Monster Movie of the Week: Evolution (2001)

EVOLUTION (2001)

Director: Ivan Reitman

Genre: Science Fiction/Comedy

Country: USA

THE MOVIE

Evolution started its life out as a serious sci-fi/horror film about a hyper-evolutionary, extraterrestrial eco system that invades earth. When director Ivan Reitman took it over he rewrote the script and made it into a sci-fi comedy much in the vein of his earlier Ghostbusters. Like his earlier hit, Evolution is centered on a group of smart misfits lead by a laconic slacker who are tasked with a huge pseudo-scientific problem. Dan Ackroyd even has a cameo towards the end of the movie.

While the special effects and science fiction aspects of the movie are well-executed (it is actually a pretty cool concept which makes me wonder what the original straight version of the movie might have been like), the comedy elements don’t come together so well. This might have something to do with the weak script or the shtick of the incredibly unfunny Orlando Jones (he’s a funny guy but he’s workin’ his Eddie Murphy act way too hard in this movie) or the frequently annoying Sean William Scott. The leads, David Duchovny and Julianne Moore work out a little better. The movie seems to be fighting a loosing battle between a very droll and smart sense of humor and jokes about bodily functions.

THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Evolution’s saving grace is the quality and variety of its creature effects, which run the gamut from microorganisms to a goofy/ terrifying amphibian to a towering blob monster. The best one is probably the winged velociraptor-like creature that rampages through a mall. Also interesting are the blue-furred ape-like animals that represent the highest shown level of alien evolution. Apes are great subjects for monsters because they are so like us anatomically and when we see an ape that is fundamentally wrong it strikes a disturbing chord with us.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Widely available on DVD. Has some deleted scenes, including an unfunny alternate ending.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The flier’s attack on the shopping mall.

SEQUELS

None.

SEE ALSO

Ghostbusters (1984)

TRAILER

Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

City of the Gods and Ancient Astronaut Theories

What's this? Someone crossing the sky in some kind of "star capsule?"

History is full of intriguing mysteries and gaps in the anthropological record. Human beings hate nothing so much as a blank canvas and over the years many imaginative and science fiction-tinged theories have sprouted offering explanations for history's mysteries. Events such as the sudden and dramatic leap in hominid evolution or the question of how "primitive" man could have built structures like the pyramids of Egypt have long evaded explanation and have often been addressed by a branch of fringe archeology that proposes ideas about ancient aliens visiting earth.

From 2004's Alien vs. Predator.

In the 1960's and 1970's, these theories were crystallized in the book Chariots of the Gods by Erich Von Daniken, who proposed an elaborate scenario that involved UFOs visiting Earth during Old Testament times. According to the book, ancient humans mistook these aliens for gods and angels and provided the basis for early human mythology. According to Von Daniken, one needs not look further than the Bible and other early human literature to find anecdotal evidence of this. I have to say, there is something intriguing about this idea. Literature from the ancient Middle East and India are full of descriptions of flying chariots, airships, flaming pillars, suited celestial beings, and all manner of mysterious radiation. We are so used to looking at these stories through the veil of mythology or religion that we often take for granted what the writers were attempting to describe with their limited technological vocabulary.

From 1994's Stargate.

These audacious ideas have provided fodder for countless non-fiction books, documentaries, TV series and magazines and have also made their way back into science fiction. Movies like Stargate, Alien vs. Predator, Transformers:Revenge of the Fallen, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls and TV series like Battlestar Galactica and The X-Files, have all dealt with the idea of alien civilizations on the ancient Earth. Even Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey is essentially an Ancient Astronaut story that depicts an alien monolith kick-starting evolution among the ape-creatures at the beginning of the movie and coming back to finish the job in the Space Age.

From 1968's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

In my book City of the Gods, a UFO parks itself over Mexico City and begins communicating in Nahuatl, the language used by the Aztecs. This "Aztec UFO" causes many of the characters to begin seriously entertaining some of these ancient astronaut ideas. It is particularly difficult for my protagonist, Sandra Ramirez, who is herself a serious and hard-working anthropologist. Like her real-world counterparts, Sandra has an institutional distrust of what she feels are pseudo-scientific fringe theories.

Latin America, home to hundreds of advanced and accomplished native civilizations, has long been a focal point for Ancient Astronaut theories and according to their proponents, the evidence is all over the art, architecture, and even in the very geography of the land. One could hardly set a science fiction story in Latin America without giving a wink and a nod to the rich legacy of these ideas in the region.

A hummingbird figure from the Nazca lines in Peru.

The most famous and dramatic "evidence" is located in the desert coast of Peru near the city of Nazca, where a series of geometric figures and stylized animal shapes have been carved into the land. The figures are so large that they can only be seen from the air. What reason would a thousand year-old civilization have for creating designs that could only be seen from the air? For whom did the Nazcans create them? While some sensible answers have been provided by archeologists, they are not terribly satisfying or exciting for lay people. Some the "mystery" of the Nazca lines will likely persist forever as many people will not be satisfied until they see a UFO use the lines as a runway. Again, people love a good story and the Nazca lines certainly suggest one.

Sacsayhuaman, overlooking Cusco, Peru.

Some of the classic Ancient Astronaut theories revolve around megalithic structures, those that are made of materials which are seemingly too large and heavy for humans to work with in the absence of machines. The pyramids of Egypt are the most famous example but Latin America is full of these places as well. To stay in Peru for a moment, overlooking the old Inka capital of Cuzco, is Sacsayhuaman, an Inka "fortress" constructed of huge blocks of stone, many of which are the size of small homes. At the other end of the Urabamba valley is the famed Inka citadel, Machu Picchu, which is literally located on a remote mountain peak and again constructed of enormous blocks of granite that were quarried off site. The only way to access Machu Picchu is through a series of winding foot paths, there were no roads or even wheels on which to use them.

Machu Picchu, Peru.

In addition to this, Precolombian South America is full of images of "astronauts" and other figures which appear to be wearing bulky suits. From parts of what is now Colombia, there are trinkets which bear an incredible resemblance to modern airplanes. Could they be birds or fish? How likely is it, that even if there had been ancient astronauts that they would be flying around in anything that resembled our modern aircraft?

A trinket from ancient Colombia that undeniably looks like a modern aircraft.

In Mexico, in addition to the megalithic city of Teotihuacan, the most famous cultural link to the Ancient Astronaut theory is the lid of the tomb of Pacal, a ruler of the Mayan city of Palenque. The ruins of Palenque still stand impressively in the jungles of Chiapas. Pacal's tomb shows an image of what some claim is a reclining human figure seated in some sort of vehicle which appears to be vertically launching, like a rocket. The figure appears to be operating controls with his hands and feet. Mayan art from the period was highly stylized and ornate and it is difficult to determine what actually this piece represents. Experts in Mayan studies claim that the illustration represents Pacal ascending the World Tree, a major symbol in Mayan cosmology. Again, if there had been extraterrestrial visitors, I doubt they would be using anything like the Apollo-era rockets to which the illustration has been compared.

The lid of Pacal's tomb.

So what can we make of all this "proof"? Are human beings a genetically engineered labor force created thousands of years ago by an extraterrestrial race that has long since abandoned us? Were the ancient gods that came down from the sky in blazing chariots in our religions and mythologies actually aliens? The anecdotal evidence is fascinating and compelling but does not actually prove anything.

Human beings are naturally wired to tell and consume stories. Where there are gaps in our history as a species, we are certainly not above spinning elaborate tales to fill them. The ongoing Ancient Astronaut narrative is a collective story in which we are all taking part and certainly one that is a terrific jumping off point for any writer.


Patrick Garone
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Look to the Skies: City of the Gods and the Looming UFO Story

The scenario is familiar: an enormous flying saucer hovers over a major world city. Modern man is forced to contend with with a powerful unknown. The great cosmic question with which we have struggled all of these years-Are We Alone?-is clearly and dramatically answered and humanity must finally contend not only with its place in the cosmos but with the fact that our history has taught us that in conflicts between technologically advanced and primitive civilizations, the advanced civilization is almost always the victor.

This is a spin on the First Contact story and it is a beloved and well-worn archetype in Science Fiction. My book, City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, begins with a situation much like this: a single but massive UFO appears over Mexico City. The ship has Mesoamerican symbols on its hull and begins communicating in Nahuatl, the language spoken in the Aztec Empire and still spoken by millions of people in Mexico. The ship is clearly connected to Mexican history and culture. Some see it as a New Age beacon or a fulfillment of ancient prophesy. Others see it as a crystallization of years of Ancient Astronaut theories that have centered upon the region.

Although they are not original scenarios, I have long had a soft spot for these "Looming UFO" stories. I chose to hang the sci-fi elements of City of the Gods on this particular idea for a few different reasons. First, there is a kind of existential suspense attached to it. A silent ship that is parked over a city is inherently terrifying and aggressive. When most people think about UFOs, they think about stealthy saucers zipping around in unpopulated areas. There is comfort in thinking that they are at least trying to stay unidentified. But the ship that parks itself over Central Park is saying, "We are here. What are you going to do about it?"

Secondly, I am fascinated by how people would really react in this situation. UFO debunkers often smugly make the argument, "Well, if they exist, why don't they just land somewhere and announce it?" To which my answer is, "Because you would loose your shit. That's why."

Let's not pretend that people would be okay with this. People would freak the hell out. I mean, a lot of people are terrified of illegal aliens. Can you imagine how they would deal with actual aliens? One could make a very compelling argument for covering up proof of alien life.

It wouldn't be anything like in the movies. There would be no angelic children staring up at a soft Speilberg-ian light. There would be no John Williams score. It would be panic and chaos. There's a reason they have a Prime Directive in Star Trek. We're not ready yet.

For the sake of telling my story in City of the Gods, I required my characters to keep it together a little more than they actually would in reality. After all, it wouldn't be a very interesting read if my protagonists were lying in a fetal position for the whole book. At the very least, proof of alien life would fundamentally change everything we believe.

Lastly, the "UFO-parked-over-the-city" imagery is so prevalent in pop culture that I would be able to play off all that has come before. Hopefully, being familiar with the books and movies that have utilized this premise before would allow me to offer some new twists and surprises along the way. City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is simply the latest in a long line to make use of this scenario.


The great grandaddy of these stories is the amazing Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood's End. Published in 1953, Clarke's story begins when a fleet of mysterious ships park themselves over Earth's major cities. Clarke lets us cook for a while as to the occupants identity and intentions but the aliens soon impose a kind of benign dictatorship on the planet, ending the Cold War, the Space Race ("The stars are not for man."), and turning Earth into a forced utopia. These Overlords and their shadowy master have their own plans for humanity but it's not the predicable war into which most of these stories devolve. The ending of this book is every bit as profound and mind-boggling as that of Clarke's more famous story, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Sadly, Childhood's End has never been adapted for the screen.



In the 1980's, the closest one could get to Star Wars on TV were the V miniseries and its spinoff weekly series. V takes is opening premise from Childhood's End, in which Earth's cities are visited by massive UFOs, whose occupants are ostensibly here to improve life on Earth. One of the nice things about V is that, in its longer miniseries format, it takes time to explore how an alien presence on Earth affects humanity, using a wide swath of characters as a cross section of human society. Last year, V was re-imagined into a new series, but the characters in the new show seem strangely complacent about the aliens in their midst. The show barely deals with the existential shock that would result not only in alien contact but also with contact with a technologically superior race.



This premise was revisited in the 1990's in the big-budget alien invasion/disaster movie Independence Day, which again features a fleet of giant flying saucers over the world's cities. Unlike the at-first benevolent aliens of Arthur C. Clarke and V, these extraterrestrials don't even bother trying to make nice and immediately begin destroying the world's most popular tourist destinations, apparently for the hell of it. A rag-tag group of human survivors is forced to fight back using airplanes, computer viruses (!), and Will Smith. Independence Day is Childhood's End with a lobotomy.




The most interesting cinematic take on this kind of story is found in the 2009 South African movie, District 9, in which an alien ship ends up over Johannesburg. Unique to the sub genre, these aliens have not come to invade, but are desperate refugees who are soon rounded into a large camp. Taking a page from 1988's Alien Nation, the movie is very much concerned with the alien subculture and it's relationship with humanity. District 9 is the rare contemporary science fiction movie that is more concerned with using the genre to explore sociological ideas than making things blow up, although there is a big action sequence tacked on to the end

At it's heart, City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is a story about the nature of conquest and clashes of civilizations, which uses Mexico and it's history as a backdrop and counterpoint. Setting the "Looming UFO" story in Mexico City offered an interesting way to explore this theme and to juxtapose human history and and a science fiction scenario that holds the promise of conflict and invasion. The real question with which the book struggles is, have we really learned anything in the last five hundred years? Will we be better people in five hundred more years? Would we do it any differently if we had to do it again?


Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: Independence Day (1996)

INDEPENDENCE DAY (ID4) (1996)
Director: Roland Emmerich
Genre: Sci-Fi/Disaster


THE MOVIE

I learned a valuable lesson from Independence Day. It wasn't that people of all walks of life will come together to confront an insurmountable foe, with only their faith and patriotism to protect them. It wasn't that extraterrestrials have an overarching hatred for national monuments. It wasn't that alien computers are compatible with Mac OS 8 and susceptible to computer viruses.

It was that you should never, ever, trust a cool movie trailer.

I came into Independence Day with very high expectations due a very good trailer that should off some very cool visuals and ID4, promised to be a modern update of an old-school invasion stories like War of the Worlds. The story looked like it had shades of the great 1980's minseries V, which also featured a fleet of massive spaceships parked over Earth's cities.


But writer Dean Devlin and director Roland Emmerich-who were not well known at this point-give the movie a wide scope but almost no depth. Independence Day is not really about anything other than people fighting with spaceships. I like to compare this movie to M. Night Shyamalan's Signs, which is another invasion movie, but instead of being globally focused, Signs tells the story from the point of view of one family living in a rural house. There are only a handful of characters and you actually care about them. The characters of Independence Day are not really worthy of being cared about because they are simply two-dimensional avatars with simple relationships calculated to give the movie "heart," yet it has no heart. At best, the characters are archetypes (Cocky Fighter Pilot, Idealistic Young President, Good-Hearted Stripper) at worst, out and out stereotypes (Old New York Jewish Guy, Big Gay Mama's Boy).

The great visuals and set up are not supported by any ideas. There is no exploration of what it means that we are not alone in the universe. The aliens never reveal their intentions, they simply exist to be antagonists. This movie is science fiction in the most shallow sense. The sci-fi elements only exist to make the kind of big stupid disaster movies that the filmmakers seem to love so much. So Independence Day is a movie with neither heart nor brains.

It should be noted that this is one of Will Smith's breakout performance and the first of his many hit July 4th movies. It's really striking to see just how much he has grown as an actor since ID4. Thankfully, he no longer feels the need to constantly "work it" on camera like he does in this movie. Just look at the wonderfully somber and nuanced performance he gave in I Am Legend a few years back for comparison.



THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The aliens of ID4 were designed by Patrick Tatopolous, who also worked on Devlin and Emmerich's hated Godzilla movie and are cool if derivative. The exoskeleton is biomechanical and looks a good deal like Giger's Alien, with the addition of a series of tentacles that come out of its back. This armor is apparently vulnerable to being punched in the face. Sadly, we see very little of these guys in the movie and we don't really see how they move around. Do they walk around on the tentacles like Doc Ock? These guys were briefly popular as toys in the '90's.


Inside the exo-suit are little guys that resemble the "grays" that are prevalent in UFO mythology (especially in the 1990's). They are given flared, manta-like heads and iridescent skin and eyes but are otherwise pretty typical aliens. They do resemble the alien from Devlin and Emmerich's previous movie, Stargate, giving some continuity in the Devlin/Emmerich cinematic universe (such as it is).




MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

I will say that there is an interesting detour midway through the movie where the main band of characters end up in Area 51. The movie has some fun working some contemporary UFO mythology into its story in an almost clever way. There is also a very fun cameo from Brent Spiner (Data in the Star Trek: The Next Generation series and movies) as a wild-eyed scientist who looks to have been locked in the facility since the 1960's. This is a great bit of sci-fi casting in what is otherwise an unimaginatively cast movie (Jeff Goldblum as a scientist? Where'd you think of that?)

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

Available on DVD, Bluray, and currently streaming on Netflix.

MINORITY REPORT

Verdict: The gay guy dies first!

So this movie pretty prominently features the pioneering openly gay actor Harvey Firestein in a supporting role. While he never actually says that his character is gay, it not unreasonable to assume it based on his performance and the fact that the character has a stereotypically overbearing mother. So this character that a savvy audience will be lead to assume is "gay" is the first speaking character to die and doesn't get to party with Fresh Prince, Brundlefly, and Lone Starr at the end of the movie.

The message: Diversity is great! We just don't want you around when we rebuild civilization.

SEQUELS

None yet but then Will Smith's career hasn't hit the rocks.

TRAILER

Monster Movie of the Week: The Blob (1988)

THE BLOB (1988)

Director: Chuck Russell

Genre: Horror

THE MOVIE

Thirty years after the release of the classic movie The Blob, writer Frank Darabont (who would later do a series of successful Stephen King adaptations, including The Shawshank Redemption) and director Chuck Russell (who had previously collaborated on A Nightmare on Elm St. III: The Dream Warriors) released this brand new version of the killer slime movie, complete with updated gory effects for a 1980’s audience. Chuck Russell’s remake follows the original movie in the broad strokes, with many characters and situations which correspond to those in its predecessor.

It is again set in a small town—this time a California mountain town that is anxiously awaiting its first snowfall and the upcoming ski season. Kevin Dillon plays Brian—a young trouble maker who-with the exception of his ‘80’s mullet—could have ridden his motorcycle out of any number of ‘50’s youth movies. He even makes it a point to say, “I have a problem with authority.” We get it, Brian. You’re a rebel.

Brian discovers a local hobo who has come in contact with an object that crashed to earth in a fireball. The old man is crazed and his arm has a weird pinkish growth, which he is trying to cut off with a pick axe when we first encounter him. Brian comes across with another young couple on a date and the four go to a local hospital, much as in the original movie. Soon the blob begins feeding on the townspeople, growing larger and larger.

Lady Gaga tries out a new look for the VMAs.

The biggest plot difference in the two movies involves the arrival of a government team to contain the creature and we learn that this version of the blob actually is a government experiment that crashed to earth on a wayward satellite. The government is working to capture the creature alive and is spreading misinformation about a viral outbreak. The townspeople are considered expendable. In the original, the blob was an alien lifeform that crashed to earth on a meteorite and this new origin seems a little unnecessary. After all, if ever there were a believable movie alien, it is the blob.

Stylistically, a lot had happened in the thirty years between the two movies. The 1988 version of The Blob seems to have been informed by such movies as Alien and The Thing and the movie features an impressive level of gore and effects. The remake takes the horrifying idea at the heart of the story—an insatiable shapeless creature that suffocates and consumes its prey—to a more horrifying level. The blob is a great concept and there is a lot more room for development. It has been recently announced that there is yet another remake planned, this one directed by exploitation/horror director Rob Zombie.

He should have asked for them to make his Camarones a la Diabla "menos picante."

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

Another controversial aspect of this remake was in its depiction of the monster, which is often seen forming “blob tentacles” which whip around its victims. Some blob fundamentalists have said that this is out of character for the creature and that it should always remain amorphous and incapable of forming appendages. This version of the blob is reminiscent of the monster from John Carpenter’s The Thing, which in its base form is also able to form simple appendages and orifices.

One thing that the movie does very well is show how the blob feeds and how it leaves its victims. There are lots of great shots of partially digested people floating around inside the creature. This blob is able to cleanly strip the flesh from people’s bones and seems to have a set of consistent and believable biological processes.

Kevin Dillon, after winning the "Sigourney Weaver from Alien look-a-like contest."

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

Like the first version of The Blob, the 1988 version has a scene set in a movie theater where people are watching a horror movie. The remake builds a little more suspense and has some more fun with the idea. First the blob creeps into the projection booth through the AC vent and kills the projectionist. Soon, we see the image on the screen begin to distort as the blob presumably works its way into and around the projector. Then the screen goes pink as the light shines through the semi-translucent monster. It’s a very cool sequence.

DVD AVAILABILITY

Available and on Netflix.

SEQUELS

None.

THE TRAILER

A Brief History of Quetzalcoatl as a Monster

The Mexican hero/god Quetzalcoatl has a long and complicated legacy in the history and mythology of Mesoamerica but a surprisingly short one in global popular culture. Over the centuries, he has appeared in many forms and gone by many names, all some variation on "Feathered Serpent" and the worship of a plumed snake god goes back thousands of years and is one of the constants that run through most of the cultures of the region. However, unlike characters from Greco-Roman, Norse, or even Egyptian mythology, Quetzalcoatl hasn't really made his way onto the pop-cultural landscape in a big way. That said, the Feathered Serpent has made a few interesting appearances over the years, and his monstrous interpretation in City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl is far from the first time he has appeared in a modern sci-fi or horror context.



Quetzalcoatl as a monster is kind of a no-brainer. The fact that it hasn't really appeared much in movies and television is more a tribute to Hollywood's laziness and cultural myopia than anything else. A "feathered serpent" pretty much guarantees you a cool monster and one does not have to search far to find hundreds of interesting and monstrous visual representations of the god in Mexico alone. Even a brief read into his histories reveals several rich back stories heavy with tragedy and story potential. A handful of movies and TV shows have made use of the character over the years with mixed success and never in any real depth.

From The Flying Serpent. Quetzalcoatl makes a gravity-assisted kill.

An interesting early appearance is in the 1946 film, The Flying Serpent, if only because monster films were few and far between in the '40's. In this film, a demented archeologist discovers Quetzalcoatl, the "Killer Aztec Bird God," and discovers that he can sic the monster on his enemies by planting the creature's feathers on them. The ensuing horror leads his daughter to make the historically obtuse comment, "I wish there was no such thing as an Aztec Indian!" The small, turkey-like creature in this movie leaves a whole lot to be desired and the monster usually travels by zipping down a clearly visible line at its enemies.

From Star Trek: The Animated Series

Amazingly, Quetzalcoatl managed to escape the 1960's without appearing in a Japanese-style giant monster movie despite being so very kaiju-friendly. Mexico did not go in the direction of other countries like Korea, England, Italy, and jump on the '60's giant monster bandwagon. It's a sad thing that we didn't get to see lucha libre wrestlers in rubber costumes duking it out in a miniature Mexico City set. The Feathered Serpent did, however, appear in an episode of the animated Star Trek series.

He made his next and to-date greatest movie appearance in the 1980 horror film Q: The Winged Serpent, which avoided the difficult issue of people having to say, "ket-zal-ko-atul" when they were in line to buy their movie tickets. Q is a schlocky but fun exercise in horror exploitation and features a winged-serpent (not feathered) that has made its nest in a Manhattan skyscraper. This version of Quetzalcoatl was beholden to wild-eyed Aztec cultists. The monster in this movie is a little disappointing and has none of the Mesoamerican pizazz you would expect from the character. This Quetzalcoatl doesn't even have feathers but instead leathery reptilian wings.




Decades later, in the wake of the disappointing American Godzilla movie, there was a rather good animated spin off series that managed to capture the feel of old-school Japanese Godzilla movies. It pit the spawn of the American Godzilla (now with Atomic breath and a more appropriate attitude) against a stable of new giant monsters. One of which was a spin on Quetzalcoatl. In the "Bird of Paradise" episode, Quetzalcoatl was nesting in a Central American volcano and was appropriately feathered, although red. At the very least, this incarnation of the monster brought it tangentially into the Godzilla universe and is the character's first honest-to-goodness appearance as a genuine kaiju.

Finally, in 2008, we have the SyFy movie, The Lost Treasure of the Grand Canyon, which is all kinds of bad. It is not bad in the mind-bogglingly self-aware sort of bad like Sharktopus or Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus; it's just regular bad. In this period movie, archeologists discover a lost Aztec city in the Grand Canyon (!), guarded by, you guessed it, Quetzalcoatl. This version of the monster is vaguely avian, vaguely reptilian and vaguely mid-1990's-CGI looking. Again, kind of monochromatic with no feathers.



In handling the character in City of the Gods, my goal was to reconcile the major mythic and historical interpretations of Quetzalcoatl into one character. I wanted to tell a kick-ass giant monster story, but also to make use of the hero's deep and often tragic history. While mythology is very hot right now in movies, books, TV, and video games (seriously God of War, Percy Jackson, Clash of the Titans, Thor and many more on the way) usually this is drawn from the Greek or Roman tradition. With City of the Gods, I really wanted to deal with a characters and situations that have been overlooked by pop culture. Hopefully you'll find it to be a fun and satisfying sci-fi romp but also one that does justice to this great character from world mythology.



Patrick Garone
www.patrickgarone.com
twitter.com/patrickgarone
facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: Sssssss! (1973)

Sssssss! (1973)
Director: Bernard Kowalski
Genre: Body Horror


THE MOVIE

Can I just say that this movie has the best title of all time? I want to get that out of the way right at the beginning. I'm a sucker for onomatopoeia in horror movie titles. But there is more than just 1970's camp value in Sssssss! The first scene alone is genuinely horrifying, with two men carrying a casket-sized box up from a spooky basement and there is clearly something alive and struggling inside but you don't find out what it is until later in the movie. It's really a great and unsettling scene. Plus I think the guy who sold Richard Crenna's family the Devil Dog is the head carnie. Gross.

Much of the movie is a slow burn, as the mad herpetologist, Dr. Stoner, slowly transforms his new lab assistant, David, into a serpentine monster. Dr. Stoner is a kooky old guy who likes to get drunk with his pet snake. He and his majestically bespectacled daughter live in a an old house far outside town. Much of the house is devoted to a research lab in which Stoner keeps dozens of live snakes, frequently "milking" them for venom.

David is played by Dirk Benedict, who would later go to play Face in The A-Team and Starbuck in Battlestar Galactica. His most recent work consists of making strangely hostile and sexist comments about the re-imagined Galactica series. Here, he plays one of the most effete and passive heroes I have ever seen in a horror movie (well, until A Nightmare on Elm St. 2). He eventually hooks up with Dr. Stoner's daughter and the two have a nerdy romance. Sssssss! almost feels like a prototype of David Cronenberg's The Fly but without the great tragedy of that movie.



THE MONSTERS/EFFECTS

Sssssss! is not a particularly effects-heavy movie. Over the course of the movie we see David slowly transform into a more reptilian creature through make-up effects by John Chambers who worked on Planet of the Apes. We also get a glimpse of the fate of Dr. Stoner's first lab assistant, briefly glimpsed in the film's opening. We see the snake man in an old-fashioned carnival freak show, in one of the film's creepier moments.



What is somewhat disappointing is that the final form that David takes is not some snake/human hybrid but an actual Cobra. He literally turns into a Cobra like any one that you would see in the zoo. This is done through a pretty awful stop motion/cross fade/proto-morph effect. It kind of sucks that after sitting through the whole movie, he just turns into a big snake. In fact, some of the later phases of his transformation are much more visually interesting than his final form.


MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

The movie's creepy opening sequence, which manages to evoke a much different kind of almost Gothic horror than the light sci-fi tone which the movie eventually settles on.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

On DVD and currently streaming on Netflix.

TRAILER