Creature Paparazzi

Posted on Monday, November 24, 2008 by Robert Hood

Creature from the Black Lagoon pic 1

The Creature from The Creature From the Black Lagoon (US-1954; dir. Jack Arnold) is one of US cinema’s most iconic monsters. I remember watching it in the early 1960s on our then-newish black-and-white TV set, when it was screened as part of Deadly Ernest’s late night Creature Feature show. I loved it, of course, but was outraged when I discovered how many of the close-ups where edited out so that my little mind wouldn’t be warped by the terrifying imagery. Right. Since then I’ve watched it many times, now complete in a lovely, pristine digital format, and still think it one of the best… though, of course, my mind is thoroughly warped.

Current news is that it’s being remade, directed by Breck Eisner (Sahara, the “Jacob and Jesse” episode of Taken) for a 2009 release.

Meanwhile, Life Magazine has unearthed an archive of shots taken during the filming by photographer Edward Clark. (You can view the unadjusted shots here. Even better, Kerry Gammil has put up colour-corrected versions here.)

Creature from the Black Lagoon pic 2

They let us see how really incredible the rubber suit (designed by Bud Westmore) looks, even up close and (especially) in colour. Absolutely beautiful. No doubt they will CGI the creature in the new film, which I will inevitably find much less interesting.

Meanwhile these pictures, long buried in the vaults of Life Magazine, can remind us how good the older techniques can be.

Creature from the Black Lagoon pic 3

  • Source: Bob Johnson
  • Note: Stan Hyde has pointed out that “Bud Westmore ran the make-up department, but the creature was really created by Milicent Patrick, Jack Kevan, Chris Mueller Jr. and Tom Case”.
Posted in Film, Horror, Pictorial art | 6 Comments

Hail to Our Insect Masters!

Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 by Robert Hood

A WORLD ruled by giant insects, with the last remnants of the human race as slaves, is one of the favorite devices of one school of fiction writers.

Fantastic? Not at all. Thoughtful scientists recognize that as one of the possible endings for our civilization. In fact, all past history indicates that when, and if, the present civilization comes to an end, it will die because of an unsolved food problem, and that insects will be a contributing factor, and hence may be the survivors.

Gigantic animals once roamed the earth, and perished because of climatic changes and food shortage. It is equally probable that there will be another glacial era, upsetting all food and living arrangements, and that the human race will virtually perish. Because many species of insects have, next to man, the most highly developed social instincts, they would appear to be the logical successors.

Remove the competition of man and the higher forms of animal life in the food market, and there is a possibility that the present minute insect life might develop to gigantic proportions, until a recurring food problem again wiped them out.

So reads an article from the December 1930 edition of Modern Mechanics: “Will Monster Insects Rule the World?” by Jay Earle Miller.

Thanks to the Modern Mechanix website (Yesterday’s Tomorrow Today), you can see the whole article, both scanned from the original (with pictures) and transcribed.

Giant insects Rulers: Modern Mechanics Dec 1930 page 1

Giant Insect Masters: Modern Mechanics Dec 1930 page 2

Posted in Apocalypse, Giant Monsters, Weird stuff | 3 Comments

Giant Cameos in Upcoming Flicks

Posted on Sunday, November 23, 2008 by Robert Hood

Did you notice how big the robot Gort has become in that trailer for the remake The Day the Earth Stood Still (US-2008; dir. Scott Derrickson)?

Day the Earth Stood Still - Gort

It seems to be de rigueur to include a large-scale monster of some kind in your big-budget blockbuster these days, even though you may not be making an actual giant monster movie. This is the sort of monster who turns up during the climax or at a key point along the way to give the protagonists (and the SFX guys) something spectacular to do. There have been many such brief appearances over the years — and a fair number are listed here.

Recently Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Mummy 3: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, Spiderman 3 and even Ironman have all offered up a bit of giant monster action despite the fact that the Big Thing is not a central focus (though in the case of 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer, at least, Galactus is anticipated throughout and does motivate the action).

Anyway, I refer to this as an excuse to post a couple of trailers for upcoming blockbusters in which a Big Thing seems to be set to make a walk-on appearance.

The much-anticipated and inevitably controversial (at least amongst the most avid of the Trekkie fans) prequel, Star Trek (US-2009; dir. J.J. Abrams) has a Big Something-or-other if you glue your eyes to the screen:

If you watch very closely there’s a suggestion of something big in the live-action graphic novel translation The Watchmen (US-2009; dir. Zack Snyder):

And then there’s the extremely giant robots that will be appearing in the new sequel, Terminator: Salvation (US-2009; dir. McG). Though they’re not in this trailer, you can see them in a featurette that snuck into the Backbrain a while back.

  • Thanks to Avery for The Day The Earth Stood Still heads-up
Posted in Film, Giant Monsters, Trailers | 4 Comments

More Monstrous Ads

Posted on Saturday, November 22, 2008 by Robert Hood

I haven’t posted any giant monster ads for a while, so here are a few I’ve just stumbled across.

This first one not only has a Godzilla-esque monster, but it is done using stop-motion animation!

This one features King Kong … though with a last minute cameo by … a friend. Unfortunately I don’t know what “the friend” says. Anyone want to guess?

Here’s a cute one featuring a pseudo-Godzilla from Thailand. Interesting SFX, too.

I take it that this one is a Japanese ad for Godzilla in a theme park:

And below there are a collection of ads for milk in the same series as the first one above (I feel my lactose intolerance starting to boil up). These don’t feature giant monsters but gormless, out-of-condition Neanderthals and prehistoric monsters of various kinds. In the one below, I’m not sure what the message is. Surely drinking more milk will make the Neanderthal even heavier?

Sabretooth…

Pteradactyl:

T-Rex. These ads are rather grim in their humour!

Um… another dinosaur.

Finally, no dinosaurs but an interesting theory regarding what caused a certain significant prehistorical event:

Finally (again), this one isn’t about milk. But it cracks me up. Great sense of humour!

Posted in Ads, Animation, Dinosaurs, Giant Monsters | 4 Comments

Godzilla ’94 Teaser

Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008 by Robert Hood

Check this out, the latest teaser for Todd Tennant’s American Godzilla ’94 graphic novel:

  • Source: Todd Tennant
Posted in Animation, Daikaiju, Giant Monsters, Godzilla, Graphic novels, Todd Tennant | Leave a comment

Update: More Outlander Trailers

Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008 by Robert Hood

In advance of the Spanish release of Outlander — the epic alien monster vs Vikings movie we here at the Backbrain have been anticipating for some time — the filmmakers have placed a variety of teasers, trailers and clips on the official website. This is great stuff and I’m even more excited about the film as the date for a general release draws closer.

Below is a clip that contains potential spoilers, but it’s too cool not to display for you. You get to see plenty of the monster — known as the Moorwen — as two of the main characters, Kainan and Wulfric, venture beyond the Village walls and confront it.

I should also point out that it’s in Spanish….

But make sure you go to the website for lots more.

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

King Komodo, Trapped!

Posted on Wednesday, November 19, 2008 by Robert Hood

Todd Tennant has sent along a new, spectacular image of King Komodo, created as part of the ongoing comic serial that he produces with Mike Bogue.

Todd says, “I’m just calling this one ‘The Cage’.” Click here to see a very large version in all its glory.

From Tales of King Komodo ep. 4 -- small version

It will appear in Tales of King Komodo, episode 4, appearing soon in G-Fan #86.

I commented that KK seemed to be “doing a Kong”, poor chap… and Todd described it, more correctly, I suspect, as a “Gwangi”. Then, intriguingly, he added: “… though he’ll escape his cage in a very different way.”

You’ll have to check out G-Fan to find out. Believe me, it would be worth your while to have a subscription, if you don’t already.

Posted in Comics, Daikaiju, Giant Monsters, Pictorial art | 1 Comment

The Tale of How

Posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 by Robert Hood

The Tale of How (2006) by the Blackheart Gang is an incredibly beautiful piece of animation — a surreal adventure filled with profound whimsy and ornate decoration, not to mention the biggest octopus you’ve ever seen.

Tale of How page 3
Click here to see larger version

According to the Gang, The Tale of How is the second part of a trilogy of works called the Dodo Trilogy. It will be flanked by The Tale of Then and The Tale of When.

The Dodo Trilogy (which it is called) in turn fits into a much greater work called The Household.

In the The Tale of How we meet a giant octopus with a tree growing in his head, the terror of the Indian ocean , OTTO THE MONSTER! His lonely pastime is to devour the innocent dodos who live on his head. But the dodos unite and with the help of a little white mouse, they escape the clutches of the terrible be-tentacled tyrant and sail off into the sunset on their mother the tree.

The Tale of How consists out of a series of thirteen prints and a short animated film:

The website includes a wealth of the Blackheart Gang’s other work, include more pages from The Tale of How like those below:

Tale of How page 4
Click here to see larger version

Tale of How page 6
Click here to see larger version

Coming up next will be Part One, The Tale of Then, which, according to the Gang, helps make sense of The Tale of Now.

The Tale of Then is a tragic love story with a difference, as it tells the tale of a hill who fell in love with a girl.

In The Tale of Then we explore the character of Otto, we’ll learn of his dark past and how he got to be such a grouch. But most importantly we’ll learn about the tree that grows on his head. It is a story of love and loss and the tragedy which lies between the two. A story of a girl and the silent hill who loved her. His name is Otto … and for years he watched this young lady as she herded goats on his head. As the seasons came and went his interest became fascination which soon grew into love. He longed for her so that even a peach pip, carelessly disregarded by the girl, became the subject of his eternal embrace. The tree that grew would watch her, blades of grass would caress her, his rivers cease to flow when she grew near. But alas! In the autumn of her life she grew old and she no longer walked on the hill. When she finally past away, she was buried inside of him and the tree turned red and lost its leaves. Fueled by her cold blood, Otto’s love turned to madness, and howling his loss to the moon, Otto tore his ancient body from the cruel earth. The earth shook as he raised high on his tentacles, engulfed in rage, Otto lay her city to waste and fled into the ocean … and this is where The Tale of How begins. (Source)

And now for good measure (because it is so beautiful), here is an ad by the Blackheart Gang’s Jannes Hendrikz and Ree Treweek (known as Shy the Sun):


Sea Orchestra from Shy the Sun on Vimeo.

  • Source: via Kaiju Search-Robot Avery
Posted in Animation, Film, Giant Monsters | 1 Comment

Update: Attackazoids, Deploy!

Posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 by Robert Hood

Attackazoids! Deploy pic 2

As promised, here are the first images from Brian Lonano’s Attackzoids! sequel, Attackzoids, Deploy! — which is currently in production.

“We just completed some second unit shots before tackling the principal photography in January,” director Lonano told the Backbrain. “Piece by piece the movie is coming together. The end credit music is already complete and you’re able to take a listen at www.attackazoids.com/deploy.html.

“Costumes and props are being constructed as we speak and I just had a meeting with a composer to create an orchestrated score to enhance the newsreel approach that I hope to achieve with this film.

“All in all, the film is unlike any project I have ever done before … it’s more ambitious in its short length and so many things are being made from scratch. I know the low or no budget filmmaker has to buy certain things and modify them, but a large percentage of the effects, costumes and props you will be seeing will be hand crafted by the Robot Hand team.

“I am very excited to see how the film will turn out in the coming months. I hope to have the film completed by March 2009 and from there I will be submitting it to big genre festivals and perhaps try our luck at some Academy Qualified Festivals.”

Having seen the first film and enjoyed it, I’m keen to see where Lonano and his crew go from there.

Attackzoids, Deploy! pic 1

Posted in Film, Giant Monsters, News, Robots, Update | Leave a comment

Update: Dead Sucks

Posted on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 by Robert Hood

The full-length trailer for Elias and BiFF JUGGERNAUT’s poignant new vampire comedy, Dead Sucks, has been released via Fangoria.

Check it out here.

  • Previous Backbrain article
    • Posted in Film, Trailers, Update, Weird stuff, Zombies | Leave a comment