Day 12: Tarantula (1955)
Posted in2016 31 Days of Horror Classics

Day 12: Tarantula (1955)

It's Day 12 today, and we're closing out the 1950s! I admit that after reviewing the less-than-stellar It Came From Outer Space on Monday, I watched 1955's Tarantula with a slight trepidation. I had begun thinking that maybe Creature Features just weren't up my alley, but thankfully, I enjoyed today's film about 100 times more. There is still a certain B-movie feel to it (the premise is that a gigantic tarantula is terrorizing the town, after all), but for the most part it succeeds where many other monster movies of this era fail. It doesn't go over the top with kooky, animatronic creatures and silly…
Day 11: Gojira (1954)
Posted in2016 31 Days of Horror Classics

Day 11: Gojira (1954)

It's Day 11 of 31 Days of Horror, and we're talking about the 1954 monster classic Gojira!! It was later "Americanized" and changed into Godzilla, King of the Monsters! by adding in Raymond Burr and rearranging the plot structure and order of the film, but Gojira is the unaltered Japanese original. It wasn't even available in North America until over 50 years after it was released, but it happens to be the superior version in many aspects. Godzilla has remained popular throughout the years, what with the recent Gareth Edwards version and the new Shin Godzilla, so it's hard to…
Day 10: It Came From Outer Space (1953)
Posted in2016 31 Days of Horror Classics

Day 10: It Came From Outer Space (1953)

Welcome back! We're up to Day 10, and today we're talking about the 1953 Sci-Fi classic It Came From Outer Space, starring Barbara Rush and Richard Carlson. I'm sorry to say it, but I really didn't enjoy this movie very much. It is a combination of all the worst aspects of '50s movies: it's supremely cheesy, xenophobic, flimsy in plot, and just plain boring. It isn't horrible, or even BAD, necessarily...but it definitely does not stand the test of time. I fell asleep at least twice while watching, and then had to rewind to be sure I hadn't missed anything. Spoiler alert: I hadn't. It might be…