October 22, 2015 at 11:53 AM PDT
31 Days of Horror, Vol. 4
Majestic Monsters & Mayhem
Like many great things, it all begins with an ape. Earlier cinema may have included some oversized spectacles in the past, but it was the arrival of King Kong that created a whole new genre of horror—the giant monster movie. A smash success, Kong had few imitators until Ray Harryhausen, a protégé of Kong Special Effects master Willis O'Brien, adapted Ray Bradbury's The Lighthouse and brought forth The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms (included in this earlier edition of our "31 Days of Horror" series).
Now the giant monster genie was truly out of the bottle, where it soon spawned parallel veins of monster movies. In the States, we explored our Cold War anxiety with a series of atom age monstrosities, while in Japan filmmakers used Godzilla and his fellow Kaiju ("strange beast") to initially explore the horror of Hiroshima and Nagasaki before taking a '60s super heroic turn. And now, with the recent announcement of 2020's Godzilla vs. Kong from Legendary and Warner Bros., those two veins become one again!
King Kong (1933)
This groundbreaking achievement in movie-making is not just a supreme icon in the realms of the films of the fantastic, it is rightly regarded as one of the best movies of all time, period. On a mysterious and dangerous island, a film producer captures a giant ape and brings him back to New York in the hopes of capitalizing on his prize.
Son of Kong (1933)
Released the same year as King Kong, sequel Son of Kong is a tribute to the prodigious skills of Willis O'Brien and company. The film opens on the day after King Kong fell, and Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong), is facing financial ruin. Fleeing back to the South Pacific, Denham meets Hilda Peterson (Helen Mack), and the two find themselves again stranded on Skull Island, where Denham finds an unlikely, lovable ally in the Son of Kong. This lost treasure is coming to Blu-ray on October 27, both on its own or as part of Warner Home Video's new Special Effects Collection.
Mighty Joe Young (1949)
Lightning struck again when the team behind King Kong reunited to create another towering ape: Mr. Joseph Young. This simian may be shorter, but the SFX are just as Kong-sized. A slick nightclub owner (King Kong veteran Robert Armstrong) discovers the giant ape frolicking in Africa as the beloved pet of a young girl (Terry Moore). He brings both to Hollywood as a floor-show sensation, until some no-goods ply Joe with booze and the blitzed behemoth goes bonkers. Available on Blu-ray October 27, either on its own or in Warner Home Video's new Special Effects Collection.
Them! (1954)
After The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms proved to be an enormous breakout success for Warner Bros., ever-capable director Gordon Douglas was tasked with delivering up "another Beast." Although marketed in a similar fashion, the film that Douglas and his team delivered ended up being a whole other sort of giant monster movie—and an even bigger success. Part police procedural, part character drama, part military, Them! is 100% a Warner Bros. picture of the 1950s—and its stature only increases with age (no wonder it makes its Blu-ray debut October 27 and also appears on the Special Effects Collection Blu-ray set). Starring James Whitmore, James Arness and Edmund Gwenn, Them! begins in New Mexico with a child wandering in shock, a ransacked general store, and a battered corpse full of enough formic acid to kill 20 men. It ends with an epic struggle in the 700 miles of storm drains under Los Angeles.
The Black Scorpion (1957)
A lean budget goes a long way when the master of movie miracles, Willis O'Brien (King Kong), is on hand to deliver up the SFX. After unexpected seismic activity unleashes a swarm of stupendous scorpions from the bowels of the earth, a pair of geologists leads the vanguard tasked with dispatching them back. Co-starring Richard Denning (Creature from the Black Lagoon) and pin-up queen Mara Corday (Tarantula).
The Giant Behemoth (1957)
The horrors of the Atomic Age threaten Britain when thousands of lifeless fish wash up on its shores and fishermen are found dead at sea. Two scientists investigating these mysteries discover something far more frightening than their worst nightmares: a giant, radioactive sea creature horribly mutated by the effects of radiation staggers from beneath the ocean depths bringing death to every living thing in its path. Even worse, they realize the monster is heading for London!
The Valley of Gwangi (1969)
It's cowboys versus dinosaurs as FX man extraordinaire Ray Harryhausen pays tribute to his mentor, Willis O'Brien, in this stop motion monster fest. James Franciscus stars as a Wild West showman who leads his riding and roping crew into Mexico's Forbidden Valley in search of worldwide fame and untold wealth after the discovery of a midget horse, thought to be of a species 50 million years old. But they are met by prehistoric monsters, including "Gwangi," a giant dinosaur that decimates their ranks.
The Last Dinosaur (1977)
Richard Boone stars as a big game hunter who finds himself being hunted by really big game when he leads a scientific expedition inside a valley hidden below the polar ice cap that has been lost to time. Does the mighty hunter have the skills to take down T. Rex? A Japanese/American co-production combining the talents of animation studio Rankin/Bass and Tsuburaya Productions, the makers of Ultraman.
The Bermuda Depths (1978)
What secret lurks 20,000 feet below the waves in the paranormal realm called The Bermuda Triangle? That's the question a scientist (Burl Ives), his student (Carl "Apollo Creed" Weathers) and a young man (Leigh McCloskey) haunted by nightmarish memories of his Bermuda childhood ask themselves. The answer involves a beauty (Connie Sellecca) who has sold her soul for eternal youth, and a giant sea turtle that leaves death in its wake. From the masters of animated holiday cheer Rankin/Bass (seriously!).
Guillermo Del Toro's sci-fi spectacular is a feast for the senses and the mind. Paying homage to the movie dreams and nightmares of his youth, Del Toro delivers up the Kaiju with a definitively Western touch. When a dimensional tear allows a horde of giant monstrosities to invade our shores, humanity turns to Jaegers, a meld of man and giant robot, as the last line of defense.
Gareth Edwards' American re-envisioning of the classic Japanese giant monster succeeds in delivering up 21st Century cinema thrills while still showing off old school Kaiju skills. A scientist (Bryan Cranston), mad with grief, seeks the cause of a nuclear plant disaster that took his wife. After a trio of monsters surface, the scientist's soldier son (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) takes up the quest. And come 2020 this new Godzilla will be meeting a new Kong!
Also be sure to check out more from our "31 Days of Horror" series
Volume 1: Horror-fying Oscar Winning Actors
Volume 2: Attack of the "Killer B's"
Volume 3: Limbs in Limbo