Reviews
[REVIEW] The 5 Forms of Terror: ‘Shin Godzilla’ (2016)
What makes this version different, and in my opinion, keen on horror fans, is what I call “Shin Godzilla’s 5 forms of terror,” with the last being slightly controversial. In an unexpected twist, he evolves. The monster Japan is met with is miles away from the monster we see at the end of the film. Through my American horror-obsessed eyes, I see monster perfection fueled by body horror and Lovecraftian influences told in true agony.
Let’s face it. One of the world’s most loved monsters has experienced a softening. From decades of kid-friendly adaptations, and a handful of eye-roll inducing American remakes, Godzilla has grown into different forms that stray from the original echo of 1954 that Ishiro Honda used as a coping mechanism to illustrate the historical tragedy of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in a way that audiences could digest.
A Return to Form for Godzilla
Six decades after Godzilla first began his reign of terror, directors Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi brought the original mission back with 2016’s Shin Godzilla– my personal favorite. The film was intended to echo Godzilla’s original conception, using the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant disaster and the Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami from 2011 as direct references. The film performed decently with Japanese audiences, but received mixed reviews from western audiences, as it never stuck. From my own personal findings, many of the positive reviews of Shin Godzilla in the United States come from heavy horror fans. That’s not a coincidence- this rendition of the classic Godzilla story is bleaker than it has ever been before.
The story we follow is the basic kaiju monster blueprint. The Japanese coast guard investigates strange happenings off of Tokyo Bay. Authorities must come to terms with the fact that the danger is caused by a living creature after civilians capture viral footage of the entity to share online. From then, the authorities work to research the creature, and scramble to find a way to adapt.
Shin Godzilla’s 5 Forms of Terror
What makes this version different, and in my opinion, keen on horror fans, is what I call “Shin Godzilla’s 5 forms of terror,” with the last being slightly controversial. In an unexpected twist, he evolves. The monster Japan is met with is miles away from the monster we see at the end of the film. Through my American horror-obsessed eyes, I see monster perfection fueled by body horror and Lovecraftian influences told in true agony.
The Haunting Eyes of Shin Godzilla
Something I have to call attention to is the eyes. Godzilla, throughout his many metamorphoses, has eyes that lack any sense of consciousness- let alone humanity. They are the only features that remain unchanged throughout its multiple evolutions. Through the eyes viewers can feel how unfortunate this catastrophe is for all parties involved, maybe even for the monster himself. The changes this creature goes through seem so painful that the audience can imagine the collateral damage that it must cause in order to cope, seconds before we’re visually exposed to it. Imagine if a tarantula were unable to molt out of its skin- I’m no expert, but I imagine being trapped in a vessel you are quickly outgrowing would be extremely uncomfortable, suffocating, and life-threatening.
Godzilla’s Second Form: A Struggling Aquatic Monster
In the exposition of this film, we first see the monster in his official second form. It can be described as a relatively small aquatic tadpole-type creature. It wriggles on its stomach, has no arms, and is pale in color. It looks to have raw gills that can be seen secreting blood or pus. It’s clear through the design and motion that this form of Godzilla struggles to survive during the transfer from sea to land.
Godzilla’s Third Form: Adapting to Land
The third form becomes much more familiar to the traditional designs of the monster. Godzilla becomes bipedal, and his elongated neck shows that his gills have closed up. His skin darkens from a pale yellow to a soft reddish-pink like a scab to combat the loss of fluid from the previous form. Although the monster is clearly beginning to adjust to land, its rapid weight gain causes it to struggle to walk and overheat.
Godzilla’s Fourth Form: A Nuclear Powerhouse
The fourth evolution is absolutely solid. The skin emulates the texture of slightly cooled lava; a very hard crust that limits mobility, with spots of red leaking through the joints that are still able to move. The monster can now self regulate its temperature, the tail has grown exponentially, and the dorsal spikes are now fully equipped to harness the famous nuclear blast. The eyes are at their most terrifying, providing no expression- only instinct.
This is the evolution that is seemingly defeated by humanity. After discovering that the kaiju’s blood acts as a coolant, Godzilla is conquered with a coagulating agent in order to freeze his mobility, and hopefully his evolutions too. The mission is successful, and luckily the half-life of the attack is a short one, so Japan is able to begin the healing and rebuilding process.
A Final Evolution That Serves Horror
Fortunately for the fans, right before the credits roll, we are given a taste of one last evolution while the monster lays dormant. A slow pan to the tip of Godzilla’s tail reveals humanoid creatures spawning from the appendage and reaching out in agony in true Lovecraftian fashion. The fandom has named them “manzillas”, and seem to be Godzilla’s direct response to humans posing the ultimate threat to his safety. Could humanoid kaiju monsters be the defense that puts humanity six feet under?
The purists in the fandom rejected the Lovecraftian influences of the 5th form, stating that it is “not very Godzilla-like” and proposed concerns that these humanoid kaiju would replace Godzilla in the fight for survival moving forward. It’s an argument not worth digging into, as Toho has confirmed Shin Godzilla will not be granted a continuation, but the horror fans will remember…
I’m just a horror girl who loves monsters, but I have to credit the dedicated fans who live in the Godzilla fandom. There are tons of essays, videos, and theories out there on the internet to explain any fandom phenomenon in full detail.
Check out this fan animation of Shin Godzilla’s size comparisons.
There are countless subgenres within subgenres for horror, and one that feels underutilized is workplace horror. Unless you’re one of the lucky few, most people wake up at some point during the day, go to work, and then come home. It’s one of the few things in life that’s nearly unavoidable. While there are countless real-life examples of workplace violence, seeing exaggerated forms of it in film can still be fun. When I pitched covering The Belko Experiment for this month, I actually thought I was pitching Joe Lynch’s Mayhem. I soon found out how incorrect I had been, but figured I’d go along with it anyway.
Mike Milch (John Gallagher Jr.) and 79 of his coworkers are locked inside the towering building they come to work in every day in Bogotá, Colombia. They’re given simple instructions: murder two coworkers within the next half hour. When they fail that task, coworkers’ heads start blowing up left and right. When they’re given the next task, kill 30 people in two hours, they take it…a little more seriously.
The Belko Experiment’s Brutal Premise Sets Up High Stakes
Written by James Gunn and directed by Wolf Creek creator Greg McLean, The Belko Experiment is a painfully by-the-numbers film that offers little more than a handful of entertaining kills. Its futile attempts at commentary regarding work/life balance or just how bad “faceless” upper management is fall so flat it’s comical. Nothing like multi-millionaire James Gunn telling me how awful it is to have to work a real job for a living. Great work. And its one-dimensional characters do little more than create a slight sigh of relief when they’re dispatched without regard.
A singular attempt at cleverness is broached from the beginning when we see a colony of ants in an ant farm on someone’s desk. Oh, look at that, these workers are nothing more than mindless ants! But any attempt at following that slightly clever idea is quickly thrown away. At one point, Barry Norris (Tony Goldwyn), the big boss in the office, attempts to group up who should and shouldn’t be killed; who has the most value outside of work. Gunn had the perfect opportunity to make Barry a deep and more sinister antagonist. If Barry had grouped people into sets from most to least profitable for the company, we would have something. It would show that Barry is a forward-thinking villain who is trying to suck up to the people who get paid even MORE than him!
Missed Opportunities for a Smarter Corporate Villain
I’ll do you one better. After all of that, what if the bad guys that Barry recruited to help him cull his subordinates realized they were just pawns in the game of Big Business? So then they attempt to repent by killing Barry in the hopes that they can find a common means of escape from this hell? Why is there zero attempt at making an interesting story other than this shitty, watered-down Battle Royale with people we don’t give a shit about? Instead of anything interesting, we’re just given a group of baddies who try to get into the security office’s gun safe. The only reason we’re slightly scared of the “bad guys” is because they’re bad guys.
The only slightly interesting performances we get are from David Dastmalchian and Adria Arjona, even if it might be a fluke. As someone who is a fan of Greg McLean and the Wolf Creek series, something just felt disconnected about nearly every aspect of The Belko Experiment. I’ve brought it up before that sometimes it’s okay to have a film that doesn’t tell a great story as long as the kills can carry some of the weight. But to say this film has a story is laughable, and that carries over to how flat this film looks.
Skip The Belko Experiment and Watch Mayhem Instead
It’s weird how sour this film left me. When I was watching it, I found myself grimacing at some of the kills. And I didn’t vehemently dislike it as much as this review would suggest. But as I sat there and thought longer, I just couldn’t wrap my head around what anyone sees in this. Mayhem is an all-around better film that tackles this same subject but in a much better way. So if you ever decide to sit down and watch The Belko Experiment, maybe go watch Mayhem on Shudder instead.
Would it be a month of coverage on Horror Press if I didn’t bring up at least one aughts film? I know the curator of all things Horror Press, James-Michael, is shaking his fists at the sky and cursing the fact that he approved me covering The Hitcher. Of all the remakes that were so pervasive throughout the aughts, The Hitcher is one that slipped completely under my radar. And that’s a damn shame. It wouldn’t be until I found a DVD copy at Bookoff that I finally got the opportunity to watch it. Hot damn, the critics really got it wrong here.
The Hitcher: A Road Trip Turned Nightmare
Jim Halsey (Zachary Knighton) and his girlfriend Grace Andrews (Sophia Bush) are on a road trip to Lake Havasu in Jim’s gorgeous Oldsmobile 442. An unfortunate run-in with a mysterious hitchhiker, John Ryder (Sean Bean), Jim and Grace find themselves in a fight for life and death. Only, John isn’t their only concern. With the 5-0 hot on their tails, Jim and Grace must escape from a psychopathic man with a death wish and the hot-tempered, hot-faced Lieutenant Esteridge (Neal McDonough). As the odometer grows, so does the body count.
The Hitcher is one of those remakes that does not have the approval of the original’s lead, Rutger Hauer. Which is astounding to me. Sure, the original is good. But it doesn’t set itself apart from the crowd too much. Rutger Hauer’s John is slightly more reserved, and while he has an edge to him, I don’t necessarily find him overly menacing. (Don’t kill me.) Sean Bean’s John Ryder, on the other hand, is furiously terrifying. There’s no question that there are tons of issues with the Platinum Dunes remake, though, for me, the pros significantly outweigh the cons.
Jim Halsey Falls Flat
The biggest issue is the character of Jim Halsey. I love how the roles of Jim and Grace are swapped from the original film. It brings an updated, modern edge to the film and is a great way to throw audiences who have seen the original. Though I can imagine the hyper-masculine fans of the original were not too happy with that. When it was decided to swap the roles of the characters, it seems like any character depth for Jim was thrown out of the window. I think Zachary Knighton is a wonderful actor who does the best with what he has, but he doesn’t have enough to work with. Writers Eric Red, Jake Wade Wall, and Eric Bernt updated the film with tons of epic scenarios and moments, while seemingly forgetting to make the supposed lead of the film interesting.
On top of cardboard Jim, the inciting police incident just feels very forced. Grace runs into a diner, covered in blood, after she and Jim found a family butchered by John. Someone from the diner calls the police, which leads to Jim and Grace being arrested and charged with murder. Whether or not that’s supposed to be commentary on rural police doesn’t matter because it completely fails to do anything other than forcibly push the story forward.
Besides that? I hate to say, but I don’t have many issues with The Hitcher.
Soundtrack and Atmosphere: A High-Octane Experience
First and foremost, The Hitcher’s soundtrack is incredible. We start the film with Move Along by The All-American Rejects. Talk about a shot of adrenaline. And the greatest needle drop in all of aughts horror history is Nine Inch Nails’s Closer during the film’s most wild car chase. It’s hard not to get lost in this film when the music kicks in.
What really sells this film is how intensely they handle the violence and the film’s gorgeous chase scenes. It’s no Death Proof, but these scenes are miles above the Fast movies that were out at this time. In a day and age where chase scenes are overly produced, badly edited, and just plain boring, The Hitcher manages to infuse horror and action in a way that probably won’t be seen again. Watching films like The Hitcher makes me sad for the state of modern cinema. The Hitcher wasn’t made to win scores of Oscars; it was made by people passionate about telling a badass, harrowing story (minus Jim). And they greatly excel at that.
The Hitcher Is a Misunderstood Cult Favorite
The Hitcher falls in line with my running theory of post-9/11 ultra violence. We were a nation scared of what happened, what was happening, and what seemed to be on the horizon–The Hitcher bottles that fear and anger, packaging it into a nasty piece of genre. Sean Bean and Sophia Bush are an on-screen match made in heaven. They wade through harsh lighting, thick film grain, and buckets of blood to deliver a film that critics and audiences unfairly panned. While audiences may have moved along, I sure didn’t. I want to exist in a world of nothing but aughts genre films, but am forced to live in a world of elevated horror. Le sigh.
