Hey, Gang! You been checkin’ out the coming attractions at the Cineplex lately? Puzzling. Very puzzling.

In the movie makers’ desire to get us to check out their movie, they give away the “whole idea” of the movie. Previews now show us the premise… major action of the film… outcome! So, what’s left? Why go see the movie when you know the set-up, middle action beats, how it works to its conclusion. (They’ve shown their hand.)

Movie makers who cut trailers don’t get “it.” The “it” is the question mark. “?” They aren’t trying to sell the idea of the movie, they’re trying to sell you to go to the movie. They want you in the seat, and they’ll spoil the movie-going experience to get you in the seat in the theater.

Here’s why trailers fail… They don’t create anything. What do I mean by this? Let’s take a look at the “Transformers” trailer. What are they selling us? (Think a minure… Bingo! Nothin’!) It’s all images of what? Destruction, blowin’ shit up, Shia Lebauf and lovely Megan Fox, period! Not one or two scenes to hint at anything resembling a story or characters. (I’m old school. I like to see a trailer that gives me atmosphere, characters and a hint at the story. Images put together that intrigues me to say… “That looks cool, I want to check that out.” I don’t like being assaulted by loud, noisy images that only give me a headache.)

A trailer should stir your interest, not have you running for the exits.

Sin E. Ma

The original Home Made Horror

The Horror Genre exists, people like to tell us, as a response to societal anxieties that have no other outlet. The obvious example is the atomic bomb. Although we rushed to create it as a wartime weapon, once we had seen what it could do, and its long-term implications, we began to have a social nightmare. We couldn’t close the Pandora’s box, we couldn’t get the worms back in the can, we couldn’t erase the technology. We were stuck with a weapon that could destroy the world, and for the last sixty years we’ve been fighting an increasingly difficult battle to limit who has the bomb. (Although we refuse to limit how many of them we have—the only country known to have actually used them. Talk about social nightmares.)
The result of the atomic social nightmare were countless comics, movies and books, dealing with “Atomic Mutation.” Giant ants (“Them”), lizards (“Godzilla”) and all-around blobs (“Beware the Blob”) are examples. All of these, in a sense, are examples of Man Made Monsters.
But this modern sub-genre began (to the best of my scant awareness) with Frankenstein, the Mary Shelley dare-that-became-a-novel. (Fans of the Yiddish “Golem” myth, settle down—we’re talking mainstream here.) The story, in broad strokes—A mad scientist decides to create a human life, is successful—but then the new life form, aka the Creature, starts to terrorize him, killing his wife, etc. in order to get him to create a female life form. In short, the Creation breaks free, achieves a will of its own, and destroys everything the Doctor had built.
Although Frankenstein was written in the late 1800s, it resonates in the atomic age. Societally, we’re wrestling with problems such as global warming, pollution, and nuclear proliferation, which are man-made issues. Individually, if we are honest with ourselves, most of us will acknowledge that the vast majority of our problems are self-made. So the theme echoes in our consciousness.
Frankenstein progeny are movies like “The Terminator” “The Matrix” “The Atomic Brain” and (maybe) “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.”
Any other examples of this sub-genre? Chime in!
In the meantime, keep screamin’!
CS

What’s so special about “The Creatures”?

The fact that the film’s in beautiful black & white helps add to the feeling of realism.  The backlot river passes for the Amazon River.  (We buy this in B&W…  In color we would see the “cheese” of the fake plants, background scrims & studio pool that passes for the river.)  But, in Black & White … all is forgiven.

The casting is nothing special, Richard Denning as the BAD good guy.  Richard Carlson as the GOOD good guy.  Wait for it … Julia Adams as the love interest (in that terrific white one-piece bathing suit!  WOW!  Was a casting gem.  Not only were the men crazy for her, the creature gets killed trying to have her to himself; now that love (smirk).  The big gold star goes to the creature (Ricou Browning) who embodies the gill-man.  (He also terrified me as a young kid that I was always looking in pools, creeks, lakes & rivers for the gill-man)  His performance was magnificent.  His creepy creature was years ahead of JAWS for water terror.

Bravos go out to the builders of the gill-man suit.  It wasn’t the cheesy rubber suit kind often found in a Roger Corman drive-in specials.  No, this was a real costume; with real character traits.  It was another actor in the film.

“BLACK LAGOON” was directed by the great genre-meister, Jack Arnold.  The tension, frights and action are first rate, plus … it was shot in 3-D.  Air bubbles rising up. Spear gun arrows coming right at us. The creature’s claw reaching out for us.  These were old 3-D tricks, but they were  done to enhance the scares … not to say “Look at the 3-D, cool, huh”?

One of the most frightening scenes in the film is when Ms. Adams goes swimming off the boat … alone.  She dives into the water and begins to swim like Esther Williams, very graceful.  Suddenly, from below, swims “The Creature”.  He rolls onto his back and strokes along with Ms. Adams.  It’s both beautiful and terrifying at once.  Two figures gliding through the water.  One with the capacity to strike at any moment.  (It’s a chilling moment in the film).

As 50’s monster movies go, this is one of the gems.  Check it out and give yourself a cinema treat.

KEL LOG