what ever happened to...?

[nuba km]

(cut to the second part for the conversation in this forum. I am watching tremors at the moment of writing for those who don't know about tremors you can watch it on youtube (I am watching it on tv) but to cut things short it's a movie about giant underground worm things who attack a desert town it is a great monster movie and very enjoyable.

any way I am wandering what happened to monster movies why to you never see any or the ones that come out don't have interesting monster and for secondary conversation purpose what genre of movie to you think is neglected?

 

[nuba km]

snip

1. the host is 4 years old and Korean so not really something that you will come across.
2. primeval looks more like horror rather then monster.
3. so far I have agreed with movie bob on every movie I have seen and he has reviewed so I am going to trust his opinion that monsters isn't worth watching.
4. I am going to check up rogue after this post. edit: 3 years old so not exactly recent.
the only monster movie which I know about that's coming out soon (I think already has in Poland) is troll hunters.

 

[Tallim]

It really depends on how you define what a monster movie is exactly.
Also what you mean by "interesting monster"

For instance would you count Jaws? It's not what immediately springs to mind when you mention monster movies but it certainly seems to fall under the category.

 

[nuba km]

snip

I have only ever seen small clips on youtube of the host so maybe I am unlucky. primeval I have only seen that trailer and it doesn't show a crocodile and makes it seem like horror. I see recent as last two years when it comes to movies.

snip

basically a monster movie is normally in three parts
1. establish the characters and why we should care. bad execution: make them ittitating and just give them young family members. good execution: make them fun and nice characters that are working towards a goal.
2. establish the monster and what it can too. bad execution: instantly reveal how the monster looks and make it kill two attractive people that are having sex. good execution: make small events that give clues to what the monster is and it's abilities.
3. monster attacks and the people try to fight it off which results in the support characters getting killed 1 by 1 and ending. bad execution: the support characters act like idiots and jerks doing stupid things. good execution: the support character tries something to stop the monster resulting in either a. the monster learning and becoming stronger eg jaws or b. the monster being weakened or c. the other characters learn something about the monster to help kill it. bad ending: the end or is it? good ending wrapping up on the survivors.
this a formula that makes the monster movie for me there are variations of course but now that I look at it yes jaws is a monster movie also interesting monster are the ones with unique concepts or learn/evolve/adopt quickly for different situations meaning that the main characters have to be on their feet.

 

[Tallim]

snip

I have only ever seen small clips on youtube of the host so maybe I am unlucky. primeval I have only seen that trailer and it doesn't show a crocodile and makes it seem like horror. I see recent as last two years when it comes to movies.

snip

snip

Makes sense. I don't think that they make many movies like that now as huge special effects have taken over. In my opinion the best monster movie ever made was Alien which falls pretty neatly into your definition of good execution. The Thing was also fantastic.

It's the whole thing with movie making going in cycles and trends. You get loads of very similar themed movies in a bunch and then they move on again. The Monster Movie will come back eventually.

I miss them too, there were some really good ones, but there were many awful ones, particularly when they turned into massive gore-fests.

 

[spartan231490]

1. the host is 4 years old and Korean so not really something that you will come across.
2. primeval looks more like horror rather then monster.
3. so far I have agreed with movie bob on every movie I have seen and he has reviewed so I am going to trust his opinion that monsters isn't worth watching.
4. I am going to check up rogue after this post. edit: 3 years old so not exactly recent.
the only monster movie which I know about that's coming out soon (I think already has in Poland) is troll hunters.

The Host isn't hard to find, it was very popular as a Western release. And if you're not counting stuff 4 years old, you're going to have a hard time.

Primeval is definitely a monster movie. Giant Crocodile in Africa.

That's fair enough. I have never seen either the film or MovieBob, so I can't comment.

I'm sorry, but 3 years is recent.

Not really, an action movie like shooter or taken comes out like 3 times a year.
OT: I agree, other than cheezy sci-fi originals there haven't been many monster movies recently. It's one of my favorite movie genres and there just aren't many coming out now.

 

[enriel]

Cloverfield didn't come out too long ago; that was pretty much a straight up monster movie.
Also, the Feast series which is AWESOME.

 

[Ashcrexl]

well you know how a society's interest in some genre shifts every few years. dont worry about it. monster movies will make a return sometime in the future. probably. right now, zomibes.

 

[nuba km]

snip

some monster movies use gore well like predators were the gore was used to sow that the monster treated humans like humans treat animals they hunt. for me the best monster movie is tremors not because it is a great movie (it is really good though) but because it does everything a monster movie should do and does it well if you haven't seen it you should watch it when you can you can even see it on youtube but buy it if you ever see a new copy in a shop.

 

[Tallim]

snip

some monster movies use gore well like predators were the gore was used to sow that the monster treated humans like humans treat animals they hunt. for me the best monster movie is tremors not because it is a great movie (it is really good though) but because it does everything a monster movie should do and does it well if you haven't seen it you should watch it when you can you can even see it on youtube but buy it if you ever see a new copy in a shop.

I already have it on dvd and I agree it is a brilliant example of a monster movie done right.

 

[Frozen Donkey Wheel2]

I don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but there's also "Splice". The first 3 quarters or so are great, but then in the final act, it kind of devolves into "so bad it's good" territory. Despite absolutely horrible things happening on screen, my friends and I were laughing our asses off. Definitely a few "lolwuts" in there.

 

[Arkvoodle]

Speaking of monster movies, what happened to Godzilla? we haven't had a new one of those in a long time.

 

[nuba km]

I don't know if anyone else mentioned this, but there's also "Splice". The first 3 quarters or so are great, but then in the final act, it kind of devolves into "so bad it's good" territory. Despite absolutely horrible things happening on screen, my friends and I were laughing our asses off. Definitely a few "lolwuts" in there.

That is more sci-fi drama with a monster rather then a monster film check out my monster movie formula in one of my previous posts to see what I count as a monster movie.

 

[movienut]

snip

That is more sci-fi drama with a monster rather then a monster film check out my monster movie formula in one of my previous posts to see what I count as a monster movie.

Given that you don't want smaller titles (host) or movies that fall outside of a very narrow definition I am not sure you would find more then one or two movies in most years that fit the bill, let alone recently.

 

[nuba km]

snip

that definition comes from monster movies I have watched but one great monster movie that doesn't follow that formula is evolution also I didn't exclude host because it's a smaller title I have heard of it before on from what I hear it's a great movie it's just I am wondering why is there nothing recent apart from one or two bad ones the closed to a recent good monster movie I can think of is piranha and it doesn't really have a interesting monster. also there are lot's of movies that fit my description just not many that are recent:
tremors 1-4 and tv show
aliens 1-4
predator/s and 2
gremlins 1,2
a whole bunch of gremlin rip-offs
and others which I can't think the name of.
also I mentioned that some monster movies variate from that formula but splice really isn't a monster movie it's a brilliant under appreciated movie but not a monster movie.

 

[movienut]

I think that if you take any given year you will be lucky to find more then a few movies that meet the definition. Even your list spans about 20 years. (alien/s: 1979-1997, tremors: 1990-2004, Predator/s: 1987-2010, gremlins: 1984-1990 (and apparently a new one in the works, who knew!).

The point is, it is easy to say that a genre is not prducing movies when you only look at a year or two and weight it against 20-30 years of product. I think it is just your perception that they are not making as many monster movies as they once did. Frankly, I think the last time it was a really popular genre would have been in the 50s and 60s. Since then it has always been a little on the fringe.

 

[nuba km]

snip.

first of all another gremlins movie I feel so happy. I know that you shouldn't compare 20 years to 2 years but I am comparing 20 years divided by 10 to 2 years and the numbers aren't nearly matching up I understand that Hollywood moves on to different genres but I never thought that the monster movie genre would nearly stop all together. that is one of the reasons I try to see any newly released monster movie to show Hollywood there is still profit in this genre.