Editorials
[It Came From the ’80s] Hungry Beast from Planet Pluton in ‘TerrorVision’
With horror industry heavy hitters already in place from the 1970s, the 1980s built upon that with the rise of brilliant minds in makeup and effects artists, as well as advances in technology. Artists like Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, Alec Gillis, Tom Woodruff Jr., Tom Savini, Stan Winston, and countless other artists that delivered groundbreaking, mind-blowing practical effects that ushered in the pre-CGI Golden Age of Cinema. Which meant a glorious glut of creatures in horror. More than just a technical marvel, the creatures on display in ‘80s horror meant tangible texture that still holds up decades later. Grotesque slimy skin to brutal transformation sequences, there wasn’t anything the artists couldn’t create. It Came From the ‘80s is a series that will pay homage to the monstrous, deadly, and often slimy creatures that made the ‘80s such a fantastic decade in horror.
While some rubber suited creatures of the ‘80s were meant to terrify, some were meant to elicit laughs. The Hungry Beast of TerrorVision fell squarely in the latter, this Empire International Pictures production feeling more like a live-action cartoon that embraced the camp of its era. Aiming straight for the heart of comedy, TerrorVision followed the slimy alien creature with a voracious appetite as he’s transported from an alien garbage disposal to Earth by way of cable satellite. For the Puttermans, that means an unforeseen complication with their newly installed cable satellite antenna.
Produced by Empire founder Charles Band and scored by his brother Richard Band, TerrorVision marks a few notable ‘80s staples of cult cinema. Diane Franklin (Amityville II: The Possession) has a large role as the colorful punk rock older sister of lead protagonist Sherman Putterman. Jon Gries (Fright Night Part 2, The Monster Squad) plays her metal head boyfriend O.D., and Gerrit Graham (Phantom of the Paradise, C.H.U.D. II: Bud the C.H.U.D.) is every bit of the ham you’d expect as one half of the sex addicted, swinging parental unit of the Putterman household. The Putterman home and its inhabitants are every bit of the camp and silliness associated with the era. With the parents more interested in their swingers’ club, the Putterman kids tend to be the more responsible ones.
Left to their own devices, Sherman is the first to notice something is amiss. The Hungry Beast crash lands in the parents’ “pleasure dome,” devours them and assimilates them with his ability to imitate his prey. When Sherman and his sister Suzy discover the Hungry Beast, they instead try to domesticate it, trying to subdue it with television and food. It doesn’t exactly look like the cute cuddly thing you’d want to keep as a pet. Aside from its voracious garbage-disposal like appetite, the monstrous, asymmetrical alien boasts a perpetual lopsided grin bearing rows of pointy teeth and a lumpy, mucous covered skin.
The Hungry Beast alien, and the film’s special makeup, was designed by another Empire International Pictures staple; John Carl Buechler. The special effects artist and director was pulling double duty during production, not just as the special effects makeup designer and supervisor for TerrorVision, but as the director of another cult film, Troll. Troll had been shot in the soundstage next door to TerrorVision just a few weeks prior, and Buechler spent his evenings in the editing bay working on his film while working on the effects for TerrorVision by day. As the special effects makeup and creature designer for Ghoulies, and makeup artist on films like Re-Animator, the goofy design of the Hungry Beast was different than anything Buechler had done up until that point. Writer/Director Ted Nicolaou wanted something puerile, and gave Buechler the instruction to make the creature look really stupid.
Between the ceaseless quantities of slime on screen and the complete lack of seriousness in which Nicolaou takes the film, it’s no surprise that it didn’t fare well in its limited run. Naturally, the critics hated it. Of course, it also didn’t help that TerrorVision received an R-rating. There’s no real gore, only alien blue viscera or slimy deaths, and most of the risqué elements are suggested via innuendo rather than explicit. The Putterman household is decorated with a lot of nude paintings, and sex is discussed overtly, though. All of this to say, that the audience that this seemed ideal for was automatically barred from catching this in theaters with its R-rating.
Even if Buechler wasn’t exactly happy with the design of the Hungry Beast, it’s easily the most memorable part of what amounts to a live-action ‘80s cartoon. It’s not exactly a great movie, but there is a pure sense of goofy fun about it that makes it easy to see why it’s built up a cult following in the decades that followed. The slimy alien from planet Pluton makes you realize what a time capsule film this really is; I can’t ever imagine a film or creature like this getting greenlit in the present.
Having grown up in a religious family, Christian movie night was something that happened a lot more often than I care to admit. However, back when I was a teenager, my parents showed up one night with an unusually cool-looking DVD of a movie that had been recommended to them by a church leader. Curious to see what new kind of evangelical propaganda my parents had rented this time, I proceeded to watch the film with them expecting a heavy-handed snoozefest.
To my surprise, I was a few minutes in when Denzel Washington proceeded to dismember a band of cannibal raiders when I realized that this was in fact a real movie. My mom was horrified by the flick’s extreme violence and dark subject matter, but I instantly became a fan of the Hughes Brothers’ faith-based 2010 thriller, The Book of Eli. And with the film’s atomic apocalypse having apparently taken place in 2024, I think this is the perfect time to dive into why this grim parable might also be entertaining for horror fans.
Originally penned by gaming journalist and The Walking Dead: The Game co-writer Gary Whitta, the spec script for The Book of Eli was already making waves back in 2007 when it appeared on the coveted Blacklist. It wasn’t long before Columbia and Warner Bros. snatched up the rights to the project, hiring From Hell directors Albert and Allen Hughes while also garnering attention from industry heavyweights like Denzel Washington and Gary Oldman.
After a series of revisions by Anthony Peckham meant to make the story more consumer-friendly, the picture was finally released in January of 2010, with the finished film following Denzel as a mysterious wanderer making his way across a post-apocalyptic America while protecting a sacred book. Along the way, he encounters a run-down settlement controlled by Bill Carnegie (Gary Oldman), a man desperate to get his hands on Eli’s book so he can motivate his underlings to expand his empire. Unwilling to let this power fall into the wrong hands, Eli embarks on a dangerous journey that will test the limits of his faith.
SO WHY IS IT WORTH WATCHING?
Judging by the film’s box-office success, mainstream audiences appear to have enjoyed the Hughes’ bleak vision of a future where everything went wrong, but critics were left divided by the flick’s trope-heavy narrative and unapologetic religious elements. And while I’ll be the first to admit that The Book of Eli isn’t particularly subtle or original, I appreciate the film’s earnest execution of familiar ideas.
For starters, I’d like to address the religious elephant in the room, as I understand the hesitation that some folks (myself included) might have about watching something that sounds like Christian propaganda. Faith does indeed play a huge part in the narrative here, but I’d argue that the film is more about the power of stories than a specific religion. The entire point of Oldman’s character is that he needs a unifying narrative that he can take advantage of in order to manipulate others, while Eli ultimately chooses to deliver his gift to a community of scholars. In fact, the movie even makes a point of placing the Bible in between equally culturally important books like the Torah and Quran, which I think is pretty poignant for a flick inspired by exploitation cinema.
Sure, the film has its fair share of logical inconsistencies (ranging from the extent of Eli’s Daredevil superpowers to his impossibly small Braille Bible), but I think the film more than makes up for these nitpicks with a genuine passion for classic post-apocalyptic cinema. Several critics accused the film of being a knockoff of superior productions, but I’d argue that both Whitta and the Hughes knowingly crafted a loving pastiche of genre influences like Mad Max and A Boy and His Dog.
Lastly, it’s no surprise that the cast here absolutely kicks ass. Denzel plays the title role of a stoic badass perfectly (going so far as to train with Bruce Lee’s protégée in order to perform his own stunts) while Oldman effortlessly assumes a surprisingly subdued yet incredibly intimidating persona. Even Mila Kunis is remarkably charming here, though I wish the script had taken the time to develop these secondary characters a little further. And hey, did I mention that Tom Waits is in this?
AND WHAT MAKES IT HORROR ADJACENT?
Denzel’s very first interaction with another human being in this movie results in a gory fight scene culminating in a face-off against a masked brute wielding a chainsaw (which he presumably uses to butcher travelers before eating them), so I think it’s safe to say that this dog-eat-dog vision of America will likely appeal to horror fans.
From diseased cannibals to hyper-violent motorcycle gangs roaming the wasteland, there’s plenty of disturbing R-rated material here – which is even more impressive when you remember that this story revolves around the bible. And while there are a few too many references to sexual assault for my taste, even if it does make sense in-universe, the flick does a great job of immersing you in this post-nuclear nightmare.
The excessively depressing color palette and obvious green screen effects may take some viewers out of the experience, but the beat-up and lived-in sets and costume design do their best to bring this dead world to life – which might just be the scariest part of the experience.
Ultimately, I believe your enjoyment of The Book of Eli will largely depend on how willing you are to overlook some ham-fisted biblical references in order to enjoy some brutal post-apocalyptic shenanigans. And while I can’t really blame folks who’d rather not deal with that, I think it would be a shame to miss out on a genuinely engaging thrill-ride because of one minor detail.
With that in mind, I’m incredibly curious to see what Whitta and the Hughes Brothers have planned for the upcoming prequel series starring John Boyega…
There’s no understating the importance of a balanced media diet, and since bloody and disgusting entertainment isn’t exclusive to the horror genre, we’ve come up with Horror Adjacent – a recurring column where we recommend non-horror movies that horror fans might enjoy.
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