Island Claws

Title: Island Claws

Director: Hernan Cardenas

Released: 1980

Starring: Robert Lansing, Steve Hanks, Nita Talbot, Jo McDonnell, Martina Deignan, Barry Nelson, Tony Rigo, Raymond Forchion, Dick Callinan, Dolores Sandoz, Frank Schuller, Mal Jones

Plot: When a leak at a Florida power plant dumps several thousand tons of toxic waste into the ocean it causes the local crab population to suddenly start growing to monsterious size and start moving in on the local population of a nearby fishing village.

Review: The sole film from director Hernan Cardenas while also written by Ricou Browning and Jack Cowden who also created “Flipper” making their move into writing a movie about killer giant crabs a perfectly logical one. This late entry in the animals run amok genre doesn’t exactly bring anything new to the genre outside of the fact that its about giant crabs which compared to the numerous shark movies out there is certainly one of the lesser seen creatures of terror. I mean even ants to my knowledge have clocked up more movies than our crustacean pals have but stumbling across this on Amazon Prime who recently have become almost shameless with the kind of movies they choose to stock their on demand library with I thought it was an interesting enough concept to check it out.

Opening to a research lab were they are conducting experiments in increasing the size of crabs using warm water and growth hormones as a warm to help increase the world’s food supplies, especially when they discover that the local crab population near the power plant have been growing bigger which of course is nothing to do with the fact that a few tons of toxic waste have been dumped in their part of the ocean which anyone up to speed on their movie logic will know already that movie radiation equals giant monsters compared to real life were it sadly this is never the case. It’s here though that we are introduced to journalist Jan (McDonnell) who is writing a story on the lab only to soon also get involved with scientist Pete (Hanks).

Elsewhere bar owner Moody attempts to keep the small town together by acting as their unofficial head as he keeps the peace amongst the locals usually by keeping them boozed up in his bar while he also acts as Pete’s adopted father after his parents were killed in a drink driving accident caused by Jan’s father who also runs the power station responsible for all the giant crabs. There is a small part which hints at bad blood between the two fathers but is as dropped as quickly as its introduced like so many of the sub-plots in the film which includes a group of Haitian refugees who wash up on the outskirts of town and hide out in the mangroves and whose sole reason for their inclusion seems to be so that Cardenas could work in an angry mob who thanks to some old school racist tendency believe that the Hiatians are to blame for all the strange happenings in town which they equate to voodoo reminding us once more that there are few things as dangerous as a group of drunks with an idea.

The crab attack are sadly pretty sparse here and for the most part involve actors working with a swarm of real crabs which are actually used pretty effectivly especially during one of the scenes highlights when they swarm the school bus which one of the locals Amos lives in with his attempts to battle the invading crabs showing us that the banjo is as little use as a weapon as it is an actual instrument.

The climax of the film though see’s the towns folk battling an 8 foot crab which somehow has managed to remain hidden until it suddenly destroys Moody’s house. Created by Glen Robinson who’d previously worked on effects for “King Kong” (1976) and “Flash Gordon which far exceeds the expectations of the films low budget especially when he built a complete crab and not just the front portion which you’d expect. While still an impressive looking design it sadly lacks any real movement meaning the actors are forced to run around a lot shooting at it with shotguns and generally trying to sell it as being more of a threat than it really is and perhaps Cardenas might have been better just sticking with his initial crab swarm.

The downside to the film other than the occasionally plodding plot threads certainly comes from the lack of lighting during the night sequences which really make it hard to see what exactly is supposed to be happening half the time, which one of the attack scenes is for the most part impossible to make out meaning that it lost much of its effect.

On the whole its not a bad film just not the sort of film that your likely to watch more than once and even then its throwaway entertainment at best especially if your a fan of the genre.

Razorback

Title:  Razorback

Director: Russell Mulcahy
Released: 1984
Starring: Gregory Harrison, Arkie Whiteley, Bill Kerr, Chris Haywood, David Argue, Judy Morris, John Howard, John Ewart, Don Smith, Mervyn Drake

Plot: Two years after his grandson was killed by a massive razorback boar Jake (Kerr) has dedicated his life to hunting the creature in the Australian outback and soon finds himself teaming up with Carl (Harrison) the husband of a wildlife reporter also killed by the same boar.

Review: A film which has certainly been on my radar for some time but for one reason of another its taken me until now to actually watch it. This of course is quite surprising seeing how it’s a movie about a giant killer pig, which of all the eco-horrors is probably one of the rarer creatures of terror with only the much overlooked “Pig Hunt” coming to mind when I tried to think of another of these movies.

Opening to a pretty haunting attack on Jake’s home in which the razorback essentially charges through his house and dragging away his grandson, the film then proceeds to skip forward two years after he is wrong accused of murdering the child and acquitted due to lack of evidence the years which have passed having left him a bitter shell of his former self as like Quint in “Jaws” he seemingly lives only for revenge, while happy to contend himself in the meantime hunting the smaller boar in the area as he snarls to Beth

“There’s something about blasting the shit out of a razorback that brightens up my whole day.”

I love the fact here that Beth is setup like she will be the female lead of the film only to soon find herself turned into Razorback chow, following a failed rape attempt by local brothers and general thugs Benny (Haywood) and Dicko (Argue) who don’t take to kindly to her filming their illegal pet food operation.  Her death of course soon leading to her husband Carl turning up in town to look for her as the film plays things surprisingly like some kind of mystery thriller which would have been great had we not seen her clearly being attacked by the giant razorback.

Surprisingly though this is far from your traditional eco-horror seeing how the titular Razorback is for the most part very much a background character who appears infrequently to stir things up when the film starts to slow down.  Still despite hardly appearing in the film the fully animatronic model which cost $250,000 is still impressive to look at, especially when it comes to the snarling face unlike when its required to move anywhere where it looks like the model is being pushed around on castors than being given any kind of realistic movement.

Instead of the expected rampaging Razorback we instead spend way too much time following what almost feels like the plot for a revenge movie, especially with such a focus on Benny and Dicko trying to cover for their part in Beth’s death with Carl in the final quarter dedicating all his focus to hunting down the two brothers, before finally having a slaughterhouse showdown with the Razorback who essentially just shows up rather than because of any attempt to attract the creature. It almost feels like director Russell Mulcahy set out with the intention of making something intentionally different than your run of the mill eco-horror, more so when he brings such interesting imagery to what is a very straightforward story aswell as focusing more his human cast than his monster pig.

Equally disappointing are the few attacks we get with Beth’s death being as graphic (while strangely akward) as things get as this remains a surprisingly dry film in terms of gore.  The film still however manages to produce several surprisingly tense moments such as Carl spending the night in the outback being chased and tormented by the Razorback which while being intresting shot help to keep your interest and even without the gore it never feels like we are somehow being cheated out of something the film promised.

An interesting feature film debut for Mulcahy whose only film before this one was the concert documentary “Derek and Clive Get the Horn” aswell as some of the most memorable music videos of the 80’s especially for “Duran Duran” and “Elton John” for who he was seemingly the music video director of choice. That being said though as a movie director Mulcahy’s resume is equally impressive as he followed this film with the first two film in the “Highlander” series before drifting into directing TV and DTV features.  Teaming up here though with Dean Semler  who takes on director of photography while at the same time bringing his same eye for the Australian outback that he brought to “Mad Max 2” as its shown here once more as beautiful hostile environment where if the wildlife doesn’t kill you then one of the grizzled backward locals might. We even get a pair of trucks which look like leftover stock from “Mad Max 2” while covering the requirement that any Ozploitation movie most feature a healthy dose of car porn and here it certainly delivers not only with the trucks aswell as a posse of hunters heading out on a half-assed attempt to hunt the creature, whose enthusiasm only seemingly stretches to dashing off in a convoy of trucks only to find they’ve been mislead by the tracker and at which point give up the hunt without a second thought of looking in the nearby area, especially when they can be boozing it up in the local bar instead.

A strange film to say the least and one which managed to enthral and disappointment me to with equal measure which I couldn’t place if it was down to my own high expectations of getting to see “Jaws on Trotters” or Mulcahy’s general directing style. As such it makes it a hard film to recommend especially when it fails in the sense of being a traditional eco-horror yet at the same time its characters and interesting visuals help to hold your attention for the questionably large amount of times you’re not getting to see the pig.

Natural Horror - An Introduction

Eco-Horror, Natural Horror, Animals Gone Rogue, Animals Invading the Human Sphere (thanks Jenn), unquestionably it’s a genre which goes by almost as many names as it has found inventive ways to turn pretty much any animal into nightmare fuel.

While you might be mistaken for assuming that this sub-genre came out of the hysteria of the 1950’s where cinema from the time can be seen reflecting the fear of communist invasion or nuclear testing aswell as its share of movies such as “The Giant Gilia Monster”, “They” or “Tarantula” as radiation turned everyday animals into monster sized versions of themselves giving an already paranoid public something else to worry about. However the roots of the sub-genre run suprisingly deep as back in 1905 H.G Wells gave us the first animal lead offensive with “Empire of the Ants” in which the more organised society of insects would replace man as the true rulers of earth, a vision later accompanied by Arthur Machen’s “The Terror: A Fantasy” in 1917 as everything from cows to Butterfly joined in the offensive against mankind.

While the early entries into the genre where largely b-movie fare the Alfred Hitchcock classic “The Birds” hinted that the genre could be capable of classier fare aswell as moments of genuine horror and suspense such as the classic scene of Tippi Hedren sitting out the school while an ever increasing flock (or perhaps more fittingly a murder) of crows gather on the childrens climbing frame behind her as she unwittingly enjoys a smoke. Hitchcock teasing out the impending chaos he soon intends to unleash. Hitchcock himself terrified of Birds perhaps tapping into his own fears to really nail the tone of the film which while perhaps light on actual gore and violence still remains one of his most effective films. However despite its success it didn’t as you would have expected spawn a host of imitators outside of the abysmal 1994 direct to TV sequel “The Birds 2: Land’s End” which had nothing to do with the original film with director Rick Rosenthal opting to be listed under Alan Smithee than be associated with it.



With the arrival of the 70’s the natural horror movies really gained a foothold while at the same time largely following the theme of someone being responsible for the animals striking back with “Willard” kicking the decade off as Bruce Davidson trained a pack of rats to attack his bullish boss played by Ernest Borgnine. This theme of bad people finding ever more inventive ways of pissing off the local wildlife population would continue throughout the decade as “Squirm” saw a town of scuzzy rednecks found their comeuppance via a mass of worms driven into a feeding frenzy via a downed powerline while the would be rapist Roger gets a face full of worms, returning later to holla the memorable line “Now you get to be the worm face!”.

While most of these titles would restrain themselves to one member of the animal kingdom there are of course a handful of titles which really ran with the idea of nature revolting such as “Frogs” which despite the title saw polluting industrialist Jason Crockett (Ray Milland) and his family finding their home under siege by the local frog population who somehow manage to not only recruit a variety of snakes, turtles, spiders, Alligators leeches and birds to their cause but also show a strange ability to recognise those not responsible for endangering their homeland. On a similar tact is the Ozploitation entry “Long Weekend” in which a hideous couple find themselves being targeted by nature itself which is shown as a constantly lurking presence looking to claim back the land stolen by man with director Colin Eggleston throwing in a number of nice touches such as the scream of ants being killed or a seemingly abandoned neighbouring camp shown being reclaimed by the surrounding forests. Equally noteworthy for throwing the proverbial kitchen sink at the screen but much later is the 1984 Italian production “Wild Beasts” which sees a zoo’s worth of animals being driven into an insane frenzy when PCP finds its way into the water supply. Far from subtle it does however contain numerous standout moments for its animal attacks including a woman having her head squashed by an Elephant while another takes out a jumbo jet and this isn’t even taking in an ending which seemingly belongs to another film entirely.

Unquestionably though the most inspirational title in the sub-genre is Steven Spielberg’s masterpiece “Jaws” which for those who have actually read Peter Benchley’s novel will be able to confirm is nothing like the books which focused more on the town’s residents than the killer shark which for the most part is more of a background threat. Spielberg instead turned the novel into perfect summer popcorn fare as the residents of Amity Island suddenly find themselves on the menu of a gigantic great white shark. Here the savagery of nature is boiled down to the fact that all the shark wants to do is “Eat, keep moving and make little sharks” the simplicity of the situation ensuring that the plot can move quickly while Spielberg through test screenings tweaked the film’s jump scares to perfection with the sight of a severed head popping out from a hole in a hull still making audiences jump after numerous viewings. Peter Benchley meanwhile would following the shark hunting frenzy which followed the release of the film dedicate his life to shark conservation while still finding time to in the novels which followed to find new horrors in the depth to scare us with as he followed up “Jaws” with the giant squid “Beast” and man-shark hybrid “Creature” both which would later show up as Made for TV movies.



With “Jaws” being such a monster hit, it was of little surprise that a wave of imitators would soon start flooding cinemas such as “Mako: Jaws of Death”, “Up From The Depths” and “Barracuda” many not coming close to Spielberg’s film which itself would be followed up three years by the arguably superior “Jaws 2” which also included a scene of a mauled Orca in what could be assumed was a nod to “Orca: The Killer Whale” which saw the titular whale taking out a shark with the dead orca of “Jaws 2” being seen perhaps as a way to re-establish exactly who was the number one predator. Equally of note is the Joe Dante directorial debut and Roger Corman backed “Piranha” which despite having a budget which only stretched to a few plastic fish and bubbling red water still proved to be strangely effective, while its sequel “Piranha 2: The Spawning” featuring flying Piranha is probably more noteworthy for providing the launch pad for James Cameron’s career even if Corman would fire him before the production completed.

By the late 70’s studios began to look to the woods for their next big thrill picking up the path paved by a spate of Bigfoot movies in the early 70’s with “Grizzly” promising “Fourteen feet of gut crunching terror” and while later ripped off by the less than stellar “Claws” and perhaps to an extent “The Prophecy” which gave us its mutant cousin. At the same time its sequel “Grizzly 2: The Predator” shot in 1983 was never completed with its unfinished working print often being rediscovered by cult film fans intrigued by what could have been. Director William Girdler’s keen to follow up the success of “Grizzly” would take a second crack at natural horror with “Day of the Animals” a film often cited as its sequel though would fail to find the same success.

The 80’s saw the the sub-genre enter into a decline in popularity with the few noteworthy titles such as “White Dog” and “Cujo” taking great lengths to disassociate themselves from the idea of nature in revolt almost as if their directors saw it as being a negative thing to even risk being included with the films which had come before no doubt due to the saturation of films the previous decade had produced. That being said the “Jaws” franchise saw a further two entries being added with the forgettable “Jaws 3D” and the truly nonsensical “Jaws: The Revenge” despite the series very clearly going quickly belly up. In the years which followed this final entry numerous rumoured came and went about a reboot aswell as a prequel focusing on the character of “Quint” all which never got out of the planning stage. However in 1995 cult favourite Bruno Mattei, the Italian director who’d previously given us his own version of “Terminator 2” with “Bruno Matei’s Terminator 2” which suprisingly ripped off “Aliens” than its name shake franchise. His fifth unofficial entry “Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws” not only inserting itself into a franchise but also more brazenly used footage from the franchise aswell as “Deep Blood” and “Great White”.

Outside of a handful of b-grade direct to DVD features the 90’s were still a barren landscape for natural horror until 1999, which not only proved to be the best movie year ever but also gave us two heavy hitters released almost back to back as we got the Giant croc romp “Lake Placid” aswell as giving us Samuel L. Jackson’s most memorable film moment in “Deep Blue Sea” as he joined a group of scientists attempting to escape from the genetically modified sharks they’d created. Sadly despite making shark movies scary again, the much mooted sequel which would see the sharks being placed into a flooded town never got past the pre-production stage. What these films did however would be to breathe new life into the seemingly forgotten genre as they embraced their b-movie hookiness and aimed to be nothing deeper than popcorn fodder for the summer release schedule.



By 00’s and with the shame of the direct to DVD market suddenly vanishing as studios rushed offdirect to DVD sequels or the likes of “American Pie” and “Van Wilder”, this new market would be fully embraced by companies such as “The Asylum” who saw the natural horror movie as the perfect template to rush out films whose audience could easily be brought in on the strength of the animals being featured, outlandish titles such as “Snakes On A Train” or “Shark Swarm” and who could easily be created via bargain basement CGI for minimal costs while providing the “SyFy Channel” with plenty of filler for their schedule.

Despite the questionable quality of many of these productions they have unquestionably gained their following as can be seen by the fact that we now have four “Sharknado” movies. At the same time these studios finding constantly more outlandish premises to nail their films on such as “Sharktopus” and “ Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus” ensuring that the genre for the moment atleast is set to remain firmly in z-grade territory.

Starting Point – Five Natural Horror Essentials

 

Phase IV – Cosmic rays mysteriously cause ants to evolve and develop a hive mind, leading a pair of scientists to set up a lab to study the ants in the Arizona desert who threaten to take over the local area.

The sole film to be directed by Saul Bass the acclaimed designer of countless film posters and title sequences and a curiosity to say the least, as here he teams up with wildlife photographer Ken Middleham who previously handled the insect sequence for the documentary “The Hellstrom Chronicles” to create a truly unique film and not only because he was using real ants!

Pig Hunt – A group of friends on the hunt for a mythical three thousand pound boar known as “The Ripper” find more trouble than they could imagine and not only from the giant pig! True this might start of as a giant pig movie in the same spirit as “Razorback” but here we also get crazed rednecks, a pig worshiping cult and naked hippy chicks in what is a truly crazy ride of genre mashing goodness.



Orca: The Killer Whale – Sharing a plot almost as random as “Jaws: The Revenge” as Richard Harris’s sea captain finds himself being stalked by the angry mate of the Orca he accidently kills.
While perhaps another film in a long line of “Jaws” knock offs this is still an enjoyable effort and one which has more than a few memorable moments including Bo Derek having her leg torn off by the titular Orca, which proves as intimidating a foe as any shark, especially with all the attacks being largely true to nature than any kind of “Free Willy” style attacks.

Deep Rising –A film which Roger Ebert proclaimed should have been titled “Eat The Titanic” as a luxury cruise ship is targeted by a group of thieves only to soon find themselves on the dinner menu for a monstrous squid like creature who is represented for the most part by creeping tentacles before giving us it’s big reveal at the finale. This is a fun ride from start to finish while teasing out a sequel which sadly was never to be. However packed with colourful characters and more than few surprises even for the hardened horror fan this is well worth giving a look.

Alligator – A truly bonkers movie which sees a tiny pet alligator flushed down the toilet turning into a monstrous sewer dweller that soon makes its way to the surface to feast on the local population.
Taking numerous ques from “Jaws” including a scene in a pool scene which is essentially a reworking of a scene from the “Jaws” climax. This film is a blast once it gets going including a wedding massacre which is worth checking it out for alone.

Black Sheep

Title:  Black Sheep

Director: Jonathan King
Released: 2006
Starring: Nathan Meister, Danielle Mason, Peter Feeney, Tammy Davis, Glenis Levestam, Tandi Wright, Oliver Driver

Plot: Henry (Meister) has an overwhelming fear of sheep thanks to a childhood pranks played by his older brother Angus (Feeney). Now returning to his family farm with the intention of selling his share, he is soon forced to confront his fears when his brother’s secret experiments on the sheep causes them to turn into vicious killers.

Review: Greeted with some excitement on its initial release as it drew favourable comparisions to the early work of fellow New Zealand gorefather Peter Jackson much less the fact it was a film about killer sheep something which like Wales there’s certainly an abundance of making them essentially the perfect creature of terror for this debut feature.

Establishing its comedic tone early on this mixture of comedy and splatter is unquestionably the right way to go for a film with this daft a premise with director Jonathan King filling the film with numerous outlandish or cartoonish characters including a group of morally devoid scientists and Henry’s cad of an older brother who in the fifteen years since Henry was left traumatised by him hasn’t exactly gotten any better and possibly worse the intervening years which have passed.  Henry meanwhile is a neurotic mess, completely overwhelmed by his fears so that even the mere sight of sheep can throw him in a blind panic.

Once more though it’s the fault of the environmental activists that this chaos gets unleashed as like “28 Days Later” eco warriors Grant (Driver) and Experience (Mason) trigger the outbreak of killer sheep when they steal one of the mutated lambs which soon infecting the rest of the local sheep population. Worse still when said lamb bites Grant he runs off into the woods only to return as a mutant man-sheep reminisant of the monster from “Godmonster of the Indian Flats”

Surprisingly though for a film with such an outlandish plot this film is something of a slow burn with the sheep related antics while frequently inventive are keep as a lurking threat until really the final quarter when the film really becomes something special with King raining down gore and splatter with the same kind of grotesque inventiveness that Peter Jackson wowed us with early in his career with the likes of “Bad Taste” and “Braindead” (or “Dead Alive” for you folks in the states). This however is not to say the film is a bore until then as the film frequently finds inventive situations for King to put the group in such as a sheep randomly appearing in a land rover the group are trying to escape in while in motion and which also shows us how well a sheep can drive a car.

Our main group consisting of Henry, Experience and Henry’s best friend and farm hand Tucker (Davis) are all likeable to be around as they try to make their way through the mutant sheep hordes while King avoids any kind of romantic connection between the group instead keeping them as a group thrown together and now trying to just make it through the chaos that is escalating around them. The only downside being Mrs. Mac (Levestam) who is such a fun character it’s frustrating that she only really comes into play towards the end of the film when we get to see her elderly badass side leaving you want so much more than we ultimately get.   

The creature effects though are unquestionably the star of the show here with special effects all being done by Weta Workshops who memorably worked on the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy and its certainly an advantage to see practical effects being used over CGI even for the larger mutant creatures such as the Were-Sheep version of Grant which took four people to operate. While certainly far from the easiest way to shoot the film it more than pays off in the presence that the film has compared to so many other creature features being churned by the likes of the Syfi channel and their seemingly never ending steam of shark movies that they seem to put out on a weekly basis.

Still as mentioned before the real standout moments of the film come in the final quarter as a presentation is turned into a blood drenched massacre, including one victim trying to fight a mutant sheep with his own recently chewed off leg. We also get to see one of the sheep monsters being run into by a runaway plane as King really shows his creativity in his splatter. At the same time the gore here is very much on the cartoonish and OTT side of things rather than anything coming to grotesque realism perfectly suiting the tone of the film. The end finale coming close to rivalling the carnage of “Braindead” even if no one is welding a petrol mower.

A fun little creature feature and one which certainly doesn’t take itself seriously, while at the same time not constantly winking to the audience like so many similar films such as those churned out by “The Asylum” only making this so much more of a welcome rarity.

Dark Age

Title: Dark Age

Director: Arch Nicholson
Released: 1987
Starring: John Jarratt, Nikki Coghill, Max Phipps, Burnham Burnham, David Gulpilil, Ray Meagher, Jeff Ashby, Paul Bertram, Ron Blanchard, Gerry Duggan, Ken Radley

Plot: When a giant crocodile starts feeding on the local population, park ranger Steve (Jarratt) must work with a pair of Aborigine guides Oondabund (Burnham) and Adjaral (Gulphilil) to track down the beast.

Review: Probably one of the more elusive films I have track down as of late, having first caught by interest when it was featured on the essential Ozploitation documentary “Not Quite Hollywood” which served to provide a shopping list of titles as it did expose the until then little recognised sub-genre of cult cinema. Of course its nothing compared to its native Austrailia which didn’t get to see the film untill 14 years after its release thanks to Avco Embassy who held the Australian distribution rights going bust and even then it was down to Quentin Tarantino once again doing his part for film preservation held a screening of the film in 2011.

Entering into the film I was pretty much expecting another fun crocodile movie in the vein of “Lake Placid” or “Alligator” but what I got here was something actually a little different as what starts off essentially as a scene by scene remake of “Jaws” only to then goes off in a completely different direction for its final twenty minutes as director Arch Nicholson throws us an ecological curveball. Infact its rather uncanny when the film is examined closer just how much it matches up as John Jarratt’s park ranger is essentially a transposed Sheriff Brody while Hooper is represented for the most part by Aborigine elder Oondabund who sees the croc as being the mythic croc “Numunwari” and as part of his peoples beliefs belives that the creature has to be saved rather than destroyed which is exactly what local hunter / poacher Jackson and his band of lowlifes have planned.

Jackson here essentially fills the Quint role as the blue collar thug who cares only about making his living hunting the local crocodile population while also to blame for the monster croc showing up in the first place when him and his buddies piss it off during a failed hunting expedition. Outside of the fact that him and his gang are constantly drinking, to the point where there is no scenes in this film where one of these isn’t at any time seen holding a beer, he also becomes obsessed with an Captain Ahab style desire for hunting “Numunwari” after it chews him arm off following his misguided attempt to kill the creature with an axe and while standing precariously in a boat no less and which ends pretty much how you’d expect. But for that one moment it looks pretty badass if still totally ridiculous at the same time.

John Jarratt now no doubt best known for his turn as the psycho Mick Taylor in the “Wolf Creek” films here is almost unrecognisable as he plays the dashing Shrieff Brody esq lead here who constantly tries to walk the tightrope between his loyalty to his boss who is concerned it will affect tourist developments while equally noteworthy for being played by legendry soap actor Ray Meagher from “Home and Away” and keeping the local Aborigine popularity happy. At the same time he also has to deal with his feeling for his ex Cathy who he is forced to work alongside and inevitably they get back together with Nicholson randomly deciding that their sex scene should be dumped in the middle of a chase scene as one moment we get an old man being chased by some local thugs and the next we have the argument foreplay between Cathy and Steve which soon leads to a gratuitous sex scene before we are then flung back into the chase. It’s almost as if Nicolson suddenly remembered that he hadn’t finished the scene and randomly tossed its conclusion in not knowing any other way to work it in and no doubt hoping that we were all too distracted by Nikki Coghill’s boobs to really care. The same could be also said for the final act car chase which not only sees Oondabund sitting on the front bonnet of a speeding truck like a old man hood ornament but him also being launched through the air when said truck crashes with him still on the bonnet in a scene which I had to rewatch a few times as I couldn’t figure out if it was the actor or a dummy being launched through the air. Still this being an Ozploitation movie it would be kind of disappointing if we did get random nudity and car chases being the backbone of the genre that they are.

The final act on a whole though is pretty random seeing how we essentially have a great ending only for the film to carry on for another twenty minutes which I would argue should have been cut had this extra time not contained so many great moments which loosely justify its inclusion here. At the same time I like the idea of the group trying to save the croc and relocate it rather than being another film in which they have to kill the monster animal with Nicolson including arguments for the crocodile following its nature than any kind of desire to hunt people.

When it comes to the crocodile while its always great to see a practical effect, even if it is a rubbery looking croc, let alone one which moves oh so slowly, making it all the more surprisingly that it can catch anyone had it not been for its ability to randomly pop out from any body of water it chooses including one memorable moment where it’s supposed to be tied to the front of the boat only to suddenly appear at the back of the boat. Nicolson even gives us his version of the beach attack from “Jaws” in probably one of the better known scenes from the film and also one of the most violent scene as the croc chomps down on a small child in a scene which is actually surprisingly shocking to watch. While the attack scenes are certainly a lot better than anything we’ve seen from recent croc attack movies with their heavy use of CGI and sudden cuts, it’s still a pretty gore light film outside of some bubbling red water and the occasional lost limb but still satisfying to watch none the less.

Despite his background mainly being in TV Nicholson here crafts a film which is strangely intriguing as I’m sure there is a great film which could be if you can cut through the frequently plodding plotting and rubbery looking croc. While it might equally be as noteworthy as other films in this category it’s still miles ahead of more recent efforts.

Lake Placid 2

Title: Lake Placid 2

Director: David Flores

Released: 2007

Starring: John Schneider, Sarah Lafleur, Sam McMurray, Chad Michael Collins, Alica Ziegler, Joe Holt, Cloris Leachman

Plot: Several years after the events of the first film a new spate of crocodile attacks begin happening leaving Sheriff James Riley (Schneider) to team up with Wildlife officer Emma Warner(Lafleur) to try and track down the killer croc before it devours its next victim

Review: Coming almost 10 years after the underrated original and seemingly only churned out because the Sony and the Sci-fi Channel (always a worrying sign to seem them involved in anything) were looking for a film they could easily turn into a franchise especially considering how quickly parts 3 + 4 followed it. Shot though on a paltry budget of $2 million compared to the original films budget of $27 million while also being shot in Bulgaria though honestly I couldn’t tell that it wasn’t the same location as the first film.

Despite the title there is hardly any kind of attempt to connect to the original film outside of a passing refrence to the killer crocodile attacks and the old coot Mrs Bickerman now being replaced by her sister Sadie (Leachman) who for some unknown reason is also fond of feeding these crocodiles which have once more grown to gigantic proportions thanks to be being fed meat heavy in growth hormones aswell as the occasional out of timer who it seems are equally game for her to feed to the crocs.

If anything though this plays like a more rural version of “Alligator” not only with the growth hormone enhanced Crocodile, but also for the introduction of the great white hunter Stuthers played here by Sam McMurray who also gives us one of the worst Irish accent ever, while almost constantly berating his assistant and much more proficient hunter Ahmad (Holt).  Like all the characters the relationship between Stuthers and Ahmad is irritatingly underused as we are forced instead to settle for the same half-baked character development that everyone else in the film gets if any with many of the more disposable cast members coming off more like cutouts than real characters. This is none the more true than with the local youths that Sheriff Riley’s son Scott (Collins) heads off into the wood with to party, after being invited by local girl Kerri (Ziegler) whose lughead of a boyfriend Thad (Kesler) pretty much spells out from their first meeting what is going to happen to them.

Unlike the original film which managed to balance comedy with some great jump scares and genuine tension, this film is much more of a confused mess as the tone largely remains jokey, despite many of the characters seemingly being played seriously. Schneider meanwhile once more drags out his good-ole-boy stique as he continues his run of low budget creature features like “Shark Swarm” which I couldn’t but wonder if it’s ever got him missing those “Smallville” paychecks that would save him from this kind of dreck.

One of my major issues with this film and so many of these cookie cutter creature features that the Sci-fi channel (or Syfi as its known these days) and the Asylum continue to churn out is with the actual crocodile effects. With the original we had both practical and CGI effects used to great effect but what we get here instead is just a bunch of badly rendered CGI crocs which end up coming off laughable whenever they are on the screen, with the extensive use of CGI for the gore effects aswell only adding to the issue which is only the more frustrating when you have great moments like arms being chomped off only for them to look flat and cheap because of these cost cutting measures. It of course only begs the question as to why these production houses continue to cut corners when it comes to their marquee monsters or is it just another sign of the lowering of standards as these studios intentionally seem to be aiming to make films which are this bad, perhaps hoping to cash in on the same trash cinema appeal of the b-movie forefathers like Ed Wood and Roger Corman without realising that they were actually trying to make good films with their productions.

While pretty samey for the most part the action scenes here do throw out the occasional surprise such as a plane being randomly harpooned or one of the teens falling out of a tree he’d been hiding in and landing on one of the crocodile which he bizarrely comments as being a soft landing, which considering the leathery skin of crocodiles I have to doubt this claim slightly, though it is one of the few comedic moments which actually hits its mark. Largely though when it comes to the action we seem to have this constant cycle of ambush crocodile, shoot at it for a bit and then loose a team member with no real attempts to ever change up this plan as they constantly seem to believe that this plan will work on the 4^th or 5^th attempt.  

Seeing how I still have another two sequels to go not counting the recent attempts to cross over the series with “Lake Placid Vs. Anaconda” this film does not bode well for what lies ahead, especially if this film is anything to go off the standard for these spin off’s. Ultimately this is not worth checking out as it’s devoid of even the base level charms that tend to drag you though these kinds of movies, while it really only further drives home the point when even the quick flash of gratuitous nudity can’t help to relieve the tedium I felt with this one. Just rewatch the original instead.

Wild Beasts

Title: Wild Beasts

Director: Franco Prosperi

Released: 1984

Starring: Lorraine de Selle, John Aldrich, Ugo Bologna, Louisa Lloyd, John Stacy

Plot: A large quantity of PCP finds its way into the local water supply, which also happens to be the main supply for the city zoo. Now driven wild the animals escape and wreak havoc in the city

 

Review: One of the best creations for film fans in recent times especially for bloggers / critics looking for their next watch is the site “Letterboxd” which essentially provides the same service as “Good Reads” only for movies instead of books. Ok it might seem alittle random to be opening with a recommendation of a film site, but honestly without it I would have never have stumbled across this little slice of deep fried animals gone wild fun!

Just looking at the plot alone makes this worth giving it a curious watch, so it only makes it all the better when it lives up to its premise. True it might be essentially the same as every other film in the genre with man once again finding a way of screwing up and inturn enraging the local animal population and being forced to pay the price when said animals strike back. The only thing which honestly sets it apart from the numerous other films in the genre is the fact that its drugs driving the animals wild than the usual environmental threats such as sewage or construction encroaching on the animals territory.

An oddity on director Prosperi’s resume having spent most of his career directing Mondo movies (documentaries focusing on shocking subjects) and crime drama’s and despite the film opening with a title card assuring the audience that no animals were harmed during filming, its soon clear that Prosperi hasn’t drifted from his Mondo roots as the film does in fact feature scenes of real rats being set on fire and a lion set preying on a cow to name but two scenes which seriously question this claim. Thankfully this is no way the same ballpark of animal cruelty like “Cannibal Holocaust” with its nightmare inducing turtle scene while they are equally so brief that they don’t detract from the film like that scene did.

Unlike so many other films in the genre the animal attacks are pretty frequent here and not spaced out with questionable plotting to pad out the runtime. This however is not to say that the plot is any better here as cult cinema favourite De Selle gets to take a break from her usual shockers like “Cannibal Ferox” and “House at the Edge of the Park” with this film being notably lighter as here she appears as Dr. Laura Schwarz who has to team up with Super Mario look-alike and zoo keeper Rupert (Aldrich) to stop the rogue animals while trying to get to the bottom of what’s driving them crazy. We also have the random plotline concerning Laura’s daughter who’s attending a ballet class while the city erupts into chaos and which serves little purpose outside of setting up the films finale.

The plot is pretty non-existent and generally serves to get the film from one animal attack set-piece to the next, while Prosperi still managing to find a number of random moments to scatter throughout the film such as shots of piles of syringes in the opening which have nothing to do with the PCP getting into the water supply which bizarrely never get explained as to how it got in the water in the first place. We also have scenes such as Laura phoning her daughter only to have the kid randomly have a frog puppet squawk down the phone. The standout moment of random plotting though has to be the ending which takes place at the dance school, were the film suddenly switches into a psycho child movie thanks to the dance school students really loving that water cooler!

The real selling point here though is animal attack scenes which are numerous to say the least with Prosperi certainly making the most of the premise starting with a group of rabid rats preying on a couple making out in a car in a scene which also sees a cat also falling foul to these rats. From here Prosperi seems to constantly be looking for a way to top the last scene as we get the expected scenes of zoo keepers being attacked by wild cats alongside more random scenes like a girl trying to outrun a cheetah in her bang up beetle and my personal favourite the girl having her head squashed by an elephant, the same elephants who in perhaps a cinematic first are also responsible for a jumbo jet crashing when they stumble onto the runway.

While not as shocking as some of his earlier films, Prosperi still includes a few shocking scenes, especially in terms of the animal cruelty but ultimately this is a fun romp and certainly one of the few examples of this kind of movie which manages to live up to the hype selling it. Yes the performances might be frequently questionable and the saxophone heavy soundtrack certainly a product of its time. However when the animal attack scenes are so much fun and inventive it’s easy to look past a lot of the issues here while fans of these kinds of movie will unquestionably find much to enjoy here making it well worth hunting down.

Orca

Title: Orca

Director: Michael Anderson

Released: 1977
Starring: Richard Harris, Charlotte Rampling, Will Sampson, Bo Derek, Keenan Wynn, Peter Hooten, Robert Carradine  

Plot: Captain Nolan (Harris) and his crew make a living capturing marine animals, however while attempting to capture an Orca he accidently kills the whale which he discovers was pregnant and occurring the wrath of her mate who now sets out to seek revenge against Nolan.

Review: One of the numerous films to come off the back of the success of “Jaws” a trend which continues even today with this being one of the better ones and one of the few to stand on its own, as other the years it has spawned its own cult following. Unquestionably the idea of a killer Orca is an intriguing one especially when most people view these animals like dolphins in the fact that we don’t see them as vicious killers, which is something that couldn’t be further from the truth as is especially the case with Orca which are especially fearsome predators as "Blackfish" only further highlighted to the doubters.

Produced by cult cinema legend Dino De Laurentiis who tasked fellow producer Luciano Vincenzoni to “find a fish tougher and more terrible than the great white” following a late night viewing of “Jaws”. Like De Laurentiis, Vincenzoni knew little about sea life but was soon directed to killer whales by his brother Adriano….I guess the fact that whales are not fish but mammals didn’t ultimately matter now De Laurentiis had his killer. Still if to emphasis the point that here was an animal deadlier than a great white the film features the orcas being introduced by having them attack a great white shark, in a scene were the gauntlet is truly being thrown down and one which would inspire in retaliation the scene of the mauled orca in “Jaws 2”.

Director Anderson though really is another director who really doesn’t get the credit he deserves, especially as he was also responsible for the iconic WW2 war movie “The Dam Busters” let alone cult favourites “Logan’s Run” which he directed prior to this film and the much overlooked “Millennium”. Here again despite being essentially tasked with turning in a “Jaws” cash in still manages to give us something alittle different than the usual go to plot of disposable cast members being picked off  by the titular beastie. Here instead we have what could essentially be seen as “Moby Dick” in reverse with the whale this time taking on the role of the vengeance seeking Captain Ahab relentlessly hunting his prey in Captain Nolan. Nolan though is an interesting character for while he might seem like a clone of Quint seeing how both ruthlessly hunt animals for profit, but Nolan is not hunting these creatures out of a deep seated desire for revenge but rather the simple desire to pay off his boat and return to Ireland. True having an actor like Harris really raises the role and unquestionable sells the journey Nolan is forced to take over the course of the film, even coming to a point where he finds himself comparing his actions to those of the drunk driver which killed his own family. Harris reportedly enjoyed making this film and it shows with the thoughtful performance he gives here even to the extent that he insisted on doing all his own stunts, something that would on several occasions almost kill him in the process.

Okay I know the idea of an animal seeking revenge is unquestionably a far-fetched one as I don’t think that its an emotion they are even capable of. It would also be the same idea which would later sink the “Jaws” franchise” and it is none the more believable here despite the best efforts of Anderson who stops off trying to play things smart with the whale pushing his dead mate onto the island, before sinking fishing boats and driving away the supplies of fish which the island rely on. From here though it becomes increasingly far-fetched as it is soon knocking out essential support legs on Nolan’s dockside house aswell as severing the fuel lines to the village causing a huge fire to erupt and engulf have the village in flames. All things which I doubt even the smartest of whales would be able to do and things which only mark the randomness to come as the whale manages to convince Nolan and his crew to follow it into the icy north using nothing but the same gestures we have come to expect from these animals asking for more fish.

When it comes to the orca effects originally I thought that it was solely trained whales and stock footage, but what is surprising is that a realistic animatronic whale was also used as part of the filming. In fact it would prove to be so realistic that animal activists mistook it for a real whale while protesting the production trucks. The orca attacks are also played largely true to nature, with cast members being pulled over board rather than anything “Free Willy” style attacks. Anderson only really allows himself a fantastical leap with these attack scenes once during the scene were the orca attacks Nolan’s house and in doing so tearing off Bo Derek’s leg, in a scene shot arguably similar to Quinn’s death in “Jaws”. This scene is also about gory as the film gets, while the death of the female orca and the miscarriage of her calf prove far more haunting that anything else the film has to offer, but then this is a film like “Jaws” where a minimal amount of gore goes a long way.

If I was to grumble over any aspect of the film it would be the sudden ending, were the climatic showdown between Nolan and the orca suddenly comes crashing to a sudden and abrupt ending, before we are treated to the warbling end credit music that had me scrambling for the remote to make it end.  Still credit has to be given to Anderson for going with such a ballsy ending, yet ultimately a fitting one even if it might not seem like it at first.

While this might not be even in the same league as “Jaws” it comes closer than most knock offs did, while certainly helped as I mentioned earlier by the casting of Harris. Equally the pacing is brisk enough that it doesn't outstay its welcome even if the finale seems come perhaps alittle too out of leftfield. However with the orca antics not limited to just killing off random cast members, there is plenty of orca action to enjoy and when compared to the recent animals gone rogue movies we are bombarded with currently with their cheap cgi, it only really makes this one all the more enjoyable.

Grizzly

Title: Grizzly

Director: William Girdler

Released: 1976

Starring: Andrew Prine, Christopher George, Joan McCall, Joe Dorsey, Richard Jaeckel

Plot: When a giant grizzly bear starts eating the campers at a state park, it is up to park ranger Michael (George) to hunt it down.

Review: If ever there was an example of the importance of editing it would be this film. For here is a film which in its TV cut is a tepid and boring movie while in its uncut form, it’s actually quite watchable even though it’s lingering around the ass end of okay in this stronger form. Frustratingly it was the TV cut which I watched first, which left me wondering why I got so excited about watching it in the first place, a fact which I’m sure was more down the prospect of seeing a film with a giant killer bear, especially as I do love creature features and couldn’t remember actually seeing one with a killer bear.

One the last films to be directed by Girdler, who was tragically killed in a helicopter crash while scouting locations for his tenth film. This would be the first of his two ventures into the creature feature genre, while more surprisingly it would also become one of the top films of 1976. This success of course could have been largely thanks to the massive success of “Jaws” which inspired countless imitators in a trend which continues even now, as directors continue to try find new and ever more inspired ways to add to the already primal fear most people have regarding certain animals. None however have shown the balls that Girdler does here with this film which is essentially a straight clone of “Jaws”, even though it could be argued that Bruno Mattei came close with “Jaws 5: Cruel Jaws”.

From the start Girdler tries to make the revel of the creature a slow burn by shooting from the bears perspective (or bear vision if you will) and by having a stage hand swipe at thing with a bear paw glove. Unfortunately the big revel never really comes perhaps thanks to Girdler choosing to use a real bear, which needless to say isn’t the safest creature for you to put next to actors, so as a result the bear footage often comes off looking like wildlife stock footage than anything specifically shot for the film. The biggest failure though comes when any character is attack by the bear, which usually descends into shaky camera shots and what can only be described as watching someone getting bear hugged by someone in a questionable looking bear costume. Despite the real bear never seemingly being anywhere near the actors, Girdler used a length of green string and a kitchen timer to shoot the actors with the bear, with the bear believing that the wire was the same as the electrified fence used during breaks in filming, while the trainers also got the bear to mimic roaring by tossing it marshmallows (who knew that bears liked them) and adding the sound in post production. However now having seen the film it makes you wonder why they went to so much effort with the real bear, especially when it never seems like the actor and bear are ever in the same shot.  

This leads me of course to the importance of which version you watch, as if your stuck with the TV version, this will fast become a painful film to sit through, as each time the bear attacks it suddenly cuts or even on a couple of occasions just fades to black. The uncut version on the other hand is a lot more fun, thanks to the occasional bursts of gore that it provides making the bear attacks a lot of satisfying to watch as limbs are torn off and even a small child loses a leg, all scenes missing from the TV version which cuts out all of the gore and leaves only the half decent attack on the ranger station intact. Thankfully though if you’re stuck with the TV version, the cut segments can be easily found on Youtube which honestly are also the best parts of this film, which really do save it in many ways from being such a grind.

Plot wise as I stated earlier in this review, the plot is essentially a blow for blow remake of “Jaws” with changes being made to suit the setting, so hence we get Michaels concern over a giant killer bear in the park being thrown out by his supervisor, who’d rather keep campers in the park rather than close the park while they hunt the bear, while also flooding the park with amateur hunters by offering a bounty on bear all actions mirrored by the mayor Vaughn. Equally mirrored is Michaels actions to hunt the bear which see’s him forming a similar team to Brody’s with naturalist Arthur (Jaeckel) and helicopter pilot and Vietnam veteran Don (Prine) taking on the roles played by Hooper and Quint. It’s hard to say if watching the film with this prior knowledge adds or takes away anything from the film, but it certainly makes it a curiosity to say the least, especially in these times were Mockbusters are being so regularly churned out which essentially do the same as this film and in many ways perhaps making this film the earliest example of the genre.

While the plotting may be the same as “Jaws” sadly the characterisation is far from the mark as this film lacks any of the likeable characters of that film, much less any ones which are memorable enough to actually care much about with the exception of Arthur but that could be more so do with his bear skin wearing antics, much less the lack of real insight he brings to the hunt despite being the so called expert.

Unsurprisingly in the wake of the film success this film would get a sequel of sorts almost ten years later in the form of “Grizzly 2: The Predator” which originally started out as a completely separate film entitled “Predator: The Concert”. Written aswell by the same screenwriter as this film Harvey Flaxman the film was never finished yet various incomplete cuts of the film do exist and it was via a review of that film by my good friend and bad movie critic extraordinaire The Great White Dope over at “Mecha-Blog-Zilla” that I came to find out about this film in the first place in a piece which I highly recommend checking out like the rest of his blog, even if he is currently on blogging hiatus there is still a wealth of great reading to enjoy.

A flawed film with a handful of interesting moments if your watching the uncut version but mainly it will just make you want to dig out your copy of the far superior "Jaws", especially as its doubt this will have you afraid to back into the woods anytime soon.

Konga

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title: Konga

Director: John Lemont
Released: 1961
Starring: Michael Gough, Margo Johns, Jess Conrad, Claire Gordon, Austin Trevor, Jack Watson, George Pastell, Vanda Godsell, Stanley Morgan

Plot: After his plane crashes in the African jungles, a year later after being presumed to be dead British botanist Dr. Charles Decker (Gough) suddenly comes back, while also having found a way of growing plants and animals to enormous size. Accompanied him aswell is his pet chimp “Konga” who is soon playing an important part in the doctors plans for revenge.

Review: For most people Michael Gough will always be associated with playing Batman’s butler Alfred and true it’s easy to understand why as he did truly own the iconic role. At the same time there are those who view Gough as an under the radar horror icon with his appearances in “Horrors of the Black Museum” and “Satan’s Slave” and it was during this horror period that he also made this film, which set out to give Britain its own version of “King Kong” which interestingly would also be the same year that we got our own version of “Godzilla” with the enjoyably daft “Gorgo”.

Unsurprisingly producer Herman Cohen while seemingly being inspired by “King Kong” it would be more precisely the idea of making a giant ape movie in colour that inspired him the most when it came to making this film, while developing the film under the working title of “I Was a Teenage Gorilla” a nod to his earlier success “I Was A Teenage Werewolf” regardless of how nonsensical the title would seem against the finished film. So paying RKO Pictures $25,000 for the rights to the name Kong with a focus purely on making an exploitation film, the end results are decidedly strange to say the least.

Right from the start it is clear that Dr. Decker is up to something as he is shown breeding man-eating Venus flytraps in his greenhouse lab as part of his tests of his serum which soon sees him testing it on his pet chimp Konga, turning him from a playful chimp to a man in a questionable Gorilla costume. Yes I know gorillas and chimpanzees are completely different breeds, so either Dr. Decker’s Serum changes an animal’s breed as well as causing monstrous growth or more likely Director Lemont just felt that the audience wouldn’t notice the difference. Still this is not any old gorilla suit, as it also belonged to legendry ape actor George Barrows who amongst his many ape roles also played the memorably unique looking Ro-Man The Monster in the trash classic “Robot Monster”. However Lemont only hired his gorilla suit rather than Barrows himself, only to return the costume in less than perfect condition, much to the distain of Barrows while only raising more questions as to what Lemont had been doing with the suit during the shoot?

Having grown so used to Gough in his Alfred persona, it was quite a thrill seeing him playing such a devious role, more so perhaps because of seeing him as this loveable old man and faithful butler to now see him scheming and sending his killer ape off to kill his enemies and it's a role he plays well, especially the more he gets caught up in his scheme especially as he frequently hams it up clearly knowing the standard of film being made,  hardly masking his evil genius as we are barely ten minutes into the film before he start dropping hints as he potters around his home laboratory while also finding time to letch over one of his pretty students Sandra (Gordon) who soon unwittingly become central to Dr. Deckers plans, especially when he is sending Konga off to kill her boyfriend.

The idea of Dr. Decker using his killer ape for murder through the power of hypnosis might be a slight disappointment for a film essentially sold as a giant ape on the rampage movie, though it does still provide a fair amount of unintentionally amusing moments such as Konga hiding in the bushes and generally looking like he should be wearing a trench coat and trilby hat, especially when he has such a shifty expression on his face. Still giant ape fans should fear not as the finale finally gives us our giant ape, as Konga gets a super-sized dose of serum causing him to grow to a monstrous size before heading off on a mini rampage while Dr. Decker also receives the Fay Wray treatment before they soon encounter possibly the most well prepared group of soldiers to ever be featured in a monster movie and all without the need of a giant map or lengthy discussion between Generals while they push small models around the map. So surprisingly prepared for the threat of a giant ape I half expected someone to pipe up with “This is what we prepared for boys!” especially considering how quickly they stop the giant ape threat and disappointingly before he has had chance to cause much carnage, but then seeng how the film is seemingly set in a quaint little village there is only so much damage he could really cause, while the film ultimately as a result misses a trick by not being set in London, which could have seen Konga climbing Big Ben or even Nelson’s Column swiping at Spitfire’s.

While the film moves at a quick place to set Dr. Decker and his schemes in motion, with everything pretty much in place by the first twenty minutes, it does however drag in other places, as we are forced to endure mind numbing conversations between minor characters such a Sandra’s boyfriend and his parents, which had me eager to see him taken out as quickly as possible, so I didn’t have to ensure anymore of his yammering. Meanwhile for a man so focused on revenge Dr. Decker’s targets are actually pretty minimal and more to do with personal snubs or threats on his research than any real form of planned revenge.

Ultimately the film never seems to know what it want to be as it skips from one B-movie genre to the next as Gough hams it up with his mad scientist antics, before it switches to being a killer ape movie, before finally giving us the long awaited giant ape on the rampage which the poster promises us. Still when you in the mood for a man in a hokey monkey costume this is one of the better ones and certainly more entertaining than my previous attempt at finding one of these film with the ho-hum “Bride of The Gorilla”. Still if you want to see us Brit's rip off someone else's monster movie personally I would stick with "Gorgo" or maybe just watch the originals.

Jaws 2

Title: Jaws 2
Director: Jeannot Szwarc

Released: 1978

Staring: Roy Scheider, Mark Gruner, Marc Gilpin, Lorraine Gary

Plot: Four years after the events of "Jaws" Police chief Brody (Scheider) must protect the citizens of Amity once again when a second monstrous shark begins terrorizing the waters.

Review:  This week I found out something quite shocking while openly declaring my love for this sequel that I realised that there are some people out there who have actually never seen it! I know it’s hard to believe that a movie series which was so firmly part of most our childhood movie watching, let alone responsible for myself still not being overly keen on swimming in the sea all these years later. But as I looked at the glazed expression of my work colleague who clearly had no idea about this movie, I knew that it was time to revisit what is possibly one of the most overlooked and underrated sequels of all time.

True it was always going to be a hard act to follow a legendry movie such as “Jaws” which could easily be considered the definition of a perfect movie, not only in terms of storytelling and pacing, but also with how perfectly Spielberg tweaked each of the films shocks so that even a giant rubber shark could be turned into a creature of childhood scaring terror. Still with the studio having made so much money from the first film, which alongside “Star Wars” helped create the summer blockbuster phenomenon, it would only be a matter of time before they started demanding a sequel, despite the fact that the shark being clearly very much dead by the end of the first film, but such things are quickly glossed over for here is yet another giant shark to terrorise the residents of Amity Island, while the why, were and what the f**k of the situation are left to the audience to figure out themselves as Police Chief Martin Brody  finds himself once again having to deal with another oversized great white shark.

With Spielberg unable to be tempted back to direct the sequel due to a combination of the problems which plagued the production of the first film, which included amongst other things the fact that the shark keep sinking, aswell as the fact that he felt he had already made the “Definitive shark movie”. Spielberg’s decision would lead to a further 18 month period of pre-production, with the original idea for the film to be a prequel based around the sinking of the USS Indianapolis whose story had been so memorably relayed by Quint in the first film; however this would later be scrapped in favour of a more straightforward sequel with the inexperienced John D. Hancock being chosen to helm the film, but with his limited experience in the directors chair, having only helmed three film credits and small scale dramas, he soon found himself feeling the pressure of directing his first epic adventure film, while issues with the shark once again hampering production and with the producers unhappy with his material he was soon replaced by Jeannot Szwarc, who would later direct the equally cult “Supergirl” and “Santa Claus: The Movie”.

Set four years after the events of the first film with Brody having his suspicions that another shark has entered the waters of Amity Island once again dismissed, which is overwhelmingly bizarre seeing how much chaos the original shark caused, you would have expected the residents to be more open to the idea of a giant shark, but alas they’d rather dismiss his fears even major Vaughn who’d you think would have learned better after the events of the first film. Even Brody’s kids seem to have forgotten about the events previously, especially Mike who went into shock after seeing the shark in original, yet here they are more keen than ever to get back on the water, with Mike (Gruner) and Sean (Gilpin) heading out to sea with Mike’s friends and setting up the main meat of the story as they soon find themselves the target of the shark.
Realising that the audiences already knew what the shark looked like from the first film here director Szwarc instead doesn’t try like so many other directors to play on the element of surprise again and as such allows the audience to see a the shark a lot more than the previous film which only hinted at the size of the shark until around two thirds of the way through the film, when the shark was memorably fully revealed. Here he brings a much more brutal and thanks to an early attack sequence (which is also one of the most unintentionally funny scenes ever shot) a heavily scarred shark.

Cranking up the action from the first film, which kept it’s attacks sporadic as Spielberg played peek-a-boo with the shark in the build up to his climatic showdown, here Szwarc instead goes overboard with the shark attacks, while making anything potential game, as logic is pushed to the backseat especially when you consider that the film features the shark memorably attacking a helicopter. Such bizarre moments are rife throughout the film, as plausibility is largely nothing but a passing thought, while for some equally random reason Szwarc chooses to recreate scenes from the original film with a slight twist and hence why we get scenes like the discovery of an orca corpse almost mirroring the discovery of the girls corpse on the beach or the police boat being dragged backwards after it picks up a power cable being shot almost the same as the Quint’s boat being pulled by the shark at the climax of the original “Jaws”. What is most interesting about the scene were they find the body of the orca, that a year earlier the killer whale movie “Orca” was released which featured the orca head butting a shark in a subtle nod to “Jaws” that the orca was infact deadlier than a shark, with this dead orca clearly having been killed by a shark almost being like Szwarc’s fuck you right back! However despite a high body count, there is barely a drop of blood spilt here yet it makes zero difference as the tension is slowly cranked up by Szwarc who manages the near impossible of still managing to make the shark scary, even if the audience knows what to expect and even pulls out more than a few original shocks along the way.

One of the strengths here though is the amount of returning cast members we do get, especially with so many of the characters being so memorable it only makes it better that we get to see them again here, especially in terms of Lorraine Gary who once more returns as Ellen Brody and who shares such great onscreen chemistry with Roy Scheider, that it’s hard to not see them as a real couple and even though Scheider’s return here was only to get out of a contractual obligation he had with the studio, after he quit the role of Steven Pushkov in “The Deer Hunter” two weeks prior to the start of shooting. Still despite this he still brings back his grizzled charm to the role he made so memorable to begin with and despite his reasons for being involved in the film, he doesn’t let it show here, as his performance here is just as memorable as the first, even if it is more action orientated than before, with the scenes of him interacting with his family now nothing but an afterthought, for while the first film might have been as much about people as it was about the shark, this film instead prefers to keep the focus solely on the shark.

Despite having the imposing task of following up on Spielberg’s classic original, I would argue that blow for blow that this film is just as good as the original, while perhaps lacking some of Spielberg’s finesse it still holds its own when compared to the original and even with it’s more bonkers moments it still remains an overlooked classic, overshadowed by the god awful sequels which followed and as a result dragged this film down with them and leaving most people with the misconception that the original was the only film in the series of note and when compared to the shark films which followed in its wake this is a gold star standard shark movie.