Editorials
[It Came From the ’80s] Toxic Waste Mutant Schlock Monster ‘The Being’
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.
Most are familiar with director Jackie Kong’s sense of humor through her horror comedy Blood Diner, but her entire filmography encapsulates her aim to shock and awe, often by way of laughs. Even her feature debut, The Being, has an underlying sense of humor despite playing it fairly straight. Kong wrote and directed the film at the young age of 23, but it wound up sitting on the shelf for three before finally getting a release in November of 1983. The release purgatory played a major role in the commercial failure of The Being, which means it’s a lesser-known creature feature of the ‘80s. Granted, if you’re seeking out Kong’s work then your best bet is still Blood Diner, but for completists, fans of schlocky monster movies, or those looking for deeper dives into horror, The Being is worth a closer look.
Set in the fictional Idaho town of Pottsville, townsfolk begin disappearing, leaving only piles of green gelatinous slime in their wake. Afraid of what that kind of negative publicity might have on the town’s booming potato farming, the Mayor (played by Dune, The Sentinel, and Bloody Birthday’s Jose Ferrer) enlists the help of a chemical safety engineer, Garcon Jones (Martin Landau), to investigate. Also investigating the disappearances is Detective Lutz (Bill Osco, credited as Rexx Coltrane), who soon suspects Jones knows way more than he’s letting on. There’s no real mystery at play, though, the opening scene sees a teen fleeing a toxic waste site only to be decapitated by a mostly unseen creature moments later.
In terms of voiceover narration and a peek into quiet, small town living, The Being looks and feels like The Town that Dreaded Sundown, but with a toxic monster twist.
There’s even a fun drive-in scene where the monster is going on a killing spree while people are watching (or making out to) a monster movie on the big screen. Again, leaving only gelatinous green sludge behind. If you’re looking for horror movies to watch on Easter, The Being has you covered there too, as it features an Easter egg hunt that sees one of the youngest children poking her hand down a hole inhabited by the creature. It’s a scene that keeps you in suspense, wondering if it’ll veer into taboo-breaking territory that results in a child getting eaten. It’s also a scene that further supports Kong’s twisted sense of humor – that child is played by Kong’s daughter, Roxanne Cybelle Osco, who also later appeared in Blood Diner.
Makeup special effects were handled by Mark Bussan (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: First Contact), and there’s no shortage of slime or goop for this nuclear dump site monster. As for the actual creature, well, Kong wisely opts to never quite show the creature in full. What little glimpses we do get of it makes it look like a giant sleeping bag, but in piecemeal it looks like a cycloptic humanoid with really long teeth. All of which to say, that at age 23, Kong had a strong vision and grasp of how to handle the movie’s monster.
There’s a strong caliber of talent for a small scaled toxic waste creature feature, especially with Landau at the forefront of the cast. It’s definitely a B-grade horror movie that plays homage to the atomic monster movies of the ‘50s, and with it comes the schlock. But for a lower budget creature feature, it’s competently made and offers some wacky humor beneath the surface. Between this and the far more entertaining Blood Diner, it makes you wish they gave Kong more horror movies to helm.
“Elevated Horror.” Of all the combinations in the English language, that one is the most insufferable.
It represents almost a decade of scary movies that, for the most part, took themselves too seriously. Horror responds to the moment, so its “why so serious” lean makes sense as we scuttle through the “worst of times” equation of Charles Dickens’ famous opening lines. But there’s still an opening and a need for a lighter approach; one that not only has fun with its audience but takes the piss out of a genre that is seemingly letting its newfound “respectability” go to its head.
Wes Craven believed devotees see horror films to let out their fears one primal scream at a time. At their core, these movies are roller coasters; they bring us as close to the edge as possible before pulling us back into a safety net of reality. The need for a bigger and badder coaster increases during times when the size of that net decreases.
There’s a thrill that comes from imagining being in a foot race with a madman, or outthinking the hordes of zombies on the other side of the door, plus the scavenger humans coming behind them. There’s even a rush that comes from imagining how one might deal with possession to see good triumph over evil in the end. It’s all about building tension and releasing it through catharsis. That cathartic release usually sounds like screams followed by laughter, which signals relief. Genre heavy hitters over the past 10 years offered very little of that respite when the credits rolled. Films like Hereditary, The Witch, Talk to Me, and even Smile (pick one) keep that tension going after the screen fades to black.
Hereditary
As the genre became obsessed with creating trauma metaphors, that lack of release made sense. Anyone with even a small sample size of traumatic experiences knows those emotions don’t magically resolve themselves in an allotted run time. But how much trauma can one take? Especially when there’s a mess going on outside that few of us can escape from. Movies offer that off-ramp, no matter how short.
Everything can’t be, nor should it be, “elevated.” Audiences need thoughtful explorations of life’s ills via monsters as much as they need murdering masked maniacs with kitchen knives. And no, it doesn’t have to go any deeper than that. Sometimes, a knife is just a knife, and it’s still worth our time and respect. As weird as it sounds, that simplicity is comforting not in spite of the trauma but because of it.
The worst of times should manifest more than just anguish. People need to laugh just as much as they need to think seriously about this moment in time. Even the Scream franchise forgot the meta rock upon which it built its church when the latest foray sacrificed the subtle comedy for serious drama. Scary Movie returned at the perfect moment. It provides the necessary laughs, but it’s not a cure-all.
This isn’t a call for Scary Movie imitators but a return to a mainstream landscape where Killer Klowns from Outer Space sat with The Serpent and the Rainbow, nestled neatly with the latest Nightmare on Elm Street, which took nothing away from The Vanishing.
They Live
Even They Live, John Carpenter’s horror sci-fi satire sandwich, kept its tongue firmly in cheek while discussing serious ideas still relevant in 2026. Yes, a film about aliens taking over the world through subliminal messaging only visible through coded sunglasses is, in fact, a tad silly. Carpenter understood that mainstream horror can’t become so self-important that it never looks itself in the mirror and laughs at that inherent silliness.
The thing is, horror historically excels at poking fun at itself. Most of the Scream franchise, The Cabin in the Woods, or The Blackening show adoration without kowtowing. They recognize tropes and trappings but invert them for an audience already in on the joke, but one that also finds solace in said conventions. This keeps the genre on its toes; once something gets parodied, it’s usually time to evolve. That breeds new ideas and fresh filmmakers, which not only strengthen the genre’s collective voice but also amplify it.
Get Out, as “elevated” as some critics want us to believe it is, is a cathartic, populist scary movie that spoke to an untapped audience rather than speaking down to them. Backrooms is one of the biggest horror hits in years, partially because it’s fine-tuned for modern-day teenagers instead of their parents. Movies like these tell everyone the genre is open for business; open for innovation and, yeah, open for new ways in which people can lovingly poke fun at with a wink and a nudge.
Horror needs dread as much as it needs laughter.
Catharsis is just as important as tension, and pulpy populism has the same merit as more high-brow material. Respectability shouldn’t come at the expense of an experience akin to walking through a haunted house. At a time when joy seems in short supply, horror should look to its past to map out its future, and make things just a tad brighter for audiences.
Backrooms
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