Reader's Rites: Size Does Matter

A nice article, although my one note of real criticism was also mentioned by Dan's endnote: your one-line throwaway of ALLIGATOR.

You see, ALLIGATOR, while often noted as a cheap JAWS-esque knockoff, is in fact a great tribute to monster movies as a whole, with a healthy dose of black humour and social commentary thrown in for good reason. It's no concidence it was written by John Sayles, who did similarly excellent work in PIRANHA, and who I pray to god is still writing JURASSIC PARK IV. Robert Forster does great as a parody of the stalwart burned out cop with a seedy past, and everything from Henry Silva as a camp monster hunter to the monster's attack on a wedding reception being used as a metaphor for the class structure and the behaviour of multinationals (especially pharmaceutical companies) as a whole makes for classic viewing. Then again, I've spent half of my life trying to make this case to people, but I think it deserves a lot more respect than it usually gets.

I also think it could have done with a mention of Nu Image, who have almost single-handedly kept the genre alive in the past decade, with usually badly made but still thoroughly entertaining films like the SHARK ATTACK series, which are the 90s equivalent of the 50s atomic-age monster flicks, especially SPIDERS, which in my opinion is better than EIGHT LEGGED FREAKS. Especially since it doesn't have such a silly anti-smoking campaign running throughout it.

A neat and affectionate look back, Scott. Just a really great check list of favourites and a few I've missed. Perhaps the best thing about Jackon's foray into the genre is that (along with the original Kong and the followups ot in December) we'll maybe get a host of these bad boys on disc in (no doubt varying) quality editions. A Them! disc with some features couldn't be all that hard to come by, surely ?

Also: where was TREMORS?

Tremors is more monster and less giant animal, I think.
But I fret over the conspicuous absence of the 90's DTV classic Ticks!

True, I guess it's somewhat prehistoric in its nature, but the spirit of the film is a throwback to old-school monster movies and JAWS, which itself is included.

Outstanding stuff!

'Food of the Gods' never gets enough love, IMO.

Also: just going back over it, TARANTULA had nothing to do with radiation. The cause of it was a food nutrient scientists were working on that would make animals and vegetables bigger to give more food supply, which was then fed to the tarantula (although, if you're trying to feed the world, giving a growth serum to an already decently-sized arachnid probably isn't the best thing to do), coming from a Science Fiction Theatre story called "No Food For Thought."

And everybody gets a leg!

The existing WB disc has a smattering of bonus stuff, including outtakes.

With Carlton from the Fresh Prince as a bad-ass gangsta! "They call me Panic - because I don't!"

Superb.

I thought the editor of the Corner wasn't allowed to post in the forums ?

It was a good article, but it seemed like you were covering too many bases with it. Maybe a multi-part series would have served the subject better, each decade getting it's own article.

No The Valley of Gwangi? One of my favs.

I just spit up my coffee...

Valley of Gwangi has some great work by Harryhausen, but all the non-dinosaur stuff is pure horse tits.

The Harryhausen stuff is usually the best thing about some of the films he's done.

what no love for the Harriest of Hamlins, Electric?

Clash of the Titans is the exception.