Monster movie

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For other uses, see Monster movie (disambiguation).
The original 1933 King Kong was one of the earliest and most famous monster movies.
The original 1933 King Kong was one of the earliest and most famous monster movies.

Monster Movie (also can be referred to as Creature Feature or Monster Film) is a name commonly given to movies, which centre around the struggle between human beings and one or more monsters. While there is no specific academic genre classification of that name, the term is usually applied to films sometimes labelled as horror, fantasy or science fiction genre that involve fictional creatures, in most cases it is applied to films that feature more oversized monsters despite its history starting withadaptations of horror folklore and literature. In Japanese cinema, such monsters are referred to as Kaiju.

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[edit] History

The first feature length films to include what are regarded as monsters were often classed as horror or science fiction films. The 1915 German silent film, The Golem directed by Paul Wegener is one of the earliest examples of film to include a creature or monster. Following the tradition came another German yet Expressionist Nosferatu in 1922. It was in the 1930s, where American movie production began to screen more successful films of this type, usually based on gothic tales such as Dracula and Frankenstein in 1931, both heavily influenced by German Expressionism, followed by The Mummy (1932) and The Invisible Man (1933). Despite being classed as Horror films, they included iconic monsters.

Special effects animator Willis O'Brien worked on the 1925 fantasy adventure The Lost World based on the novel of the same name featured dinosaurs, which would become the basis for many future monster movies. He began work on a similar film known as Creation in 1931 but the project was never completed.[1] However 2 years later he worked on the special effects for the RKO 1933 film King Kong directed by Merian C. Cooper. Since then King Kong has not only become the one of the first and most famous examples of traditional monster movies, but also is considered a landmark films in the history of cinema. The monster King Kong also became a cultural icon, being featured in (or something similar to Kong) many other film and media since then.[2] Following its success came to less successful sequel, The Son of Kong later that year.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms helped inspire the following generation of monster movies.
The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms helped inspire the following generation of monster movies.

King Kong went on to inspire many other films of its genre and aspiring animators. A notable example was Ray Harryhausen,[3] who would work with Willis O’Brien on Mighty Joe Young in 1949. Following the re-release of King Kong in 1952, Harryhausen would later work on The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms in 1953. The film was about a fictional dinosaur, Rhedosaurus, that was awakened from frozen ice in the Arctic Circle by an atomic bomb test. It is considered to be the film which kick started the 50s wave of “creature features” and the concept of coining nuclear paranoia with the genre.[4] Such films at the time included The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954), Them! (1954), It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), Tarantula (1955) and 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957).

Also during the 50s, the nuclear concept from The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, along with real life historical events helped Japanese film studio Toho produced their first successful Kaiju films;[5][6] Godzilla (known in Japan as Gojira) in 1954, who since then has appeared in 28 films and like King Kong has appeared in many other media formats and has become one of the most recognisable monsters in the history of cinema. Another kaiju film from this time was Rodan.

Post 1950s, monster movies were less popular as previously yet were still produced. In 1965, Japanese studio Kadokawa Pictures started their own kaiju franchise to rival that of Toho's Godzilla series, in the form of Gamera.

Ray Harryhausen continued to work on a number of monster films such as The Valley of Gwangi (1969) while Toho continued production of Godzilla and other kaiju films like Mothra (1962).

In the 1970s, director John Guillermin remade King Kong in 1976. In 1975 Steven Spielberg directed Jaws, which while labelled as a “thriller”, features an oversized great white shark.

In the 1980s, many monster movies became more involved with comedy elements like Larry Cohen's Q – The Winged Serpent (1982) and Ron Underwood's Tremors (1989/90).

Monster movies re-emerged and to a wider audience during the late 1990s into the 2000s. An American remake of Godzilla was made in 1998, but the "Godzilla" featured in that film was considerably different than the Toho Godzilla (so much that it has been officially decreed by Toho an entirely separate monster) and the majority of Godzilla fans disliked the film. In 2002, a French monster film Brotherhood of the Wolf became the second-highest-grossing French-language film in the United States in the last two decades.[7] In 2004, Godzilla was temporarily retired following Godzilla: Final Wars. Director Peter Jackson, inspired by the original King Kong and Ray Harryhausen films,[3] remade King Kong in 2005, which was both a critical and commercial success. In 2006, a South Korean monster film, The Host, involved more political overtones than most of its genre.[8]

The recent 2008 monster movie, Cloverfield, while being much in the vein of traditional monster movies, focuses entirely on the perspective of the human cast and has been said to look at terrorism/9/11 metaphorically.[9]

[edit] Poster Gallery

Nosferatu (1922)

The Lost World (1925)

Frankenstein (1931)

Godzilla (1954)

Them! (1954)

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

Gamera (1965)

Jaws (1975)

King Kong (2005)

[edit] References

  1. ^ Stephen Jones (1995). The Illustrated Dinosaur Movie Guide (in English). Titan Books, 26. 
  2. ^ Stephen Jones (1995). The Illustrated Dinosaur Movie Guide (in English). Titan Books, 24-25. 
  3. ^ a b Ray Harryhausen: The Early Years Collection - Interview. Retrieved on 2008-02-09.
  4. ^ Stephen Jones (1995). The Illustrated Dinosaur Movie Guide (in English). Titan Books, 42. 
  5. ^ Robert Hood. A Potted History of Godzilla. Retrieved on 2008-02-09.
  6. ^ Gojira / Godzilla (1954) Synopsis. Retrieved on 2008-02-09.
  7. ^ "Little pictures have a big year", Los Angeles Times, 3 January 2003
  8. ^ Kevin O'Donovan (2007-10-07). The Host: Monster Movie with a Message at cinekklesia. Retrieved on 2008-02-09.
  9. ^ Chris Haire (2008-01-23). The 9/11 porn of Cloverfield. Charleston City Paper. Retrieved on 2008-05-11.

[edit] See Also

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