19 replies to this topic

[Oniomancer]

Ambush Bug, on 17 November 2012 - 04:02 AM, said:

Wow we are really cooking on these movies. Thanks for the contributions, I have missed so many titles.

The films really went through cycles, in the 1950s it was all about the Atomic age monstrosities beginning with THEM!, then it was cheapie knockoffs of The Birds (or nature gone mad/revenge of mother nature), and continued with knockoffs of Jaws (rogue freaks of nature).

Here are a few more:

The Crater Lake Monster (1977)

Deadly Eyes (1982)

Tremors (1990)

Technically Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is the first atomic monstrosity, although Them is the first giant mutant movie.

I'm surprised you didn't remember Tentacles. It was a fairly regular movie of the week showing. Started out pretty good, especially with that creepy music riff every time the thing showed up but it really bogged down toward the end.

Would you include Day Of The Dolphin in the genera or not? It sort of fits in with the Jaws era but it's not so much an animals attack movie as a strap a bomb on the animal and turn it loose one.

[B Jenkins]

Oniomancer, on 17 November 2012 - 04:59 AM, said:

Technically Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is the first atomic monstrosity, although Them is the first giant mutant movie.

Indeed.

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I'm surprised you didn't remember Tentacles. It was a fairly regular movie of the week showing. Started out pretty good, especially with that creepy music riff every time the thing showed up but it really bogged down toward the end.

I remembered once you mentioned it. But missed it when I compiled these lists. I have been intentionally avoiding Kaiju and SyFy originals though because they are both so prolific. And the SyFy originals lack the historical perspective these older films possess.

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Would you include Day Of The Dolphin in the genera or not? It sort of fits in with the Jaws era but it's not so much an animals attack movie as a strap a bomb on the animal and turn it loose one.

Day Of The Dolpin I dont believe fits-in with the genre, it is strictly a sci-fi thriller about dolphin research, shadow government, and weaponized animal assassins.

[Oniomancer]

Ambush Bug, on 17 November 2012 - 05:17 AM, said:

I remembered once you mentioned it. But missed it when I compiled these lists.

Figured you had to've. It was probably on NBC about as often as Piranha at the time.

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I have been intentionally avoiding Kaiju and SyFy originals though because they are both so prolific. And the SyFy originals lack the historical perspective these older films possess.

Yeah, I followed your lead on that. Let somebody else have fun with them.  Have you noticed a lot of the Syfys have been directly ripping off the older films we've listed? Two of the latest ones really stood out that way from the bits I saw. Earthquake Spiders was a direct steal from Bug and Camel Spiders used roughly the same premise as arachnophobia.  That last was extra-stupid because apparently nobody told them they already have solifugids in Arizona.

Edited by Oniomancer, 17 November 2012 - 11:12 PM.

[libstaK]

It took 15 posts before someone mentioned "Tremors" - loved that one, totally B grade and hilarious at the same time

[B Jenkins]

Oniomancer, on 17 November 2012 - 11:12 PM, said:

Figured you had to've. It was probably on NBC about as often as Piranha at the time.

Yes, I remember they used to show these types of movies all week long back in my youth like "Animals Strike Back Week", and show these "classic" drive-in cheapies from the 70s etc.

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Yeah, I followed your lead on that. Let somebody else have fun with them.  Have you noticed a lot of the Syfys have been directly ripping off the older films we've listed? Two of the latest ones really stood out that way from the bits I saw. Earthquake Spiders was a direct steal from Bug and Camel Spiders used roughly the same premise as arachnophobia.  That last was extra-stupid because apparently nobody told them they already have solifugids in Arizona.

Ditto. SyFy is churning these cheapie originals one out nearly every week. They are simply unabashedly dumb movies but yet I give SyFy an A for effort  despite the shoddy CGI and the fact these movies arent remotely as cult popular as they used to be. They can have dumb movie appeal.