Late-night Frights: The Monster That Challenged The World (1957)

"From the instant they're born, they're hungry!"

I had so much fun revisiting the Godzilla series recently, that I've decided to include classic creature features here on the blog. I can't see too many complaining; most of us were reared on this stuff, so it's definitely fitting. And hey, the more monsters the better, right?

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Soundtrack Spotlight: Klaus Schulze - Angst (1983)

Directed by Gerald Kargl, Angst is one of those rare cinematic oddities in which the soundtrack is more well known than the film itself. This is most likely due to the fact that when it came out, Angst struggled to find a distributor due to the extreme nature of the picture, no doubt any potential buyers saw nothing but censorship headaches and lost money. In many ways they probably weren't wrong; the film is still yet to really find its audience, and cinema only really caught up to Kargl's vision with the release of Gasper Noe's I Stand Alone - no doubt heavily inspired by the earlier film.

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Swamp Thing (1982)

"Oh shit. Here comes trouble."

Of all the big, heavy-hitter names in the legacy of modern horror, none have had such a wildly varied series of highs and lows as Wes Craven. George Romero was consistently great for a long time, but after his candle burned out in the early 90's, he only had a brief comeback with Land and Diary of the Dead before vanishing once again. Tobe Hooper never really found his feel again after The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, and despite making several entertaining, big-budget films such as Poltergeist and Lifeforce, his name is essentially mud to horror fans these days. Craven though, has been quite lucky throughout the last 4 decades. Despite making one of the most notorious films of the 70's with Last House on the Left, by the early 80's his projects were getting smaller, cheaper and honestly, pretty terrible. He managed to turn the horror genre on it's head in 1984 with A Nightmare on Elm Street pulling him out of the doldrums, a feat he managed to do once again in the mid-90's with the Scream franchise. He has managed to stay floating to this day, with plenty of projects on the go, and many titles in his catalogue now considered 'classics'. But what about those that fell between the hits?

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Video Sleeves - Then and Now (part one)

While I was going through some older reviews and updating them with more hi-res art work, I was saddened to see how some of these excellent covers had been altered or outright ditched in the progression from analogue to digital. I figure there could be many reasons for this - rights may have lapsed for artwork commissioned for certain regions, for example - but a lot of the time I feel it boils down to distributors having to justify having an art department. It can only account for some of the lazy and downright shoddy cash-grabs made by some of these guys.

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My Best Friend is a Vampire (1987)

"She sucked your what??!"

As if dealing with being a teenager wasn't quite bad enough, American filmmakers decided to throw a whole bunch of other problems into the mix, just to make things that little bit more awkward. It was no surprise that they turned to a few classic horror tropes to mingle with the laughs, resulting in the likes of Teen Wolf and, erm, Teen Witch hitting the screens and causing a ruckus. Comedy horror hybrids were big business in those days, thanks to the likes of American Werewolf in London, Return of the Living Dead and Gremlins, and it made plenty of sense to appeal to the younger market with teen-led films in the sub-genre. My Best Friend is a Vampire is a bit of an odd one then, in that, despite the premise, it nearly entirely eschews the horror elements in favour of out-and-out comedy. 

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Space Monsters magazine (Cyberschzoid)

When I was in London recently, myself and my brother-in-law took a few hours off from working to pop into The Cinema Store - always a great way to spend an hour wandering around, browsing the goods that you wish you had the cash to buy. I always spend a great deal of time going through back issues of the likes of Famous Monsters of Filmland, and any other great looking cult or horror mags they have, mainly because I feel I missed out on a huge chunk of possible childhood memories by not being exposed to these at a younger age. Dublin in the late 80's and early 90's was not the best place to be into niche movies, especially if you were young and without disposable cash. Such a hardship I suffered!

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The Nostalgic Attic's guide to... GODZILLA

When a new entry in a long-established series comes out, or more likely these days, a reboot, there are plenty of film fans who like to dive into the previous entries if they haven't seen them. To catch up, as it were. A new Star Wars film in the works? No problem. Three films to watch. Friday the 13th or a Star Trek? Things get a little tougher here, with both coming in at 12 films per series, and that's not even mentioning the TV shows. So, when something like Godzilla lands with a hyped up marketing campaign and mega-bucks production values, and with a whopping 28 entries in the series, what's a newcomer to do?

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Movie Tie-in #3: Godzilla: Monster of Monsters (NES)

(Nintendo Entertainment System, 1988)

Despite the lack of big screen releases in the 80's, Godzilla was still a popular name among the youth of the world, thanks largely to the constant rotations of the films on TV, the cartoon and of course, the merchandising. Video games seemed like a logical step for Toho, as monsters attacking cities and being bombed by the army would have been perfect fodder for youngsters to dive into with a controller in hand. Also, by the time 1988 had rolled around, Midway's classic arcade button masher, 'Rampage' had already been a huge hit, and was soaking up all those 'giant monster' dollars that Toho hadn't tried to tap into yet.

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Godzilla 1985: The Legend is Reborn (1984)

" Godzilla is a warning. A warning to every one of us. When mankind falls into conflict with nature, monsters are born."

By the time Toho Studios released the 15th installment in the Gojira series, Terror of Mechagodzilla, in 1975, the budgets were down, the box office was down, and interest in general for the mighty Godzilla was down. Despite some great entries in the series prior to 1975, fatigue and apathy seemed to be setting in with the fanbase, with Terror having the lowest attendance out of all the films to that point. Toho made the decision to hold off on any further sequels for the time being. The intention wasn't to can the series altogether, but just to step back and see where the land lay.
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Movie Soundtracks : Theme Songs - Part One

It's one thing I definitely miss when watching a modern comedy or action film; a glorious, title-dropping theme song. I guess tastes have changed somewhat over the last 30 years or so, and having a hit single tied to the film might not be top priority for producers anymore. Luckily enough, there are plenty from the 80's that many of us know and love, that are well worth dusting off and adding to your party mixtape.

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Spring Break (1983)

"Beer is like... fucking great, you know?"

Sean S. Cunningham was never highly regarded as a director, despite having a few hits under his belt. Maybe it was the 'follow the money' approach he took to projects that put people off, what with following up his producer duties on Last House on the Left with a string of cash in hits on bigger, and in many ways, better films. Here Come the Tigers was his Bad News Bears. Friday the 13th was his Halloween. And the thing is, the man made no bones about it; he was in it to make hits. And what's wrong with that? Spring Break was his cash grab at the teen sex comedy, which had become a huge money maker for studios in the wake of Animal House and Porkys.

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