Alien (1979)
When you come from a crappy region like mine you tend to hold onto the merest sources of civic pride with a pronounced vigour and trumpet them for the world to hear. With such thoughts in mind it is my honour to announce that Ridley Scott was not only educated here but also drew inspiration for the stunning opening in ‘Blade Runner’ from the surrounding industries. Not much you might retort if you managed to get through an entire sitting of ‘G.I. Jane’, but you’d have to concede that for the awe-inspiring Alien we should at least have named a library after him or something similar. Read more
Body Snatchers (1993)
Jack Finney’s The Body Snatchers has proved a remarkably robust novel. Each generation of film-makers seems to see its own concerns reflected in Finney’s tale of alien takeover; the 1956 film was basically all about the cold war, the 1978 adaptation poked fun at narcissism and pseudo-spirituality, and this 1993 version is… a teen movie. It doesn’t sound massively promising on paper, but in fact director Abel Ferrara (best known for the notorious Driller Killer slasher flick) uses the original plot to take a subtle and sober look at the crushing loneliness and isolation of adolescence. Gabrielle Anwar gives a nicely understated performance as Marty Malone, a teenage girl who reluctantly spends her life on the road with her father, who inspects military bases for their chemical safety, her step-mother and her younger step-brother. She already feels frozen out of her dad’s new family, but when one airbase become infected by alien pods which turn humans into emotionless ‘pod people’, she quickly realises that she has very few people she can turn to… Read more
Cloverfield (2008)
The theme of the ‘common man’ is a recurrent one in poetry, the idea being that an untrained mind (as opposed to, oh, the massive genius of the poet let’s say) has a purer, more honest, richer and therefore more interesting experience than a mind bogged down by intellectual matters. Unhappily, that patronising assertion is alive and well in the entertainment industry, as manifested in the current obsession with “user generated content”. Read more
Contamination (1980)
Considering how closely intertwined science fiction and horror are, it’s surprising how few films successfully keep one foot in each genre. Most people would agree that Ridley Scott got the hybrid formula down to a tee with Alien; at the very least, director Luigi Cozzi thought so, which goes some way towards explaining why Contamination turned out the way it did. Read more
Godzilla (aka Gojira) (1954)
It’s a testament to how much of a bad rap the film Godzilla has received over the years that any discussion of the movie always has to start with a clarification of which film you’re talking about. No, it’s not the 1998 abomination with Matthew Broderick; no, it’s not the re-edit with Raymond Burr and a bunch of dubbed Japanese actors; and it’s not even any of the sequels you maybe dimly remember being showed on TV during the holidays. It’s the very first Godzilla film, made in 1954, released in Japan under the title of Gojira, and it’s a masterpiece. Read more
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
When I was thinking of how good Alien was my mind turned to a film which might be placed somewhat closer towards the other end of the science-fiction/horror quality spectrum. With its premise readily apparent from the title I have to confess that I do hold Killer Klowns in something approaching genuine affection. It’s probably because it’s one of the first films I can remember watching as a child (I had very negligent parents) but with a few years growth under my belt I can still identify one or two redeeming features for any Black Lagoon readers who might happen across a copy to look out for. Read more
The Crazies (1973)
It isn’t that surprising to watch a George Romero movie and see someone being brutally murdered. Nor is it that novel to see how he delights in charting the downfall of mankind, usually as a result of our own folly. What marks him out as a great filmmaker is his ability to weave his pretty linear story into a complex narrative on the tragic weakness of humanity, namely our unfathomable combination of dauntless courage and distasteful arrogance. The Dead series is steeped in this notion, with Romero executing a beautiful full-circle from Night to Land in showing audiences how, when the going gets tough we generally go to pieces.
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