Recent years have seen quite a few motion pictures, almost always of the very low budget variety, spring up that are designed to pay homage to the sci-fi, horror, and creature features of the "atomic age" while at the same time poking fun at their mannerisms and low rent nature. THE MONSTER OF PHANTOM LAKE is the latest of these tongue-in-cheek homages to emerge and if not for the lack of some judicious editing it could quite possibly have been the best of the lot.
(http://www.dreadcentral.com/img/reviews/monsterphantompic1.jpg)
QuoteOf course, then there's the matter of the monster, which is truly in the vein of a cheap drive-in movie monster of old. The half-man/half-algae monstrosity is reminiscent of the Creature from the Haunted Sea by way of Larry Buchanan. I personally likened it to looking like the lovechild of the Smog Monster (from Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster) and Woodsy Owl. Some will no doubt scoff at the cheapness of the monster costume, but isn't that sort of the point? Doesn't a lot of the fun that comes from watching these old atomic age monster movies stem from laughing at the cheap-looking (but often imaginative) monster costumes, as opposed to these days when you watch the cheap, computer-generated monsters that regularly appear in Sci-Fi Channel original movies and find yourself longing for those clumsy man-in-a-rubbersuit monsters of yore? And as in the movies of the past, the monster isn't fully shown until about two-thirds of the way in; only its arm appears on-screen during attacks up until that point.
MONSTER OF PHANTOM LAKE REVIEW (http://www.dreadcentral.com/index.php?name=Reviews&req=showcontent&id=1230)
Awesome, as all things Foy are!
You make a good point in the review, which is about running time. It applies to more than just these films that try to recreate the feel of a classic b-movie. Far too many movies end up being more than 90 minutes, but would have been much better if they had been cut down to 70 or so.
Quote from: Andrew on December 28, 2006, 07:13:35 PM
You make a good point in the review, which is about running time. It applies to more than just these films that try to recreate the feel of a classic b-movie. Far too many movies end up being more than 90 minutes, but would have been much better if they had been cut down to 70 or so.
Got an email from MONSTER OF PHANTOM LAKE's director after the review went up telling me he agreed 100% and said if he could he'd go back an re-edit it. He didn't say why he couldn't go back and re-edit it though.
And these days I say the bigger problem isn't 90 minute movies that could stand to lose 15-20 minutes but popcorn flicks that clock in at over two-and-a-half hours. There's just no justification for SUPERMAN RETURNS or PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN to be as long as they are.