Month: May 2021

I’ve gone on many a tangent about sequels, both the good and the bad.  Some of the best sequels ever made include Empire Strikes Back, Aliens, Terminator 2, Evil Dead 2, and The Road Warrior.  These movies not only lived up to the standard that the original film set, but in some cases, surpassed them.  On the flip-side of the coin, we also have BAD sequels like Highlander II, Superman IV, Jaws: The Revenge, and The Predator.  These movies were legitimately terrible in so many different ways.  However, there’s one kind of sequel that I’ve never actually discussed:  The sequels that were never made…yet.  The reason I bring this up now, is because recently it was announced that Todd Phillips, the director of Joker, was reportedly to be in talks to co-write a follow-up film to Joker.  Considering that the original film literally made over a billion dollars at the box-office on a 65 million dollar budget, it makes business sense to do another.  From a narrative standpoint, where could you go with it, though?  That’s a subject for a different post.  Here, I’m going to focus on sequels that were announced or were in talks to be announced, but were never made.  For one reason or another, these movies were left on the wayside for different projects.  It happens more often you would think.  Someone has a great idea for a sequel, but it never gets the green-light because it might not make financial sense, or the fan backlash to said sequel could upend any future plans.  Now let’s get on to the movies sequels that haven’t been made…at least, not yet.

Gladiator 2

Ridley Scott’s Gladiator was released back in 2000 to wide-spread critical acclaim, winning 5 Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Actor.  This was the movie that really made people interested in historical epics again.  The story of a general who defied a corrupt emperor was one for the books.  Russell Crowe was outstanding and Ridley Scott’s direction was flawless.  Believe it or not, there were talks over the past 17 years about making a sequel to Gladiator.  One that included Russell Crowe reprising his role as Maximus Decimus Meridius.  Now, you might be asking yourself, “How would that happen?  The character died at the end of the movie, rejoining his family in Elysium.”  You would be correct.  From my understanding, the film would’ve taken place IN the afterlife with Maximums taking on the Roman gods, including Jupiter and Mars.  The idea was as ridiculous as it sounds.  It would’ve gone from an historical epic to full-fledged fantasy film.  It hasn’t happened, because how would you approach making a sequel that’s an entirely different genre?  I think cooler heads prevailed and shelved that idea permanently.  It would’ve been a very bad idea.

Likelihood of being made: A snowball’s chance in Hell.

Neill Blomkamp’s Alien Sequel

This one kind of hurts.  It was announced back in 2014 or somewhere around there that 20th Century Fox was going to bring on Neil Blomkamp to direct an Alien movie.  The movie that he had in mind would’ve been a direct sequel to James Cameron’s movie.  It would have focused on Ripley, Newt, Hicks, and possibly Bishop taking on the xenomorphs together as a kind of a family unit.  The idea was sound, and even Sigourney Weaver and Michael Biehn had expressed real interest in returning to these roles.  Unfortunately, Mr. Blomkamp didn’t have the kind of clout that Ridley Scott did, so Fox decided to go with Scott’s movies…and the results speak for themselves.  This was disappointing because I’m fan of Blomkamp’s work that included District 9, Elysium, and Chappie.  His idea to skip Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection was a really good idea.

Likelihood of being made: Dead in the water

Ridley Scott’s Alien Sequel

Following up on Neil Blomkamp’s failed attempt to get an Alien movie off the ground, Ridley Scott himself has been dealt a blow because of the poor performance of Alien Covenant, his follow-up to Prometheus.  In a bizarre sense of irony, Ridley Scott’s sequel performed so badly at the box-office that Fox ultimately shelved his planned sequel which would have focused more on the android David, played by Michael Fassbender.  I was not surprised because while Covenant wasn’t a terrible movie, it was beset by a bunch of really bad decision-making on the part of Ridley Scott.  The film was made as a kind of course correction to Prometheus, because people were bitching and moaning about the lack of xenomorphs in that movie.  I personally loved that movie, and Mr. Scott should’ve followed that threat to completion instead of caving to the fans.  When you try to please everybody, you end up pleasing NOBODY, and that’s exactly what happened here.  Even worse, is that Alien Covenant ended on a cliff-hanger.  Ridley Scott had been trying to get his second sequel off the ground, but those plans were shredded when Disney bought out Fox.

Likelihood of being made: Slim-to-none.

Indiana Jones 5

Of all the potential sequels that I’ve talked about on this list, Indiana Jones 5 stands the best chance of actually being made.  Making a fifth Indy film has been talked about since after the fourth film was released back in 2008.  But the problem was that roadblocks kept the project from moving forward.  Harrison Ford was always gung-ho about doing another film, since he’s had a blast playing the character in the past.  A number of problems had arisen for this film.  First of all, Mr. Ford’s age is an issue.  He’s coming close to hitting 80, so physically there could be issues with him doing his own stunts.  Most likely, he’s not going to, as much as he would like.  Two: The story needs to be good enough.  Again, with Harrison’s age, you need a story that needs to take that into consideration, for better or worse.  So, the character is going to need sidekicks and allies to do the heavy lifting.  Three: Steven Spielberg is no longer directing.  This was a result of Spielberg no longer having time to direct the project, which would make this the first Indiana Jones that he didn’t direct.  Thankfully, James Mangold has stepped up to the plate, and his filmography is impressive.  So, that’s actually no longer an issue.  Lastly, Indy 5 is going to be the last Indiana Jones film, so the final film really needs to be something special to send the character out on a high note.  They’ve got some actors cast in the film already like Mads Mikkelson, who is going to be the main villain, which is awesome.  It seems like they really want to get this one made before it’s too late.

Likelihood of being made: 50/50, but there’s more movement now than there was years ago.

Superman Lives

Now this is one of those movies that crashed and burned long before it got out of the hanger.  Tim Burton’s Superman Lives would have loosely adapted the Death of Superman storyline from the comics in which Superman was killed in the battle with Doomsday.  It would have also featured villains like Brainiac and Lex Luthor.  This was supposed to go into production in the 90s, but it was ultimately scrapped.  Nicolas Cage was tapped to play the Man of Steel, but again, the project was scrapped and he never got the chance.  I love Nicolas Cage as an actor, but he just doesn’t have the build for Superman.  I don’t think anybody on Earth does.  Tim Burton did a fantastic job with his Batman movies, but I don’t think he was really the right choice to be directing a Superman movie.  Superman Lives is one of those projects that just fell apart, and we wouldn’t see another Superman movie until Superman Returns in 2006.

Likelihood of being made: Buried in kryptonite.

Independence Day 3

It seemed like yesterday that the idea of a second Independence Day film was ridiculous.  The original film ended perfectly with the mothership being destroyed and the threat eliminated.  Well, 5 years ago, we got Independence Day Resurgence.  So, that was a thing.  It ended up being ridiculous with the exact same aliens attacking the exact same planet, knowing that we kicked their ass 20 years prior.  Had the movie been made and released back in 2006, I think it would’ve fared a lot better than it did in 2016.  It was ten years too late.  What made the original film so special, was not just its special effects, which were a combination of CGI, miniatures and practical effects.  They used every trick in the book to bring the original film to life.  The cast is also what made the original film awesome.  Will Smith, Bill Pullman, Jeff Goldblum, Randy Quaid, Judd Hirsch, and Vivica A. Fox made the film incredibly fun to watch.  Resurgence relied too much on CGI and they killed off Will Smith’s character between movies, which is one of the big reasons why the film bombed at the box office.  Killing your main attraction in between movies is box office suicide, and that’s exactly what happened.  Oh, and guess what?  The movie ends on a cliff-hanger?  Yeah, they beat the bad guys, but the film ends with the possibility of them taking the fight to aliens’ homeworld.  Did that happen?  Nope.  Independence Day Resurgence proves that just because you can make a sequel, doesn’t mean you should.  Even Roland Emmerich himself has come out against the movie.

Likelihood of being made: I have no idea.  Roland Emmerich has ideas, and Disney likes these big tent-pole movies. So…maybe?

There are a lot more potential sequels out there that haven’t been made.  Hollywood is all about show business, with the emphasis on business.  If a movie does extremely well at the box office, there could be a follow-up if the original film leaves it open for one.  Some movies like Gladiator really don’t.  Some do, but they still don’t get made.  These are just a small handful of sequels that didn’t get made for one reason or another.  Indiana Jones 5 is the only one out of this bunch that might actually see the light of day.  This is one of things that happens more often than you think it would.  Sometimes people are interested in a script, and it just doesn’t happen.  Film-making is a very risky business, so it’s a very fluid situation.  That’s just how it works.  I’m glad that Gladiator didn’t get a sequel, though.  That would not have ended well.

According to news outlet Deadline, Henry Cavill of The Witcher and Man of Steel fame is in talks to star in the reboot of the action/fantasy franchise Highlander.  The original film featured Christopher Lambert as Connor MacLeod, a 450 year old Immortal born in the Highlands of Scotland.  The film also featured the late Sean Connery as Ramirez, Connor’s friend and mentor, and Clancy Brown as the film’s main villain, the monstrous Kurgan.  These Immortals are compelled to battle each other until only one remains.  An Immortal can only die by decapitation.  The victor then takes the other’s power and knowledge by a process called the Quickening.  Connor is forced to fight for his survival against the Kurgan, because in the end, there can be only one.  The original Highlander was released back in 1986.  It flopped big time in the United States, because people were not really expecting fantasy sword-fighting in modern times.  It wasn’t something that people in the States caught into, at least not initially.  It did better overseas.  But it found its audience on home video, as a lot of cult classics do.  Highlander is one of the most unique and interesting fantasy films ever made.  The concept is awesome and the execution was a lot better than expected.  The cast was pitch-perfect, although Mr. Lambert’s Scottish accent was awful.  Clancy Brown stole the show as the Kurgan.  He was huge and intimidating.  He was one of the best villains ever written.  The music in the film was a combination of Michael Kamen’s powerful score and Queen’s rock music.  It was a perfect combination.

It was pretty much a “one and done” kind of movie.  I mean, “There can be only one” doesn’t leave a lot of room for interpretation.  At least, it shouldn’t.  However, we ended up with not just one or two sequels, but 4 live-action sequels, one animated movie, two live-action TV series with one being a spin-off, and one animated series.  Highlander’s popularity was there, but with the exception of Highlander: Endgame, the sequels sucked.  Highlander II was heavy-handed in its environmental message and made the Immortals aliens from the planet Zeist.  Highlander: The Final Dimension was pretty much a carbon copy of the original film with Mario Van Peebles ripping off the Kurgan.  Highlander: The Source was Adrian Paul’s first solo movie as Duncan MacLeod, and it went straight to the Sci-Fi Channel.  For good reason, it’s an awful movie.  Highlander: Endgame was more of a bridge between the movies and Adrian Paul’s TV show.  It actually worked, mostly.  But it still boggles the mind that somebody thought that making a sequel to a movie where the tagline was “There can be only one” was a good idea.  The TV series worked pretty well, and went for a strong six seasons.

After Highlander: The Source failed to reignite the franchise back in 2007, there had been talks about doing a reboot of the franchise.  Lots of names had been rumored to have been attached to the project including Tom Cruise of all people.  For the most part, however, things had been relatively silent on the reboot front, until it was announced back in 2016 that John Wick director Chad Stahelski was brought on board by Lionsgate Studios to helm the project.  Great, we have an awesome director who knows how to do action movies.  The real question was who was going to be the main star of the film.  Again, a lot of rumors and speculation had circulated over the last 6 years.  There was a lot of fan-casting, but now it seems we may have a legitimate candidate for Highlander: Henry Cavill.  Who is he going to play?  Is he going to be a MacLeod or an entirely original character?  We have no idea at this point, it’s too early.  Truth is, is that Henry might not actually take the role, but what if he does?  Henry Cavill is a fantastic actor.  Most people are going to recognize him as Geralt of Rivia from the Netflix show, The Witcher.  Rightfully so, as he was outstanding in that role.  He was a fan of The Witcher books and video games, so he put in the work to become the monster hunter.  While I don’t think the show was perfect, Cavill carried it all the way.  He can obviously handle the sword-fighting and action, as well as the comedic and dramatic chops.  Seeing him in a Highlander movie would make a great deal of sense.

So, if Henry Cavill gets on board with this movie, how are the film-makers going to approach it?  They could do another “one-and-done” movie and be done with it, but I get the feeling that Lionsgate is going to want to try and go for multiple movies.  From this point on, things are going to be MY opinion on what I think should happen.  If this project gets off the ground with Stahelski and Cavill on board and Lionsgate wanting more than one movie, they need to approach the new film in a way that’s similar to the TV series.  The franchise would need multiple villains to behead, building up to one final climactic battle against the most evil and powerful of Immortals.  Basically, the first movie would have Cavill’s character(if he’s the hero)take one of the henchmen or lesser villains.  The second film would up the ante with some Immortals breaking the rules of The Game and Cavill taking THEM down.  The last movie would have finally have Cavill and whoever the main villain is, being the last two Immortals battle across multiple continents and time itself.  It needs to be epic.  The one other thing that really made the original film stand out were the flashbacks to Connor’s previous life centuries earlier.  That needs to be kept in with the new film/s.  Again, this is speculation and what I want to see, but it’s not necessarily going to happen that way.  To be truthful, the earliest that we would see the first film would probably be mid-to-late 2023 or early 2024.  There’s a lot of stuff they need to work out to get this thing right.  The last thing we need is another Highlander: The Source.  So, those are my thoughts on a potential new Highlander film and a possible casting of Henry Cavill.  I’m curious about this to be honest, but it’s going to be a long road.

Released: August 1973

Director: Robert Clouse

Rated R

Run Time: 102 Minutes

Distributor: Warner Bros.

Genre: Action

Cast:
Bruce Lee: Lee
John Saxon: Roper
Jim Kelly: Williams
Ahna Capri: Tania
Kien Shih: Han
Bob Wall: Oharra
Bolo Yeung: Bolo(as Yang Sze)

When you think of iconic movies, what comes to mind?  Star Wars, Alien, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Lawrence of Arabia?  You wouldn’t be wrong on any of those.  Those are incredibly iconic films that have earned their place in film history.  Many of them have found their way into the Library of Congress.  That’s how important some of these films have become.  Sometimes, films can be iconic for specific reasons.  Darth Vader’s reveal at the end of Empire Strikes Back is one of the most iconic reveals in movie history.  It took the world by surprise.  In other genres you have The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, The Unforgiven, Indiana Jones, Rocky, and The Terminator, just to name a few.  In the martial arts genre, you have outstanding films like Police Story, Bloodsport, and Ip Man.  But none are as iconic as Enter The Dragon.  Released in 1973, Enter The Dragon is considered by many, myself included, to be one of the best martial arts movies ever made, and I’m reviewing that film today.

The story of Enter The Dragon is pretty simple, but it works.  A shaolin monk, Lee, is recruited by a government agency to infiltrate a martial arts tournament to investigate Han, a former shaolin monk who used his knowledge to further his criminal empire which includes drug and human trafficking.  As I said, it’s pretty simple.  At the time, people didn’t go to movies like Enter The Dragon for the story.  Over the next few decades, more martial arts movies have been doing better in terms of incorporating stronger story-telling into their movies.  That said, there is a charming simplicity to the plots in the old kung-fu movies.  It allows the film to move from one action set-piece to another.  Ultimately, the overall story in Dragon is simple, the stories for the individual characters are actually fairly interesting.  While Lee is convinced to go to the tournament, he visits his father who tells him the truth about his sister’s death at the hands of Han’s bodyguard, Oharra.  Williams is out for glory essentially while dealing with racism at home, and Roper is on the run from the mob.  Williams and Roper clearly have history as they served in Vietnam together and are close friends.  These three characters are at the fore-front of the film and they work pretty well together.

The acting in Enter The Dragon is pretty solid across the board.  Jim Kelly plays Williams and was one of the first black martial artists to have a starring role in a major movie.  His performance is electric.  He’s so much fun to watch, even when he’s fighting with some of those goofy sounds that he makes.  Some people may not realize this, but John Saxon, who would star in movies like Nightmare on Elm Street was a martial artist himself.  He held a black belt in karate, and you can definitely tell that he knew what he was doing in his fight scenes.  He was pretty convincing.  For fans of martial arts movies, you might recognize Bolo Yeung here.  He took the name of Bolo from the character he played in Enter The Dragon.  His real name is Yang Sze, but most people know him as Bolo Yeung.  He would go on to star in movies like Bloodsport and Double Impact playing villains, and he’s really good at it.  The real star of the show, however, is Bruce Lee.  After showing up in The Green Hornet as Kato, Bruce became a star almost overnight.  While his martial arts talents were what really put him over, he had an outstanding screen presence, and his speed was unrivaled.  His role as Lee in Enter The Dragon is perhaps his most iconic.  Unfortunately, Bruce would ended up passing away before the film was released, so he never got to see how audiences responded to his film.  Sadly, we would end up losing a large number of people involved with Enter The Dragon over the past few decades.  Jim Kelly passed away back in 2013, and John Saxon left us last year.  The actress that played Saxon’s love interest, Ahna Capri died in a car accident back in 2010.  The film’s director, Robert Clouse, passed away in 1997.  There are a handful of people from this film that are still with us including Bolo Yeung, Sammo Hung(he fights Bruce Lee at the beginning of the film), and Jackie Chan in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him cameo as a guard.  Enter The Dragon launched the careers of a lot of people, who would become famous in their own right.

For a movie that’s approaching 50 years old, the action here holds up incredibly well.  The fight sequences were staged by Bruce Lee himself and aided by Pat E. Johnson, who would become a pretty good choreographer in his own right.  Bruce Lee was incredibly fast.  He was so fast that he had to slow down his movements so that the cameras could capture them.  The opening fight in this movie between Bruce Lee and Sammo Hung is a hell of a way to start a movie.  It kind of sets the tone and style that you would see throughout the film.  While Bruce Lee had studied Wing Chun primarily, he studied other styles and incorporated them into his fighting style, and it really shows here.  My favorite fight scene happens to be between Bruce Lee and Bob Wall’s Oharra.  Even though Bruce slowed himself down so that the cameras could pick up his movements, the first moments of the fight are incredibly fast when he punches Oharra.  It’s an emotionally powerful fight, because Oharra was responsible for Lee’s sister’s death.  Watching Oharra get frustrated throughout the fight only to be beaten is incredibly satisfying.  The fight with the guards in the island’s interior leads up to one of the most iconic and replicated moments in martial arts movies: Bruce Lee using nun-chucks.  Each fight scene amps up in intensity and leads to one of the best on-screen brawls between the “students” and Bruce and John.  The cinematography during all of these fight scenes is phenomenal.  The fight sequences in Enter The Dragon would be the gold standard for on-screen fighting until Jackie Chan’s Police Story a decade later.

Enter The Dragon is one of the most influential martial arts movies of all time.  It’s considered by many to be the best movie of its kind.  Myself, I’ve seen this movie countless times since I was seven.  I’ve been a huge fan of Bruce Lee my entire life, and he inspired me to take up martial arts myself.  Obviously, he’s inspired thousands, if not millions of people world-wide.  In fact, Bruce Lee is the reason that kung fu showed up in the west.  He felt that Chinese kung fu should not be limited to China itself and that the rest of the world has the right to experience what makes Chinese culture so unique and interesting.  While fight choreography has improved greatly since Enter The Dragon, the film itself is still the gold standard by which most martial arts films are measured.  The movie has influenced everything from Bruce Lee knock-offs to video games and comic books.  There have even been movies made about Bruce’s life.  Although Dragon: A Bruce Lee Story isn’t the most accurate, it is the most watchable.  While some Wing-Chun masters don’t particularly care for Bruce Lee, mine didn’t, they can’t really deny that Bruce Lee was important in making kung fu popular.  Even to this day, Bruce is still influencing people around the world.  Very few people have accomplished as much as Bruce did in his short time on this planet.  His son, Brandon, would follow in his footsteps, in more ways than one, unfortunately.  Brandon passed away when he was 28.  Bruce’s daughter, Shannon is carrying on his legacy by keeping his stories and memories alive.

Enter The Dragon and Bruce Lee have left a lasting legacy that will continue long after I’m dust.  It’s not always about the film itself, it’s about what the film represents.  Enter The Dragon was the first co-production between Hollywood and a Hong Kong film studio, and because of that it reached a larger audience.  In the end, Enter The Dragon is a legitimate classic film in so many ways.  It’s inspired so many people around the world and has shaped an industry for the better.  I just double-checked and Enter The Dragon did find its way into the Library of Congress.  That means the film is going to be preserved for as long as the Library exists if all other copies vanish.  That’s a HUGE deal.  So…do I recommend Enter The Dragon?  Uh…hell, yeah, I do!  I grew up with this movie, as did a lot of people, and it’s one of the greatest movies of its kind.  In fact, this movie is a cinematic legend, and that’s where I’m going to putting it.

My Final Recommendation: Don’t think. FEEL.  I’m not going to give this film a score, because it doesn’t need one.  In my opinion, Enter The Dragon is above reproach.  It’s just awesome.

It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these, hasn’t it?  As someone who obviously loves movies as much as I do, there are certain kinds of movies that I have a preference for.  Whether the film is action, comedy, drama, or science fiction, there are certain kinds of movies that I’m inevitably drawn towards.  In particular, I’m a sucker for horror movies.  There’s just something about having the hairs on the back of your neck standing up when you’re witnessing something terrifying in a movie.  Sometimes, I’m drawn towards real-life horror with home-invasion films, or I go straight for the jugular with gory splatter-fests.  It depends on my mood.  There is a sub-genre of horror and science fiction movies that I adore almost above all others: The monster movie.  These movies generally involve inhuman creatures that prey upon hapless human beings.  That’s not always the case, but it generally follows that people are scared of things that they don’t understand.  So, for this list, I’ll be going over some of my favorite creature features/monster movies.  As a side-note, I’m going to try and avoid most humanoid monsters, so Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and those kinds of monsters won’t be on this list.  So, let’s rustle up some monsters for this list, shall we?

Tremors

Tremors is a child-hood favorite of mine.  Here’s a funny story for y’all:  When I was a kid, my dad took my brother and I to a friend of his and we saw a few clips of Tremors.  When we left my dad’s friends house, we high-tailed it to the car, thinking that the graboids were going to get us.  It wasn’t until later that dad showed us the full movie, and we were just having a blast.  When Tremors was first released, it bombed at the box-office, but because the VHS cassette market was taking off, the film got new life as one of the most rented movies ever.  It’s one of the funniest monster movies I’ve ever seen.  But a horror-comedy has to work as a horror movie as well, and Tremors does.  There is something unsettling about giant man-eating worms that pull you underground.  It was a clever idea to pull off some pretty goofy hijinks that included pole-vaulting.  The reason the movie works so well is because of it’s eclectic cast of characters that included Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Michael Gross, and Reba McIntire.  The characters are interesting and well-written, and the chemistry between them is off the charts.  Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward, in particular make for one of the best on-screen duos in movies.  Tremors is a genuine cult classic film.  It did so well on home video that it spawned not one, not two, but FIVE sequels, one prequel, and a one season show.  The sequels really aren’t that bad, either.  However, the original film is a real standout among genre fans.

Gojira(Godzilla)

When you think of Godzilla, your mind tends to drift towards the goofy Godzilla movies of the 60s and 70s, right?  Well, Godzilla actually made his first appearance in 1954’s Gojira(Godzilla), a movie about a giant monster that resulted from the use of nuclear power.  It makes perfect sense why and when this movie was made.  It hadn’t even been a decade since Nagasaki and Hiroshima were obliterated by two atomic bombs.  In a way, Gojira is a direct response to that.  It’s a warning about the use of nuclear power.  When you watch the movie, Godzilla isn’t really in the movie a whole lot, but his presence is felt throughout, so when he does show up, it’s brutal.  The tone of the film is also very serious, considering the subject matter.  While later films would take a more goofy approach the monster, the original film was a dead-serious affair.  People often complain about the 2014 film not having enough Godzilla in it, but they clearly haven’t seen this movie yet.  It’s a spectacular movie that does send chills down your spine at times.  Gojira is often credited as the grandfather of what is now known as the Kaiju monster movie genre.  It’s definitely a must-see for genre enthusiasts.

The Blob(1988)

There’s a reason I’m putting the remake of The Blob on this list as opposed to the original Steve McQueen film from 1958.  I’m not saying anything bad about the original film.  It’s a classic monster movie about an indestructible life-form that grows whenever it eats somebody.  In the original movie, a lot was left to the imagination in terms of the monster killing people.  It was all done off-screen.  They had to.  The idea of this shapeless thing absorbing people would’ve caused all sorts of problems across 1950s America.  Still, it was a thrilling little film with a catchy little song that allowed to be more family-friendly.  Well, in 1988, director Chuck Russell gave us a remake that leaves NOTHING to the imagination.  What was only implied in the original film is on full and gory display here.  While the original film featured a monster that looked like living Jell-O, the monster here is something more amorphous.  The new movie also makes it clear that the US government is responsible for creating this thing, instead of having it being an alien.  The practical and make-up effects of this new movie are still impressive.  I’ve always preferred practical effects in my horror movies, because it allows for a more visceral response.  In this remake, NOBODY is safe, not even kids.  The film is also smartly written.  It’s not only creepy and gooey, but it also has a dark and twisted sense of humor.  Have you ever been in a movie theater where a person behind you doesn’t shut up?  Well, this movie has a solution for that.  It pokes fun at certain movie-going conventions without coming across as satire.  It IS a horror movie after all, but it knows how to have some fun.  The Blob is one of the three big remakes of the 80s that’s actually really good, with the other two being John Carpenter’s The Thing and The Fly.

Deep Star Six

I know I brought this one up in a previous list about underwater creature features, but it’s definitely worth having on this list.  Deep Star Six is about a group of scientists at an underwater base that encounter a massive creature that takes them out one-by-one.  While the actual creature doesn’t show itself until about an hour into the movie, you know it’s creating all sorts of havoc.  The monster itself only directly kills two of them, the rest were a result of some pretty bad decision-making.  Still, the creature itself is pretty interesting to look at and it’s a full-scale puppet.  It’s massive.  That’s one of the reasons why this movie is one of my favorite movies of this sort.  It does understand that less-is-more, but it works.  The characters are also interesting and the acting is really solid.  If you love underwater creature features, this one is at the top of the list.

The Call of Cthulu

Say what you will about H.P. Lovecraft as a person, but his writing is incredibly unique.  It’s creepy and has otherworldly vibes.  One of his most famous short stories is The Call of Cthulu which involves a psychiatrist tracking down information about a mysterious cult that worships an ancient and malevolent deity.  It’s a good story, but Lovecraft’s stories have been notoriously difficult to adapt to the big-screen, because his writing is oddly specific and peculiar about these cosmic beings that threaten humanity.  This movie, The Call of Cthulu is perhaps the most faithful adaptation of an H.P Lovecraft story.  It’s a short movie, not even an hour long, but it does leave an impression.  It’s a very low-budget black-and-white silent movie made in the 21st century.  You don’t see movies like this anymore, yet it’s one of a hundred different reasons why it works so well.  The stop-motion animation is outstanding with some really unique visual styling.  It’s spooky, atmospheric and intense.  It manages to be more scary than most movies that have come out in the past 15 years.

Alien

I’d be remiss if I didn’t put this one on here.  What else can I say about Ridley Scott’s science fiction/horror masterpiece that hasn’t been said before?  Alien is one of the greatest science fiction movies of all time, and features a monster that is incredibly horrifying, not just in how it looks, but also in how it’s born.  The film is definitely more psychological and atmospheric than anything else, but the creature itself is one of the most iconic movie monsters in cinema history.  You can thank the late H.R. Giger for the monster’s design.  The film takes great care in not actually showing the monster until it needs to.  So, you’re left wondering where it is.  Is it around the corner?  The less-is-more approach is one of the reasons why this film is so successful.  It’s not about what you see that scares you.  It’s what you don’t see.

A Quiet Place

A Quiet Place is a movie that surprised the living hell out of me.  It’s a movie set in a world that’s been devastated by monsters that hunt by sound.  While Tremors was really the first movie to deal with monsters that hunt by sound, it was largely contained in a small setting.  The creatures in A Quiet Place move faster, live above ground and come out of nowhere at the drop of a pin.  As a result, the majority of the film’s dialogue is handled through sign language.  There are moments where people verbally speak, but those are handled in a very specific manner.  Throughout the film, we have no idea what happened or why these things showed up, but it’s apparently happened on a global scale.  The moment the movie starts, you are on eggshells.  It’s white-knuckle tension from beginning to end.  It’s one of the best movies of its kind.  A sequel is coming later this year, so I’m excited for it as it could provide some much-needed answers to certain questions.  John Krasinski was brilliant in his direction here.

The monster movie is one of the most cherished sub-genres among horror and science fiction fans, and it’s one of the oldest genres in cinema.  The idea of being hunted by a creature of unknown origin is pretty spooky if I do say so myself.  But there is something really spectacular about seeing a monster doing exactly that.  Monster movies are among my favorites and there are hundred upon hundreds of monster movies of varying types.  Some are going to be goofy, while others are deadly serious and gruesome.  It’s just a matter of what you’re in the mood for.  These aren’t all of my favorite monster movies, but they are ones that tend to stand out the most whenever I think about the genre.