Monster of the Day #1689

Updated on January 5, 2018 By Ken Begg 26 Comments

What a magical year for horror films. Not just another Resident Evil (or Hellraiser or Rings or Jeepers Creepers or Annabelle the Doll or Flatliners or Saw or Chucky or Children of the Corn or….), but another Underworld! That was the best shot I could find and I lightened it as much as possible. Serious question: Is there any monsters that suffers as much from a CGI presentation as a werewolf?

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  • Beckoning Chasm

    The issue with CGI isn’t CGI itself. The effects in Jurassic Park and Mars Attacks still look awesome today. The issue is that, as with any new method, the early adopters are the ones who are passionate about it and use it to enhance their artistry. Then it takes off, and suddenly there’s a demand, and the technicians who follow aren’t artists but people who have passed a certification exam.
    It’s like “Halloween.” The first movie is skillfully made, clearly made by people who want to make a good film first and foremost. Then you get a flood of holiday-themed slasher films that are made by people who want to make a tton of money, and the heck with whether the film is any good or not.

  • KeithB

    Slapping a fake beard and fangs on your actor can have very mixed results, too.

  • Is there any monster that suffers more in film, period? How many really good Werewolf movies are there, anyway? I think only the Mummy has a worst time…

  • Gamera977

    Well other than the well known ones I’ve found a few gems out there:

    ‘Ginger Snaps’- skip the two sequels though. The second one has an interesting idea but didn’t really work for me. The third is just a repeat of the original with the different characters played oddly enough with the original actors.

    ‘Dog Soldiers’- British troops training in a remote area of Scotland run into a pack of werewolves.

    ‘Late Phases’- Low budget but great little film about a blind vet in a retirement community who investigates a string of deaths of pets and eventually other residents. The vet though blind is smart and a total badass. It’s on Netflix.

  • Rock Baker

    Though, when done with a modicum of skill, the results are usually more charming and personable. I miss man-shaped werewolves, though I can speak only for myself.

  • Rock Baker

    And are we talking strictly newer films here? There’ve been a number of dandy werewolf movies throughout cinematic history.

  • The Rev.

    Bigfoot movies, perhaps? Nearly every one of them I’ve seen was just godawful; a couple were fitfully amusing at best. Abominable I did rather enjoy, though, and I’ve heard Exists is actually quite good. Then there’s Suburban Sasquatch, which looks hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

  • Gamera977

    Yeah, pretty recent. I didn’t see much point in rehashing those we have all heard of and most of us have seen like ‘The Wolfman’ and ‘The Howling’.

  • Gamera977

    I have found some of the documentary movies like ‘Boggy Creek’ entertaining but as to a fictional Sasquatch movie I can’t think of a decent one either.

  • Rock Baker

    CREATURE FROM BLACK LAKE was great. SNOWBEAST was nifty. SASQUATCH: THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT was pretty good (itself a mock documentary concerning a group of scientists who venture into the Canadian wilderness to find Bigfoot comes across like a Disney nature film with horror trappings). True, though, those are the exceptions, not the rule.

  • Rock Baker

    Oh, and in terms of newer movies, there’s one called SASQUATCH MOUNTAIN (I think that’s the current title, it was actually shot as something like DEVIL ON THE MOUNTAIN) which was quite good.

  • Eric Hinkle

    The first ‘Boggy Creek’ by Charles Pierce is almost shockingly good when you consider just what the budget must have been like. He should have written a book on how to do good horror movies with only a little cash.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I also hear that the ‘forbidden’ Toho film HALF HUMAN is supposed to be good, especially if you ever wanted to see Bigfoot go to town on a native village. But your chances of finding a copy seem all but nonexistent.

  • zombiewhacker

    I miss them, too. Wolf with Jack Nicholson is a good recent example.

  • zombiewhacker

    Amen to Dog Soldiers. Very enjoyable B movie romp with a fine cast.

    If you absolutely *have to* do a film about soldiers battling werewolves out in the wilderness (and you don’t want it turning into some Sy-Fy craptacular movie of the week), this is the way to go about it.

  • zombiewhacker

    I liked Black Lake but haven’t seen it in decades. I remember it being hokey and silly in spots, but the film’s climax (the last fifteen minutes or so) were extremely well done.

  • zombiewhacker

    That’s the only Boggy Creek I haven’t seen. I only endured Return to Boggy Creek because of Dawn Wells. The third film I saw courtesy of MST3K, so enough said there.

  • Rock Baker

    I understand there’s a nice DVD from Wade Williams. HALF HUMAN is a pretty good flick, though the film is presented as a narrated flashback and thus isn’t the cream of the imported crop by any stretch -worth checking out, of course, but I’m so glad this sort of presentation wasn’t carried over into other Japanese imports. Actually, it’s the Japanese version that’s effectively banned. This makes for an interesting trade-off. We in the States can see HALF HUMAN, but the Japs can see SONG OF THE SOUTH!

  • Eric Hinkle

    Seriously, if you want to see a good Bigfoot movie done on the cheap — heck, a good movie done on the cheap PERIOD — you have GOT to see the first Boggy Creek movie. It’s an amazing piece of work.

  • Eric Hinkle

    I’ll keep my eyes open for the Wade Williams DVD. What sites can it be found through?

  • Kirk

    Another Wolfcop is due out this year. The first one was pretty fun.

  • The Rev.

    Black Lake has been on The List for a while, Half Human even longer. Okay, so adding Boggy Creek, The Legend of Bigfoot, and Sasquatch Mountain (quite a cast for that one) to it.

    Snowbeast left me cold, no pun intended.

  • Rock Baker

    Can’t find it on an internet search. Maybe it was only issued on VHS, but I distinctly remember a Wade Williams cover sleeve in the catalog. I’ve been meaning to pick up a copy for some time now.

    Though the print is less pristine, my own print came from Sinister Cinema. Their entire catalog is on both tape and disk format now.

  • Rock Baker

    Specifically, I recommend SASQUATCH, THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT, not to be confused with the Ivan Marx “documentary” THE LEGEND OF BIGFOOT. That one would make an interesting piece for review.

  • The Rev.

    Yeah, sorry, I got lazy with the title there. I’ve seen the older one. Unfortunately.

  • Gamera977

    I watched a Japanese/American movie ‘Temple’ on Netflix last night. I had a kitsune (Japanese fox that can shapeshift into a human form) as one of the monsters. In most tales and movies an evil kitsune takes the form of a beautiful woman to seduce a man like a succubus but here she’s portrayed more like a Western werewolf. Decent flick, and only an hour and fifteen minutes long so it’s kinda a nice change from so many three hour movies we get these days.