Alien isn’t just a monster movie. In many ways it is the definitive interstellar creature feature that spawned dozens of half-baked imitations (including some that had the Alien moniker) Thirty-four years after its release, the movie remains one of the best monster — and science fiction — movies ever made.
Pacific Rim is a movie that delivered exactly what it promised: giant robots fighting giant monsters on the eve of the apocalypse. It’s not great drama, it’s not mind-bending storytelling, it is giant robots fighting giant monsters, with enough story to keep the whole thing moving forward. The depth in the movie comes from Guillermo … Read more
Every year for 20 years I asked for Electronic Battleship for my birthday. I never got it, and instead made due with the standard, analog iteration that didn’t have cool sound effects. Flash foward: I’m 41, and I still don’t have Electronic Battleship, but I did get to watch the cinematic disaster movie based on … Read more
Back when the Blackrazor Guild still played D&D, we had a list of standard battle tactics. They were things like “spring the ambush then fight your way out”, “lightning bolt in a short corridor”, “fireball at your feet” and the classic “stake out a cow to lure the monster into the open”. Lake Placid is … Read more
In 1998 director Roland Emmerich released a remake of Godzilla starring Matthew Broderick and featured a monster heavily inspired by the designer Patrick Tatopoulos’ pet iguana attacking New York City. It failed on multiple fronts, starting with uninspiring Godzilla design, continuing with the half-assed Siskel and Ebert knockoffs as government antagonists, and ending with a … Read more
Deep Rising is one of my favorite monster movies, and there’s one reason why: it’s the perfect RPG adventure. We’ve got our hardcore mercenaries hired to hit a cruise ship, a ragtag team of freelancers in over their heads, and a tentacled deep-sea horror that intends to devour them all. Far better than the twin … Read more
Predator starts off as a standard 1980s-style military adventure film, not unlikeSchwarzenegger’s own Commando. It’s got the bad-ass elite soliders (led by Arnold’s own Dutch), a bombastic soundtrack, and a pitched firefight with guerillas. But in between the bouts of testosterone, there’s tension. Our troops realize something isn’t quite right — but is it in … Read more
Some days, all you want is a good ol’fashioned monster movie, one in which the critters are from outer space, the townspeople are unsuspecting, and the slime flows like an insidious, revolting river. Slither provides all this and more, combining the B movie horrors of the 1980s with a sense of humor seldom found in … Read more
Jaws is the definitive monster movie of the modern era. While there were all manner of science fiction creature features before it, Jaws did what films about vampires, werewolves and other supernatural spawn couldn’t: it made millions afraid of the water. It was the first modern blockbuster, and established a pattern for releasing summer movies … Read more
Check the batteries in your motion trackers, refuel your flamethrowers, lock and load your shotgun, and make sure you’ve everything you need to make a few dozen pipe bombs. Monster Week is here. The week-long celebration of speculative fiction’s monster movies is running July 25-31 at Nuketown. It focuses on “creature features”, movies like Aliens, … Read more