was formed. It’s a stranger tale than the first and one that I’ve been told would have suited Doug McClure.”
Filming for this one began in 1998 under the title “Surreal Specimens”. Approximately 30 minutes of the film was shot, but remained undeveloped and in storage. Several years later Montgomery began to “repurpose” this older work.
“In 2002 I remade an old movie of mine called ‘Surreal Specimen’ and renamed it ‘The People from B.L.I., adding footage and animated sequences. The B.L.I. came in at a later stage as an established institute to form the foundation of these three pictures.”
Synopsis:
Now, in the year 1979, one man thinks he has found the answer in a creature called a Crainiachiroptera, or Drone [pictured below] — a bird mutation thought extinct by the B.L.I. The man is Bill McShea, a world-famous game hunter and trapper whose adventures in the New Earth are legendary amongst his peers. However, despite his discovery, the Company wants to close down this outpost. The question is, why? On the arrival of a debt collector (Frank Brock), McShea arranges a trip to the location of the bird and all hell breaks loose when the truth outs…
Note on The Drone, aka Crainiachiroptera. “This model was made from real crows’ wings defeathered and siliconed onto ball-and-socket armatures. The bulk of the ball-and-socket joints for this creature were made by John Write Modelmaking in Bristol and sent out to me to dress with the animal parts sent in by Heads ‘N’ Tails taxidermists. John Write Modelmaking construct the props, set pieces and armatures for all Aardman animation productions. The head on the drone is a real ferret skull. I added another ball-and-socket joint to enable the jaw to move. The rest is synthetic fur and rubber latex legs. This little chap cost £350 in total, but this was a main creature in the movie. The Drone was actual size and stood at one foot high and wings when fanned were two feet across. So the blue screen had to be 8 feet by 4 feet and was very hard to light. This is the largest thing I’ve animated to date. It was a really interesting journey for me to design and bring to life on the screen — an extensive learning-curve.”
The People from the B.L.I. Trailer:
Below is a sequence from the film, incorporating live-action with the monstrous animated “Grubs”:
Images:
Above: In the crystal cluster of Harconia
Above: Use of 1998 tent footage, with 2008 visual effects added
Above: Exploding Zeppelin of the B.L.I. airfleet near the end of the movie
Above: Montgomery filming the miniature Zeppelin
for the end sequence from The People from the B.L.I.
Above: Model for the Grub Creatures
Part Three:
BLI Mission to the Black Mountains (UK; dir. Peter Andrew Montgomery)
“This is the third B.L.I. film and though much pre-production conceptual work has been completed, no actual footage exists as yet. Set again in 1979, it follows on from The People of the B.L.I. At the centre of it is an island that has never been added to official B.L.I. maps, as all who go there never return. The aerial battle between the B.L.I. zeppelins and a horde of weird winged creatures provides a cool scene, with B.L.I. guys shooting Gatling guns. I created these myself. They use a fire extinguisher and rotate, looking like live-fire weapons. Another terrific scene is a fight between one of these winged things and a horrible angler fish mutation with the back body of a horse. This particular film will be stuffed full of eye candy and stop-motion monsters. I also use motion blur to give the creatures a very authentic look.”
Synopsis:
The B.L.I. have detected huge amounts of radiation from an uncharted area of the New Territories. They obtained the information from a scouting party that passed by an island known in the books as the Black Mountains, before vanishing.
The B.L.I. want to know what happened and why the radioactivity levels are so high in this particular location. They ask John Dempson to ready a team for an expedition to the island, and that he has the B.L.I.’s full technological expertise at his disposal. Soon after, five zeppelins are dispatched to this unknown land, but on arrival they are attacked by winged insect creatures and three of the airfleet are destroyed in the aerial battle that takes place.
Dempson’s ship “Titan” sends down a sophisticated robot probe to the island that returns information about the atmosphere there. It seems the air is toxic and would cause horrific mutation to those who inhale it. Dempsey and his team suit up in special gear and descend onto the island. They attempt to obtain a sample of gas from the strange vegetation, but are attacked by a weird fish creature. When one of the winged insect monsters challenges the beast, the party uses the diversion to return to the ship. During the chaos of their departure both monsters are killed by spears — but what are the humanoid creatures that threw them?
Headquarters wants one of the humanoid creatures trapped, but after analyzing the gas, Dempson wishes to blow up the island and go. But there are too many unanswered questions and leaving may prove harder than landing…
Concept Drawings of Creatures:
Above: Bipedal Spider Stag Beetle
Above: Bull Fish
Using Stop-Motion:
Undead Backbrain asked Montgomery why he uses stop-motion animation and what there is about it that suggests that it can survive in the Age of the Computer:
I’ve been doing it for years and I like the hands-on factor that lies behind its use. I get a buzz from creating something by hand and then seeing it brought to life as authentically as possible.
I have total faith in the future of stop-motion as it looks real because it is real and with the computer
to aid its fluidity with motion blurs and such it will once again be a viable means to create any form of fantasy creature on the Cinema screen and it’s price tag is far lower that that currently of CGI.
There is certainly room for this old art form in modern times provided it’s used in the correct way. That is, for a live-action production mixed with stop-motion, the computer can be used to enhance the FX, adding motion blur where some truly stunning results can be achieved. I’ve had CG nuts say that the stop-motion is very close if not on a par with CGI when certain computer additives are incorporated into the final shot.
Look, CGI has nothing random about it as it is code — and it’s not always practical to motion capture for something like a dinosaur or a fantasy creature. So when created solely on the computer, unless at a very high and expensive level, these tend to have that signature CG motion to them. In comparison, stop-motion is created by hand and has a natural random factor already incorporated into it the minute the puppet or whatever is moved. The low budget film-maker can’t get the instant realism of a physical creation with low cost CGI. Things tend to look plastic.
Stop-motion in the traditional sense is actually in wide use in motion pictures today — in films like Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline and Chicken Run amongst other very successful big-budget productions. I truly believe that this visual effects technique is just as viable in the 21st century as it was at the start and the end of the last one.
Sample Animation:
Note:
This is a stop-motion creature designed and built by Peter Montgomery for The People from the B.L.I.He comments: “A new way of getting very authentic motion blur onto stop-motion animation. This could be used to fix old movies like Clash of the Titansand the rest. It replicates the effects of Go-motion but without the expensive computer-operated rod system. It eliminates the need to hide the legs on a puppet. And can be done with a digital camera. The end results can produce effects that look alive. Look and compare the two shots: one is the old version of stop-motion and the other is the same clip with this special secret process added. This is not done with existing software, but through a process that requires only the ability to make AVIs. I found it by accident.
Gallery (including location shots and more images from the BLI films):
Source: Peter Montgomery via Kaiju Search-Robot Avery. Avery would like to thank Mattman for discovering the existence of the film and exposing him to it.
There have been many versions of the Frankenstein story over the years, both re-visualisations of Mary Shelley’s original novel and conceptual “spin-offs” — films that act as sequels, and even some that don’t appear to be about Frankenstein at all, yet re-work its basic concepts in different settings (such as the excellent Tom Baker-period Doctor Who episode, The Brain of Morbius and even, arguably, Stuart Gordon’s Re-Animator). [See my “Frankenstein Variants” article here.] My personal favourites among the “spin-offs” are the series of Frankenstein films made by Hammer Films from 1957 on, starring Peter Cushing as the good doctor and (mainly) directed by Terence Fisher. These treat Frankenstein himself as the monster and follow his ongoing attempts to defy nature, rather than continually re-cycling the doctor’s first creation in sequel after sequel.
Though there were film versions of the “real” story going back as far as 1910, it is generally true to say that when people talk about the “original” film version of Frankenstein, they are usually referring to the one directed by James Whale in 1931, starring Boris Karloff as the iconic version of the monster.
Several “Frankenstein” films are currently in production, both big- and small-budgeted films, including a “blockbuster” remake of the sequel to the 1931 version, Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Another exciting project that explores Mary Shelley’s seminal tale of scientific re-animation of the dead, overweaning ambition and monstrous madness is an independent film directed by Eric Swelstad and starring Randal Malone as the monster.
A “Descendent of Frankenstein” variant — in which a member of the original doctor’s latter-day gene-pool becomes obsessed with his/her ancestor’s experiments and proceeds to replicate them, right down to the inevitable blood and gore (a variant humorously treated in the 1975 Mel Brooks comedy Young Frankenstein) — Frankenstein Rising (due for release in 2010) plays on the gothic aspects of the story’s cinema tradition and (as you’ll see from the newly released trailer) takes the Re-Animator path in terms of its aesthetic qualities — lots of blood and guts and an outrageous horror exuberance.
Among his co-stars in this one are silent-film actress Anita Page (pictured below), whose career saw a revival in her 90s, before her death in 2008. She plays the original Elizabeth Frankenstein, a role played by Mae Clarke in the 1931 film version (see picture above). Check out Malone’s reminiscences of Mae Clarke here.
Another veteran to appear in Frankenstein Rising is Margaret O’Brien, who film career began in 1941 with an uncredited part in Babes on Broadway. Other cast members are Jerry Maren, Domiziano Arcangeli (as Victor Frankenstein), Gary Brandt (as Vincent Frankson, see pic below), and Elizabeth Bell.
In the image below, Randal Malone gets “created” by special makeup effects artist John Wrightson:
Earlier Teaser Trailer, with voice-over by Margaret O’Brien:
The Angry Sea is a micro-budgeted (approximately $3,000), independent SFX-driven movie shot in Toluca Lake, California, which will, on completion, run approximately 89 minutes. According to director Keith Wong — an enthusiastic filmmaker with considerable ambition and, going on the clips that you will see below, considerable potential — the film is a horror movie, but one that he hopes will emulate “a more classic approach, with thematic, orchestral music and an interesting story with interesting characters and plot twists”.
Achieving his vision was quite a feat. In particular, the ambitious nature of it resides in two significant aspects. Firstly, the film is set largely at sea — an element that is notoriously difficult to deal with when making a film — and secondly, the film is a period adventure, requiring sets that would be very expensive to build. Both these issues were addressed by deciding to shoot most of the film in Wong’s living room, with the backgrounds added in post-production. Below is one of the actors shooting an “underwater” swimming scene. Other “green screen” shots follow throughout the article.
Wong not only wrote, produced and directed the film, but also built the miniature sets needed to provide the environment in which the characters would appear on film — though one wonders if it might have been easier to shrink the actors to size!
To maintain a very low budget, I needed to build miniatures to fill in the backgrounds for the foreground actors. They all did such a wonderful job without pay (some flying out from somewhere else), to act in front of a green screen in my living room on just faith alone that maybe there will be a giant monster somewhere beyond the green that is attacking them.
Wong at work on the sets:
The cast includes Patrick Dene, Camilla D’Avignon (pictured below), Paul Camden (second below), Roger Manning (third below), Jerry Lloyd (fourth below), and Crystal Love.
The story takes place in the late 1700s / early 1800s during a time when the sea was still a mystery and nautical tall tales of demonic creatures of the deep weren’t so unbelievable.
There are monsters in The Angry Sea, monsters known as the Black Fish (see in-progress conceptual model on the left), on which subject Wong remarked: “Monsters do play a large part of the intertwined plot, and although I don’t want to give away any of the story, there is a prominent “supernatural” element as well.”
At this stage he is keeping quiet on the subject of the exact nature of the “supernatural” element — and the nature of the Black Fish, for that matter. But the Backbrain is guessing that the latter is a sea serpent and in regards to the former, the picture below, labeled “Sea Witch” and the one following labeled “preg witch”, may hint at where the film is headed.
As yet The Angry Sea, which is still in post-production, hasn’t had much exposure, this being perhaps the first time a review/news site has featured it.
“I haven’t really tried promoting the movie much yet at this point in production,” Wong commented, “aside from putting up the website, posting the trailer and most recently a clip on YouTube for my actors to see and enjoy as they await completion.
“I really hope for the best with this production, that people will see and be entertained by something different, and that I will be able to share more film stories that might seem refreshing and new.”
From the trailer and clip, The Angry Sea certainly looks “different”. Wong appears to have made the most of techniques necessitated by the general lack of budget and has allowed the green screen background superimposition to deliberately dictate the film’s theatrical aesthetics. What he has achieved so far is, without a doubt, astonishing!
Trailer:
Sample Clip:
More pictures from the production are available in the Gallery that follows, as well as from the official website.
Gallery:
Sources: Keith Wong via Kaiju Search-Robot Avery; Official website
A thoroughly generic example of its subgenre, Razortooth differs mainly in featuring giant mutated eels instead of giant mutated crocodiles, snakes, lizards, sharks, crustaceans, piranha, Chinese snake-heads, birds, ferrets, rabbits or whatever particular species the filmmakers insert into the template.
The setting is one of the most common: a small US town on a swampy, bayou-like river. Visually nice stuff. Watery, Mossy. With a bit of forest to get stalked in and the occasional ramshackle riverside hovel. Lots of dogs that can be among the first, most lamented victims.
The characters are all instantly recognisable: the female sheriff and her ex-husband, the Animal Control officer (who though divorced, don’t really want to be); the dodgy professor whose genetic fiddling has unethically unleashed the mutated X, which he’s now trying to rectify without actually being discovered and held responsible; his newly arrived research students (overweight nerd and attractive female devotee, along with dumb football jock and dumber friend — neither of whom would gain even a provisional place in a higher degree research program in any of the universities where I’ve worked); the group of innocents, in this case scouts out for a down-river canoe trip and camp-out; the gun-happy, Marine-wannabe redneck, whose methods are at odds with the Sheriff’s; assorted pleasant or at least humorous deputies and sidekicks; two escaped convicts on the run; and a variety of garden-variety hicks, mostly drunk (and then eaten, in that order). Needless to say, most of them become lunch. A gold star if you pick the survivors. Go on! It’s easy. There are absolutely no surprises.
The plot you’ve seen many times. First off some kill scenes (in this case a posse hunting escaped cons). Next morning: the sheriff is out looking for the cons while the Animal Control guy is looking for lost dogs and the “snake with a huge mouth” under the porch of one of the local drunks. Scouts leave on canoeing trip, with ominous aural accompaniments. Various monster POV shots. More kills, including one big fat hick eaten while on the loo. The paths of the Sheriff and the Animal Control guy cross. They argue then have sex (against the better judgement of both). More kills. Half eaten bodies and blood-splatter patterns start turning up. The research students arrive and start acting out with the Professor and each other. Seems the Prof. is looking for eels. An empty canoe turns up — the scouts are missing from it. Arguments with redneck and his militia buddies, who want to take the law into their own hands. Animal Control guy meets Professor and Animal Control guy hits Professor, making him confess to his personal culpability. Scepticism among search party re giant eel. They split up. Everyone gradually gets eaten. More half bodies turn up. The Prof. reveals a possible way to kill beastie. Confrontation takes place, but it goes wrong. Nearly everyone is dead now. Whereupon, of course, the Animal Control guy comes up with an alternative plan that is so stupid that it could only work if undertaken by the hero and if the giant eel acts differently this time to every other time it has attacked. Luckily, Animal Control guy is the hero and the eel does act differently. The end. But is it?
Razortooth is not the best example of its kind, nor is it the worst. It’s nowhere near as good as the similarly generic Frankenfish (US-2006; dir. Mark A.Z. Dippé), which manages to transcend its generic elements somewhat (see Backbrain review here), but nowhere near as bad as, say, Lake Placid 2 (US-2007; dir. David Flores), which is almost the same plot-wise but even sillier in detail and much more boring. In Razortooth the acting is functional, if never overly involving (a result of the generic script really: though the dialogue is functional, there’s not much one can do with it, acting-wise.) The photography is okay, mostly — scenic when appropriate, functional when not. At least it’s clear and easy on the eyes. The direction is of the non-ostentatious variety. There’s lots of monster action and plenty of blood, prosthetic gore and dismemberment. The CGI is decent cheapie CGI, with some nice moments (and a few dodgy ones), only losing itself toward the end when everything — including victims, money and creative energy — is running down. Compared to a big-budget CGI effort, it’s colour-by-numbers compared to Leonardo Da Vinci, but colour-by-numbers is okay and has its place in the scheme of things. In short, it’s functional and pretty much what I’d expected coming in to the film.
Razortooth is so generic, in fact, it couldn’t possibly provoke more than a generic response. The real audience of the film is pretty much only those who haven’t watched many monster-on-the-loose B-flicks, desperate giant monster fans and random semi-comatose viewers who stumbled upon it by accident sometime after midnight and thought: “Giant eel? Cool.”
Watch it if you fall into any of these categories.
The UK Telegraph has revealed that British actor Christopher Lee — iconic as Dracula in Hammer’s series of horror films, mostly playing against Peter Cushing’s Van Helsing, but also taking significant roles in genre films both large and small ever since — is a featured singer on a heavy metal album about Charlemagne, the First Holy Roman Emperor.
87-year-old Lee described his performance in the heavy metal album as “pretty unexpected”. Written by Italian producer and composer Marco Sabiu, Charlemagne: By the Sword And the Cross would be “symphonic metal”, he said, and added:
“It’s fascinating for me that at this stage in my life, people are beginning to look upon me as a metal singer.”
Among his many roles, and besides Dracula (above), Sir Christopher Lee (who was knighted by the Prince of Wales in 2009) has played Frankenstein’s monster in Hammer’s The Curse of Frankenstein (1957):
The Mummy (1959):
the evil Fu Manchu, beginning with The Face of Fu Manchu (1965):
Rasputin, The Mad Monk (1966):
Lord Summerisle in The Wicker Man (1973) and the in-production The Wicker Tree (2010):
the Bond villain, Francisco Scaramanga, in The Man with the Golden Gun (1974):
the alien Captain Zandor in two episodes of Space 1999 (1976):
Sherlock Holmes (in 1962 and in the 1990s on TV):
Saruman in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (2001, 2002, 2003):
Count Dooku / Darth Tyranus in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002):
and much else besides, including the Jabberwock in Tim Burton’s upcoming Alice in Wonderland!
Read more about the Charlemagne album here. Looking rather weatherbeaten but as imposing as ever, Lee talks about it in the following YouTube video:
With Jonathan Lawrence (see picture below) now firmly ensconced as director (despite some sources that still give Pitof the role, such as parts of the actual website), Empires of the Deep seems now on track. Filming was to begin on 20 November 2009 and set to end on 19 March 2010 — at least according to this casting call.
Producer Mark Byers has been quoted as saying that “Jonathan Lawrence is uniquely suited to direct this epic adventure. His previous films integrate visual effects seamlessly into the story instead of treating them like add-ons, and his global experience allows him to interface with the all-Chinese crew without a hitch.” (Press release)
The press release continues: “Written by Jiang Hongyu, and produced by Jiang, Byers, and Harrison Liang, the US$50 million [or US$100 million according to Twitchfilm] Empire of the Deep is set in ancient Greece and tells the story of a band of Greek sailors who discover a secret underwater kingdom of mermaids, and must join forces to combat a dark evil that threatens both mermaid and human civilizations.
“Even though the story is set in the Greek isles, the picture will be shot entirely in China, on sound stages in Beijing, and exotic seaside locations in Fujian and Hainan provinces, making it one of the first Chinese productions based on an entirely Western story.”
The undersea fantasy epic is being touted as the first film in the history of cinema to explore the mystical world of the merfolk — a world “inhabited by mermaids, giants, an evil mage and dozens of different undersea kingdoms and races: each with their own cultural traits.” (Facebook page)
It is a fantasy movie about magic and demons, with spectacular battles and an epic story transcending a thousand years.
Empires of the Deep will introduce audiences to an entirely brand-new style of huge action set-pieces, a host of fantastical creatures and amazing underwater fight scenes. It will combine mystery and intrigue with incredible sea battles.
A China / Hollywood co-production, Empires of the Deep (formerly known as “Mermaid Island”) has been in production since 2006, having undergone personnel changes and production upgrades of assorted kinds — such as the departure of former director Pitof (of Catwoman fame) thanks to some classic “creative differences” and the controversial removal of Sharon Stone from the cast after the US star made some indiscreet political statements about aspects of China’s foreign policy. Ambitions for the CGI extravaganza have also escalated. It is now being seen as “the first movie in a planned movie franchise including comic books, animation and online games: all of which are currently under development. Other derivative products such as gifts and theme parks are also planned.”
The protagonist of Empires of the Deep is a young man with a hidden power. After a local temple is ghosted away overnight, he begins an epic search that leads him to an encounter with the mysterious mermaid Aka. Their meeting triggers an unforgettable series of events that shakes the mermaid world to its very foundations.
On the mermaid side of things at least (the rest of the cast being largely ignored in existing promotional material), the film stars Monica Bellucci as the Mermaid Queen (first below) and Yan Fei as the film’s main aquatic protagonist (second below) — who together cover the gauntlet of cinematic feminine allure from sexy to cute:
The development of CGI as the standard methodology for SFX films, big and small, has not only increased the number of films that include giant monsters, even if only by way of destructive cameos, but has given a huge boost to the “apocalyptic disaster” flick generally — no doubt aided and abetted by the plethora of social, political and environmental uncertainties currently thundering around in the Zeitgeist.
