Editorials
6 Genetically-Engineered Monsters to Give You Nightmares
From Frankenstein to the Island of Doctor Moreau, genre writers have thoroughly explored the horrors that can result from scientists playing God. However, as real life science continues to evolve, it makes sense that our bogeymen have also changed in order to adapt to modern fears.
I was reminded of this while watching Jurassic World: Rebirth; regardless of the film’s overall quality, the misshapen D-Rex marks a return to the genetically-engineered terror of Michael Crichton’s original novel – a sci-fi/horror trope that I think is in dire need of a comeback. And in honor of the test tube scares of yesteryear, we’ve decided to come up with a list celebrating six of the scariest genetically engineered monstrosities in film!
For the purposes of this list, we’ll be defining “genetic engineering” as the intentional manipulation of DNA with the goal of creating a new lifeform. This means that we won’t be including accidental mutations like Brundlefly or even Godzilla.
As usual, don’t forget to comment below with your own favorite genetic freaks if you think we missed a particularly scary one.
With that out of the way, onto the list…
6. Indoraptor – Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)
Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom may not be a particularly great film, but it does feature the franchise’s scariest genetic monstrosity to date. The hybrid predator known as the Indoraptor may not look too different from its predecessors on the outside, but it’s the creature’s mannerisms that make it scary.
Previous films may have depicted dinosaurs as unpredictable animals reacting to an unfamiliar environment, but the Indoraptor is the first instance of one of these clones being intentionally bred to act like a sadistic killer. In fact, I don’t think I’m alone in wishing that the Lockwood Manor sequence had been the focus of the entire film, as a dinosaur-based slasher seems much more interesting than every other idea present in this convoluted sequel.
5. Sil – Species (1995)
Species may not rank among the best creature features of the ’90s (which may have something to do with the fact that the original script went through a whopping eight drafts before it was finally ready for filming), but it’s hard to argue against a monster movie featuring designs by H.R. Giger! And while some fans accused Sil of being a Xenomorph knock-off, I think that her design is a continuation of the same psychosexual ideas that fueled the original Alien.
A human/extraterrestrial hybrid developed by scientists working off of a mysterious transmission sent to them by an alien civilization, Sil initially looks like a human woman (played exceptionally well by model-turned actress Natasha Henstridge), but her “true” appearance is a classic – not to mention terrifying – example of Giger’s fascination with biomechanical organs and uncomfortable sexuality.
4. Biollante – Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)
I’ve never really been frightened by Kaiju. While I imagine that it would be horrifying to actually be caught in the middle of a giant monster attack, I’ve always found these movies to be more thrilling than scary. The only real exceptions would be Shin Godzilla (which I’ve already written about here), and 1989’s surprisingly tragic Godzilla vs. Biollante.
An unholy union of human DNA with plant matter and cells recovered from Godzilla himself, Biollante is one of the largest and most unique creatures to ever face the King of the Monsters. Of course, it’s the context behind Biollante’s creation that makes it such a disturbing antagonist, as the monster’s human genes actually came from the daughter of the scientist who created it – with Erika Shiragami’s consciousness becoming trapped in the hybrid’s body.
3. Dren – Splice (2009)
One of several genetic freaks on this list that feature an uncomfortable sexual aspect in their design, the high-tech chimera featured in Splice stands out due to how it can *almost* pass as human. While the filmmakers owe a huge debt to Delphine Chanéac for her unsettling performance as a hybrid lifeform that wants to escape its overprotective “parents,” I’d argue that the subtly inhuman proportions of Dren’s face are what really make her such a scary presence – not to mention the fact that she reminds me of a certain nightmarish PlayStation commercial from 1999.
The movie is well aware of Dren’s unsettling appearance, especially when it explores the quasi-incestuous relationship that she develops with Adrien Brody as her “father.” That’s why Dren earns a spot on this list, as Splice’s main antagonist manages to disturb viewers through a unique combination of her warped humanity and her traditionally monstrous antics.
2. Judas Breed – Mimic (1997)
Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to take a concept as silly as giant killer cockroaches disguised as humans and turn it into a legitimately thrilling monster movie about nature’s endless capacity for adaptation. And while the Judas Breed’s “Human” form is scary enough, with their gigantic wings and segmented carapaces having mutated in order to look like the rough silhouette of a man in a trench-coat, it’s their disgusting true form that turns them into nightmare material.
I don’t know about you, but I feel that the Breed’s combination of anthropomorphic proportions with the repulsive texture of a trash-eating arthropod make them even more disgusting than a real-life cockroach – especially in the film’s Director’s Cut!
1. The Newborn – Alien Resurrection (1997)
I’ve always been an Alien Resurrection apologist. Jean-Pierre Jeunet is an undeniably talented director, and the wild shift in tone when compared to the previous sequel is actually in line with the variety that makes this franchise so versatile. Sure, some fans criticize Resurrection for being too light-hearted, but I’d argue that its mad science elements more than makes up for the flick’s over-the-top characters and jokey dialogue. If you need proof, just take one look at the gruesome Newborn – a misshapen clone of both Ripley and the Chestburster Xenomorph she was carrying in Alien³.
A psychosexual monstrosity that’s still human enough for viewers to have some amount of empathy towards the creature, this bizarre creation benefits from one of the scariest designs in the entire franchise. Not only that, but the idea of a Xeno hybrid with uncanny human elements is so disturbing that Alien Romulus would do the same thing again in its disturbing final act!
The great Ernest Dickerson turns seventy-five years old this month, so we’re looking back at his most memorable contribution to the horror genre – 1995’s Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight!
The film hit screens while the Tales from the Crypt series was winding down its run on television, and it stands apart with a story that feels a step or two removed from the franchise norm. That was the smart play, though, as the show’s stories – and those from the original EC comics – work best in short bites. The result is a film that holds up beautifully as a gory good time.
Now keep reading to see what I heard on the commentary for…
Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight (1995)
Commentator: Ernest Dickerson (director), Michael Felsher (moderator)
1. Dickerson was in post-production on Surviving the Game when he got a call from his agent saying that producer Gil Adler wanted to meet about a Tales from the Crypt feature film. It went well, so Dickerson met with Joel Silver next and secured the job.
2. The original screenplay for the film came to the producers as a spec script wholly detached from the Tales from the Crypt brand. They added the Crypt Keeper (voiced by John Kassir) bookends to make it fit.
3. Dickerson was more familiar with the original EC comic books having read them as a kid, but he had watched a few episodes of the HBO series, so he knew what the current vibe was for the project.
4. Adler directed the film’s wraparound segments, meaning Dickerson never actually got to work with the creepy puppet. “Gil and the Crypt Keeper had a great relationship,” he adds, “they worked together for years.”
5. While he was new to the Tales from the Crypt family, Dickerson had previously worked as a director of photography on the Tales from the Darkside anthology series. That show is underappreciated in my humble opinion, and I will go to bat for both it and the equally underloved Monsters.
6. A big appeal of the horror genre for Dickerson is the idea of dark mysteries that challenge our imagination. For this film, that came down to the mythology being created between the characters.
7. Five executive producers are listed in the opening credits, but Dickerson says the only two he had dealings with were Silver and Richard Donner. The other three were Walter Hill, Robert Zemeckis, and David Giler.
8. Dickerson had only ever seen Billy Zane in movies with a full head of hair, so he was surprised when Zane showed up on the first day with a bald head. “He had this case, and he opened up the case that he had all these hair pieces in, and he says, ‘So which one of these do you think I should use?’” Dickerson looked at him and suggested he just go bald for the character.
9. While the bulk of the opening exteriors were filmed in a desert just outside Los Angeles, the shot of the old church at 11:26 was created on a warehouse hangar soundstage where the film’s interiors were shot.
10. When he had read the script, Dickerson pictured the character of Jeryline (Jada Pinkett Smith) “as a little, tough lady.” He had recently seen Smith in Menace II Society, and while the producers had someone else in mind for the role, he fought to get her instead.
11. Just as Zane surprised Dickerson with his hair (or lack thereof), Smith arrived on the first day with her hair dyed platinum white. He “liked the idea” but asked her to please get it tweaked so it looked more yellowish blond. “It’s definitely a statement.”
12. He had seen Brenda Bakke in the 1989 sci-fi/action film from Japan, Gunhed, and thought she’d be great here as Cordelia. The rest of us might recognize her from Death Spa or Trucks.
13. Felsher comments that the film’s setup does a good job not telegraphing who’s going to live or die, and he uses the “nice guy” (Charles Fleischer) and “the kid” (Ryan O’Donohue) as examples. “You don’t play by those rules here,” he says, and Dickerson replies that he wanted to subvert those rules. That extends to Smith as well because she’s Black, “and usually in movies like this they’re the first folks to die.”
14. Dickerson says they had forty days of filming, “which, the way I’m used to working, was a very generous schedule.” It was budgeted at around $10 million.
15. This probably won’t surprise you, but Zane improvised the bit at 26:25 after he jumps out the window and says, “Fuck this cowboy shit! You fuckin’, hodunk Podunk, well, then, motherfuckers!”
16. In the original script, the demons that The Collector (Zane) raises from the dirt actually looked more like the people they used to be. “They were more human,” but the very smart decision was made in pre-production to make them look far more unique instead.
17. The demons are killed by shooting their eyes, but Dickerson felt there should be one more element to it. “Shoot out their eyes, you gotta duck because the souls come shooting out, and if it hits ya, boom, it can kill ya.” This is a fun touch.
18. He’s been asked more than once if these demons are where Peter Jackson got the idea for how the orcs would look in his Lord of the Rings movies. “They do look like orcs.”
19. He recalls having seen Ronny Yu’s The Bride with White Hair shortly before going to work on Demon Knight, and he hoped to bring some of that staged style into his own film. An example of that in practice is Brayker’s (William Sadler) brief flashbacks to Christ on the cross.
20. Character deaths were mostly based on the idea that “each person’s downfall was going to be predicated by their weakness.” The Collector discovers someone’s weakness and then uses it against them. Cordelia wants to be loved, Jeryline wants to travel, Uncle Willy (Dick Miller) is a horndog for both liquor and ladies, Danny loves horror comics, etc.
21. Dickerson says that plenty of genre classics were in the back of his head while making the film, including Assault on Precinct 13, Alien, Aliens, and more.
22. Cordelia is possessed into a demonic form, and Dickerson’s idea for how she’d look was originally a bit different. “Since Cordelia was a prostitute, I thought that her mouth should actually be a vertical slit that was in her stomach… which would open up with teeth and a tongue.” It was nixed, he says, when “the wife of one of the producers read that and said ‘no way you’re putting that in the movie.’”
23. The key makes an appearance in the followup, Tales from the Crypt: Bordello of Blood, but it wasn’t originally meant to. Apparently, early test audiences expected it to be a more connected sequel to Demon Knight, so the filmmakers added it in to appease them. This is where I go on record saying that Bordello of Blood is a fun time. Can’t touch Demon Knight, obviously, but it’s more entertaining than its reputation suggests.
24. They had to film Uncle Willy’s bar scene “dream” twice, once with the women topless and once with them in bikinis, to have versions for both theaters and television broadcast. “Dick’s a pro.” (To be fair, Dickerson says this in regard to Miller having to endure the makeup application, but the sentiment fits both situations, so…)
25. Dickerson says he’s “always amazed at the love that people show this film,” and adds that fans bring it up to him incredibly often. This is great to hear, as we should always be telling artists how much their work means to us while they’re still alive and able to hear it.
26. Zane also suggested the gag at 1:08:21 with the sponge coming out of his mouth. The beat reminds Dickerson to praise the actor even more, adding that he was an “ally” to the director when “bad ideas” came down from the studio suits.
27. He didn’t get any pushback on killing little Danny. He did insist on one added element, though, as he wanted to immediately follow the boy exploding in the air with a shot of his bloody and torn sneaker hitting the ground below. “And the sneaker had to be a hightop.”
28. Dickerson says there’s “something kinky sexy about” Smith being covered in blood, and then the two commentators go quiet for almost two minutes out of respect for the scene. It’s a good opportunity to reflect on how Dickerson had previously mentioned Alien and Aliens as films being in the back of his head during filming, and how two scenes here reflect that – Jeryline stripping down to her underwear for the final confrontation feels like a nod to Ridley Scott’s film, while an earlier scene with Irene (CCH Pounder) and Dep. Bob (Gary Farmer) realizing they’re surrounded and choosing to blow themselves up alongside some of the demons is something of a callback to the air vent sacrifice in James Cameron’s film.
29. Asked about the film’s critical reception at the time of release, Dickerson says it received good reviews from horror-loving critics and then talks about the importance of horror in general. “Horror has always been a great way of putting out ideas, of talking about some of the things that affect us as people. Some of the best horror, like the best science fiction, talks about what it’s like to be human. Some of the best horror gets very political.”
30. The original ending would have featured The Collector showing “his true self, which is a demon made of fire.” They spent a lot of time trying to make it work, but it was “extremely difficult… back in the day of analog effects.” It was rewritten into the faceoff between him and Jeryline featuring the dancing, the crotch fire, Zane’s attempts at saying “love,” and his eventual demise from her bloody spit.
31. They both agree that a direct sequel to Demon Knight could be a lot of fun, but Dickerson says he’s unaware of any talk on the possibility.
32. Dickerson was super excited about this new Scream Factory Blu-ray in 2015, and he mentions that before its release, he had imported a Blu-ray from Germany presumably to enjoy the film in HD. He’s just like us! (Or am I the only one here who’s imported a German Blu-ray of the much maligned werewolf flick Big Bad Wolf…)
Quotes Without Context
“I was so happy to get Dick Miller for this movie.”
“There was a time when guys used to put ketchup on everything.”
“I’m a big student of Hitchcock, and the best way to make a moment of horror work is to lull the audience into a false sense of security.”
“A villain should always be the most interesting person in a movie.”
“They were a really great bunch of performers who were performing on these little leg-extension stilts wearing a diaper that had a radio-controlled tail that was being manipulated by a special effects tech right out of the frame.”
“It’s hard to direct air; it doesn’t do what you want.”
“The only censorship problem came from the producer’s wife, who didn’t want the vagina dentalis [sic] in the movie.”
“One of the executives wanted to know why the devil didn’t try to have sex with Jada.”
“It always starts with the script.”
Keep up with more horror commentary breakdowns here.
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