Horrorfest 2017: The War of the Gargantuas

For the last two entries of Horrorfest 2017 we turn to director Tim Burton and a couple of his favorites, starting with the Japanese production WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS from 1966. This entry in the "giant monsters attacking Tokyo" genre was directed by the master himself, Toshiro Honda who was responsible for the original (and great) GODZILLA, the not so great RODAN and my childhood favorite, KING KONG VS. GODZILLA, along with probably every other big Japanese monster movie you've ever heard of.

After a little research I learned this movie is actually a sequel to a previous movie called FRANKENSTEIN CONQUERS THE WORLD in which the Frankenstein monster grows to Godzilla-height and attacks Japan. So, the two monsters in WAR OF THE GARGANTUAS are the genetic offspring of the Frankenstein monster in the previous film, but mentions of Frankenstein were left out of the US version of the film to avoid needless confusion and hide the fact that this is a sequel. Aside from being humanoid and shape and kinda/sorta having flat heads, these monsters aren't easily visually recognizable as being of the Frankenstein-variety.

The story starts off with a bang as a cool, tentacle-waving sea creature attacks a boat at sea. These first ten minutes or so of special effects are more interesting than your usual "man in suit" effects, because we're dealing with a tentacle creature that's not humanoid. But then one of the Gargantuas shows up and kicks its ass, and it's all Gargantua all the time for the rest of the movie.

One Gargantua is bad and the other Gargantua is good. The bad one destroys Tokyo and other parts of Japan for the first half of the film, until it runs into the good one, who starts to fight back. As usual the human run around trying to figure out ways to stop the monsters but they're ineffectual and by the end of the movie can't do much but sit back and watch the two monsters fight each other, hoping the good one wins.

The Gargantua costumes are pretty gross -- you feel like you're looking at a couple of flea-bitten rabid animals for most of the movie. But, the miniature sets are pretty awesome, ranging from detailed city-scapes ripe for the destroying to scenes in nature that are pretty closely matched to real locations. My favorite part is always when the little remote control army trucks show up, and there's plenty of that, including helicopters for the Gargantua to swat out of the sky.

For the most part, this flick is a forgettable entry into the giant Japanese monster genre. There are better examples to watch if you just want to dip your toe into these movies, and you should probably only ever find yourself sitting through this one if you're trying to be a completist.