Pete Von Sholly — who is responsible for storyboards and design work on over 100 feature films including Mars Attacks!, James and the Giant Peach, Darkman, The Mask, The Shawshank Redemption, The Blob, Nightmare on Elm Street III and IV, The Green Mile, The Mist and much else besides — has produced a detailed and beautiful (at least to monsterphiles everywhere) online mural illustrating the evolution of our favourite unnatural beasts. His 18 panels cover a wide range of periods (not necessarily chronological) and monstrous significances, reflecting as often as not the particular styles and terrors of the time in which they dominated. They go from these primeval Lovecraftian lurkers in darkness:
to the radioactive giants and aliens of the 1950s:
to some of today’s more recognisable campfire freaks:
Click on the above images to see every superb detail!
Then go the Scolly’s website to view all 18 “eras” (but again, make sure you “blow ’em up”!).
For those Undead Backbrain readers who thought I cheated by posting an excellent but rather cute dragon animated film as the Fright Flick this weekend, here’s an reasonably effective bonus zombie flick for you (as long as you ignore the superimposed comments).
It’s called In the Shadow of the Valley of Death (US-2005; short; dir. Dereck Johnson and Adam [surname unknown]).
Dragonslayer (Germany-2004; animation, short; dir. Robert Kuczera)
Dragonslayer is a 3D animated fantasy short film of 9:30 min. length. The project was completed over a 24-month period: 9 months of preproduction, 12 months of production and 3 months of postproduction.
Synopsis:
In a time when dragons threatened mankind, there was only one man who fought against them all. His name is Tarragon and riding on his brave battle horse Black Bull he is on his way to work. But things don’t always turn out as they should… and one day… hhmm….
Check out the website for a wealth of making-of material. There is also a heap of production and conceptual art here.
Well, not really! But typically upbeat Japanese pop music somewhat incongruously accompanies this just-released trailer for Shinkaijû Raiga [aka Deep Sea Monster Raiga] (Japan, 2009; dir. Shinpei Hayashiya). Clearly we’re dealing with a comedy here. But don’t worry! After what appears to be a pop-romance-style beginning the trailer reverts to the sort of colourful suitmation destruction we’ve been hanging out for since Godzilla retired!
It’s the director’s follow-on to Shinkaijû Reigô [aka Deep Sea Monster Reigo; Reigo vs. Yamato; Reigo the Deep Sea Monster vs. The Battleship Yamato, A-140F6] (2008 [2005]; dir. Shinpei Hayashiya), his alternative history film about a sea battle between Japan’s tragic mega-ship, Yamato, and a sea monster. More information on Reigohere and Raigahere.
Synopsis:
The film is set 60 years after the director’s earlier kaiju film, Deep Sea Monster Reigo, in modern-day Tokyo. Global warming causes the southern polar ice cap to gradually melt, disrupting the ecosystem and luring ancient sea monsters to Japan. Eventually an enormous sea beast called Raiga enters Asakusa via the Sumida River and begins wreaking havoc on the buildings there.
Thanks to io9.com, we can tell you that the parody element is deliberate as the opening text indicates:
The intro text says, roughly: if there are only two kinds of movies in the world, monster movies and non-monster movies, then director Hayashi likes monster movies much much better. And then each character is introduced by their stereotype: the heroine who wants to become a teen idol, the reliable mom-like older sister, the naughty little sister… and so on. (io9)
What do you get if you cross The Descent and a caper movie with elements from 1980s Italian non-Romeroesque zombie flicks (the imagery reminds me of the 1980 film Burial Ground, for some reason)? Perhaps this:
The Crypt (US-2009; dir. Craig McMahon)
Synopsis:
Six young [and attractive] criminals break into hidden catacombs underneath their town and attempt to steal jewelry buried during the Great Depression … only to find a bunch of rotting, but rather animated corpses guarding the goodies. After being trapped in this dark maze of crypts, the group tries to escape alive, while being pursued by the rather miffed dead.
It seems that one film that has had huge impact at Cannes this year is a zombie film. That is remarkable enough, but even more remarkable is that this zombie film boasts one of the most astonishing budgets ever, especially for a zombie film that has provoked something of a bidding war among distributors. The film is called Colin and it had a budget of $70.
Yes, you read that right. $70 (US, presumably).
Colin (UK-2008; dir. Marc Price) is an indie film, made to an 18-month production schedule by a cast and crew that director Price found via social networking sites on the internet. The British filmmaker told everyone who expressed interest that as there was no budget, they had to bring their own gear. Obviously they did, and effectively supplied a budget far in excess of the stated $70. A SFX make-up artist who had worked on X-Men 3 volunteered his services and brought along discarded latex fresh from the set of Wolverine. Apparently the film boasts “big budget” gore effects and lots of them.
Of course this $70 budget thing is a bit of a furphy. What it represents is the amount Price spent on the day — and probably doesn’t include everything anyway… all those hidden costs, like electricity and petrol. It’s not what the film really cost. Reportedly Price used the $70 budget on “a crowbar and a couple of tapes, and I think we got some tea and coffee as well “. He may not have paid for such things as labour, film/digital storage, lighting, food, post-production (including copies for festival viewing), make-up, gaffer tape, paper etc. but somebody did, even if they donated it to the production. Even the professional-looking poster art costs somebody something. This doesn’t diminish Price’s achievement, however, especially if the film is as good and as excitingly new as initial reports, and the trailer below, suggest.
One hopes that all involved will receieve a proper share of the profits if the film achieves the sort of distribution that current Hollywood interest seems to suggest it will. At the very least there will be DVD sales…
The film is “unique” in the world of cinematic zombies in seeing the Romeroesque zombie apocalypse from the point-of-view of one of the zombies. It is, Price has stated, “a zombie movie with heart”.
Price says he came up with the idea to make a no-budget film because he realized that he and his friends would never be able to scrape together enough money to make even a low-budget film.
“A couple of friends were round a few years ago watching Romero’s ‘Dawn of the Dead,'” recalls Price. “And we were lamenting the fact that we could never make a zombie film — we wouldn’t be able to acquire a budget.”
“Then I just woke up before everyone else — I was probably a bit hungover — and I wondered if a zombie movie from a zombie’s perspective had been done before.” (CNN)
It has, of course. For a start there’s I, Zombie: A Chronicle of Pain (US-1998; dir. Andrew Parkinson). And only two weekends ago Undead Backbrain’s Weekend Fright Flick was a short film, Bitten (UK-2009; short [15 min.]; dir. Mark Fieldhouse and Andrew Cairns), which takes the same perspective. But both these largely take place in a single indoor setting; Colin appears to embrace the whole mass chaos of it all. Which makes the meagre budget even more remarkable.
And the future? Commented Price: “Hopefully we’ll be able to generate some interest and maybe try to get some kind of a budget for our next film — maybe a bigger budget, £100, I don’t know.” (CNN)
The first episode of The Jim Henson Hour (1989) featured an affectionate parody of Godzilla (among other things) and starred what has to be the biggest Muppet ever, this side of the rampaging Audrey 2s from the original final sequence to Frank Oz’s Little Shop of Horrors (1986). It’s done as a faux movie advertisement for a new release called “My Dinner With Codzilla”:
Cute, eh?
Thanks, Avery, for pointing me in the right direction. The sequence was edited from a longer sequence uploaded by NantoVision.
The trailer to the Asylum’s gargantuan epic, Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus (US-2009; dir. Jack Perez), has proven to be an internet phenomenon, commented upon and discussed (even, yes, derided) thoughout the blogsphere ever since Undead Backbrain uploaded it to YouTube on 11 May. Currently, it’s running at 938,709 views, with 3,282 comments. That’s in two weeks! YouTube has awarded the Undead Backbrain YouTube site a #2 Most Viewed status because of the trailer. Not bad for something that doesn’t involve a cute chick talking into the camera. It’s a great indication of giant-monster popularity. I’m hoping the trailer will go well over the million-views mark, so if you haven’t seen it, watch it — and if you have… well, watch it again!
Actually, the frenzy began earlier than 11 May. When I posted the exclusive screenshot of the mega shark eating the Golden Gate Bridge, everyone in creation snaffled it and embedded it on their site, mostly with proper attribution given to Undead Backbrain. As a result, this site’s traffic skyrocketed, only exceeded by the mileage we got out of practically every post I ever did on Cleavagefield (US-2009; dir. Jim Wynorski). So there it is, folks. Giant critters fighting, and soft-porn giant monster parodies based around breasts — that’s what brings the crowds.
Now, to address some of the (usually negative) issues brought up by commenters on the Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus trailer:
It’s a perfect title, for god’s sake. It explains the film and its main hook right upfront. Monster battles have been a key element of the giant monster subgenre ever since King Kong took on the T-Rex, and Godzilla went up against Mothra and a menagerie of other mega beasts. In the Japanese daikaiju eiga tradition putting the names of the two opponents right there in the title became de rigueur. Good to see this film following the tradition.
No, a mega shark big enough to take a major bite out of the Golden Gate Bridge probably couldn’t leap up high enough to snaffle a plane out of the sky. But… wait! Sharks that big never have and probably can’t exist. Their existence violates several basic laws of the physical universe, just as Godzilla’s does (even though living in the water gives it a better chance of survival, as the water ameliorates the negative effects of gravity — which is why the largest creatures even known to exist lived in the sea). So the existence of the mega shark and the giant octopus are in all likelihood impossible… which is, I would think, why we enjoy these films so much. Because they are impossible and when the impossible happens we get a big thrill from the awe it evokes. It’s amazing how many people got a big kick out of that plane sequence.
The SFX may not be of Lord of the Rings or Hellboy 2 or Incredible Hulk standard, but come on! This is relatively low budget, without the dollars and the people-hours available to refine the special effects into a seamless visual extravaganza. But given that, they look pretty good to me. Remember how much entertainment we used to get out of back-projected rubber creatures and flying saucers wobbling about on strings? These films are better than that, even relatively, though they represent the same sort of aesthetic. It’s all fake, folks, even Ironman. Use your imagination … or what there is left of it.
Some of the acting and the drama is melodramatic and overwrought? Really? Maybe that’s because this film knows what it is as well as what it isn’t — and what it isn’t is Citizen Kane or Casablanca. It’s a giant monster movie and an exploitation B-flick at that. You’re not meant to take it all that seriously. If it plays for laughs at times, that’s a good thing. It can do that and still be a good movie. It’s not a parody, but it clearly has a wry smile on its face.
Yes, it is straight-to-DVD. Big surprise! That’s what The Asylum does. It makes exploitative B-flicks and releases them straight to DVD. That’s the perfect business model for a company that is making conceptually large-scale films on a meagre budget. Hey, these days even Paramount and the rest have trouble meeting their bottomline without the financial back-up of post-theatrical DVD sales. It costs as much as the average production budget to get movies effectively into the cinema. So when you haven’t got much money to start with, why bother?
You think it’s shit? You hate this sort of f**king crap? Fine, so why exactly did you watch the trailer at all?
Oh, why am I trying to argue with these people? I know this film won’t be as classic as Gojira and King Kong (1933), or as visually effective as Jackson’s King Kong (or even Roland Emmerich’s abortive US Godzilla remake). But I don’t care. It looks like heaps of fun and I’ll be watching it as soon as I can get a copy — and a legit copy, not the illegal upload that appeared on YouTube. (Come on! If you’re interested enough in the film to want to watch it in the first place, have the decency not to try to undercut the filmmaker’s main source of income.)
This week’s short sharp shock is an innocuous-seeming film that creeps up on you and, without resorting to anything more than careful pacing, beautifully chosen music and an unsettling central image, leaves you feeling totally unnerved. Peekers (US-2008; short [8 min.]; dir. Mark Steensland) is based on the unnerving quality that a half-seen face can have — most spectacularly typified in the Japanese ghost tradition’s use of the female face half covered in long, black hair, as in Ring.
