Horror Histories Vol. 17 - The (failed) Remake from the Black Lagoon!

For this edition of Horror Histories, I’d like to talk about a remake that has yet to be made but is very close to my heart.  If you’ve read this blog with any regularity, you know that my favorite horror movie of all time is The Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954).  It’s an amazing film and if you don’t know much about it, go watch it now.  You’re really missing out otherwise.  If you don’t have the time though, you can go here and check out my post from last October. 

Now, if you look at every other big name Universal monster from that period, you’ll notice that each has had a remake (or two, or three) in the last four decades.  The only one who has not been through the reboot machine is the Gill-Man. 

Why?  Well, that’s an interesting story.  It’s been connected to some of the biggest names in Hollywood but it’s never come to fruition.  The stories of those failed attempts make for a fascinating look at the studio machine, so let’s talk about a few of them, shall we?

In 1982, John Landis approached Universal about producing a remake.  The studio was excited and a script was written by legendary screenwriter Nigel Kneale (the Quatermass series).   Landis was pushing for it to be directed by none other than Jack Arnold, the man who wrote and directed the original.  That alone would be enough to make me happy but it gets better.  Rick Baker, the genius behind the effects in An American Werewolf in London as well as many others, had been signed to create the practical effects.  His designs for the costume stayed true to the original Gill-Man suit and this looked like a film to get excited about.  

So what happened?

Landis is a huge fan of the original and he insisted that if Universal was going to let him produce it, then it would have to be in 3-D.  However, the studio  already had all their eggs in another 3-D basket in 1982.  It was Jaws 3-D and Universal didn’t want any competition on the schedule the following summer.  The project fell through and Landis moved on.

The next person to be attached to it was Joe Dante.  Dante was fine with not producing it in 3-D, and he was content to work of Kneale’s script but eventually he decided to pass on it and move on to other projects.  The idea of a remake bounced around for about a decade until it landed in the lap of John Carpenter. 

Of all the names attached to this movie, Carpenter’s is the one I was most excited about.  Anyone who has ever seen what he did with The Thing knows that he would have made this his own and still paid a loving tribute to the original.  He was given the script that Kneale had written but it hadn’t aged particularly well.  That script featured two Gill-Men, one aggressive and the other more humane.   Of course they were fighting over a woman and the rest kind of writes itself in a way. 

Carpenter is quoted as saying that the script was interesting but needed some work to get it where he wanted it to be.  Instead of hiring someone else, he approached Kneale about updating it.  He quickly found that Kneale didn’t want to change a word and according to Carpenter felt he was "above this horror thing".  So  Carpenter drafted screenwriter Tommy Lee Wallace (Halloween III: Season of the Witch) to help him.  

This version started gaining traction and by 1992, Carpenter was giving interviews about different ideas they’d been playing with, even incorporating some Lovecraftian bits about how the Gill-Man came to be.  Universal seemed more interested than ever, tossing around the idea that it would be a summer event movie.  Even more importantly, Carpenter brought back Rick Baker and both swore that the original design from 1954 was almost perfect.  Carpenter is literally quoted as saying, “Why fix it?”

His only caveat was that it needed to look less rubbery.

So what happened here?  There’s not a 100% solid answer on this.  There’s some indication that due to the demise of Carpenter’s Memoirs of an Invisible Man, the studio lost faith.  Whatever the reason, the movie fell by the wayside again and Ivan Reitman picked it up.

Again, he called on Rick Baker for the effects work.  This time around though, Baker didn’t like what he was seeing.  Reitman wanted to totally rework the design of the creature and also play up the evolutionary angle in the script.  The Gill-Man wouldn’t be the only monster in the lagoon and from what Baker’s gone on record as saying, it wasn’t something he was excited to be attached to.

Thankfully, that also fell through.

Gary Ross took a stab at remaking the film and his script was given to Guillermo Del Toro who agreed to direct for a brief time.  I’ve read a synopsis of this script and it’s pretty lame, doing away with what made the original great and replacing it with a battle between good “student” scientists and evil “corporate” scientists in a part of the jungle where evolution has gone insane.  Once again, the Gill-Man is just one of many antagonists and it comes across as something you’d see go direct to video.  Del Toro decided to move on to a different film.

I’ve also seen another variation on that script that had Tom Cruise attached to it at one point.  It involved the Creature being the protector of the Tree of Life.  It was disjointed and read more like a videogame script than a movie.  Think lots of obstacles, jump scares and very little heart.

Around that time, director Peter Jackson was offered a shot at it.  Initially he expressed interest but ultimately asked to direct his own personal passion project, the remake of King Kong.  

Most recently, when Universal announced their half-baked plan to create a shared universe featuring their monsters, Scarlett Johansson was offered a lead role.  With the tanking of Tom Cruise’s The Mummy, that whole plan seems to have been scrapped now which is probably for the best.

While there’s still some talk of remaking the original, at this point I’d be happy with that never happening.  My favorite thing about Guillermo Del Toro moving on when Universal couldn’t get their shit together is that he’s not the type to let that stop him.  While The Shape of Water (2017) isn’t a remake of The Creature from the Black Lagoon and isn’t really a horror film at all, it is very much a continuation of the original 1954 story.  It disregards the two sequels and imagines what could have happened if the Gill-Man had been captured and brought back to a lab for study.  

It’s a brilliant film that’s a love letter to Jack Arnold’s film as well as to cinema itself.  If you’re a Creature fan, you really couldn’t ask for much more.

Horror Histories Vol. 16 - The Wolfman vs. Dracula

Continuing on last week’s theme of movies that were never made, let’s talk about the great (and not so great) monster mash films from Universal’s golden age.  After the success of Dracula, Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and The Wolfman, Universal  got the bright idea of teaming up two monsters in one film.  The result was Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman, which to be fair sounds like one is welcoming the other to the neighborhood instead of actually fighting each other.  Despite a slew of troubles, it was a hit and for the next couple of films, Universal did their best to cram every monster they had onto the same screen.

House of Dracula and House of Frankenstein featured werewolves, vampires, the Frankenstein monster, hunchbacked assistants and even a Dr. Jekyll character.  They’re hilarious and charming and to be honest, they’re two of my all-time favorite movies.  There’s one obvious team up that never happened though.  What about The Wolfman vs. Dracula?

In actual fact, it almost did happen.  Even better, it was slated to star Lon Chaney Jr. (again reprising his Larry Talbot werewolf role) and the return of Bela Lugosi as the Count.  

The script was commissioned and it’s got some pretty good ideas in it.  The story involves a woman who becomes the target of Dracula’s desire; however Talbot (always the ladies’ man in any Wolfman picture) loves her also and wants to protect her.  Dracula uses his powers of transformation to become a wolf and frames Talbot for a series of murders in order to get him away from the girl he’s protecting.  Obviously, a battle ensues and the Wolfman wins.

Except he doesn’t.

One of the biggest problems with this film was the budget.  The Wolfman vs. Dracula was slated to be a color film and due to the cost of color, the budget was tight.  This made it so the Wolfman got very little screen time and instead, Larry Talbot (in human form) ends up fighting and killing Dracula while the latter is in the form of a bat.  Only afterward, does Talbot transform in what feels like a tacked on scene in the final fifteen minutes.  The Wolfman attacks the girl he loves before she shoots him with a silver bullet.

Aside from that letdown, the other thing that ultimately scuttled the film was the aforementioned bat effect.  Universal didn’t want Talbot battling an animated bat and the script required Lugosi to be suspended by wires in the (anti)climactic battle.  Lugosi was in his 60’s by this point and in no shape for those kinds of stunts.

Universal pulled the plug and threw the money at an adventure film instead.  Some stills and the script survived though.  They’re collected in Phillip J. Riley’s excellent book The Wolfman vs. Dracula which will give you the whole story.  You can find it on Amazon. 

Longing for more horror?  Check out my Amazon Author's page for a few nuggets.

See you next week!

Horror Histories Vol. 15 - War Eagles!

For the next few weeks, I want to focus on what never was.  Sounds confusing, I know, but it’s actually a fascinating subject when it comes to movies that were almost made but didn’t quite make it to production.  It’s especially fascinating when they’re connected to big name franchises or tried and true directors/producers.

To kick things off, let’s talk about War Eagles, one of the greatest movies never made.  A few weeks back, I posted about the true story that inspired Merrian C. Cooper’s King Kong.  The gigantic success of that picture seemed to have set up Cooper to be a major player in Hollywood for years to come.  

His next picture was an action/romance film called Flying Devils that featured daring aviation stunts and a love triangle resulting in an attempted murder.  Next up was his Kong sequel, Son of Kong, which isn’t nearly as good as the original but which I love dearly anyway.  

For his next film, Cooper had a hell of an idea and he began turning the wheels to make it happen.  

The plot involved an American pilot who crashes on a mysterious island.  He soon finds that it’s overrun with dinosaurs and while that sounds familiar, this next part takes a hard left into unexplored territory.  

You see, the island is also home to a race of Vikings who have been there for generations.  They’ve learned to tame some of the local fauna, in particular giant golden eagles who they ride into battle against the dinosaurs when attacked.

What happens next is pure 1930’s Hollywood gold!  Nazi’s also land on the island only this group is using it as a staging area to launch an attack on New York.  They have a secret weapon and if it’s deployed, it will cripple America and bring Nazi rule to the States.  

The American pilot convinces the Norsemen to help him stop the invaders and a battle between Nazi fighter planes and Vikings on giant eagles ensues in the skies above New York.

Tell me you don’t want to see that.  Seriously, it would have been one hell of a movie.

How close was it to being finished? 

The script had been polished and completed. Cooper had hired on Willis O’Brien (of King Kong fame) to do the effects work and his test footage designs and sketches had all been approved. 

Articulated models had been created and yes, the image above is one that still exists.  Sets were being constructed.  It was so close that you can almost taste it, but this time around the Nazi’s won.  

World War II escalated to a point where Cooper felt compelled to reenlist.  Once that happened, the bottom fell out and after the war ended, Cooper moved on to other things.

Still, the idea has floated around in the minds of film buffs for years and it actually reached some form of completion in 2008 as a novel.  

Carl Macek (Robotech) wrote a fully realized version that you can pick up at Amazon if you’re so inclined.  

However, if you want to read the original script as well as the definitive document on the whole project, you can.  War Eagles: The Unmaking of an Epic by David Conover is a love letter to this lost film.  It collects production notes, stills, test designs and more importantly, the finished script by none other than Cyril Hume (the man behind the script for Forbidden Planet). 

I encourage you to seek it out as it’s a fascinating read that will set your mind wandering over all the things that could have been if Hitler hadn’t pulled the rug out from under Merrian C. Cooper.

Want to read something not quite as epic but still compelling?  Check out my Amazon Author's page.

See you next week!

Horror Histories Vol. 14 - King Kong Appears in Edo

What if I told you that there was a Japanese giant monster film that predates Gojira by 16 years?  If you’re a film buff, you’d probably tell me I’m full of shit, but I could show you some stills of a giant ape terrorizing Tokyo that would blow your mind.

Not so sure I’m wrong now?  Well, to be honest you’d still be correct.  Technically, I’m full of shit, but those stills tell a fun story.

When the film industry first boomed in the U.S., a series of studios sprung up that are affectionately referred to as “poverty row”.  They created cheap, quick films that tended to try to cash in on whatever the latest movie craze was at the time.  The film industry in Japan was no different and in 1938, Zensho Cinema was one such company.  They were so cheap that even after the invention of sound, they continued to produce silent films all the way up until their demise in 1941.  So why would a cheapo movie studio even consider taking on the expense of a movie that required special effects?

The answer is simple:  King Kong.

In 1938, King Kong was getting a Japanese release.  Zensho knew this and commissioned a quickie film about a man whose daughter is kidnapped.  The villain who kidnapped her did so with the help of a trained pet gorilla named… 

wait for it… 

wait for it…

King Kong.

The only problem is the gorilla isn’t a giant.  It’s just a normal gorilla.  I won’t bore you with the details of the rest of the plot.  You can find that on Wikipedia. 

Zensho titled the film King Kong Appears In Edo and to drum up the connection with the American film, they produced stills that make the ape appear king-sized.  These were used in all of the advertisements of the time, leading moviegoers to believe they were paying for a special effects extravaganza when in fact it was a drama with a normal sized (though admittedly murderous) gorilla.

The film has since been lost and all that remains are the stills, so those who find them and don’t know the story can be forgiven for thinking that Gojira wasn’t the first giant monster to terrorize Tokyo.

Want something horrifying that won't leave you feeling cheated?  Check out my Amazon Author's page.

See you next week!

Exploring Japan Vol. 9 - Godzilla!!!!!

Those of you who know me or have read the blog for a while know I’m a monster fan at heart.  You’ve probably been asking yourself why it’s taking me so long to address Godzilla in all of these posts about visiting Japan.  Well the fact is, he’s more difficult to find than you’d think.  Sure, you’ll see him in the occasional gachapon machine and you can find toys in most decent toy stores, but there’s no Godzilla museum or even a decent exhibit in a Toho theater. Instead, you have to travel around and check out multiple sites that have a few things here and there.

First up, you can visit the Toho theater in Shibuya.  On the third floor, you’ll find the original Gojira statue that used to sit outside in a courtyard area.  As you can see, it’s kind of small given the subject matter, but it’s a cool statue nonetheless.

It was moved here after it was replaced by this statue in that same courtyard.  This version is the same one seen in the excellent Shin-Gojira that was a huge hit in Japan in 2016.  It’s bigger than the original but still, it’s not Godzilla-sized and it's just a statue in a courtyard.

What you really want to see is something big, crazy and loud, right?

There’s only one of those and it’s in Shinjuku.  That’s right, the same Shinjuku that I described last week as a little on the shady side.  The Hotel Gracery partnered with Toho in constructing a giant Gojira head and claws on its roof.  

Even from a distance, it looks like he’s about to come right over the building.  It’s located (conveniently) on Godzilla street.  

Take the elevator up to the lobby and you’ll be confronted with this awesome display featuring every single Toho Gojira movie poster in chronological order, from the original all the way through Shin-Gojira.  

Then, you can walk out onto the roof and see the big guy up close and personal.  

The base features famous scenes and an area where you can activate a low roar and sound effects.  The real treat is to be there when the giant head comes to life. Steam and lights begin pouring from its mouth and it lets out with a very loud roar!

Once you’ve finished looking around, if you still want a little more Gojira related fun, head to the hotel’s café and you can order a themed dessert.  I can’t vouch for them because we weren't hungry, but the main one is meant to resemble elevated train tracks and I’m sure playing with your food in this situation would not be frowned upon.

These are the major Gojira attractions in Tokyo proper, however there are others outside the area that we didn’t get to.  

For instance, there’s the giant slide at this playground called Kurihama Flower Park in Kanagawa.  

There’s also a giant footprint and plaque in Kanonzaki commemorating where the beast first made landfall in the original film.  

For years there was a slide and statue here also but it deteriorated and was torn down in the 1970’s. 

Finally, for those who are diehards who really want to spend a day getting closer to their favorite film, you can visit any number of major sites that were replicated in miniature and destroyed by the man in the rubber suit.  Here’s a quick list of some you can easily see by foot, train or river cruise.

Tokyo Tower – featured in multiple movies this was destroyed in many kaiju films from Gojira to Gamera.  At the time of Godzilla’s heydey it was one of the tallest structures in the city measuring 333 feet high.  It’s now been overshadowed by Toyko’s Sky Tree Tower which has been voted by Japanese fans as the structure they’d most like to see destroyed in the next film.

National Diet Building – This is the home of the Japanese parliament and accounts say that people cheered in 1954 when Gojira destroyed part of it.  This was because there was still a lot of resistance to the proposed Treaty of Mutual Cooperation between Japan and the U.S.  In 2003, the big guy came back to finish the job with help from Mechagodzilla in Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S.

Ginza District – This is a very upscale area and in 1954 certain places within it were iconic.  That’s why Godzilla made it a point to smash the Matsuzakaya department store and the giant clock that tops Wako, another building that every Japanese native would recognize.  The Ginza district has been featured in many of the sequels as well.

Odaiba – This is an artificial island in Tokyo Bay that houses hotels, a mall (that felt a little too American to us), a giant ferris wheel and can now be accessed by monorail.  It was destroyed in Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000). Notice the ferris wheel on the far right in the picture above.

Kachidoki Bridge – This drawbridge was completely obliterated in the 1954 original film.  You can see it by taking a river cruise down from Asakusa to Hamarikyu Garden.  That same cruise will take you all the way to Odaiba if you want, but the Garden is a great place to wander and you shouldn’t miss it.

And that’s your Godzilla tour of Tokyo!  Next week, I’ll take you to a place even more horrible than anything ever imagined in any Godzilla film ever made:  Sanrio Puroland a.k.a. Hello Kitty Land.

Until then, if you want something almost as frightening to tide you over, check out my Amazon Author’s page.

See you next week!

Horror Histories Vol. 13 - The True Story Behind Ringu

One of my favorite things about being a horror fan is finding out about new subgenres I’d never heard of previously.  It’s not the same as hearing about an obscure film and seeking it out.  Finding a new subgenre is like being handed a chest full of gold.  Suddenly there a multiple films and an entire history to dig back through.

J-Horror (Japanese Horror) was one of those discoveries that sent me down a rabbit hole with seemingly no end.  There were so many good movies to dig through from old classics like Onibaba to the chaotic death match of Battle Royale to the twisted (pun purely intended) and gruesome Uzumaki.  Not to mention Juon: The Grudge, Pulse, Dark Water and a slew of others.  

The film that really brought J-Horror to most people’s attention was Ringu. It’s the story of a cursed videotape that brings death to whoever watches it.  The deadly ghost in the tape is named Sadako and as I mentioned in the blog about my visit to Aokigahara forest, she is modeled after the traditional descriptions of Japanese ghosts: long, scraggly black hair, a white burial robe and a thirst for vengeance.

What most people don’t realize is that the story behind Sadako’s tragic death and unresolved rage is actually real.  She is based on the true story of Chizuko Mifune.  

She lived over a hundred years ago and was rumored to have psychic powers.  Tokyo University’s own Tomokichi Fukurai heard the stories about her and decided it was worth investigating further.  After meeting her, he arranged to have a public demonstration so that everyone could see Chizuko’s powers for themselves.  Instead, people called her a fake. 

Whether she was a fake or really had a gift, no one knows for sure because before another test could be conducted, Chizuko took her own life.  This is almost the same back story given for Ringu’s vengeful spirit. 

As for the well that Sadako climbs out of, this is also based on a real haunted well.  In western Japan there is a famous castle called Himeji.  It happens to be the setting of one of the most famous ghost stories in all of Japan.  The story goes that a servant at the castle was approached by a samurai who tried to seduce her.  She refused him and in a fit of rage, the samurai killed her and threw her into the well.  Her ghost is said to haunt the well and the grounds around it to this day.

The picture above is of the well she threw herself into at Himeji Castle.  

   

If you haven’t seen Ringu, you really should.  It’s an extremely creepy movie that holds up very well, even though most people under 30 barely know what a “videotape” is.  

Also,if you’re looking for ghosts and ghostly happenings, check out my short story “A Debt to the Dead”.  You can find it on my Amazon Author’s page.

See you next week!