B Rated Movies And Monsters Alike.

 

There is an art form born purely out of the human need for imaginary calamity.  The name of this work of art is the, B rated Horror movie.  Ed Wood is the undisputed King of B.  His films captured the teen imagination with such classics as, "Plan 9 From Outer Space.", "The Sinister Urge.", "Night Of The Ghouls.", "Bride Of The Monster.", and the everlasting, "Jail Bait.", The famous body builder, Steve Reeves first appearance on the big screen.  Ed Woods name to fame was the ability of taking everyday objects and turning them into the monsters, and or monster costumes he used for his films.  "Plan 9 From Outer Space" includes an alien that is nothing more than a man in a gorilla suit complete with a diving helmet on that passed as a space helmet.  I thought those movies were the Bomb when I was a kid.

The great George A. Romero took the B movie crown from Ed Wood with his first instalment of the new Zombie movie craze, 1968's "Night Of The Living Dead." This was the beginning of not less than 50 Zombie films or takes on Zombies and still counting.  George is responsible for our modern vision of what a Zombie should really look and act like.  During this Zombie growth period Roger Corman convinced us that Zombies all had an insatiable taste for human brains, and indeed slowly limped around quietly muttering, "Brains," as they chased slow witted victims.  

In 1954 the Toho film company from Tokyo Japan created a film classic and started a craze of movies that would grow and reach adulthood at about the same time the B rated movie would.  That was the release of, "Godzilla, and Godzilla King of the Monsters." the first a purely Japanese version and the second and Americanized version of the film staring, Raymond Burr.  Perry Mason had become a monster hunter.  The gigantic monster franchise has become legend and is burned in the memory of many of us young at heart who remember the, Saturday afternoon Creature Feature, that comprised normally of two back to back monster films to enflame our imaginations.  Life was grand.

However the true King of the B movie is the 1933, "King Kong" who needs no introduction, and later King Kong re-released in 1939 with Faye Raye as the Beauty that Killed the Beast.  With these old Monster films it always seems to be a Fem fatal that takes down the monster. 

When Kong and Godzilla squared off and the world witnessed Zilla Fu and Kong Wrestling, the Monster film had taken on new dimensions that forever changed the art of the Monster Film.  

From Ed Wood to the Toho company, from the imagination of the teen age minds of the world to the forever teen of the likes of Roger Corman, and George Romero, finely resting in the hands of literary masters the like of Stephen King, the B rated movie genre, and the Monsters that follow may we always have an outlet for our imaginary morbidity.  

Peace and Balance,

John