Editorials
[It Came From the ‘80s] The Aquatic Prehistoric Scorpion of ‘DeepStar Six’
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.
From 1989 to early 1990, aquatic themed sci-fi horror was all the rage. No less than five underwater genre films were released in that period; DeepStar Six, Leviathan, Lords of the Deep, The Abyss, and The Rift. It was Sean S. Cunningham’s DeepStar Six that made it to the theater first. The plot followed the crew of a deep sea Naval facility, comprised of blue-collar civilians, scientists, and military personnel. When a geologist discovers a strange cave system with a thriving primeval ecosystem, a high-ranking officer orders it to be collapsed via explosives, which in turn causes fissures in the ocean floor. It awoke and released a prehistoric creature, and it’s pissed.
Granted, it takes a long time for that creature to actually show up. Until then the audience is stuck with a lot of drama and bickering between the crew. Most of the cast was comprised of notable TV actors, and the characters they played were typical archetypes; the plucky hero, the love interest, the asshole, and plenty of supporting characters whose sole purpose would be to keep the body count at a fun number. But you don’t sign up for a creature feature for the humans, which can make at least the first half drag as you wait for the glorious, gruesome moment pictured on the movie’s poster and VHS cover box.
Once the creature does finally show up and makes its way into the station, the movie kicks in gear and turns into the entertaining monster movie we’d been waiting for. As per usual, a lot of the credit goes to the creature design and the special makeup and creature effects team for bringing it to life. The giant creature, a strange mashup of a crustacean and a scorpion, was initially designed by Chris Walas (Gremlins, Arachnophobia). He recommended Mark Shostrom (Evil Dead II, From Beyond) to handle the creature effects, who then made changes to the design based on production requirements.
It’s tricky and complicated enough to build a massive mechanical creature for a movie, but one that’s aquatic based adds a whole new layer of difficulty. Shostrom’s team comprised of nearly 30 people for the project, which included his main crew members- animatronics specialist David Kindlon (The Blob, From Beyond), Everett Burrell (Pan’s Labyrinth, Prometheus), sculptor Greg Smith (Hatchet II, From Dusk Till Dawn), Jim McLoughlin (Men In Black, The Cabin in the Woods), Gino Crognale (Sin City, The Walking Dead), Robert Kurtzman, and Greg Nicotero. The paint job was handled by Steve Wang (Predator, The Monster Squad). In other words, an A-team of horror effects artists.
The creature crew built a large monster rig for shooting, which required eight people to operate plus a stuntman. The rig was used in sequences where the monster looked alive and mobile. They also created a separate 12-foot long tail for diving as well as an insert tail for moments where the creature hit the characters with it. There were separate arms and heads for the shots that had the creature pop above the surface of the water. That Shostrom was juggling this project with his work on Phantasm II at the time makes this doubly impressive.
Sometimes all it takes to redeem a movie is a great creature with some gnarly kills. Distilled to its basic premise, DeepStar Six bears a lot of plot similarities to Leviathan (and Alien), which is the stronger movie in many ways. It doesn’t help that there’s a lot of waiting around through bland character melodrama before the creature is let loose. But between Walas, Shostrom, and the talented creature crew, they delivered a unique sea scorpion monster that gave us some memorable moments; like biting a hapless diver in half.
From child-eating witches to village-burning dragons, fairy tales have always had a foot in the horror genre. That’s why it makes sense that, for every The Hobbit and The Chronicles of Narnia, there are also darker and more adult-oriented stories about magical worlds inhabited by ravenous monsters and cruel villains.
Funnily enough, these sinister tales were precisely the ones that I gravitated towards back when I was a kid, and I was reminded of this while watching Netflix’s recently released I Am Frankelda, Mexico’s first ever feature-length stop-motion animation and one hell of an entertaining parable about the intersection between fiction and reality.
In honor of this special kind of horror-adjacent fairy tale, today I’d like to share this list recommending six Dark Fantasy films that horror fans might enjoy.
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining Dark Fantasy as fantastical stories that don’t shy away from the more macabre elements that fuel classic fairy tales. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own grim favorites if you think we missed a particularly thrilling one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
6. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters (2013)
I’m fascinated by bizarre attempts at blockbuster filmmaking – especially when the resulting movies are somehow still fun despite their corporate-mandated origins. Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters is precisely one of these strangely compelling studio projects, as this surprisingly successful action-thriller boasts a lot of heart (and tongue-in-cheek humor) for a CGI-heavy creature feature.
Directed by Dead Snow’s Tommy Wirkola, Witch Hunters re-frames the classic fairy tale as an origin story for a duo of badass monster-slayers. Of course, it’s the flick’s anachronistic aesthetic and overall visual flair that make it stand out from other action-horror endeavors from around the same time.
5. The Wolf House (2018)
Made in the tradition of faux cursed films in the same vein as Antrum: The Deadliest Film Ever Made, the eerie backstory to 2018’s Chilean animated flick The Wolf House (La Casa Lobo in the original Spanish) already makes it a nightmarish experience before the flick even really begins.
After all, the movie is presented to us as a faux propaganda film produced by the leader of a death cult (heavily inspired by the real life Colonia Dignidad), with this hybrid animated feature using complex movie magic to simulate a single uninterrupted shot as it tells the story of a lazy young girl who runs away from an isolated colony and encounters a creepy old house in the woods.
4. The Brothers Grimm (2005)
Out of all the Monty Python alumni, Terry Gilliam has had the most interesting career outside of the original comedy group. From fascinating canceled projects (such as his scrapped adaptation of Watchmen) to dystopian parodies that feel more relevant by the minute (1985’s Brazil), even his “lesser” films are still intriguing in their own way.
2005’s The Brothers Grimm is one such project, with this peculiar movie attempting to combine the comedian-turned-filmmaker’s unique visual style with a more blockbuster-oriented plot reimagining the titular brothers as con-artists rather than mere writers. The end result isn’t exactly a masterpiece, but it’s still a legitimately fun ride with plenty of memorable monsters and wonderful performances by both the late, great Heath Ledger and Matt Damon.
3. Dante’s Inferno: An Animated Epic (2010)
2010’s Dante’s Inferno game may have a reputation as something of an unapologetic God of War clone, but I’d argue that the now-obscure game was aesthetically unique enough to deserve a bigger fanbase. However, while the title remains trapped on the seventh console generation, its highly underrated anime adaptation is a lot easier to get a hold of!
Animated by 6 different studios in order to make the 9 circles of hell feel unique from each other, this may not be a completely faithful adaptation of Dante Alighieri’s poem, but it’s still one heck of a great (not to mention gory) time that I’d highly recommend to fans of Netflix’s take on Castlevania.
2. Underworld: Rise of the Lycans (2009)
My personal favorite entry in the Underworld franchise, Rise of the Lycans, is a highly ambitious prequel that actually works better if you haven’t had the story spoiled to you by the previous Underworld films.
While the rest of the series features plenty of urban fantasy elements as the movies combine machine guns and modern environments with gothic storytelling, Patrick Tatopoulos’ prequel fully embraces its fantastical origins and tells a classic tale about a doomed romance between a werewolf and a vampire amid a medieval uprising.
And the best part is that we get a lot more Michael Sheen as the fan-favorite Lucian.
1. Solomon Kane (2011)
One of my personal favorite movies on this list, MJ Basset’s criminally underseen adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other iconic warrior is thoroughly steeped in horror ambience and features plenty of memorable monsters. However, it’s also a classic origin story for a swashbuckling hero that wouldn’t feel out of place in a tabletop RPG.
While I’ve already written about how the film deftly combines both horror and fantasy elements without breaking the bank, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to recommend the bizarre movie where James Purefoy expertly plays a puritan John Wick.
It’s just too bad that we never got the other films in this intended trilogy.
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