Unseen Terror 2022: Day 3

It's no secret that I'm a pretty diehard "kaiju eiga" fanatic, which stems back to when I saw my first Godzilla films around the time that I was entering second grade. In the three decades that have followed, I've been able to witness the genre twist and turn into all sorts of directions while still retaining some of its utter majesty and, well, coolness. As technology advances forward (with the likes of The Big G and King Kong themselves being entirely digitally rendered now), a motion picture like 2019's Howl from Beyond the Fog is a welcome throwback to a time when these features were doing what they could with what they had in terms of financial backing (if any at all). In this case, Howl is a beautifully done low budget short film featuring a cast comprised of nothing but puppets.

No, you certainly didn't read that wrong. Remember what I said yesterday?

The story is set during Japan's Meiji era, which ran for close to sixty years back in the 1860s. A young man named Eiji returns to Kyushu to meet his mother but when he arrives, he is startled to meet a blind woman named Takiri living with her, who instructs him to never speak of their encounter because according to her she's "supposed to be dead." One evening he spots Takiri near a lake. She hums softly and summons a giant creature from the water. Initially frightened, Eiji flees, but soon discovers through Takiri that this monster (named "Nebula") is quite misunderstood. Around this same time, developers are attempting to convince Eiji's mother to sell her land to facilitate the construction of a dam. Without going too much into spoilers, things...don't go well.

What makes Howl feel like a such a special little piece isn't just its aforementioned filmmaking choice, but how much they're able to accomplish by nearly make you forget that you're staring at primarily stone-faced marionettes and dolls. It also has remarkably good atmosphere in utilizing fog and water effects without it looking very jarring or the contrast being too noticeable. The score is also artistically orchestrated but not overpowering. I suppose that if I were to have any complaints (other than wishing this was a full-length feature and not a short film) it would be that the voice acting is a bit on the hit-or-miss side. Eiji and Takiri's performers are very good, but the film's primary antagonists sound very static or unenthusiastic rather than menacing or cruel. Those are very minor complaints though, as the positives far outweigh the negatives here.

I'm likely preaching to the choir here, but Howl from Beyond the Fog is an essential watch for those who are searching for something that is a love letter to the kaiju genre that doesn't seem like pandering. It's a beautiful passion project made by and for fans who yearn for something a little different but not distinctly alien. Currently, it's streaming on both Amazon Prime and Tubi. The actual movie itself runs for about thirty minutes, and the second half of its "runtime" is a behind-the-scenes look at its inception and creation. Pretty sweet.

Oh, I didn't mention that Nebula is cool, did I? Because Nebula totally is.

Tomorrow, we're ditching class and elegance and going back to Italy for some BRAAAAIIIIINNSSS.

Unseen Terror 2019: Day 20

It's hard to believe that it's been twenty-six years since we last saw one of the kookiest and spookiest families in pop culture make their appearance on the big screen (1998's Addams Family Reunion went straight-to-video). Given the renaissance that all things macabre seems to be having right now, bringing them back from the dead seemed like an easy and sensible task. Directed by the duo behind 2016's notorious Sausage Party, this new story about the peculiar, morbid, but undeniably charming family facing off with new, uptight neighbors does pack some style, but it lacks any real substance. However I'll save my "dumping" for later, because I did smile a lot more than I frowned during this flick's short running time.


Prior to its theatrical release, you may recall hearing that many older fans were up in arms about the "interesting" redesigns of the titular family members themselves. Some of them appear to be unusually pointy-looking, and to say that they sport comically strange body proportions would be a friggin' understatement. Honestly, I never really understood the complaints about the new look of the characters. It's far more faithful to their original designs from the golden age, and you'll get over it fairly quickly. Even if you don't, there's no denying just how well they're portrayed by this rather stellar voice cast. It would not shock me if most of this picture's budget went towards snagging as many noteworthy performers for this as they could. There's Oscar Isaac as Gomez, Charlize Theron as Morticia, Chloe Grace Moretz as Wednesday, Finn Wolfhard as Pugsley, and Nick Kroll as Uncle Fester just to name a few. They're all bringing their 'A' game (pun possibly intended) and there's a good chance that they could also help you forget about any weaknesses found in the script. Moretz and Theron are the movie's highlights, and they seem to be relishing the chance to play characters that they likely grew up watching. Allison Janney also delivers an entertaining, if not familiar performance as the flick's antagonist. They all seem to have great chemistry with one another, but again, you grabbed a chunk of the top dogs in the industry for this story so that's to be expected.


Unfortunately what hurts this new version of The Addams Family is that when you remove the occasional darkly comedic joke and stellar voice acting, it's painfully cliched and predictable. If you are put off by tropes that plague nearly any and every film catered towards children these days (even Pixar is occasionally guilty of this), then there's a very good chance that you'll be rolling your eyes on more than a few occasions. There are numerous story arcs in here (primarily based around the kids) that unfold exactly how you expect them to, and while I do understand that this is catered to a much younger audience than prior on-screen adaptations were, this is still very disappointing. It all comes to a head with one of the laziest third acts that I've seen in an animated flick in the past few years. It's kind of a shame because I still maintain my opinion that both of the movies directed by Barry Sonennfeld in the 1990s are perfectly fine for all ages (though some supervision may be required), and even if some of the jokes will fly over the heads of very young viewers, there's a good chance that they'll still enjoy the hell out of them.


Ultimately, this new iteration of The Addams Family is a real tossup. Weaknesses aside, I did laugh on more than a few occasions and do respect its unique animation style. I can't in good conscious recommend it to anyone except for parents with younger kids or people who refuse to buy physical media (I don't want to know those people). There's no reason that this couldn't have been cut and re-edited into the basis for a television series on a network like Nickelodeon or a service like Netflix.



Come to think of it, I'll check back in about a year to see if that becomes a reality. Hell, they did it with Kung Fu Panda and How to Train Your Dragon. And fucking Barnyard.



Tomorrow, it's time to put the kids to bed because the director of The Manchurian Candidate and Ronin is gonna unleash a killer creature on us poor fools!