Thursday, May 1, 2014

The Giant Gila Monster (1959)

How bad is it? It's a typical giant reptile movie, so it's not very good.
Should you see it? Yes. Skip the remake, though.

This is the film that taught me about blocking in films. The scripts don't describe much mise en scene and don't say how actors should be placed and move. In this film, the sheriff looks very comfortable wherever he goes, as he puts his foot up on some object... the bumper of a car, a stool, a rock, etc. But once you notice it, he does it in every scene and I swear you can see him looking for something to put his foot on.

The film relies on back-projection and live monsters moving around scaled-down toy sets. It also relies upon stereotypes and pointless conversations. I've always thought the coolest thing about gila monsters is that they defend themselves by squirting blood out of their eyes - that would've been a cool addition to this film.

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