Editorials
‘The Guyver’ is Still a Fun Practical Effects Showcase 30 Years Later
Manga Bio-Booster Armor Guyver injected a wild science fiction twist to the superhero subgenre. It introduced a biomechanical suit of armor that enhanced its host’s abilities that came in handy during the onslaught of alien battles. Yoshiki Takaya’s manga series’s enduring popularity, which began publication in 1985, naturally inspired multiple anime series adaptations. However, when it came to producing a live-action take on the comics, Japanese company Shochiku Films wanted a more Hollywood-style adaptation. They teamed up with producer Brian Yuzna (Society) and special makeup effects-heavy hitters Screaming Mad George and Steven Wang (Predator, The Monster Squad) as co-directors.
It’s no surprise then that the result, released on March 18, 1991, is a practical effects showcase.
The Guyver opens with a text crawl that explains the aliens once came to Earth to create the ultimate organic weapon. They created humankind, then experimented with their DNA, planting a gene that would allow humans to transform into monstrous soldiers- Zoanoids. Then, a scientist steals a device, the Guyver, from Chronos corporation. Henchmen slaughter the scientist before he gets too far, but they’re unable to locate where he hid the device. His daughter, Mizuki (Vivian Wu), becomes the next target, but she’s protected by Detective Max Reed (Mark Hamill) and boyfriend Sean Barker (Jack Armstrong). Sean finds and unwittingly triggers the Guyver, which comes in handy when the Chronos president, Fulton Balcus (David Gale), sends a horde of creatures after them.
With Yuzna, Screaming Mad George, and Wang steering this ship, perhaps the most surprising part about The Guyver is its campier, more lighthearted approach to the material. Instead of a gory, R-rated creature feature more in line with the darker source material, it’s a PG-13 cartoon turned live-action. That alone divided audiences, fans of the original series, and fans familiar with Yuzna’s brand of gory mayhem. What’s not so surprising, at least in hindsight, is how this live-action adaptation followed hot on the heels of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles’ massive success. It, too, was a niche comic-book adaptation that offered a more kid-friendly approach to an otherwise very gritty and adult comic book series. Taking a relatively obscure- for its time- property and making it more widely accessible makes sense, as does the attempt to capture Ninja Turtles viewers, even if it doesn’t always work.
While tone and humor can distract, The Guyver succeeds as a practical creature-driven spectacle. Having a minimal budget would hinder many from tackling such a special effects-heavy production, but Screaming Mad George and Steven Wang had already built an impressive career as special makeup effects artists before taking on their directorial feature debut. Both were well versed in creative problem solving and had a keen eye for knowing how to utilize the creature effects effectively. Zoanoids using martial arts in their battles added a layer of difficulty to an already ambitious effort- think stunt people maneuvering in heavy rubber suits. Two directors well-versed in creature effects meant a divide and conquer approach; Wang handled most of the fights while Mad George tackled the more complex effects sequences.
The final showdown, a boss fight between the Guyver and a transformed Zoaloard Balcus, might offer the biggest battle in terms of scale. But the crowning achievement in creature work arguably belongs to the gruesome metamorphosis of Max Reed into an insect-like Zoanoid. After being freed from a chamber far too soon, Reed painfully turns as his body rejects the mutation. It’s an intricate scene that meant creating and operating multiple stages of the transformation, from prosthetics to a fully articulated mechanized puppet. The slimy bug overtaking Reed’s once human body has all the hallmarks of Mad George’s usual brand of slimy, gross-out effects that made films like Society and the cockroach scene in A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master so memorable.
Thirty years later, The Guyver is a time capsule movie. Only in the early ’90s would a monster henchman, Jimmie Walker’s Striker, taunt his opponent with a rap. Even the mugging scene that triggers Sean’s connection with the Guyver induces giggle-fits thanks to its corny staging. With a cast that also includes Michael Berryman and Jeffrey Combs, creating a Re-Animator reunion with Gale, The Guyver demonstrates what happens when you put many horror stalwarts in charge of a PG-13 superhero origin story. It’s silly fun that’s very of its time, but the insane creature effects have aged remarkably well.
Wang returned to helm the sequel, which embraced the R-rating and became more regarded critically as a result. Still, The Guyver offers a dream team-up between two special makeup effects titans, and it delivers on the monster mayhem that could still serve as fun gateway horror today.
Some movies are just so beloved that you can experience them through cultural osmosis without ever sitting down to actually watch them. From loving parodies to meticulous recreations of iconic scenes, memorable filmmaking lives on even after the curtains close on the silver screen. And when it comes to horror, few films can compete with the massive impact that Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining had on popular culture as a whole.
Whether or not you think the flick is a good adaptation of Stephen King’s seminal novel, 1980’s The Shining slowly but surely grew into one of the most influential genre movies ever made, inspiring everything from surprisingly heartfelt sequels to classic episodes of The Simpsons. However, not all The Shining references are created equal, and today I’d like to shine a light on six unexpected homages to Kubrick’s iconic film.
In this list, we’ll be focusing on references and Easter eggs that either came out of the blue or came from creators that you wouldn’t expect to be fans of this classic ghost story. That being said, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite references to the Torrance family and the Overlook Hotel if you think we missed a particularly memorable one.
With that out of the way, onto the list!
5. A Nightmare on FaceTime – South Park (2012)
Regardless of the brand’s iffy reputation among former employees, the death of Blockbuster Video was a serious blow to fans of physical media. Of course, some folks were more affected by this than others, and South Park’s Randy Marsh definitely took things a little too far in the twelfth episode of the show’s sixteenth season.
Titled A Nightmare on FaceTime, the main plot of this 2012 story is a surprisingly faithful recreation of The Shining where Randy purchases an empty Blockbuster store and begins to go mad once he realizes that his investment may not have been a very good idea due to the rise of streaming and the now-defunct RedBox storefronts.
4. The Overlook Hotel Level – Ready Player One (2018)
I was never really a fan of Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One, so I viewed Stephen Spielberg’s divisive adaptation of the novel as an improvement over the source material despite having its own narrative issues. In fact, I actually prefer how Spielberg changed the story by removing several references to his own work and replacing a lengthy Blade Runner detour with an over-the-top homage to The Shining.
A CGI-heavy recreation of the film’s most iconic moments that feels like a big-budget ghost train ride set within the Overlook Hotel, this intense sequence is more of a recreation of the freaky aesthetics of The Shining rather than its mind-bending narrative. However, it’s still fun to see Spielberg make a heartfelt tribute to a filmmaker that was once his close personal friend.
3. IKEA Singapore Halloween Ad (2014)
It makes sense that commercials don’t typically borrow from the horror genre, as it might be a bad idea to scare away potential customers, but some references are just too much fun to pass up.
That’s probably why the publicists behind this Ikea ad from Singapore were allowed to turn their commercial into a genuinely unsettling recreation of Danny’s tricycle scene from The Shining. After all, nobody cares if your store is haunted so long as it offers late-night shopping hours and a large selection of merchandise that you can become lost in forever and ever…
2. The End of ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’ – Community (2014)
Community is no stranger to recreating iconic movie moments within the show, and the series had previously tackled horror tropes in episodes like the fan-favorite Epidemiology. However, the most laugh-out-loud moment on this particular list comes from a brief gag towards the end of the season five episode ‘Bondage and Beta Male Sexuality’.
The majority of this episode has nothing to do with scary movies, but there’s a brief subplot involving supporting character Chang and a possible encounter with ghosts that leads him to question his own existence. This subplot culminates in the episode’s hilarious ending where the camera zooms in on a black-and-white photograph of Chang in period clothing at some kind of celebration, just like Jack Nicholson at the end of The Shining.
However, the picture’s subtitle eventually reveals that it’s merely a conveniently placed keepsake from the ‘Old Timey Photo Club’.
1. The Overlook Hedge Maze Sequence – Zootopia 2 (2025)
Disney movies are pretty far removed from both the gruesome horror of Stephen King and the heady filmmaking of Stanley Kubrick, so I don’t think anyone was expecting the climax of last year’s Zootopia sequel to take place in an animated version of the snowy hedge maze from The Shining.
In this unexpectedly intense sequence, friend-turned-villain Pawbert Lynxley (an unhinged lynx cat played by Andy Samberg) chases our protagonists through a creepy labyrinth in a loving recreation of Jack Nicholson’s icy demise outside the Overlook Hotel. The actual ending here might be a little more child-friendly than what’s being referenced, but it’s amazing that the filmmakers were able to push the horror elements as far as they did – especially since the scene doesn’t really have anything to do with the rest of the movie.
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