Editorials
[It Came From the ’80s] The Ozploitation Horror of ‘Razorback’
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.
If Jaws taught is anything, it’s that even nature can inspire the most terrifying of creature features. Otherwise referred to as “Jaws on Trotters,” this Ozploitation gem merges a gritty outback story in the vein of Mad Max with the Jaws horror blueprint, but with a giant razorback boar. Based on Peter Brennan’s novel of the same name, Razorback opens with one ballsy scene that features Jake Cullen tucking his two-year-old grandson in for bed, when a giant boar smashes through his house and carries the child away into the night. Suspected of murdering the child, Jake is accused and acquitted, shattering his reputation and sending him on a quest for vengeance against the beast.
In an adjacent story, an American wildlife reporter comes to the outback for a story on a shady pet food factory that hunts and uses kangaroo meat in its processing. The reporter gets into trouble with the thugs who run it, and her subsequent disappearance leads her husband Carl to travel down under to find out what happened to her. Carl and Jake’s paths eventually collide, thanks to the monstrous warpath of the Razorback.
That there’s a Mad Max vibe to the film isn’t surprising, considering director of photography Dean Semler was brought on based on his work in Mad Max 2. Director Russell Mulcahy (Highlander, Resident Evil: Extinction) was hired for his first feature film based on his work in music videos, namely for Duran Duran, and his use of fast cuts and tracking shots that wound up becoming his trademark was vital to what made Razorback intense.
Effects artist Bob McCarron (Dead Alive, Dark City, The Matrix) designed six different boards for the film, each with specific purposes. A huge chunk of the film’s budget went to constructing a massive animatronic razorback, but like Bruce in Jaws, it never quite looked realistic enough for Mulcahy to want to film it. So, just like Bruce, this $250,000 animatronic contraption that took up a large portion of the budget was only seen in the film for a few short minutes. Mulcahy had to get creative with his shots and sequences to keep the razorback frightening.
That the animatronic beast wasn’t quite realistic looking, forcing more creativity, meant a similar less-is-more terror to Razorback’s monster. The isolated, eerie dreamlike setting with the unexpected moments of mammoth pig ramming into his prey made for excellent scares. That you never really got a good look, save for his ferocious, tusked maw, made the beast almost supernatural. Razorback proved why good direction can be just as important as special effects in creature features.
Given a small limited release theatrically in November 1984, Razorback didn’t fare that well. A cast of unknowns wasn’t exactly a draw, and its plot too closely resembled Jaws. The irony is that Mulcahy originally wanted to cast Jeff Bridges for the role of Carl, but producer Hal McElroy felt Bridges lacked international appeal. Even still, Razorback hasn’t had a decent home video release stateside and is ripe for the Scream Factory or Arrow Video Blu-ray treatment. I’d be willing to bet that there are a lot of stories waiting to be told about production, and the uncooperative animatronic beast.
Even with its close Jaws resemblance, the Ozploitation flair, Mulcahy’s direction, and the bold kills by the beast make this film a fun watch. Razorback killed indiscriminately and without mercy. Characters you expect to survive don’t, and hell, Razorback opened with a bold death of a small child. Razorback may not be the most obvious creature feature, but it does prove that man versus nature horror films tend to be effective for a reason.
Comics
‘Spider-Noir’ Comic Changes Explained: How the TV Series Reinvents Marvel’s Darkest Spider-Man
A little while back, I wrote an article chronicling the Hellraiser franchise’s affinity for Film Noir and touched on how that genre has, historically, always been connected to horror.
This connection can be observed in everything from the cannibalistic serial killers of Frank Miller’s Sin City to the disturbing criminal plots fueling neo-noir thrillers like Stuart Gordon’s underrated King of the Ants. That’s why it came as no surprise when I finally sat down to watch all eight episodes of Prime Video’s recently released Spider-Noir series and was confronted with plenty of classic horror tropes.
What did come as a surprise, however, was how showrunners Oren Uziel and Steve Lightfoot approached these horror elements when compared to the 2009 comic book that the show is based on. From the heavily altered rogue’s gallery to an equally terrifying yet completely different origin story for Nicolas Cage’s take on the webslinger, there are plenty of changes here that I feel might be of interest to genre fans.
With that in mind, I’d like to invite readers to take a closer look at all the adjustments that Spider-Noir made to the story in order to bring this incarnation of Spider-Man to life in all of its monochromatic glory (unless you watched the True-Hue color version of the show, in which case you’ll be treated to a surprisingly comic-booky palette that you don’t usually see on television).
The Dark Origins of Marvel’s Spider-Man Noir
Our first order of business should be to examine the origins of the Noir comics themselves. Originally published as part of the Marvel Noir alternate universe that reimagined several characters as hard-boiled crime-fighters, Spider-Man Noir became the most successful book in the entire run. This highly politicized story about Peter Parker coming to terms with the capitalist evils of the Great Depression seemed to have struck a nerve with audiences looking for a darker take on the wall-crawler, which is likely why we’d soon see several sequel stories as well as a video game adaptation of the character in 2010’s underrated Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions.
Of course, it wasn’t just Spider-Man’s darker disposition that made this version of the character a hit, as 1930s New York City was depicted as being much more hostile than what we generally see in the standard Marvel Universe. From Peter’s powers coming from an Eldritch Spider God that spawns man-eating arachnids to Vulture being an ex-Freak-Show Gimp with a taste for human flesh, you can definitely understand why this Web-Head isn’t pulling his punches.
Unfortunately, this alternate universe was a little too popular for its own good, with each subsequent sequel/adaptation further diluting the political anger and classic horror influences that fueled the original comic-book run in order to appeal to a wider audience. Spider-Man Noir was nearly unrecognizable once we got to the Spider-Verse crossover that turned the character into a household name, though this would at least lead to an interesting adaptation in 2018.
The Classic Horror Influences Hidden Throughout Spider-Noir
Jack Huston as Sandman in ‘Spider-Noir’
When Phil Lord and Chris Miller finally translated Spider-Man Noir to the big screen, with Nicolas Cage bringing the character to life in an unexpected case of pitch-perfect casting, he was still mostly relegated to comic relief as his nazi-punching antics and over-the-top edginess were played for laughs. However, while this version of the character had little to do with the comics that spawned him, Spider-Noir’s newfound popularity eventually resulted in the announcement of a darker live-action spin-off – a spin-off that I was cautiously optimistic about.
While the showrunners ultimately decided to go in a completely different direction than the 2009 comic, the new team of writers appeared to understand Noir as a genre in ways that even the folks at Marvel Noir couldn’t quite grasp. That’s likely why 2026’s Spider-Noir boasts plenty of horror elements, just not in ways we’ve seen them before.
The series is obviously borrowing tropes and aesthetics from period-accurate monster movies, with Universal’s 1930s output being a particularly big influence. From the re-imagining of Sandman and Tombstone as tragic figures to The Spider even being operated on by a mad scientist with hilariously antiquated techniques, this bizarre collection of super-powered freaks could have easily shown up in a classic creature feature.
The scares aren’t all retro, however, as the showrunners also injected plenty of body-horror into the mix during their attempt at unifying the origin stories for all these larger-than-life characters. Hell, the Spider himself is now revealed to have gained his powers after being bitten by a half-mutated Man-Spider during World War I, and the aforementioned mad scientist keeps a disturbing collection of failed experiments in her basement, proving that not all of her patients were lucky enough to simply gain superpowers after being experimented on.
Nicolas Cage Reinvents Spider-Man Noir for Television
Ben Reilly/Spiderman (Nicolas Cage) in SPIDER-NOIR
Photo: Aaron Epstein/Prime
© Amazon Content Services LLC
I also really appreciate how Cage insists on depicting Ben Reilly as an arachnid trapped inside of a human body, with his uncanny physical performance and classic Hollywood impressions keeping your eyes glued to the screen while also providing some of the show’s funniest moments.
I still think it’s a shame that the character is no longer politically motivated, and I miss the detail about Uncle Ben having been cannibalized by Vulture after his social activism ruffled too many feathers, but at least this time our protagonist actually feels like someone who could have been written by Raymond Chandler if he were a fan of Superheroes.
In fact, the writers nailed the snappy back-and-forth that Noir authors like Dashiel Hammett used to refer to as the “riposte”, and it’s fun to see supervillains being depicted as horrific movie monsters instead of specialized henchmen – with The Spider feeling like just as much of a Freak Show attraction as the rest of them. Purists might be put off by the lack of reverence for the source material, but I think that’s a small price to pay when even the show’s most clichéd moments intentionally harken back to the golden age of Hollywood.
That’s why I’d argue that Amazon’s Spider-Noir isn’t really an adaptation, but rather an equally valid take on the same premise that inspired Marvel back in 2009. And in a world filled with recycled storylines that only serve to advertise future releases, I’d rather have two completely different visions of the same character than a straight-up retelling of the same handful of ideas.
At the end of the day, there’s enough space inside this comic fan’s heart for both man-eating Vultures and a Cronenberg-inspired Man-Spider. And if you’re also a fan of nostalgic creature features with comic book flair, I’d highly recommend this street-level superhero story with a spooky twist.
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