The other "Cloverfield"

[Foywonder]

I'm going to assume you've heard of this movie called CLOVERFIELD, right? Giant monster, New York City, handheld footage: pretty much the BLAIR ZILLA PROJECT. I hear there's a lot of hype surrounding it. Something about a viral marketing campaign too. Lots of anticipation. Comes out on 1-18-08.
Now I'm going to assume you've also heard of a little company called The Asylum? They release cheaply produced knock-offs of big Hollywood blockbusters. SNAKES ON A TRAIN, THE DA VINCI TREASURE, TRANSMORPHERS, I AM OMEGA: surely those titles ring a bell? They don't have the most stellar reputation when it comes to making creative decisions or particularly good movies.

2+2=4 the last time I checked so it should come as no shock that The Asylum has cooked up something to correspond with the release of CLOVERFIELD. No doubt they had to wait like the rest of us to find out that CLOVERFIELD was actually going to be called CLOVERFIELD; that doesn't leave much time for creative titling. Besides, how do you come up with a title mimicking CLOVERFIELD? Call it SHAMROCKFIELD? I guess that's why The Asylum just settled on calling the film plain ol' MONSTER.

Now before anyone scoffs, The Asylum has done something truly clever with their handheld camera P.O.V. giant monster movie: they filmed it on location in the very city most closely identified with being victimized by giant rampaging monsters - Tokyo, Japan. In MONSTER, a massive earthquake in Tokyo heralds the coming of some sort of gigantic monster. Two American filmmakers document the creatures rampage from street view with their own personal cameras.

The Asylum has just posted the trailer for MONSTER and I must say it looks like it could have potentional; I mean as far as shameless cash-ins piggybacking off of much more high profile productions go. Though I can't help but be somewhat amused that the shot-on-digital look of the film doesn't look all that different from what most Asylum productions look like.

And unlike CLOVERFIELD keeping any glimpse of the monster a secret, the artwork and trailer for MONSTER give us something of a clue as to what to expect. Sorta. You see tentacles on the artwork and you'll see some monstrous tentacles flailing about in the trailer as well.

Wait a minute.

Female lead...
Japan...
Monster tentacles...
Uncensored version...

Oh, my.

You don't suppose The Asylum is going to go the tentacle rape route? Nah, hentai just doesn't seem to be their style. This might be the first production in history to involve a pretty female in Japan being terrorized by a tentacled monster that doesn't involve tentacle rape.

1-15-08 is the DVD release date for MONSTER. Yep, mere days before CLOVERFIELD opens. The Asylum is nothing if not punctual.

MONSTER TRAILER LINK (Quicktime)

[Mr_Vindictive]

Looks interesting enough to check out.

As for the title "Monster", I believe that came about after hearing that Cloverfield's title was going to be Monsterous.  That was the title that was floating around the internet for a few weeks and there were a few fake posters sporting that title as well.  Looks like The Asylum took the bait on that one.

[Andrew]

Hmmm.  I think that this will be one where we just have to see the finished product.  A low budget version with people trying to record the rampage of a giant monster can work, but there have to be some decent shots of the monster.  Hopefully, those will not be of a lesser quality than the big mollusk in "Octopus" or the monster in "Dragon Fighter."

[Bonehead-XL]

You know, The Asylum's stuff should be awesome. But I found most of their stuff pretty unbearable.

[Foywonder]

As for the title "Monster", I believe that came about after hearing that Cloverfield's title was going to be Monsterous.  That was the title that was floating around the internet for a few weeks and there were a few fake posters sporting that title as well.  Looks like The Asylum took the bait on that one.

Actually, up until the last minute The Asylum was going to call it TOKYO.