When Monster Movies were Gloriously Monstrous

By Isabella Woods
     Since the rise of CGI, monster movies have become slick and
realistic. Since Jurassic Park, no longer are we confronted
with clunky animated creatures. The modern creature feature gives us monsters that
look as realistic as the actor’s battling them. But, while modern CGI films such as Cloverfield offer great entertainment, something has been lost. The plots, themes and sense of suspense common in creature features of old is all too often overshadowed by the modern effects. However, in days
gone by, the filmmakers knew their special effects weren’t
going to scare people. As a result, they relied on their stories, actors and thematic
structures to add depth and generate the thrills and chills
that literally left audiences shaking.         For that true creature feature experience, nothing beats sitting down on a http://www.sofasandsectionals.com/chairs-recliners/recliner">recliner
sofa with a bowl of popcorn on your lap and settling down to one of the classics. While the monsters may be a little clunky, these old movies provided the basic
elements that makers of modern creature features still use today. Here
are some of the best and timeless movies that scared their
audience long before the invention of CGI.
                          When Peter Jackson remade the original 1933 Merian Cooper
classic, it was an instant box office hit. Jackson remained
true to the original film’s storyline, rather than rebooting it into a modern day New York
(unlike the dire 1970s remake staring Jeff Bridges). Yet,
despite the modern use of CGI, Jackson’s version doesn’t really improve on the original
stop motion classic.
                       King Kong was never a horror film in the true monster sense.
The film was always a love story, with the horror coming from
the humans in the story and not the giant ape. Even the 1933 audience wasn’t fearful
of Kong as he trashed New York, but when the biplanes attacked
and fatally wounded the creature, they wept in buckets, something CGI did little to
enhance.   
           Stop motion animation was the CGI of its day. Now employed in
cutesy cartoons, one of the original great proponents of this
time-consuming form of animation was horror producer Ray Harryhausen. His first film,
the 1953 The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, owes much of its
success to its source material. Based on a short story by science fiction master Ray
Bradbury, entitled “Foghorn,” the film is about a prehistoric
octopus-like creature that is attracted to the sound of foghorn. The creature
eventually goes on the rampage along the US coast, killing
literally thousands beneath its giant tentacles.
                   Even today, seeing fleeing people splattered flat by the giant
cephalopod can still makes you squirm. The picture influenced
virtually every science fiction based creature feature ever since. Its themes
of tampering with nature and ignoring scientific warnings are
still relevant today and feature in modern day monster movies such asThe
Host.
      
                  The fifties also saw rise of perhaps the most famous monster
of all - Godzilla. Nothing more than a man dressed up in a
latex costume stamping on a model of Tokyo City, Godzilla ruled the monster movie roost
for decades. The same themes of science battling nature ran
throughout the Godzilla franchise, but it also had a touch of satire. Made gargantuan
by an atomic blast, Godzilla represented of the exponential
growth of Japan following the end of the war.                                                                                                                 Throughout the myriad of Godzilla films, the giant dinosaur
went from attacking Japan, to protecting it from a host of
other giant creatures and  becoming almost a mascot for the nation. Despite the clunky
effects and improbably stories, the original films are still
far better viewing that  that 1998 CGI monstrosity, which lacked the original’s clever
use of satire and sense of excitement                                                                                                            The creature feature owes a lot to Mary Shelley. Her initial
idea of a mad scientist messing with nature and creating a
monster has been used time and time again. And without Boris Karloff’s original
interpretation of Frankenstein’s monstrous creation, Halloween
just wouldn’t be the same. The flat top head and bolts through the neck never came from the
original book but were a concept dreamed up by makeup artist
Jack Pierce.                                                                                                                                                    The slow, lumbering actions of Karloff also inspired dozens of
other movies, from the clumsiness of Michael Myers in Halloween and the lumbering of Leatherface in Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to the shambling
zombies in Romero’s Living Dead franchise. While the plot strays a little from the source material, the realization that it is the alienation by humans,
which turned Frankenstein’s creation into a monster, is still
a powerful message and allegory.

 Thanks Izzy.