Cameras Make Face Look Weird

Reel Animals, Part 1

notes of truth, beauty and goodness on film during the series Bizarre Cinema # 6
>> # 5 good bad movie / / Stanley
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>> # 3 penetration, mutation, deformation / / Brian Yuzna
>> # 2 Where your money is / / Bloody Friday
>> # 1 Join Us / / Evil Dead

The classic Grizzly of William Girdler and the genre of horror animal. A review of
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by ornithologists COMPLEXITY
proves the genre of horror animal, as so many seemingly superficial, on closer inspection as the subject of almost uncanny complexity. As a description of a subgenre of the term, neither the complexity of the work and its many artistic and intellectual approaches is equitable nor the many interpretive and analytical approaches with which one can approach them. From the simple spectacle "Wild animal eats man" to present analysis of ecological and socio-political subtexts in animal horror the whole spectrum is presented. This paper is not a comprehensive history of the subgenre addressed and certainly not a criticism of the Animal Horrors are trying it are just some thoughts and information is provided, which focuses the English phrase "animals on the rampage" (such as "animals run amok") well expresses. Here it is not about human tragedies, which are closely associated with certain animals and abnormal behavior (such as in Willard or Stanley ), but the animals and their deviant behavior itself

First of all: One of the most important Animal horror classics ever, Alfred Hitchcock The Birds of 1963, will hardly play a role, since it is beyond the scope and even more so than all the other herein films the makeshift established categories and criteria escapes, though he at first view the "animals on the rampage" principle is clearly in line. Suffice it to say that its success influenced many animal horror productions in the following years, such as William Gref Sting of Death (1965) and Death Curse of Tartu (1966) and Freddie Francis' The Deadly Bees (dt .: The Deadly Bees , 1966). The variety of the animal horror here should be the focus of reflection designed to specifically in the early 1970s and stabilized in the middle of the decade, falls back as Steven Spielberg Jaws the immediacy and the declaration of refusal of Hitchcock The Birds and the sub-genre with his equips still valid today formalities.

THE DECADE OF THE BEARS
the bear said "Earl" (John Irving: Hotel New Hampshire )

saw 1976 a monster the light of the cinema, the existence of a variety of reasons is remarkably highly, as his story full of contradictions seems to stick: This Monster was very well known and leads a shadowy existence in its niche, and it was to be found fairly cheap awakened from but and seems to quite expensive was in the attitude of his, and his trainer is almost a legend, but his name is hardly known; and last but not least, it's cuddly and cute, but also more scary and horrible. The talk is of "Teddy" the Bear construct of William Girdlers animal horror classic Grizzly . The following section will consider how, in the course of the history of the animal to the phenomenon of Horrors Grizzly has come when his place in this story is and how to fill them and what this phenomenon can tell us about the dynamics of Cinema Bizarre .

French speaking Lobby Card to Grizzly

OF ANIMALS AND MONSTERS
The history of the animal horror film is to trace long, they can be up to the silent era, for example, to Harry Hoyt The Lost World of 1925, based on the novel by Arthur Conan Doyle . This film is an excellent prototype for the genre: it is assumed that in the horror film is always a monster plays the central role, whether as a man in the figure of a serial killer, as beings from another world or as a product scientific extravaganza, so the role of a monster in the animal horror filled out thoroughly by the animal. In The Lost World the animals from the standpoint of the modern viewer from inherently monstrous beings, it is still to dinosaurs, to a high plateau in the Amazon, which functions as an evolutionary enclave, the extinction of their species survive, they need So not only are stylized narrative for Monster. The stop-motion models for The Lost World traditional way, by Willis O'Brien, who eight years later became immortal through his work on King Kong .

Willis O'Brien Brontosaurus from The Lost World

In the 1950s, mutated familiar and not yet extinct animals gargantuan monsters, about 1955 in Jack Arnold's Tarantula or 1954 in Gordon Douglas' Them!. These films meant for all Fantastik a significant step forward for the genre, as it was in their work to real fears, such as of spiders. The films of the 70s went one step further by always maintained the animals in the more or less natural size ratio and dramatically shifted to an increasingly bizarre behavior of each species, to operate to the anxieties of the audience. Either the animals developed completely new behaviors, or their natural behavior has expanded beyond the usual dimensions. Both approaches are related directly to the audience's own emotional and psychological mechanisms to specific fears of the animal. Unlike the giant insects of the 50s, which, operated similar to the invasion scenarios of science fiction films, the subtext sometimes diffuse, sometimes more concrete political fears, or even stirred up in the 70s pushed the fear of the individual in the focus: in front of disgust animals are eaten and the immediate fear of.

drove part, this approach amazing flowers, as the authors in the processing of the zoological catalog sometimes bizarre decisions about the creatures met, which should generate the horror. Beautiful examples are George McCowans Frogs of 1972, and William F. Claxton Rabbits aka Night of the Lepus , also from 1972nd Unequal menacing species occur in Daniel's Willard 1971 (rats) and William Stanley Grefé 1972 (snakes), in Saul Bass' Phase IV 1973 (ants), Jeannot Szwarcs Bug 1975 (fire legendary Beetle) and Jeff Lieberman's Squirm 1976 (worms). When in 1975

Jaws came out, everything changed. The number of animal horror productions has risen exponentially, and every imaginable species was used to allow people to treat a large amount of production but had to salt water and fresh water covers. The content of the films offered some enormously disparate plots together with them, however, is the monstrous beast in the water. A look at some of the titles gives a good overview of the development and scope of this category of sub-genres since 1975 (sometimes it is also worthwhile to consider the German rental title that often brings the economic aspect of each production shamelessly to the point where he their still-catching rhetoric underlines):

• Mako - Jaws of Death ( Mako, the beast ), USA 1976, directed by William Grefé, also a producer, writer and director of Stanley
• Shark Kill , a U.S. TV production from 1976, directed by William Graham, who has directed include some episodes of Batman TV series by Adam West and the cult series The Fugitive ( The Fugitive )
• Orca ( Orca ), USA 1977, directed by Michael Anderson, director of the science fiction classic Logan's Run ( flight into the 23rd century )
• Tentacles ( polyp - The Beast with poor death), USA / Italy 1977, directed by Ovidio Assonitis, who in 1974 also Exorcist rip-off had staged Beyond the Door
• Barracuda , USA 1977, directed by Harry Kerwin and Wayne Crawford
• Jaws 2 , USA 1978, directed by Jeannot Szwarc, the 1975 Bug ( fire beetle has ) staged a very unusual, original and intelligent genre entry
• Piranha , USA 1978 Director: Joe Dante , who was the subject of almost parodic staged

1978 also the year in which John De Bello Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! the first real wave of horror parody of the animal came out of the occupied not only the historical necessity of the interaction between successful and genre parody, but the development of the animal into an independent horror subgenre consolidated.

Today is produced animal horror, whose theme is moving in the water: Stephen Sommers, who came with the modern Mummy franchise to Hollywood fame, 1998 directed the octopus Horror Deep Rising ( Octalus ), Chris Kentis had 2003 Open Water a surprise success in the mockumentary style that reached cult status and its own sequel moved to, Jack Sholder made 2004 for the U.S. television 12 Days of Terror , the true story a series of shark attacks off U.S. East Coast in 1916, tracing, which also Peter Benchleys novel Jaws based and Australian Greg McLean tried, one by Wolf Creek with the crocodile strips Rogue 2007 final, the to spoil the mood for a trip into the Outback. The titles mentioned are only a small selection, but demonstrated the resistance of the water division Horror in the animal. No wonder, the fear of unknown waters is finally as old as mankind.

But how Grizzly impressive evidence limited, and the counterfeiters, imitators and inspired limit in the wake of Spielberg is not on wetlands, even on land and in the air of animal terror lurking since 1975, everywhere, to illustrate how the following exemplary references.

Dog Movies:

• Dogs ( Killer Dog ), USA, 1976, a TV film by Burt Brinckerhoff, who otherwise have worked mainly in TV series, for example, and on some episodes of the series Alf
• The Pack ( The pack ), USA 1977, directed by Robert Clouse, known for his martial arts-heavy action films, including several Bruce Lee titles like the classic Enter the Dragon
• White Dog ( The white beast aka The white dog from Beverly Hills ), USA 1982, directed by Sam Fuller, who in 1969 in Shark! had exploited the terror may spread the sharks
• Cujo , USA 1983, directed by Lewis Teague, who celebrated in 1980 with Alligator its animal horror debut had

insect movies:

• Empire of the Ants ( In the Empire of the Ants ), directed by Bert Gordon, who also Food of the Gods staged ( of the Gods ) by the appearance of many different, large species
• Savage Bees ( killer bees attack ), USA 1976, directed by Bruce Geller, author of many episodes of TV series Mission: Impossible
• The Swarm ( The Swarm ), USA 1978, directed by Irwin Allen, director of the known animal documentary The Animal World of 1956, for which Ray Harryhausen animates a dinosaur sequence

spiders Movies:

• Kingdom of the Spiders ( Spiders ), USA, 1977, Director: John "Bud" Cardos, this time not for Film Ventures International (see Part 2) active, but for Arachnid Productions Ltd..
• Tarantulas: The Deadly Cargo ( aka Deadly Cargo tarantulas: They come to kill ), USA, 1977, a television production directed by Stuart Hagmann, the also some episodes of the series mission staged Impossible has

mollusc Movies:

• Special mention should at this point Juan Piquer Simón US-English co-production Slugs, muerte viscosa ( worm ) of 1988 . see Simón films are classified only with difficulty: they are talking essentially for himself, as the decision-treated in an animal horror genre thematically types add the worm proves
  

The list could go on quite long, but looking at this small selection can be observed already three main characteristics, examples for the production of animal horror after 1975 are: 1 Many of the directors (as well as the actor) normally work for television, and a significant proportion of the movies are TV productions. 2. Often, the directors have staged more than a genre review. 3. These examples contain the above-mentioned policy of the reorganization of the German distribution company it is clear that relied on a kind of hyper simple Dramatisierungsstrategie, a phenomenon that is limited but not on animal horror productions in the late 70s.

took in the 80 years from the number of productions, the genre was established in the minds of the audience but completely: animal horror was perhaps no longer the rage, from the offer but also to stay. In the 90 years were then in addition to films, the approach was always the old school still required, such as the aforementioned Deep Rising or Alligator 2: The Mutation , USA 1991, Director: Jon Hess (director of the Dean Koontz-film Watchers), including films on the subject that were not only parody but almost nostalgic trains carried and contained an ironic reference to the history of the subgenre. A generation of filmmakers who had grown up with the classics, devoted to the topic. Animal horror had reached its post-modern phase. The most common examples of this category are Arachnophobia , USA 1990 Director: Frank Marshall, who has many of Steven Spielberg's production of directing, Tremors ( In Tremors ), USA 1990, directed by Ron Underwood, who directed 1998 remake of Mighty Joe Young , Jurassic Park , USA 1993, directed by Steven Spielberg and Guillermo del Toro's Hollywood debut Mimic of 1997.

Bear in the genre film, however, is rare: in addition Grizzly and his rip-off Claws still is John Frankenheimer's mutants bear-Mar The Prophecy to mention in 1979. A kind of art-house equivalent of Grizzly is Boris Buneyevs beautiful The Evil Spirit of Yambuy , a Soviet production of 1977. In the same year William Girdler directed with Day of the Animals ( panic of the Animals ) a kind of sequel to Grizzly . Here were all the same forest animals amok, including the well-known from Grizzly Brown Bear "Teddy". Only in 2007, then the next films followed with explicit bear horror theme, but two: the Canadian TV production Grizzly Rage directed by David DeCoteau, who is currently working on a remake of Food of the Gods , and the U.S. production Grizzly Park , directed by Tom Skull.


Part 2: William Girdler and the fear of the animal