Mothra Art

 

The most colorful kaiju continues to be an inspiration for artists from all over the world. 

Trailer - GODZILLA MINUS ONE (2023)

I can hardly wait for December to get to see this on the big screen! 

Trailers From Hell - FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD (1966)

Dana Gould displays his love for this blast of kaiju awesomness! 

What I Watched in April

Legendary’s MonsterVerse films have been a lot of fun and GODZILLA VS KONG (2021) is no exception. In fact, it was good to see the film stick to its predecessor’s crazed intentions and just go for broke. Crammed with as much action as possible the battles feel viscerally violent and exciting. This is the knock-down-drag-out fight I was wanting to see! After hearing the usual fanboy whining I have come to expect about this series, it was great to just revel in the sheer giant monster spectacle of this story and feel like my every kaiju wish was being fulfilled. There are so many mad visions onscreen the movie often felt like watching a painted comic/graphic novel come to life. It is stuffed with so many wild ideas it will be left to the individual viewer to pick a favorite with mine being the entire Hollow Earth sequence. Never so wondrously realized before, the film takes this classic science fiction concept and presents it in a way that makes me long for a movie that happens just in that location. Maybe with hints of Skartaris and Pellicidar thrown in as nods to great long-form tales set in similar places. I hope they get to make more films in this world but I don’t see how they can really go much bigger than this incredible entry.

The List  

CLASS OF 1999 (1990) – 7 (fun, low budget SF action) 

DEADLINE (1980) – 7 (interesting Canadian horror) 

THE FINAL PROGRAMME (1973) – 8 (rewatch on Blu) 

HOPALONG CASSIDY (1935) – 6 (the first in the series) 

KENTUCKY KERNALS (19634) – 6 (fun Wheeler & Woolsey comedy with Spanky) 

GODZILLA VS. KONG (2021) – 8 

WAR OF THE GOD MONSTERS (1985) – 3 (Korean kaiju mess) 

TARZAN’S PERIL (1951) – 6 (rewatch) (solid Lex Barker outing) 

HERCULES AND THE CAPTIVE WOMEN (1961) – 7 (rewatch on Blu) 

TARZAN’S SAVAGE FURY (1952) – 7 

WHIRLPOOL (1970) – 7 (rewatch on Blu) 

OUR VINES HAVE TENDER GRAPES (1945) – 9 (wonderful drama with excellent cast) 

ALL THE SCREAMS OF SILENCE (1975) – 6 (twisty murder mystery with Naschy) 

SEVEN DEATHS IN A CAT’S EYE (1973) – 7 (rewatch on Blu) 

TARZAN AND THE SLAVE GIRL (1950) – 7 (rewatch) (well done adventure) 

THE COMING OF SIN (1978) – 7 

MORTAL KOMBAT (2021) – 6 (actually not bad) 

FANGS OF THE ARTIC (1953) – 6 (Chinook only gets to attack one bad guy!)

THE FACE AT THE WONDOW (1939) – 6 (creaky Tod Slaughter stage melodrama) 

CEMETERY OF TERROR (1985) – 4 (clumsy Mexican horror mess) 

THE FANTASIST (1986) – 4 (confused, disjointed Irish thriller) 

UNKNOWN ORIGINS (2020) – 7 (well done Spanish cop/superhero story) 

THE STORY OF ROBIN HOOD AND HIS MERRIE MEN (1952) – 7 (Disney version is quite good) 

THE KING’S THIEF (1955) – 8 (excellent swashbuckler with great cast) 

BULLET FOR A BADMAN (1964) – 7 (Audie Murphy vs. Darren McGavin) 

 

The Bloody Pit #89 - GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE (1989)

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE (1989) and we use that fact to discuss one of the least talked about movies of the Heisei era. The film contains a truly unique adversary for our favorite irradiated lizard. I mean, how many giant monsters are constructed from a rose bush and the spirit of a dead young girl? Jason Spear joins Troy and I to talk about this exceptional entry in the second age of the Big G’s cinematic history. Before we dig into the main topic, we consider the wealth of Godzilla Blu-Ray news that has been announced since our last conversation. The exciting Criterion #1000 release of the entire Showa series is chewed over as well as the recent Mill Creek MOTHRA Blu. We even talk about the extraordinary news that Mill Creek will be possibly releasing all of the various Ultra Man series in chronological order. Included in the opening section is a rundown (in every sense of that word) of the three Godzilla anime films with Troy and Jason explaining why I never need to see them. It’s not all good, folks!

Once the discussion of GODZILLA VS BIOLLANTE (1989) begins we range all over the film’s running time. We note the long break between 1984’s THE RETURN OF GODZILLA and the bizarre crowd-sourced way in which the new plant-based creature was created. Jason relates his amusing theory that the official Toho tale of the genesis of Biollante might be slightly fictional, much to my surprise. The film’s many strengths are examined as well as the sometimes very 1980’s John Williams nature of the movie’s musical cues. The details of the excellent Godzilla suit are discussed with perhaps too much time spent talking about the tongue. We mostly stay on target as we go along but I must apologize for my nearly five-minute-long rant about the Jurassic Park films. Sorry about that.

If you want to join the Godzilla themed conversation, you can email the show at thebloodypit@gmail.com or drop us a message on the Bloody Pit FaceBook page. We plan to have Jason back soon to talk about another Dario Argento film before we delve back into kaiju movies again. This is pretty fun! Thanks for listening.

Apple Podcasts LINK

MP3 Direct Download LINK


  

The Bloody Pit #58 - GAMERA (1965)

NOTICE - There is an audio glitch in the first couple of minutes of our conversation that pushes our voices into one channel. It clears up quickly and remains fine for the rest of the show. It is not your equipment - it was ours!

Having covered a number of Godzilla films over the past two years Troy and I finally move outside of the Toho stable of giant monsters to talk about GAMERA! The giant friend to children everywhere has gone through many iterations over the past fifty-two years but one thing remains the same - he's a flying turtle! How in the hell did that even become a thing?

Regardless, we dig into the genesis of everyone's favorite giant Testudine (yeah, we're educated) and relate our history with Gamera as well as the strange ways in which we discovered his adventures. We delve into the two separate versions of the film with attention paid to the alterations and additions made when it was brought to America. Originally a lean 75 minutes the film's extended US length adds much but is the extra time well used? We have much to say about that, let me tell you! We dig into the pathology of  young Toshio as he endlessly seeks to end his own life and the lives of his countrymen by offering himself up as bait/sacrifice to the hideous turtle monster. Rarely has attempted suicide been presented in such a positive light, much less the desire for immolation by prehistoric sea-beast. Circa 1965, truly, the Japanese child-rearing standards were well overdue for an overhaul!

I try (and fail) to contain my hatred for small, precocious, turtle obsessed Japanese children named Toshio while Troy does his best to keep the show on an even keel. We marvel over the technical achievements of the film and it's audacious move to co-opt the younger audience of the Godzilla franchise. The more serious aspects of the story are discussed along with some of the fascinating behind the scenes tales that demonstrate the difficulty of producing movies at this level of complexity. Remember - Mr. Flame is not always your friend!

We can be reached at thebloodypit@gmail.com or on the Bloody Pit FaceBook page. If you have any comments or suggestions please drop us a line. Thank you for downloading and listening to our little dog and turtle show.

iTunes LINK 

Direct Download LINK 

G-Fest 2017 Image Dump!

And I only bought a small portion of this stuff! Sometimes my willpower amazes me. 

Giant Phantom Monster Agon (1966)

I'm just back from Chicago's G-Fest convention with a new obsession - AGON! Over the weekend I got to see the first two episodes of this fun little kaiju series in four parts and now I'm excited to sit down and see the second half. It's a very slight piece of non-Toho giant monster fun but it has the effect of making me smile like I was a kid again. Certainly not to everyone's tastes but......