Men in Suits (2012) d. Woodward, Frank H. (USA)

As any discerning horror fan knows, practical effects will always rule the day over those plinked out on a keyboard. There’s something about the physical impact of a space-occupying element that cannot be denied, and one of the best examples comes in the form of a genuine monster on set. Be it a Predator, the xenomorphs from Alien, or even Robot Monster’s awesome diving-helmeted lovelorn extraterrestrial, there is nothing quite like a guy-in-a-suit flick.  Now, at long last, filmmaker Woodward, who cut his documentary teeth on Anchor Bay’s Masters of Horror behind-the-scenes featurettes, has created a fascinating and compelling 90-minute lovefest for the unsung heroes beneath the fur, flippers, fangs and zippers of some of the genre’s most memorable creations.

Superfan/Gorilla Man Bob Burns is on hand to talk about the various ape movies of the 30s and 40s, but it was 1954’s one-two punch of Creature from the Black Lagoon and Gojira that really launched the 50-60s heyday of bipedal beasties menacing the masses, an era highlighted by Paul Blaisdell’s memorable monsters for It Conquered the World and The She Creature, a wealth of Japanese kaiju, Forbidden Planet’s Robby the Robot and many others.

These in turn gave birth to George Lucas’ awesome Star Wars creations, the aforementioned Predators and Aliens, and on to Guillermo del Toro’s ongoing employment of the venerable Doug Jones under pounds of latex and servos.

As the title indicates, the attention is deservedly lavished upon the men and women (both short and tall) who bring these creations to life and the hardships endured in so doing. Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla a dozen times over) talks about the exhausting weight of the original Toho rubber suits while Tom Woodruff, Jr. (Monster Squad, Pumpkinhead) discusses how suit performers’ incredible efforts are often overlooked since studio execs think of them as little more than stunt men.

Brian Steele (Hellboy, Doom) brings a rock n’ roll sensibility in depicting the dedication required to endure the grueling 12-18 hour days while the soft-spoken Jones exudes ineffable charm and wit voicing the frustrations of relative anonymity despite years of industry service.

Woodward even takes us behind the scenes of Joe Lynch’s long-delayed Knights of Badassdom to witness upcoming monster man Douglas Tait’s first fittings all the way through to his first night on set, complete with inside intel on cooling vests, walking techniques, specific training, and aligning his performance with the animatronics stick jockeys and puppeteers standing just outside the lens.

Not to diminish Andy Serkis’ achievements, but it’s always surprised me that the Brit actor’s motion capture performances (Lord of the Rings, King Kong) received such acclaim while his practical contemporaries labored in obscurity (and continue to do so).

 
Hats off to Woodward for finally lifting the masks to show the artistry, stamina and heart within those uncomfortable and unwieldy bags of cloth, hair, silicone and what-not.

A long overdue and fascinating tribute, Men in Suits is available for purchase at Amazon.com. For more info, visit www.wyrdstuff.com

--Aaron Christensen, HorrorHound Magazine

Gorath (aka Calamity Star Gorath) (1962) d. Honda, Ishiro (Japan)

When a spaceship on an exploratory mission to Saturn encounters a lethal runaway Red Dwarf star on a collision course with Earth, humanity’s scientists scramble to find a solution. When it is determined that the titular celestial freight train's mass is over 6000 times that our own, the decision is made to shift the Earth’s orbit out of Gorath’s path. Great! (pause) Now, how do we do that?

The solution turns out to be a united world effort to construct an enormous field of atomic thrusters in the South Pole, which will motor our planet the requisite 400,000 kilometers to avoid decimation. This action is intercut with another interstellar flight to derive as much info about the planet-swallowing projectile as possible. Of course, there are stumbles along the way, in the form of underestimating Gorath’s gravitational pull (and its effects on rocket ships and ocean tides) as well as the downside of heating up the coldest place on Earth with nuclear-powered rockets.

Originally, no kaiju were planned to appear, but when producer Tomoyuki Tanaka insisted in order to shore up foreign sales, a subplot involving a giant walrus (dubbed Maguma, with suitmation legend Haruo Nakajima inside the blubbery skin) was introduced. Ironically, this bit of footage was consequently trimmed for the U.S. release and only remains in the Japanese release. (Luckily, the online version I was able to track down was the widescreen, subtitled, Maguma-inclusive one, and for a last minute invention, it works pretty well.)

The key creative team members behind many of Toho’s kaiju films unite once more for this curious amalgam of escapist thrills, human drama and social commentary. With Honda at the helm, prolific screenwriter Takeshi Kimura’s script rich in character and plot, composer Akira Ikufube knocking out the stirring anthems, and f/x dynamo Eiji Tsuburaya whipping up miniature versions of every known vehicle on Earth and a few fantastic spacecrafts as well, expectations were high.

Unfortunately, the end result was a well polished production but one whose occasionally uneven tone, (relative) lack of giant monsters and fanciful physics did not win over the fans in the same fashion as the same year’s King Kong vs. Godzilla. So ended Toho’s brief space opera period, and the rock ’em, sock ’em, monster mash-up era was born.

Undeservedly relegated to footnote/sidebar status, Gorath is notable for Tsuburaya’s effects (especially during the showstopping South Pole construction and flooding of Tokyo sequences), Kimura’s multifaceted narrative, and a wealth of familiar genre faces including the lovely Kumi Mizuno and Yumi Shirakawa, with go-to hero Akira Kubo as a fresh-faced astronaut. A special salute to Kevin Horn, whose effusive and informative 50th anniversary panel at last year’s G-FEST first clued me into this underrated apocalyptic epic.