Jaws is the best shark movie; this is not up for debate. What is up for debate is the still-prestigious mantle of the second-best shark movie. While the oft-cited Open Water and The Shallows are formidable contenders, my pick for the true heir to the post-Jaws throne is 1999’s Deep Blue Sea. Continue reading
Though it enjoys a positive reputation as such, The Descent can only be called a monster movie with a major caveat. Like The Blair Witch before it, it wrings at least half – if not more – of its horror from its ominous setting. In this case, it’s the labyrinthine caves of North Carolina, an alien, impossibly dark environment that’s one of the movie’s most indelible characters. Continue reading
I will admit to taking some petty pleasure in being able to say that I knew about Oscar sensation Bong Joon-Ho all the way back in 2007, when I went to go see The Host at the age of 15. Though not an obscure indie by any means – its budget was over ten million dollars, and it broke South Korean box office records – it received a limited release here in the states, and certainly wasn’t a household name among foreign movies of the time. With Parasite getting unprecedented media attention, I thought I’d look back at Bong’s unconventional monster movie. Continue reading
Video game film adaptations haven’t had the best track record. They’ve been historically maligned by critics; some justly (Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li is, in fact, that bad), others unjustly (Mortal Kombat remains a 90s camp classic). Now we have Rampage, based on the classic giant monster arcade game, being marketed as “the best-reviewed video game movie of all time.” But despite this dubious designation, Rampage can barely be called an adaptation. It deviates from and adds so much to its narratively sparse source material that it’s essentially its own beast. Continue reading
During his heyday, Alfred Hitchcock coined the term “the ice box scene,” which refers to a movie scene whose plot issues become apparent to the audience sometime after the fact. A Quiet Place could be described as the ice box movie – thoroughly watchable in the moment, but logically wanting when given any serious thought. Continue reading
Join me and my co-host Vil as we discuss the 1971 Japanese monster movie Godzilla vs. Hedorah. We’ll discuss the movie’s powerful jam sessions, the hallucinatory fish head sequence, and more. Spoilers ahead!
It’s impossible to get mad at a Guillermo Del Toro movie. Even his misfires, like the forgettable Crimson Peak and generic Mimic have a creative spark to them that seems increasingly rare in modern Hollywood. He’s a man who clearly loves what he does, even managing to put his artistic stamp on prefab properties like Blade II. But The Shape of Water is his vision through and through, for better and for worse. Continue reading
Subgenre: Monster / Killer Animal
Summary: A mutated bear terrorizes a couple in the Maine woods. Continue reading
Subgenre: Monster / Slasher
Summary: After years of hibernation, an evil spirit returns to feed on human flesh. Continue reading