GIANT MONSTERS OF 1955: TARANTULA, IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA, & KING DINOSAUR!!

TARANTULA (1955) d. Jack Arnold (USA)
IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA (1955) d. Robert Gordon (USA)
KING DINOSAUR (1955) d. Bert I. Gordon (USA)

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Tonight, we step back seventy years to 1955—the cusp of the golden age for giant monster cinema, as atomic anxiety crept from the headlines onto the silver screen, mutating into monstrous metaphors that stomped, crawled, and slithered into our collective imagination. We’ll look at three emblematic 1955 films - Tarantula, It Came from Beneath the Sea, and King Dinosaur - and explore how their monsters weren’t just fanciful products of science fiction, but also reflections of Cold War fears, rapid technological advancement, and the uneasy relationship between scientific progress and military might.

ONE MILLION YEARS B.C. (1966) Blu-ray Review

One Million Years B.C. (1966) d. Don Chaffey (UK) (100 min)

“This is a story of long, long ago, when the world was just beginning. A young world, a world early in the morning of time. A hard, unfriendly world. Creatures who sit and wait. Creatures who must kill to live. And Man, superior to the creatures only in his cunning. There are not many men yet. Just a few tribes scattered across the wilderness. Never venturing far, unaware that other tribes exist even. Too busy with their own lives to be curious. Too frightened of the unknown to wander. Their laws are simple: the strong take everything. This is Akhoba, leader of the Rock Tribe... And these are his sons, Sakana and Tumak. There is no love loss between them. And that is our story.”

Fool's Views (6/1 – 6/30)

Hola, mis amigos!

Well, birthday month came and went, and I found myself spending even less time in front of the tube (or the computer) than before, resulting in one of the lowest June totals I’ve logged in years: A mere dozen flickers, only a handful of which could really be counted as horror. (A week into July, I think I’ve already hit that number, so fear not, true believers.) Additionally, the films themselves were a decidedly mixed lot, with no real breakout first-time Views in the mix. Still, you take the good, you take the bad, you take the so-bad-it’s-good, and there you have the Facts of Life.

As always, feel free to leave your two cents worth – we’ll make sure you get some change back.

Enjoy!

BURKE & HARE (2010) movie review

Burke & Hare (2010) d. Landis, John (UK)

“This is a true story. Except for the parts that are not.” Engaging horror/comedy about the infamous pair of 19th century Edinburgh confidence men who resort to grave robbing (and eventually bumbling murder), embodied by the superb comic team of Simon Pegg and Andy Serkis. Tom Wilkinson stars as eminent surgeon Robert Knox, complicit in the duo’s crimes in the interest of furthering science. Pegg’s Spaced co-star Jessica (formerly Stevenson) Hynes is terrific as Serkis’ conniving bawdy bride while Isla Fisher’s fetching barmaid turns on the sexy-cute in the hopes of finding a financier for her theatrical aspirations.