| REVIEW: ATOM AGE SPIDER (short film) |
[Jul. 24th, 2005|03:53 am] |
|
In case you haven't noticed, there seems to be a rapidly growing trend
in the world of low budget genre filmmaking. More and more homages to
the sci-fi/creature feature b-movies of the 1950's/1960's are popping
up of late; the most high profile being last year's THE LOST SKELETON
OF CADAVERA. Being a fan of those films, I find this trend refreshing.
Also, it's hard to not be generally disappointed with today's crop of
b-movies. Most of today's monster movies lack the charm of the atomic
age monster movies and tend to follow one of four formulas:
- The JAWS Formula - Monster is a predatory animal on the prowl. Potential victims are of all types.
- The ALIEN Formula - Potential victims are trapped in an enclosed
area with a monster that proceeds to pick them off. Potential victims
are usually of the scientific, government, or corporate variety.
- The PREDATOR Formula - Potential victims are being hunted by a
monster in an outdoor environment. Potential victims are usually
military types so they'll have the firepower to try and fight back.
- The Slasher Formula - Monster kills for the sake of killing,
usually stalking victims one-by-one. Potential victims are usually
young, good looking, dumb, and very horny.
Seriously, how many times can those formulas be recycled with little or
no variation? Watch the Sci-Fi Channel on weekends for the often
depressing answer.
The main problem facing these new homages to the atomic age creature
features is that they are often going out of their way to poke fun at
the clichés of the genre, often forgetting that most of the hokey charm
those earlier films were due to the unintentional nature of their
faults, whether it be preposterous premises, schlocky special effects,
clunky dialogue, acting that ranges from wooden to hammy, and overuse
of stock footage.
The new 30-minute short ATOM AGE SPIDER
appears to be going for the opposite effect, aiming more to be an
honest to goodness 1950's style monster movie minus all the winking at
the audience. At least, I think that's what the makers were going for.
I hope so, because it doesn't provide many laughs. Produced by a
company called (appropriately enough) Atomic International Films, ATOM
AGE SPIDER tries to recreate the hokey charm of TARANTULA and EARTH VS.
THE SPIDER, but really only succeeds in reminding you that as much as
many people may roll their eyes at those monster movies of the past, a
lot of work still went into making them.
Here's the plot:
"Science expands into space with
unexpected consequences! When a bizarre mishap sends a space capsule
crashing back to Earth, a monstrous terror is unleashed! Two scientists
and an innocent bystander are all that stand between life and the
destruction of mankind!"
Unfortunately, that's really all there is to the film. Even at only a
half hour in length, ATOM AGE SPIDER manages to waste a lot of it on
stock footage early on (amusing at first until it starts going on way
too long) and people lumbering around the woods without really doing
anything interesting. It quickly becomes aggravating when you realize
that the best they could come up with was people trying to poke a giant
spider to death with sticks they carved themselves. And, boy, does that
stick carving scene go on far too long.
But what about the spider? If anything could salvage the short it would
be the scenes involving the big spider. Too bad it's only a big fuzzy
tarantula hand puppet (I dubbed it "the dreaded French Tickler spider")
that can't do much since it is, as I just said, a hand puppet. It’s
actually not that bad all things considered. It’s just that being a
hand puppet makes it impossible for it to really do much more than just
stand in one place moving its finger… I mean legs. Amazingly, it's
still a better giant spider than the one that appeared in THE GIANT
SPIDER INVASION.
The only interaction between the actors and the spider are a few scenes
of the puppet superimposed over a potential victim and a handful of
shots where people get swatted by and fight with a pair of tubular
spider legs (these really do look like props straight out of THE GIANT
SPIDER INVASION). The scenes involving the spider (both puppet and prop
legs) provide a few fleeting moments of amusement but spider’s limited
abilities quickly prove tiresome. We never even get a real explanation
as to what exactly they were expecting to learn from launching a tiny
spider into space in the first place.
And the nonsensical ending (really just an excuse for yet more stock
footage) should have had a big "?" on the screen because I was
definately sitting there with a friend looking at one another going,
"Huh?" when it wrapped up.
ATOM AGE SPIDER is basically a disappointing half hour of little
action, uninspired dialogue, and really weak direction. On the one
hand, all three of those are things you'd find in many b-movies of the
past. On the other hand, whether it's an atomic age monster movie or a
modern 30-minute short film designed to evoke the spirit of the atomic
age monster movies. Unfortunately, the limited resources clearly made
it impossible for the filmmakers to only evoke the worst aspects of
those much maligned yet much beloved creature features of yesteryear.
ATOM AGE SPIDER is the fourth such short from Atomic International
Pictures. The others include TERROR ON THE WIND (atomic blast creates a
giant destructive tumbleweed), HERCULES VS. THE STONEMEN (fantasy sword
and sandal homage), and INVASION FROM SPACE (1950's style alien
invasion). From what I gathered looking at the trailers for those films
on the DVD, ATOM AGE SPIDER looks to be their best production yet, in
which case I would sadly have to say their enthusiasm for the genre
very much outweighs their cinematic capabilities.
You can purchase a copy of ATOM AGE SPIDER by clicking here. I’m sure there are worse way to blow $15 out there. |
| |
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
foywonder's journal
