1950s Science Fiction

Often today's movies rely on eye candy of special effects. It’s what people are used to. Give them something that’s convincing or real. Never mind the story. Don’t bother with the heart of the story.

There's the computers to make the special effects. There's the blue screen that actors can react to. But the effects start to take over. People are so worried about the majestic quality of special effects that they forgot the backbone of the film: the writing. The sweat of hard work.

There’s a time when there were no computers to help out the whiz kids. No gadgets to whip up an effect. No easy way out.

During the cold war era, Eisenhauer and drive-in restaurants, there weren't many forays into the science fiction realm. Most of them were B-budget movies of bug-eyed creatures and giant tarantulas.

Yet two films remain icons of today’s exploration into S-F. They're the genesis of the 1950s “scare” era. They leave you numbed because you are thinking about the story. And special effects take the back seat role.

Yet landscape of effects are a gem: the architecture of special effects pushed these films to the furthest edge. Taking movie-goers to a world of brilliant fiction. And the films still rival with today’s films.

“Forbidden Planet” was an epic of its time. The sure-fire beauty of its special effects are evened out with the story inspired by Shakespeare's The Temptest. Take a look at this film and it’s hard to believe it was made in the 1950s.

The bold interior of alien design on the planet is still unsettling. Like some Lovecraftian tunnel reaching downward, plunging deeper into its abyss. Just like the story revolving around Walter Pigdeon’s character--how his unconsciousness controlled the walking nightmares.

Listen to the throbbing heartbeat of the approaching invisible monster. I dare you to listen to it while you’re alone at your house--its wretched pulse prompted by the alien wailing. It produces something eerie. “The Forbidden Planet” was able to turn a story around on horror while using special effects that made sense. They added to the story. Never distracted from it.

How influential was “The Forbidden Planet”? Just watch the excellent Doctor Who episode “Planet of Evil” with Tom Baker which draws from the best qualities of the 1950s film. The episode of Johnny Quest “The Invisible Monster” takes its cue from this masterful film.

There’s no getting away from “The Forbidden Planet.” It has left a haunting landmark in the S-F field when the notion of loneliness seemed to be the most prevalent thing. It continues to be a very human story.

Another icon from the 1950s is “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” Despite being filmed in graceful black and white, it has a haunting quality. It’s a jarring style that anchors the viewer right away to an alien’s dilemma. He brings to earth a message of peace--to stop humanity from going down the path of self-destruction. It’s a forewarning of things to come.

“Day the Earth Stood Still” is a classic example of best science-fiction. The special effects are never overwhelming. They continue to compliment the story. And the story is a very basic one. Where a mother and son befriends this very alien Klaatu who assumed a false identity to try living as a human. All the while people hunt him down like he is a caged animal.

There are always moments of calmness. And subtlety. The film manages to compare favorably with today’s standards. Not an easy feat. It’s the human story that wins over the viewer. And the special effects continue to mesmerize--especially when time literally stops for everyone. The alien Klaatu forces the human race to realize their own foolishness with their violent ways.

This film has a smart message to it. And it helps people to understand their own failings. Soon to become better for it.

Remember the magic words are Klaatu birada nikto.

Aussie Horror

How does the horror genre begin? With a peaceful place. With a darker underbelly thriving beneath.

The allure of the Outback, with its long stretch of desert choked with drought, offers a totally alien atmosphere. The Australian Outback gives away to an unquiet calm.

This is one of the virtues for the film Wolf Creek. The newcomer director Greg McLean knows how to make mood. There’s just a hallowed, empty feeling. You don’t find anything except for a dead end. Literally.

Wolf Creek makes brilliant use of location shots. From the meteor crater to the desolate roads that shoots like a straight line. It’s a far cry from the metropolitan areas such as Adelaide. The cities seem safer. More at ease.

In the outback, there’s a vastness to it. When the sun dips below the horizon, it feels haunting, lonely. There’s a definite sense of horror weaving into the sandy grounds. There’s just miles of nothing.

Seemingly it reflects the soul of a serial killer simply called Mick. He’s a cold-hearted one. Just a killer with a friendly face. He is one with the desert. He drives a monster truck that can tow other cars into safety. Or his own type of haven.

The film takes a dark detour into the sadistic. When a trio of youngsters, two women and a man, find their car died in the middle of nowhere, they have no choice but to go with Mick. The Outback resident is willing to help out all too eagerly. He’s a good mechanic. He makes farting jokes. In many ways, he’s very human.

Yet he has a different face. The three-some find they have been brought to his hunting grounds. Where Mick fancies tortures, strips the bodies in Ed Gein style. The corpses hang in hidden wooden sheds. Mick carries knives and guns. He keeps hunting trophies. Dead people.

He unleashes terror on the three young people… Lizzy, Kristy and Ben. They find a true heart of darkness in the vast wilderness.

It’s a well-made film. There’s no doubt about it. There’s a meticulous craft in the film There’s a precaution of style in it. Each scene has an impending doom in it. The violence is gritty, real.

When the horror hits, it is gut-wrenching and terrible thing. You feel bad for these kids because you got to know them in the first hour of the film. Then they are stripped away from everything they knew that was safe in their world. They have stumbled into a different place where only pain exists. As the young Aussies find out.

I do like the slow, mind-bending build-up that makes a good horror film. The gore is confined to some crucial scenes: it feels disturbing because you’re watching like a helpless victim.

There’s one crucial scene with Lizzy who watches the torture of Kristy. As an audience we see through her eyes: we’re helpless like she is. It’s not a good feeling.

However, I’ve seen the same story in many movies before. It has the same plot as The Hills Has Eyes and Texas Chainsaw Massacre… also Devil’s Rejects and the Wrong Turn. I’ve seen the same plot in dozens of other stories. There’s always got to be some hick out there waiting to slice-and-dice his victims. I’ve seen it before. It’s nothing new. That’s Wolf Creek’s only downfall. It travels the same roads as other horror films have.

It’s still worth seeing. Especially for horror aficionados. Check it out at local video stores since it came out last Tuesday. There’s a certain quality that feels unnerving. Like the French film High Tension, a sister film that pushes gore over the edge, Wolf Creek film cuts away the innocence of humanity. And leaves the ruins of horror at our feet.

Try not to walk the street alone in places like this. You might run into someone you don’t like.

Gothic Decorating in Doctor Who

There’s the time when the Doctor Who series reveled in the morbid. It takes a different path down the frightened streets of the Rue Morgue. It becomes a fascinating study in the gruesome.

Season thirteen in 1976 was intertwined with everything gothic. Horror became the focus of the stories. It’s the perfect melding of horror and science-fiction that was introduced to the Saturday evening serials.

Tom Baker was the most recognized actor in the role: his mop of curly hair was coupled with the long, trailing scarf. The Bohemian wanderer who traveled the cosmos.

There’s also a brooding side to him which matched the gothic mood. My own favorite Doctor Who. He walked into the part with an amazing confidence playing a man of eternity. A time-lord with a mysterious past.

Tom's performance is always good. He was an anchor to the show.

Plus the script editor was Robert Holmes. Phillip Hinchcliffe was making his mark as the show’s producer.

No longer was it considered a children’s program. It would be steeped into monstrous lore like none other. It was filled with themes of the mummy, Frankenstein, Forbidden Planet and other literary landmarks. It was a chorus of horror. The parade of monsters populate the stories were of a nightmarish variety.

Doctor Who does horror very well. It always has.

The writing grew tighter in these twelve different stories. A brush of terror would sweep the series into newer heights of storytelling. Those working on Doctor Who in the mid-seventies knew that children liked to be scared. The show makes good its promise.

Painting a terrifying canvas, the show's creativity lumbers toward the creepy. With an added shot of atmosphere. There’s also a psychological blend with infuses with the stories that makes them unsettling. Humanity becomes disfigured in this gothic period.

“Terror of the Zygons” sets the series on the path: it was atmosphere with notable music. It brings to life the Loch Ness Monster which turns out to be a mere puppet to its masters who could change their appearance at will.

The gothic lineage continues with “Planet of Evil”… a beautifully realized alien world is completed with a Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde tale.

The series reaches its apex with the story “Pyramids of Mars” with a perfect blending of Egyptology and super-science. The sets were created to capture the era of 1909 to stunning, lovely detail. Its the mood that rekindles memories. I can never forget one bit with the evil, god-like Sutekh’s disciple who leaves burning marks as he grabs a victim’s shoulders. The poor man becomes a charred ruin.

More gothic themes could be found in “The Brain of Morbius” and the rest of season thirteen. The same self-made horror trend continues in season fourteen reaching a shuddering familiarity. It is inspired terror. Horror becomes defined here. It climbs a ladder of repugnance. And that’s why Doctor Who remains so effective: the horror is convincing.

Season fourteen continues with its mythology with twists. The final story of the season, “Talons of Weng-Chiang” is a beautiful revisiting to the Victorian era populated with giant rats, a midget-like puppet brandishing a bloodied knife, A Fu Manchu type villain and an escaped war criminal from the future. Masterful story by Holmes: it carves a niche in the Baker era. The episode turns to Sherlock Holmes for inspiration. And more. There’s no question that horror is a release for these stories: to explore the depravity that nudges us all. Doctor Who just pushes us over the edge.

Tom Baker should be proud of having done these stories. They all should be. Horror never dies. Fear lives in everyone’s darkest thoughts.

The Art of Bad

There are some bad movies. Then there are some really bad movies.

“A Sound of Thunder” is one of them.

Potentially a good idea from the start, and it does well in its first twenty minutes, the film deteriorates into inane fodder. Nothing makes sense in the film. The internal logic is ridiculous. And like so many science-fiction movies, it takes a good idea and turns it into crap. Then it gets flushed down the crapper. Where it belongs.

“A Sound of Thunder” insults your intelligence with bad science. Award-winning Ray Bradbury wrote the original story which explores the idea of time ripples. How time can affect the future. The alterations crank through the wound in time.

He's a good writer. So he's not to blame for this.

So who's to blame then?

All of it is thrown out for bad acting, dumb science and window dressing. Though none of it gets passed above-average results.

Had I known it was directed by the self-same twat Peter Hyams who did the film “Time Cop,” I would’ve avoided it like the plague.

I did have a problem with the premise, however interesting, in the film: the notion that the death of a butterfly could change the entire history of the world.

The bigger problem is with the way the film's made. It seems like a kindergarten project. With a script that isn’t lively. And actors who look like they’re sleepwalking through the entire film. Did I mention it was dumb too?

You bet I did. And I’ll say it again.

The film tells of a businessman who co-owns a company who brings back rich people to hunt a dinosaur some millions of years ago. They go back for perhaps for five minutes, get their kicks and go back to sprout something like, “I did kill a dinosaur! I did! You wouldn‘t believe it! I can‘t wait to tell my grandkids! Yep!”

Instead it never explores the philosophical issue of man’s disregard for mother nature. What it does is turn everything into an action flick. It doesn’t work.

And it gets dumber. And dumber. I would’ve preferred a date with Paris Hilton than watch this movie again.

I hope I don’t ever resort to this choice. Shoot me if it ever comes to that.

Time travel? Changing history? Parallel universes? I would recommend you watch an old show from the Doctor Who series than this. Doctor Who does it much better. With infinitely greater charm.

The film dictates the idea that evolution never occurred with the human race. And that dinosaurs must’ve died out too. Coming from the evolutionary soup were half-monkey, half-human apes. We assume that the ice age never happened.

Wait. There’s more.

We’re told that time changes at every twenty-four hour intervals. Why? There’s no reason for this.

Then we’re given the same old story that we’ve seen since the first Alien which came out in 1979. I liked the Alien film for this very reason: we expected team leader Captain Dallas to survive the decimated crew and not second-in-command Ripley.

Imagine our surprise when Ripley was the last to survive.

But we keep seeing this same plot in other films. The cast gets cut down like meat on hooks. They get bumped off one-by-one. It’s the same ploy we see in Aliens vs. Predator. And I’d rather not get into that one.

You waste two hours of your own life watching this film. It gives you no enlightenment. It does nothing to lift your spirits. You feel as if you could've spent your time doing something else than watching this farce. Digging beneath your toenails would be better than watching this. Getting eaten by a shark would be better. The list goes on.

There’s definitely one thing came out of this “A Sound of Thunder.“ They made stupidity into a science of its own.