Monster Movies on HD Satellite

By: Taylor Benson Click author's name for more of his/her articles

When films were just starting to become popular, creative directors spent enormous amounts of effort into achieving special effects without the aid of computer rendering and digital action. They soon discovered that perspective was a great resource, and that very small things could be made to look very large (or vice versa, of course). There was no such thing as high definition, but there were other creative advances in film-making. With clever use of close-ups and toy models, even a small spider could crush villages. Thus was born that genre of camp and classics, movies of oversized primates, insects, and iguanas: the giant animal flicks.

Another theme in these early movies revealed common feelings of the time: Science was developing at an alarming rate, but in many ways it was still not welcomed, and people were often not aware of its consequences. The satellites the masses worried about then were Soviet-built Sputnik, not satellite TV. In each of the following movies, it is man's own actions and ambitions that bring the massive (though often cuddly) monsters into devastating contact with civilization. Without further ado, the top 5 traditional monster movies:

King Kong - No other enormous animal star is as iconic as King Kong. Unveiled in 1933, this was indeed the first of the giant animal movies. This one is rather different from many that follow in that science wasn't actually the culprit of Kong's size or wrath. Rather it was a human's search for money and glory that removed him from his natural haunt. For a high-budget HD update, Peter Jackson's 2005 film makes an intriguing comparison.

Them! - Along with Kong, this may also be considered a founder of the field. It's the story of giant ants terrorizing the inhabitants of a New Mexico town. As a matter of fact, atomic radiation is responsible the truck-sized ants, and it seems that they won't be held at bay.

It Came From Beneath the Sea - The giant octopus that horrifies San Francisco in this film is absurdly unreal audiences spoiled and used to flashy high definition effects, but the movie is still praiseworthy for taking on the challenge of showing a sea creature devastating - the setting at the water's edgeby necessity. Hydrogen bomb tests have made this huge cephalopod radioactive and driven it from its natural deep-sea home. Interesting to note is that the film only had budget to create 6 tentacles, so the beast is never fully shown!

Tarantula - In this flick well-intentioned science has gone mortally amiss. A scientist attempting to solve world hunger creates a nutrient formula for animals - but it causes them to grow huge, and become hungrier than ever. This proves deadly when the tarantula escapes and starts leveling the town. Mad scientists, blossoming romance , and one gigantic arachnid - what more could you ask from the genre than that?

Night of the Lepus - Released in 1972, this movie exalts the camp of its predecessors. Once again, the best goals of science end up causing a test subject - a rabbit in this case - to grow to uncanny size It also propagates like a, well, rabbit, and the researchers must find a way of stopping the not-so-small critters before the entire Southwest is slaughtered under their fuzzy little paws and murderous jaws.

Even with advances in technology this type of movie hasn't really changed so much over time. Flicks like Jurassic Park show that the cautionary tales about meddling with science are still abundant. New horror movies might have computer-generated monsters and HD ego trips, but the gargantuan animal is still the biggest hit. Find these classics on satellite TV and you won't be disappointed.

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