![]() ![]() The resulting film would prove to be a huge success, grossing an astronomically large sum at the box office, and with critics praising the film's unique, intelligent approach to the monster film. Released just a decade after the end of World War II, the film was purposefully designed to symbolize the post-nuclear anxiety many Japanese citizens shared following the nuclear destruction of Hiroshima and Nagaski. Unlike the other generic monster films of the 1950s', Godzilla was written to explore a specific issue plaguing Japan's citizens at the time: namely, fear of nuclear weapons and fallout, as personified by Godzilla. What their investigation turns up is far worse than anything they could have imagined, uncovering a massive, dinosaur-like atomic monster that threatens to destroy all of Japan. The first modern kaiju movie (not counting 1933's King Kong), 1954's Godzilla follows a group of Japanese researchers investigating a mysterious, large creature that has attacked several ships and coastal villages. However, when talking about creature features, it's absolutely necessary to mention the monster that started it all: Gojira himself. Realistically, kaiju movies should have a list of their own, given how large a place (poor attempt at a pun there) they inhabit within the creature feature subgenre. If that doesn’t make you want to watch this iconic Carpenter film, we don't know what will. ![]() Plus, it's got one of the best endings to any horror movie, and also has Kurt Russell wearing a sombrero. ![]() The frozen tundra setting and the necessity of staying inside brings a wonderful claustrophobic thriller aspect to the film, with the film's script, direction, the amazing soundtrack by the legendary Ennio Morricone, and the performances of the cast involved all making this an unforgettably well-done horror movie. Mixing horror, sci-fi, and a murder mystery, The Thing is a pretty much flawless remake, and one of the most universally popular cult films of all time. In his remake, Carpenter's alien is able to assimilate anything it touches, and is subsequently able to take its physical form as well. Undoubtedly, Rampage is a big ball of Hollywood cheese that's not to be taken too seriously, but it's also undoubtedly a whole lot of fun that works extremely well as a bright 'n' breezy popcorn flick.When talking about monster movies, it's impossible not to think of the quintessential creature feature of them all: the 1982 remake of The Thing From Another World, John Carpenter's The Thing.Īn incredibly loose remake of the Howard Hawks original, The Thing takes the central premise of the story–an isolated team of scientists working at an Antarctica (the North Pole in the first movie) research station encounter a hostile alien creature–but adds in elements of mystery and body horror that sets Carpenter's version distinctly apart from the original. ![]() And not just innocent casualties do we see in Rampage, but we eventually get to see these creatures squaring off against each other as the film rolls towards a close. Rampage is a film full of elaborate set pieces that often have their tongue firmly within their cheek, but it's always good to see giant beasties running amok amidst a trail of death and destruction. Instead, they're victims of a more corrupt, maniacal power - that power being humans who are looking to modify creatures and then weaponize them. Of course, all three building-decimating, human-devouring monsters here aren't truly to blame for the chaos and carnage that they've caused. Grandeur and spectacle rule the day here, with megastar Johnson often even playing second fiddle to the trio of genetically-altered and mutated animals. Turning everything up to 11, this 2018 Dwayne Johnson vehicle took the bones of 1986's Rampage video game and gave it a lavish, beefed-up, action-driven, big-budget Hollywood makeover. ![]()
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