Tag: B-Movie

Rapid Response: The Thing From Another World

“The Thing From Another World” is an above-average B-Horror Movie that has so much more substance than the two remakes that followed it.

Oh, how far horror movies have come. “The Thing From Another World” may be campy and not all that scary, but it’s a movie of more wit and intelligence than John Carpenter’s remake “The Thing” in the ’80s and more entertainment value and meaning than the remake of Carpenter’s version from 2011.

Here is a movie that is actually about something. It sidesteps most of the sci-fi and horror movie cliches of the ’50s laden with not-so-subtle allegories about the Cold War and remains a genuinely exciting horror thriller about the conflict between authority and science, logic and brute strength.

But beyond that, “The Thing From Another World” is a largely talky movie that cherishes its scary bits. It’s not 30 percent character and 70 percent violence the way so many horror movies are today. Producer and unbilled director Howard Hawks devotes precious time to subtle traces of sexism from army officers and their fixation on pin-up girls, dialogue that is a little snide but also a little empty, desolate and uncertain, and suspense building set pieces more memorable than millions of dollars of CGI wizardry. Continue reading “Rapid Response: The Thing From Another World”

Rapid Response: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

Robert Wise’s “The Day The Earth Stood Still” is one of the finest ’50s B-Movies of its time.

In terms of ’50s, campy, sci-fi B-movies that are actually pretty good, you don’t get much better than “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

This is your pinnacle Cold War B-movie. Dozens if not hundreds were released in the ’50s, some are remembered, some are exceptionally bad, and a select few, like “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” actually have some merit.

The films played on the fears surrounding a potential Soviet attack and the many forms they could find to strike. We see such methods as toxic shrinking gas in “The Incredible Shrinking Man” and aliens embodying exact replicas of people we know and love in “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers.”

“TDTESS” reverses the assumption that there will be an invading force aiming to destroy mankind. In this film, the enemy is blatantly mankind itself and our lust for violence amidst ignorant fear. Continue reading “Rapid Response: The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)”