REDUX Monster Movie of the Week: The Thing (1982)

Note this entry was originally published 8/18/09 and revised, expanded, and republished 8/28/26.

Director: John Carpenter
Genre: Horror/Suspense

THE MOVIE:

John Carpenter's The Thing is the story of a small group of men who are assigned to a remote American Antarctic outpost. Their isolation is interrupted by the arrival of a mysterious dog which is chased by a helicopter from a distant Norwegian settlement. Attempting to kill the dog, the helicopter and its pilot are destroyed. MacReady (Kurt Russell) and some others from the American base investigate the Norwegian settlement to find a gruesome mess. They also find what appears to be a flying saucer half buried in the ice and a mangled semi-human body.

When they return to the American station, the mysterious dog begins to mutate into some sort of Lovecraftian tentacle monster, attempting to absorb and mutate the other dogs in its pen but is torched by the crew before it can finish. From here we can very well have Alien On Ice, after all, this was produced immediately after the success of Ridley Scott's movie. No doubt, the success of Alien allowed The Thing to be made. 

However, the twist offered by Carpenter's movie is that this alien creature is able to assume the form of any other organism, so there is a compelling mystery element of never knowing which members of the crew are human and which have been infected by the monster. This fact alone helps underscore the tension and heighten the relationships between the characters. It's the rare movie of this genre that gives its actors something to do other than running around screaming. The cast is pretty stacked including the perennially elderly Wilford Brimley (Cocoon) and a young Keith David, who's face and voice are known from everything to Platoon to Rick and Morty.

The Thing was released at the tail end of the late '70's and early 80's sci-fi movie boom and was lost in the shuffle, actually being released the same month as Blade Runner and the massively popular E.T. Clearly, 1982 audiences were looking for a different kind of alien experience, and it was widely considered to be a box office flop. At the time of its release, it was criticized for its excessive gore and disgusting special effects. 

There was a time in which you either had to see a movie in the theater or on a television broadcast. Theatrical runs were much less front loaded than they are now, and movies would literally be in theaters for months and hit movies would even have re-releases. Popular movies had splashy TV premieres several years after their theatrical runs. If a movie had an unsuccessful theatrical run there weren't a lot of ways to recover the investment. That changed drastically with the advent of the home video rental market in the 1980's and also the rise of premium cable around the same time. Movies that didn't do well on first release could find a second life on home video. Movies that found their legs on the home video market include such classics as Blade Runner, The Terminator, and The Shawshank Redemption. The Thing is also a great example of a movie that was considered a flop upon release that people rediscovered in the subsequent years at home and the movie's reputation as a classic has only grown over time.

The movie has spawned a number of comic book sequels as well as a classic survival horror video game, and even a 2011 prequel movie, which confusingly shares the same title. Like Alien and Aliens,the influence of The Thing, can be felt in everything to the Halo and Resident Evil series of videos games to Tarantino's snowy ensemble thriller The Hateful Eight.

The Thing is actually a remake of a fifities sci-fi movie, The Thing From Another World, which in turn was loosely based on the novella "Who Goes There?" written in the '30's by John W. Campbell, which seems to have borrowed the Antarctic setting and themes from "At the Mountains of Madness" by H. P. Lovecraft. Carpenter's remake actually stays closer to the plot of the novella and restores the movie's idea that the creature can assume anyone's shape or identity. It also seems to have inspired the first season X-Files episode "Ice."

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS:

The Thing is a seriously gory movie but the effects are groundbreaking and imaginative and push the envelope of pre-digital effects. You don't really see creature effects this ambitious until T2 is released in 1991. I can even say that for a movie released in 1982 there are a few shots that DONT look dated today, which is pretty good for a movie that relies on stop-motion and animatronics.

The monster is only recognizable as a monster when it is in mid-transformation, when it is a mismatched collection of tentacles and bizarre flowery appendages, with human and animal parts randomly thrown in. Sadly, one never gets to see the alien's true form which would have been cool at the finale. Perhaps it doesn't have one.

MONSTERS FEATURED:

"The Thing" in various forms.

WHERE TO WATCH



There are various collector's editions which are loaded with extras and documentaries about the movie and its groundbreaking visual effects.

SEQUELS:

The 2011 prequels is set immediately before this and tells the story of the Norweigean station and an American scientist (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, in Ripley mode) brought in to examine the frozen creature. It was criticized for using CGI but using in-camera effects of the scale and ambition of the original movie was not.really a practical option in 2010 when this movie was made. I found it to be a fun companion piece to Carpenter's movie although not of the same level of quality.

SEE ALSO:

Alien (1979), The Fly (1986), The X-Files "Ice" 1993, The Thing (2011)

TRAILER:

If you are enjoying Monster Movie of the Week, check out my kaiju novel City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl.

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Patrick Garone

Chicago-based writer & director. Author of City of the Gods and We Lowly Gods.

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Masters of the Universe: The Greatest Toyline of the 1980’s

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The first half of the 1980’s was a golden age for toys and action figures. Toys and action figures were comparatively popular with kids because there was really less to do than there is now. TV was limited. Home video was just becoming a thing and there was a lull the popularity of home video games. Under these conditions, the boys action figure market exploded with dozens of popular lines, some truly massive with vehicles and large complex playsets which would be unthinkable in today’s limited environment.

Star Wars was still massively popular and its revolutionary 3 3/4” line was going strong into 1984. GI Joe is another iconic toyline that became very popular at the time, with its super-posable action figures and perhaps the most impressive vehicle fleet ever created in an action figure line including a legendary 6' long aircraft carrier. The Transformers series had been cobbled together from a few different Japanese toy lines and brought intricate, ingenious toys to the US, most of which were both action figures AND vehicles.

You can argue that any of the above are the greatest of the ‘80’s, but for my money, Mattel’s Masters of the Universe beats them all as the most iconic toy property of the decade. MOTU was wild, diverse, and unabashedly ‘80’s with its decidedly chunky figures, funky color schemes and messy, all-inclusive approach to genre. To paraphrase the SNL character Stefon, this toyline has everything: Spitting snake people, cowboys, patchouli oil, citrus gorillas, an elephant firefighter, and a witch with jaundice. I can't overstate how weird it was.

However, Masters of the Universe started much less weirdly as Mattel’s attempt to create toys around the Conan the Barbarian property but when they could not get the rights they created their own line of fantasy toys. The Conan influences were very heavy in the early MOTU line which had a dark fantasy aesthetic fueled by the evocative paintings on the package art and the novel “minicomics” that were included with each figure. In this original iteration of MOTU, there was no Prince Adam. He-Man was a jungle barbarian recruited by the Green Goddess, a character who was an early combination of Teela and the Sorceress.

In the year and a half before the popular cartoon came out, these minicomics were the main media associated with the toys and they were filled with monsters and dark imagery. MOTU's villain, the skull-faced Skeletor was a character who was remarkably “metal” for a kids toyline and a lightening rod for 1980’s Satanic Panic. The skull iconography carried over to Castle Grayskull, the location which was the focal point of many of the stories and the larger struggle.

The toys featured a new squat and muscular 5 1/2”inch scale, a unique size that was larger than the then-popular 3 3/4” inch lines like GI Joe and Star Wars but smaller than the traditional 12” scale action figures of yore. While they had only the standard five points of articulation for the time, each figure had a standard feature, a waist that would spring back when turned allowing the characters to perform a punching or swinging motion, which was great because each figure came ready to fight. The original 1980's toy series was notable for the very generous inclusion of interchangeable pieces of weaponry and armor. He-Man, himself, came with a harness with a built in weapon sheath, a sword, an axe and a clip-on shield. As the line grew, it included various weapons packs with recolored weapons and armor that added additional customization and play value. This is no surprise coming from Mattel, the company that gave us Barbie and her endless accessories and costumes.

The original wave of MOTU consisted of seven action figures which give you a good taste of the diversity of the line, and its penchant for strategic parts re-use to save costs. Joining He-Man on the Heroic Warriors side was Man-At-Arms, who instead of being perhaps a medieval knight, has some armor that is relatively high-tech and futuristic, giving us a taste of the sci-fi elements that MOTU would grow to encompass. The Green Goddess was changed to Teela, a female character armed with a serpentine staff and cobra armor, although those last vestiges of the Goddess would fall away when MOTU made the jump to animation. Stratos was a simian character with strap on arm wings and a jet pack, a great example of the "throw everything against the wall" approach to the line's character design. On the side of Skeletor's evil warriors were Beast Man and Mer-Man, two staple fantasy archetypes. Zodac was an odd character, neither aligned with heroes or villains. 

In further waves the line's penchant for attention getting gimmicks would be revealed. Heroic warriors Man-E-Faces and Ram Man were defined by their unique action features. Man-E-Faces, had a unique helmet with a knob built into the top and when the knob was turned you could cycle through a trio of different "personalities" such as a man, a robot, and a beast. Ram Man had a unique mold with spring loaded legs and could be launched at other characters. MOTU was the most kinetic of 1980’s action figures.

 Like Man-E-Faces, Evil Warrior Triclops featured a play feature with a rotating mechanism on his helmet, showing off different cyclopic eye expressions. Trap-Jaw might be the best action figure of the entire line featuring an articulated jaw and a funky colored pirate-esque design. He always came with a trio of swappable arm attachments including a rifle, a hook and a claw. If that wasn't enough you could run a string through the loop soon his helmet and make him zip down a line.

Another fun element of Master of the Universe is the use of truly terrible character names. These fall into three genres: Lazy, Ridiculously On-The-Nose or Vaguely Dirty. In the Lazy category, most often they would just take the main characteristic and put “-or” or Man at the end, like: Stinkor, Grizzlor, Mosquitor or Mer Man, Goat Man, and Beast Man. In the second category Clawful, Two-Bad, and Evil-Lyn. Of course, Clamp Champ, Mantenna, and Fisto sound Vaguely Dirty.

The line soon expanded to more action figures, creatures, vehicles, and multiple playsets, including two of the best action figure playsets of all time, Castle Grayskull and Snake Mountain. Juxtaposing sci-fi and fantasy, the vehicles in the MOTU line included some of the expected analogues for jets and tanks but also some very outlandish and ridiculous rides, like the hilariously impractical Dragon Walker.

Once the Filmation cartoon began to air in 1983, Masters of the Universe really took off in popularity. The animated series, however, eliminated the hint of violence and danger in exchange for colorful, moralistic storytelling. The animated show also fully embraced the sci-fi elements of the burgeoning franchise, which reflected back in the toys which exploded in diversity of bizarre and sometimes contradictory concepts.

In one toy line you had a ninja, a clockwork robot, a cowboy, a green-flocked ape man that smelled like Pine-Sol, a mosquito man with “blood” in his chest, a dude with a big wheel in the middle of his body, a Medusa man, and some dudes who literally transform into rocks. You could literally throw any concept in there and it would work. This diversity of genres and styles really made MOTU something special. When you played with Star Wars or Transformers, you were locked into the narrow parameters of SciFi. By the same token, GI Joe locked you into a military adventure. By contrast, MOTU was a kind of young boy’s fever dream of adventure and imagination. 

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Monster Movie of the Week: An American Werewolf in London (1981)

AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON (1981)

Director: John Landis

Genre: Werewolf

Country: USA/UK

THE MOVIE

Anyone who follows movies knows that studios periodically jump on certain genres or storylines which often result in two similar but competing projects released around the same time. We had Armageddon and then we had Deep Impact. We had Rob Roy and then we had Braveheart. We had Priscilla Queen of the Desert and then we had To Wong Fu. Well in 1981 we had The Howling and then we had An American Werewolf in London both released within a few weeks of each other. Either one by itself would have been a revolutionary entry into the werewolf movie genre. Both were directed by young and talented horror directors and both employed make-up gurus to handle the effects. Werewolf was worked on by SFX legend Rob Baker,

An American Werewolf in London is also distinguished from its competitor by its droll British infused sense of humor and its Hammer-esque ambiance. It also gives us a unique lupine werewolf as opposed to the simian designs of past movies or even the men-with-wolf-heads as popularized by The Howling. Landis’ movie also features some very disturbing and surreal dream sequences (such as one in which Nazi wolf ghouls attack attack the protagonist’s Jewish suburban family.)

Plotwise, AAWIL is pretty typical werewolf stuff. The film even rather sneakily references the old Wolfman movie with Lon Chaney Jr. A pair of young Americans are backpacking in rural England and make it to a mysterious village on the moors where the people in the local pub (which features a large pentagram on the wall) seem to be hiding something. The boys are attacked by an animal, one is killed (but returns in some black-humored visions later in the movie) and one survives and is taken to London for care where he hits it off with his nurse. As we all know, once you survive a werewolf attack you become one yourself.

THE MONSTER EFFECTS

Like The Howling, this movie aims to push the envelope as far as visual effects in a werewolf movie goes. It also tries to limit the number of cutaways during the transformation sequence and much is done via animatronics and practical make-up to create the films almost tortuous transformation sequence. One has to admire the great artistry and ingenuity that went in to creating a sequence like this when now all we would need to do would be to create it in a computer.

The other notable SFX or design aspect of the movie is in the final representation of the creature itself, of which you get some good looks in the latter part of the movie. AAWIL gives us a werewolf that actually looks something like a wolf (well honestly it’s a little stocky for a wolf. I think it looks more like a wolverine.) This is harkens back to pre –Cinema ideas of what a werewolf should look like. After all, the whole idea of the European werewolf was that a man would turn into an actual wolf, not some creature that looks like a hybrid of the two, as is more common in the movies.

FAVORITE SEQUENCE

The best shot in the movie is actually the very first one in which we see the creature. The werewolf is chasing a man through a subway station in the London Underground and up until this point we have only really seen cheap werewolf POV shots so we might be assuming this is one of those movies that doesn’t give you a real look at the monster. Anyway, this man has been chased through the station and stumbles upon an escalator. He falls dropping all of his things and is being carried up. Once he is at the top we get a near POV shot of his position. It is a long shot from the top of the escalator. It has a very objective feel almost like a security camera. The shot goes for a bit and then the monster simply steps into the frame. It’s fast but a great shot and very creepy.

SEQUELS

And unrelated sequel called An American Werewolf in Paris.

DVD AVAILABILITY

Widely available.

SEE ALSO

The Howling

TRAILER

Patrick Garone
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facebook.com/cityofthegodsnovel

Monster Movie of the Week: Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

GODZILLA VS. BIOLLANTE (1989)

Director: Kazuki Omori

Genre: Daikaiju eiga

Country: Japan

After the Showa series ran its course with 1975’s Terror of Mechagodzilla, the Godzilla franchise went on a long hiatus until 1984’s relaunch, Godzilla (known here as Godzilla 1985). The movie was praised for its return to the darker themes of the early films but was criticized for its often ponderous tone and its lack of a monster opponent for the Big G. It would be another five years before the new Heisei, or versus series, would resume in earnest with Godzilla vs. Biollante, a movie that is notable for its remarkably unique and imaginative creature design, introduction of new “hard” science fiction elements, and often bizarre plot.

Biollante begins in the aftermath of the previous movie, as scientists are sifting through the rubble of Godzilla’s most recent attack on Tokyo and pulling out bits of the monster’s biological material from the debris. Godzilla vs. Biollante introduces a element into the series through its biotech subplot. In the Showa movies, Godzilla’s biology had not been given much attention, but in the 1990’s and 2000’s it is a recurring theme. In the 1980’s, the use and ethics of biotechnology and genetics was a huge issue. Biollante was actually released the same year as Michael Crichton’s landmark sci-fi novel, Jurassic Park, which also featured the application of biotech as one of its main themes.

Much of the human activity in the movie concerns the quest to obtain and use the Godzilla cell samples by different factions. This is actually kind of a cool idea, and if there had been a Godzilla attack, you can bet that lots of people would like to get their hands on his samples to use for their own ends. Researcher Dr. Shiragami, mourns the loss of his young daughter in a terrorist attack and spends much of his time looking into psychic phenomena, especially the psychic properties of roses (Um, whaaa?). One of his students is Miki Saegusa, a psychic who develops a bond with Godzilla. Miki becomes a fixture in the later Heisei movies, which feature a fairly tight continuity.

Meanwhile, Dr. Shiragami has come into possession of some Godzilla cells and has been tasked with using them to create a weapon to be used against Godzilla. Unbeknownst to his employers, Shiragami has been combining them with both the DNA of one of his psychic roses and that of his dead daughter (WTF?!), needless to say this does not end up well, and the resulting creature, Biollante, escapes into a nearby lake and grows to an enormous size. Biollante is a genetic relative of Godzilla and begins calling him to her. When the King of the Monsters arrives, the two have a skirmish, and Biollante is apparently defeated.

Godzilla then makes his way to the nearest nuclear power plant (as is his wont) he faces an all out attack from the humans, who unsuccessfully attempt to use Shiragami’s weapon against him. A fully-grown Biollante also appears, and battles Godzilla, nearly destroying him, before he triumphs and heads to sea. Biollante releases spores which briefly form into an image of Shiragami’s daughter and then head out into space(!?).

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

First, Biollante features a new look for Godzilla and one that stayed fairly consistent throughout the 1990’s. The Biollante suit remains an iconic look for the character and one that is beloved by many fans. Strangely, it adds features that are actually less reptilian, such as a set of mammalian specialized teeth instead of the fangs or jagged teeth of past suits, an almost feline face, topped with what look like cornrows, and small, intelligent eyes. Apparently, this Goji has been doing push-ups, because he has a more muscular upper body, with pronounced pectorals and deltoids (the lower body is still flabby though).

The real star, however, is Biollante herself, who is totally unique in the history Godzilla monsters. This is the rare instance of Toho forgoing the usual man-in-suit technique and opting for a different approach to bring its monster to life. Biollante, in her final form, looks like a giant Audrey 2 from Hell and actually dwarfs Godzilla in comparison. She is a genuinely horrible monster and not at all goofy-looking, as many other Toho monsters are. Her “body” is sort of bulbous with a luminescent potbelly, crisscrossed with sinewy vines . She moves on a bed of tentacle-like vines, many of which end in toothy jaws. On her back are mossy scales. Half of her body is taken up by an absolutely huge and croc-like mouth, which is full of teeth, even on the base and roof of the mouth, and from which she sprays a radioactive sap. She is definitely one of the most original and compelling monsters to have appeared in a Toho movie.

As a Toho monster, Biollante is part of a long line Godzilla clones, demi-Godzillas, usurpers, and wanna-bes that include, the original Mechagodzilla, Spacegodzilla, and Orga (from Godzilla 2000). Even the American Godzilla has been worked into the mythos as a pretender with his reference in Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah and finally his appearance in Godzilla Final Wars. In GMK, poor Baragon, is temporarily confused with Godzilla and it doesn’t end well for him. If there is a real theme to the Godzilla franchise, is that there can only ever be one Godzilla, and you’d better not even try to replace him.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The battle at the end is quite good, and represents a rare moment where Goji is truly outmatched by an opponent.

SEQUELS

Followed by the also interesting, Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah.

Sadly, this is Biollante’s sole appearance in a Godzilla movie. She does appear in the recent Wii game, Godzilla Unleashed as a playable character. And Shiragami appears in the cutscenes as well.

HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY

In the DVD and Bluray age, Godzilla vs. Biollante has been pretty much unavailable in the USA. With no official DVD release, it is necessary to order it as an import or wait for the movie’s eventual release on Bluray. As of yet, only the very first Godzilla has been released on Bluray and the 1998 remake. If Toho and Columbia follow suit with what they did last time, you can expect most of the catalog to be released on Bluray with the new American movie in 2012.

TRAILER









Patrick Garone

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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

Monster Movie of the Week: CYBORG LAW ENFORCEMENT EDITION: ROBOCOP 1987

ROBOCOP (1987)

Genre: Sci-Fi/Action

Director: Paul Verhoeven

Country: USA

THE MOVIE

Robocop was a milestone among the hard hitting science fiction/action movies of the 1980’s and was Dutch director Paul Verhoeven’s first hit English language movie. It has been called an action movie for liberals and is at once insanely violent and surprisingly intelligent. Like many of Verhoeven’s movies, it features a combination of action and scathing wit. Robocop is a satire on Reaganomics disguised as a bloody cop film. The movie is perhaps the best example of the director’s inhuman humanism, which attacks an exaggerated version of the existing power structure but revels in violence and nihilism at the same time. Paul Verhoeven makes comedies that are frequently mistaken for action movies, thrillers or exploitation movies. It is an orgy of over-the-top violence in the same way that his Showgirls and Basic Instinct were an orgy of ridiculous over-the-top sex.

Robocop represents a liberal nightmare of the conservative agenda, in which a powerful corporation runs rampant in a capitalistic urban nightmare where even our most important and public social service, the police, is privatized. It has aged surprisingly well in the twenty years since its release, partially because we just spent eight years under a president who was the ideological heir to Ronald Reagan. Robocop also takes a swipe at the media, which is depicted as a as a series of vapid personalities, misleading news, and idiotic commercials. Yeah, that sounds about right.

The film features one of cinema’s greatest evil corporations, Omni Consumer Products (it’s right up there with Weiland-Yutani and the Umbrella Corporation). In their attempts to take over the police department, they develop an unstable robot police officer, the enormous bipedal ED-209 and ultimately the cyborg, Robocop. Robocop was created from the remains of a police officer who was brutally murdered and he struggles with his remaining humanity throughout the movie. He is one of the great movie cyborgs, along with the Terminator, Darth Vader and The Borg.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

ED-209 is realized through the default special effect for realizing large creatures at the time, stop motion. Robocop is or course performed by a guy in a suit, nicely portrayed by actor Peter Weller. Robocop is not really an effects movie and the emphasis is more on action and satire.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE



Yeah, that guy up there. He comes to a bad end.



HOME VIDEO AVAILABILITY



Robocop is available in a couple of different DVD versions, including a 2 pack with The Terminator, and a collectors edition which features the original X-rated cut of the movie (for violence of course, you don't get to see Robocop's wang or anything). The movie is also available on Bluray and can usually be found pretty cheap.



SEQUELS



Followed by Robocop 2, Robocop 3, and animated and a live action TV series. Like the Planet of the Apes series, the Robocop sequels coast along on the quality and ideas of the original movie and, although not necessarily good movies, are enjoyable explorations of the Robocop universe. There is also a remake planned, which has been attached to director Darren Aronofsky.



SEE ALSO



Starship Troopers (1997)



THE TRAILER

Monster Movie of the Week: Alligator (1980)

ALLIGATOR (1980)
Directed by Lewis Teague
Genre: Horror, Monster-on-the-loose

THE MOVIE

An enduring urban legend from the 1970's and 1980's was that in the sewers below several major American cities, lived alligators which were purchased as pets but later flushed down the toilet when they became too large. These stories are based on infrequent sightings but have persisted over most of the Twentieth Century, probably because they are so cool and something must be keeping the C.H.U.D. and Ninja Turtle population in check. Recently, an episode of one of my favorite shows/exercises in futility, Monster Quest, mounted an expedition into the New York sewers in search of alligators but found only a fat salamander. And my dreams died.

The 1980 horror movie, Alligator, is based on this sewer gator premise and is the big daddy of all the other crocsploitation movies that came after. SyFy pretty much owes their original movie line up to Alligator. While not a great movie by any means, Alligator is a fun-enough riff on the Jaws formula. It's worth watching if only for its very auteuristic Carter-era approach to the material and that great gritty, late '70's/early '80's exploitation movie feel. Supposedly, it is set in Chicago but, sadly, filmed in LA. At least Robert Forster manages to sound like he wouldn't be out of place ordering an Italian beef and a pop at a Chicago hot dog stand.


Forster stars as beleaguered and mistrusted police detective David Madison (not to be confused with Bruce Willis' character on Moonlighting) who teams up with a herpetologist to investigate a series of grisly murders in the sewer system. Add to the mix a shady pharmaceutical company experimenting on stray pets with a growth hormone (every movie from this era needs an evil corporation), a tabloid reporter, and a big game hunter. Needless to say, the beast finally busts out into the city (and apparently onto the set of the Beat It video) and wreaks havoc.


THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

The Alligator-Ramon-is quite a big puppy at about 36 feet long. Otherwise he's a regular gator. I imagine a lot of the shots were done with a real gator scaled to a slightly miniaturized set.

MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

In another very '70's moment, Ramon terrorizes a bunch of fat cats at fancy party and goes all T-rex on a limosine.



Throw a Hawaiian shirt on him and you have a scene from just about any Rodney Dangerfield movie. Minus the killing.


SEQUELS

This movie did have one sequel. In 1991, Alligator II: The Mutation was released to no fanfare. Supposedly, it has almost nothing to do with the original movie.


SEE ALSO

Jaws (1975), Rogue (2007)

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Monster Movie of the Week: Pumpkinhead (1989)

PUMPKINHEAD (1989)

Director: Stan Winston

Genre: Horror/Revenge

THE MOVIE

When it comes to creature effects from the 1980’s on, there is one artist who towers over the rest: Stan Winston. Winston designed and realized monster effects for such films as The Terminator, Aliens, Predator, Jurassic Park and many other classic monster movies. In 1989 Winston made his directorial debut with Pumpkinhead, a country-fried supernatural revenge movie with an emphasis on creature effects. This is also one of the few starring roles for character actor Lance Henriksen’s weathered face and gravelly voice will be familiar to any genre fans from his supporting roles in movies like the Alien and Alien vs. Predator series, Near Dark and his starring role in the Chris Carter TV series Millenium. He’s a good actor and it’s nice to see him get to stretch his legs.

Henriksen plays a single father who owns a shop in a rural mountain community. When his young son is killed in an accident by a group of reckless young tourists he searches for a way to take revenge on them. He ultimately enlists the help of an old mountain witch who summons Pumpkinhead to take revenge on the teens. As Pumpkinhead slaughters the city folk, Henricksen’s character begins to see visions of the killings through the monster’s eyes and eventually grows disturbed by his increasingly symbiotic relationship with Pumpkinhead. He eventually decides to put a stop to it, shotgun style.

THE MONSTER/EFFECTS

Pumpkin head looks a bit like a cross between a human being and Giger’s Alien. He has an impossibly spindly body design that recalls the original costume in Alien. He also has an expressive, well-animated face. It is likely that the film was built around the idea of showcasing this monster and since the director’s background is in effects the movie does not stint on attention to the design and realization of the titular creature.

DVD AVIALABILITY

Widely available.

MOST MEMORABLE SEQUENCE

The “summoning” sequence is quite good and loans the film an almost Tim Burtonish fairy tale quality. In fact, it resemble Burton’s later Sleepy Hollow.

SEQUELS

Pumpkinhead 2: Blood Wings 1994

Pumpkinhead: Ashes to Ashes 2006 (Cable)

Pumkinhead: Blood Feud 2007 (Cable)

TRIVIA

Henricksen, along with actor Bill Paxton, has the privilege of having been killed onscreen by an Alien, a Predator and a Terminator (although whether Bishop was actually “killed” by an Alien is debatable.)

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