Them & Creature From The Black Lagoon
It's a Tuesday and it's been a long couple of weeks for me so I figured for today's post I'd just post a couple of clips from films that I like.
Growing up in the late 50's/early 60's I was a sucker for monster films. I would watch these on Saturday afternoons and I loved them.
This is one of my all time favorites. Them - about giant ants. It stars James Witmore and a very young James Arness. Looking at this film years later I was surprised and impressed by the audio. You hear the ants long before you see them and once we get the flying ants towards the end the visual FX are pretty laughable. I still remember the sound of the ants before we saw them and that was terrifying. I actually own a copy of this film. Here’s a link to a scene from Them - https://vimeo.com/497001879/5baff8fa5f?share=copy
I think my favorite films of this era all had to do with an "atomic explosion" that created all sorts of huge creatures. Since I was still "duck and covering" during these years the threat of an "atomic explosion" seemed so real.
And then there was, The Creature From The Black Lagoon. Another film that terrified my young self (but no "atomic explosion"). Still scary when you're a kid... Here’s a link to the trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=svyPswixryM
In Portland we had Dimension 8 that played on Channel 8 on Saturday afternoons. I tried to never miss it when the weather was bad. When the weather was good we'd be outside playing... On Channel 2 we had Sinister Cinema but that came on really late at night.
These old films did a lot with audio and some pretty cool visuals and they certainly influenced a lot of filmmakers.
When I was in film school in LA, Elvira, Mistress of the Dark aired locally on Saturday nights and since I was in school I usually was too broke to go out on Saturdays so I spent many a Saturday night with cheap beers watching whatever bad film she was showing.
These were good times and these films influenced me just as much as many of the other classic films did. I think I might have to drop my copy of Them into the DVD player tonight and remember what it was like when I was a kid watching these and being scared.
What early horror films did you enjoy?
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Thanks.
Originally Posted March 22, 2022