Written as part of the weekly blogathon hosted by Wandering Through the Shelves, in which participants pick three films that fit the week's theme and share a bit about them. Join us! It's fun!
Halloween Month continues on Thursday Movie Picks, and this week, we're talking Creature Features. Now, for purposes of this assignment, said "creatures" may NOT include: werewolves, vampires, zombies, or aliens. So, in other words, no extraterrestrial or supernatural creepy-crawlies. OK. Let's see if we can do this....
Them! (Gordon Douglas, 1954) Probably my favorite classic '50s creature feature, Them! is the one with the giant ants. During the height of the fears of nuclear fallout following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, many B-movies exploited the mood, crossing people's ordinary everyday fears with the timely fears of science. I think Them! pulls it off the best, especially since the giant ants don't look too fake. I mean, don't get me wrong, they don't look REAL, but they don't look as far away from it as you might expect. It's just a corny, cheesy, campy, good time all around!
Creature From the Black Lagoon (Jack Arnold, 1954) A fossil has been discovered in the Amazon - a possible link between man and fish. When a team goes to find the rest of the creature's skeleton, they discover that one of the creature's descendants is still alive and well - and it's coming for them! This definitely isn't the best of the classic Universal Monster Movies, but it's still fun in its way - that way that old pictures had of going "over the top" in exactly the right ways to be fun. It's a movie meant to be enjoyed with the lights off, sitting next to your date, with a big bucket of popcorn between the two of you, as you both laugh, jump, and gasp at the exact same moments.
Gremlins (Joe Dante, 1984) Aw, look at that sweet little furball! Cute isn't he? He'd make a great pet, wouldn't he? There's just one slight problem.... if you get him wet, he'll multiply, and if you feed him or his offspring after midnight... well... let's just say all hell could break loose. Gremlins is hilarious fun, sending up American consumerism, dependence on technology, and old-school creature features (like my two other picks this week), and countless other things with gleeful abandon. Slightly scary and plenty funny, this is a near-perfect horror comedy, and one of my all-time favorite Christmas movies.
Them!! Great pick! The seriously made parable that actually has some value when watched today that hasn't devolved into a cheesy trainwreck. It helps that Kris Kringle himself is the lead, and Edmund Gwenn makes everything better. LOVE the little girl who starts screaming THEM! THEM!
Creature from the Black Lagoon is that cheesy fun that so many of the 50's sci-fi have become but it has a huge fan base. I recently read Julie Adams' autobiography and she speaks about how with the decades and decades of work she's done this is the picture she's most remembered for, along with being Eve Simpson on Murder, She Wrote. She's okay with that though since she had so much fun making it.
I like but don't love Gremlins. It has a terrific comic edge to it that keeps it from becoming too intense in its latter half and that corresponding underlying darkness that keeps it from being to silly.
I can’t even pretend that these are decent movies but the theme doesn’t really lend itself to top flight fare. Because of that I decided to go all out and scrap the bottom of the barrel.
Tentacles (1977)-Balderdash about a killer octopus terrorizing a resort town, and not just in the sea but on land!!! Three Oscar winners, Henry Fonda, John Huston & Shelley Winters, and several other respected performers collect a paycheck.
Empire of the Ants (1977)-Shady real estate agent Joan Collins and a bunch of potential suckers for her latest scheme land on an island in the Florida Everglades that thanks to toxic waste has been overtaken by giant mutant killer ants!! Crunch and munch.
Night of the Lepus (1972)-Bizarre cheapie about a genetic experiment gone wrong. Killer rabbits terrorize the countryside!! Hilarity ensues. Poor Janet Leigh from Psycho to this in only a dozen years!
Bonus-Killer Bees (1974)-Young man (Edward Albert) brings his fiancée (Kate Jackson) home to his family’s vineyard to meet the matriarch of his clan Madame Maria von Bohlen (Gloria Swanson), who has a strange bond with the bee colony that is the backbone of the family business. Worth catching for the cast alone. This is somewhat out of the perimeter since it was a TV Movie of the Week but it’s surely the best movie on the list!
lol LOVE Edmund Gwenn. Them!, amazingly, isn't nearly as cheesy as most of the other creature features from the '50s (Creature From the Black Lagoon being a prime example), but it has just enough cheese to still be enjoyable.
Is Tentacles even on the "so bad it's good" scale? Because it sounds kind of amazing. Empire of the Ants sounds like a down-market 70s version of Them. The only killer rabbit I care about is the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Tentacles is just bbbbbbaaaaaaadddddddddd with no redeeming features. The ONLY reason I watched it was because Shelley Winters is one of the actresses on my list whose entire filmographies I trying to see. So along with undiscovered gems like Larceny, Take One False Step and Frenchie (a real treat with a whippet thin Shelley as a flashy showgirl in the old West whose companion is an equally dolled up Elsa Lanchester!) I have to wade through garbage like Poor Pretty Eddie, Purple People Eater and this swill.
That's a perfect categorization of Empire of the Ants! Joan manages to remain glamorous for longer than you would think possible being pursued by mutant ants.
Night of Lepus is SUCH a cheapie, the rabbits never look like anything else but bunnies next to miniatures chewing on carrots.
We match with Them! I love that movie and there are so many great movies from that decade. I love the Creature from the Black Lagoon but when I watched the trailer and the announcer was saying he's strong etc... I was expecting him to say it is Patrick Duffy as the man from Atlantis! :) inhave not seen Gremlins and never really felt like seeing that movie. Maybe one day
Yeah, I was kinda forced to watch Gremlins when I was a teenager. It just wasn't something that interested me. But I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
Sadly, I've only seen Gremlins. That is a great one, though. Ever since I first saw it way back in '84, I will often say, in my Gizmo voice of course, "Bright light," whenever I walk into a too well lit room. I so desperately need to see the other two.
I love Gremlins, it's one of my yearly Christmas movies. I haven't seen the other two, but I've always wanted to sit down and watch Them.
ReplyDeleteThem! Is lots of fun. Not as fun as Gremlins, mind you, but still fun.
DeleteThem!! Great pick! The seriously made parable that actually has some value when watched today that hasn't devolved into a cheesy trainwreck. It helps that Kris Kringle himself is the lead, and Edmund Gwenn makes everything better. LOVE the little girl who starts screaming THEM! THEM!
ReplyDeleteCreature from the Black Lagoon is that cheesy fun that so many of the 50's sci-fi have become but it has a huge fan base. I recently read Julie Adams' autobiography and she speaks about how with the decades and decades of work she's done this is the picture she's most remembered for, along with being Eve Simpson on Murder, She Wrote. She's okay with that though since she had so much fun making it.
I like but don't love Gremlins. It has a terrific comic edge to it that keeps it from becoming too intense in its latter half and that corresponding underlying darkness that keeps it from being to silly.
I can’t even pretend that these are decent movies but the theme doesn’t really lend itself to top flight fare. Because of that I decided to go all out and scrap the bottom of the barrel.
Tentacles (1977)-Balderdash about a killer octopus terrorizing a resort town, and not just in the sea but on land!!! Three Oscar winners, Henry Fonda, John Huston & Shelley Winters, and several other respected performers collect a paycheck.
Empire of the Ants (1977)-Shady real estate agent Joan Collins and a bunch of potential suckers for her latest scheme land on an island in the Florida Everglades that thanks to toxic waste has been overtaken by giant mutant killer ants!! Crunch and munch.
Night of the Lepus (1972)-Bizarre cheapie about a genetic experiment gone wrong. Killer rabbits terrorize the countryside!! Hilarity ensues. Poor Janet Leigh from Psycho to this in only a dozen years!
Bonus-Killer Bees (1974)-Young man (Edward Albert) brings his fiancée (Kate Jackson) home to his family’s vineyard to meet the matriarch of his clan Madame Maria von Bohlen (Gloria Swanson), who has a strange bond with the bee colony that is the backbone of the family business. Worth catching for the cast alone. This is somewhat out of the perimeter since it was a TV Movie of the Week but it’s surely the best movie on the list!
lol LOVE Edmund Gwenn. Them!, amazingly, isn't nearly as cheesy as most of the other creature features from the '50s (Creature From the Black Lagoon being a prime example), but it has just enough cheese to still be enjoyable.
DeleteIs Tentacles even on the "so bad it's good" scale? Because it sounds kind of amazing. Empire of the Ants sounds like a down-market 70s version of Them. The only killer rabbit I care about is the one in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.
Tentacles is just bbbbbbaaaaaaadddddddddd with no redeeming features. The ONLY reason I watched it was because Shelley Winters is one of the actresses on my list whose entire filmographies I trying to see. So along with undiscovered gems like Larceny, Take One False Step and Frenchie (a real treat with a whippet thin Shelley as a flashy showgirl in the old West whose companion is an equally dolled up Elsa Lanchester!) I have to wade through garbage like Poor Pretty Eddie, Purple People Eater and this swill.
DeleteThat's a perfect categorization of Empire of the Ants! Joan manages to remain glamorous for longer than you would think possible being pursued by mutant ants.
Night of Lepus is SUCH a cheapie, the rabbits never look like anything else but bunnies next to miniatures chewing on carrots.
We match with Them! I love that movie and there are so many great movies from that decade. I love the Creature from the Black Lagoon but when I watched the trailer and the announcer was saying he's strong etc... I was expecting him to say it is Patrick Duffy as the man from Atlantis! :) inhave not seen Gremlins and never really felt like seeing that movie. Maybe one day
ReplyDeleteYeah, I was kinda forced to watch Gremlins when I was a teenager. It just wasn't something that interested me. But I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it.
DeleteHaven't seen any of these, but Them! and Creature From the Black Lagoon sound great, and I'm planning to see Gremlins around Christmas time.
ReplyDeleteGremlins is a great Christmas watch. Them! and Creature From the Black Lagoon are both fun in different ways.
DeleteSadly, I've only seen Gremlins. That is a great one, though. Ever since I first saw it way back in '84, I will often say, in my Gizmo voice of course, "Bright light," whenever I walk into a too well lit room. I so desperately need to see the other two.
ReplyDeleteDell, I am shocked, SHOCKED!, that you haven't seen Them! and Creature From the Black Lagoon. See them ASAP!
DeleteGremlins is the only one I've seen, not that I remember much. The Furby toys remind me of Gizmo (I think that's the name of the furry one right?)
ReplyDelete