This month, we’re taking you into the realm of the truly terrifying – the thing of nightmares for many of us: spiders and other creepy crawlies and slithering nasties. Let’s get ready to be freaked out by four giant-sized creature features that you can check out soon.
One film that every self-respecting STARBURST reader should have seen (or have on their watch list) is Tremors. The 1990 film brought the ‘50s giant creature feature bang up to date with great humour and stylish panache. Directed by Ron Underwood (City Slickers), it stars Kevin Bacon and Fred Ward as a pair of hillbillies who have to step up to come when their small town of Perfection, Nevada, becomes the target of some underground creatures. It not only rejuvenated the comedy horror genre, it spawned four sequels, a prequel, and a TV series. A 2018 reboot series, once again starring Bacon was planned by Syfy, but was cancelled after the pilot was made. This disappointed all involved, including Bacon, who thought there was more life in tale as it wasn’t a big box office hit, but did gangbusters on video before becoming a recognised cult classic now. The Graboids, the giant worms that reach the surface and destroy everything in their wake, are a fantastically terrifying sci-fi horror invention and the original film is perfect popcorn entertainment; if you’re one of those who have yet to catch it, make sure you remedy that.
A completely different type of beast is centre stage in Itsy Bitsy (2019). As you could expect from the title, the critter in question is a spider. It’s no normal arachnid, though; it’s not only as big as large dog, but also happens to be an ancient vengeance-seeking goddess. As such, this is as much a complex family drama as it is a skin-crawling nightmare. Don’t get us wrong, there are enough nightmarish images and imposing atmosphere to give anyone the willies but there’s also a human story going on too. Kara (Elizabeth Roberts), along with her son and daughter, are moving to the country following the death of another son so she can work as an aide for an ailing antiques collector Walter (Bruce Davison). He’s just acquired, rather dubiously, a rare, tribal egg. After a disagreement, the person who brought the egg to Walter returns and smashes it open, unleashing a terrifying creature that has laid dormant inside.
Away from the cutesy, pulpy title, Itsy Bitsy is a remarkably tense, atmospheric piece. The mother’s mental plight plays well against the oncoming threat of the goddess spider, and there are enough moments to send shivers down the backs of any arachnophobia sufferers. Unfortunately, though, your slipper won’t be the best line of defence against this bugger! The spider effects are really well handled, too. A mix of physical and CGI brings the critter to life, and raises the production values far above the familiar ‘old school’ spider films that relied on oversized props (sometimes over the frame of a Volkswagen car as in 1975’s The Giant Spider Invasion – interesting aside: the rusty framework that made up the star spider and car chassis was stolen from the director’s home and sold as scrap in 2013) or unconvincing pipe cleaner models (Lucio Fulci’s otherwise brilliant The Beyond can take a bow).
Based on a cult Amiga video game released by Cinemaware in the ‘80s, there’s a different type of creepy crawly at large in It Came from the Desert. Citing a biblical curse, the critters here are giant ants – well, ant-tarantula hybrids to be exact. Made in 2017 by director Marko Mäkilaakso (War of the Dead), it’s an affectionate homage to both the game and the atomic horror B-movies of the ‘50s, particularly the brilliant Them! (1954).
The film follows a pair of ‘dudes’ – dim-witted wise-cracking dirt bike racer Lukas (Alex Mills) and his only slightly more sensible mechanic Brian (Harry Lister Smith) – who stumble across an abandoned military base in the middle of the desert when they should be partying at Lukas’ victory celebration. In there, they discover the remains of a project that sought to create supersized ants by splicing alien DNA from a meteorite with them and spiders. Ironically, they were created as defence rather than weapon; something that has majorly backfired! A bigger problem comes when they discover the ants need ethanol to reproduce – and their massive kegger party is taking place just around the corner.
The CGI is akin to movies made by mockbuster specialists The Asylum, but that just adds to the fun. Stick around through the end credits and you get a complete run through of the original video game, which is a joy for those who remember playing it back in the day. Forget the big budget flops, It Came from the Desert is a video game adaptation that actually serves its origin well. Sure it’s cheap-looking and hockey, but it’s a lot of fun. Some of the slacker humour falls flat, but for every ‘woah dude’ moment, there’s a gem such as a guy getting kneed in the nuts and then emitting a very high pitched voice, or giant ants being subtitled to reveal their thoughts. The leads also have a favourite film series – starring a character called the Eradicator, essentially a pastiche of almost every macho ‘80s bike-riding action hero – which opens up plenty of scope for parody of other low budget action movies and numerous rye references to some cult classics.
Finally, we trade multi-legged beasts with a giant snake. Anaconda (1997) is a bigger budgeted affair and boasts a star-studded cast and was directed by Peruvian Luis Llosa (who also helmed ‘90s action classics The Specialist, Sniper). This fun shocker follows a film crew making a documentary about a lost tribe. Headed by Terry Flores (Jennifer Lopez), the crew includes the cameraman (Ice Cube), a doctor (Eric Stoltz), prissy actor (Jonathan Hyde), production manager (Kari Wuhrer), and sound guy (Owen Wilson), not long into their trip they come across a stranded boat and rescue the only passenger, Paul Serone (Jon Voight). It turns out he’s a former priest who is now hunting snakes. Big snakes. We’re told in the opening crawl that anacondas can grow up to 40ft and when they’ve eaten their prey, they regurgitate and eat them again. Lovely. These creatures are almost as terrifying as Serone, who comes across as though he can’t be trusted and he somehow knows the boat’s captain (Vincent Castellanos), but manages to save the doctor’s life with a makeshift tracheotomy when he is stung in his throat by a deadly wasp. It’s not long before Serone is taking the lead on their journey and seemingly putting them in further danger.
Anaconda was a hit when it was released – grossing $136 million from a $45 million budget – and it’s a fun and absorbing romp in the tradition of Jaws and the many other giant predator/man vs beast flicks. The location is fantastic and is captured amazingly by cinematographer Bill Butler, who just so happened to be the DP on Steven Spielberg’s 1975 masterpiece – there’s even a version of the superb dolly zoom, although it’s nowhere near as effective. The special effects are executed by a mix of physical (just wait for the POV shot from the snake’s mouth!) and no-so-great CGI. This was still fairly early in the genesis of computer generated effects, so I guess we can be a little more forgiving. Although it spawned four sequels (three that were straight-to-video), it’s the first film that holds up the best.
Check out the Creature Feature season on Horror Channel throughout March. Tune in via Sky 317, Virgin 149, Freeview 70, Freesat 138.
