Posts Tagged ‘Monster of the Week’
Originally posted: June 13, 2008 @ 11:27am PST
Pictured: Mirror-Dimension monster from Jetman (1991)
This week’s Monster of the Week was a bit of a challenge for me. I didn’t want to cover another Toho monster so soon, yet there weren’t any movies I’d seen recently that really had a creature begging, "Show me off!" I racked my brain trying to figure out a monster to cover, when I came across this picture.
Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to introduce you to Mirror-Dimension….
He’s one of the enemies that the Jetman team face off against early on in the series and is actually rather powerful. His abilities include being able to fire beams from his eyes, being able to teleport away (fade), or to appear from any reflective surface. He can also fire another beam from his torso that traps people inside the big mirror (he can use this from any reflective surface, as well). I’ll be using both civilian and hero names for the members of Jetman, so here’s a key for newcomers.
Ryu = Red Hawk
Lyta = Yellow Owl
Kaori = White Swan
Gai = Black Condor
Ako = Blue Swallow
The first time we see his actions, he captures a young boy while he’s looking in a mirror. Later, he captures a woman from a fashion store who was trying on some clothes. When the Jetmen first encounter him he’s kidnapped a girl who’d looked into the mirror of her compact. Ryu, Lyta and Kaori go to the bench the girl was sitting on and pick up the compact, only to have explosions go off nearby. Ryu gets knocked near a window and the monster’s arm reaches through the reflection and grabs Ryu around the neck. Lyta and Kaori succeed in pulling the monster out of the window, where he puts up a good fight until the other two appears, then he fades away.
Later, Ryu is talking to the woman that his grandmother tries to match him up with. Suddenly she too gets captured by the monster (they were standing by a lake and it reflected her). The others show up again and this time Maria, the monster’s boss, appears and tells them that if they destroy the mirror its captives will be destroyed along with it. The monster starts trying to absorb the Jetmen when Ryu’s grandmother runs out to intercept the ray with her own compact. The ray bounces back to Maria, instead, who demands to be let out of the mirror afterwards… to let her out, the monster has to let out all of his captives, as well, and they all go free. The Jetmen are free to change into uniforms and try to shoot the monster, but his polished surface reflects their shots right back at them. The Jetmen attack by jumping at the monster with their swords (or in the case of Yellow Owl, a large rock) and shatter his mirror, destroying him.
While not my most favorite monster from the series, he is definitely in my top list. I love the concept of a mirror able to absorb people into itself. This isn’t the only time the concept is used, either. Two years later, in Dairanger
, there’s another mirror monster that also absorbs people, but in this case has kept a woman inside it for centuries. Stay tuned for more monsters, both mainstream and sentai, here on Happy Horror!
Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
Originally published: June 8, 2006 @ 4:00am PST
"STOP!"
says the Gatekeeper from Nightmare, the VHS board game
This week’s Monster of the Week may not seem like a monster, really. He looks human, in a way. He’s probably not as scary as Jason or Freddy or any number of other movie villains. He’s the host of a series of games called Nightmare and Atmosfear. The games are played using a VHS tape or, most recently, a DVD. The game will take up to an hour (times vary depending on the game you’re playing), with the tape/DVD acting as the timer.
Sounds easy, you say? Not so fast, not with the Gatekeeper…
"Wave to me, precious. I’m waving to you. I’m waving you good-byyyye. You’re banished."
- The Gatekeeper from VHS board game Atmosfear: The Harbingers
The first game, Nightmare (released as Atmosfear outside the United States) introduced us to the Gatekeeper, who looked relatively normal. As the game progressed, though, he started looking stranger and stranger, until, by the end, he was blacklit, purple-faced and green-eyed. This is very similar to how he appears in the first American Atmosfear game. During the game, he’ll give out commands, ask the players questions, banish people to Black Holes (and release them at certain intervals), and generally do everything he can to prevent any players from winning the game. The DVD game, released last year, introduced a random element to the game. Before, when playing the game multiple times, you could pretty much memorize what would happen when. In the new DVD version he randomly hits you with different commands, making every game played different from the last.
"I’m just trying to picture you with a personality… nope, can’t see it."
- Gatekeeper from the DVD board game Atmosfear: the Gatekeeper
The story behind the Gatekeeper is this: He’s the one that keeps the Harbingers powers in check and keeps them out of our world. If one of these Harbingers… the Vampire, Zombie, Werewolf, Mummy, Witch or Poltergeist… were to escape their terror-tory and enter our world, they would wreak havoc upon us. However, since he’s immortal, it can get pretty boring so he gives the Harbingers a chance to escape… if they can beat him at his own game. So far, at least in the games I’ve played, he’s never lost.
The Atmosfear series of games is really fun and I hope to cover a game of it in a future article for this site. Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
Originally published: May 31, 2006 @ 10:29pm PST
In 1998, after having the rights for five years, Tri-Star released their version of Godzilla to American theaters. Many fans were upset by this new version of Godzilla, as he didn’t have the same abilities or intelligence, as the original. This anger led to the American Godzilla being referred to as GINO (Godzilla in Name Only), Fraudzilla and similar names. I, myself, saw the movie twice at the drive-in and enjoyed it but I CAN understand the unhappiness that some fans felt due to the change.
In the movie, it was stated that Zilla was the result of French nuclear testing in the Pacific Islands, a mutated iguana. The first time we see the actual creature, he attacks a Japanese cannery vessel and the only survivor of it calls him "Gojira. Gojira." The next time we see anything of him, it’s simply his footprints as he crosses over Panama to get to the Atlantic Ocean. Then he brings down three fishing vessels on his way to New York City. All this time, the most we’ve seen of him is his teeth and tail, his footprints, the claw marks he’d left on the Japanese ship…
Soon he’s coming up right outside New York City, smashing through the docks and picking up ships on his back along the way. He tromps right through traffic, smashing through buildings to make his way. After evacuating the city, Nico "Nick" Tatopolous suggests that they bait the creature, using a ton of fish in the middle of an intersection. The plan works, with Zilla first checking out Nick then moving on to pick up the bait. The military opens fire on Zilla, he runs and we see the first example of differences between the Japanese and the American… Godzilla (Japanese) doesn’t run from enemies – he takes them on. At one point Zilla turns, roaring at some pursuers and his roar overturns some vehicles, causing them to explode, giving the illusion of the original’s atomic fire (this happens again later in the movie). Also at this point, the mayor mentions that the military is doing more damage to the city than Zilla is.
Nick realizes later that Zilla has laid eggs somewhere in the city. While nobody believes him after a news report spills the beans on Zilla, an agent from the French secret service (Phillipe) does, so he asks for his help in locating the nest. They find it (in Madison Square Garden, no less) and start to make ready to blow up the eggs with plastic explosive, only there’s not enough to go around since there are WAY more eggs than Nick had predicted. The eggs start hatching, which leads to a large chase around Madison Square Garden that’s really reminiscent of the Raptor chases in Jurassic Park. They manage to get a message to the outside and when they head to leave through the front doors, they find a mob of the creatures there (which reminded me of the end scene of Gremlins 2). The Garden gets blown up, and Zilla returns to find all his babies dead. He starts chasing after the heroes, allowing them to trap him on a collapsing suspension bridge where some fighter jets fire the last of their missiles into his sides, killing him. Everyone thinks the fight is over, but the movie closes with a view into Madison Square Garden, to a room that didn’t get blown up and a single egg that hadn’t hatched yet…
There were originally plans for two sequels to the movie, but because the movie was so ill-received those plans have never come to fruition. However, that’s not the end of the American Godzilla, as around this time an animated series was produced, using the same creature design – in a heroic role. This animated Zilla was the last baby from the movie and in the beginning, it imprints on Nick and sees him as a parent. The series was relatively successful and the only reason it probably didn’t last longer than it did was because it was overshadowed by the Pokemon/Digimon war for the hearts of animation lovers.
In 2001 Toho made a reference to Zilla at the beginning of Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out . Some training soldiers are in a classroom and they’re being briefed on several giant monsters, when one trainee asks about the monster that attacked New York. The teacher said that the Americans thought it was Godzilla, but they were wrong.
In 2004 Zilla made one more movie appearance in the Godzilla 50th Anniversary film Godzilla: Final Wars. Zilla appears in Sydney, Australia and seems to eat a couple people (something that most Kaiju in Toho movies never do) and generally runs around the city until the aliens show up and beam him out of Sydney. When the monsters attack all-out again later and the real Godzilla is being led towards Tokyo to deal with the main threat, Zilla is the first monster to stand in his way, after Gigan (who was last week’s Monster of the Week – you can find him by clicking: HERE). The battle is short-lived, as Godzilla throws Zilla into the famous opera house and lets loose with his atomic breath attack, sending both Zilla and the opera house up in flames. The leader of the enemy yells and says, "I knew that tuna-eating monster was useless," a reference to the bait scene in the American film.
This would be the end of Zilla if not for an advertisement I saw just recently. He made an appearance in a Doritos ad where instead of all the fish, he picked up and ate a whole truckload of Doritos. This was the inspiration for me to pick the Monster of the Week and I hope that the article has been informative. Until next time, this is Red Hawk signing out!
Originally published: May 24, 2006 @ 04:35am PST
Gigan
One of Godzilla’s most unusual-looking enemies, Gigan is something of an anomaly.
One night, when a friend and I were watching Godzilla Versus Megalon, which has Gigan as a guest enemy, my friend showed me the movie summary provided by the satellite company, where they called Gigan a “giant, black chicken”. We both cracked up pretty well at this, as Gigan doesn’t generally look that chicken-like, outside of his mouth area looking slightly like a beak.
Gigan was, in his original appearances, 65 meters tall and 25,000 tons. He lacked hands, instead having large metal hooks at the ends of his arms, plus a series of spikes up and down his abdomen that would spin like buzzsaws. He first appeared in the movie “Godzilla Vs. Gigan” (1972), (which I also found an MP3 of) where invading aliens used him and King Ghidorah, to try to take over the Earth but they met with resistance from Godzilla and Anguirus. Once the heroic daikaiju started winning, Gigan turned tail and ran, followed quickly by Ghidorah.
His next appearance was in 1973’s “Godzilla Vs. Megalon”, where he teamed with Megalon against Godzilla and the fighting robot Jet Jaguar. Once again, the evil monsters start out winning against the two heroes but when the tables were turned, Gigan fled once again. This would be Gigan’s last movie appearance for 31 years (he appeared in an episode of the Japanese TV series “Zone Fighter,” which I hope to acquire someday soon).
Fast forward to 2004 and Toho Studio’s big 50th anniversary film “Godzilla: Final Wars”. The movie features Godzilla and Mothra, as well as new looks for Ghidorah, Rodan, Minilla aka Minya and Anguirus. It also featured several daikaiju that hadn’t been seen since their film debuts: King Caesar, Ebirah, Kamacuras, Kumonga, Manda and Hedorah. The star returning monster, though, in this monster mash was Gigan who also got a major upgrade to his looks. When first shown, Gigan is a recently discovered corpse that nobody knew anything about, save that it showed traces of similar DNA to mutant humans that had appeared shortly before. When the villains attacked Earth Gigan shook off its decrepit remains and became a lean, mean fighting machine. This new version of Gigan stood at 120 meters tall and weighed in at 60,000 tons. Ordered to destroy Tokyo, the enemy quickly changed its orders to follow the airship Gotengo and try to destroy it as it was flying to awaken Godzilla.
As the airship reached the South Pole, where Godzilla was hibernating, Gigan started firing on it and took it down. As Gigan was about to unleash the final blow, Godzilla awoke and blasted him with his atomic fire. A short fight later and Godzilla blew off Gigan’s head, then started chasing after the Gotengo who was leading it to Tokyo.
Gigan wasn’t finished yet, though. The invaders brought him back and reactivated him, replacing his hooks with large buzzsaws and the ability to fire razor disks from his shoulders. This new version of Gigan was sent to take on Mothra, who had defeated the original version of him centuries before. In the end, both adversaries were defeated, as Gigan’s eyebeam set Mothra on fire, his razor blades slicing off his own head once again… the burning Mothra flew into Gigan to finish the job.
Who knows what lies in store for the big G in the future, once Toho Studios begins making new Godzilla movies again (after Final Wars, they put the movies on hiatus to try to build up interest again). Maybe we’ll see Gigan return for further adventures. He really is one of Godzilla’s most unique adversaries and one that I, myself, would like to see on the screen again.
