Tag: Universal Monsters

A ‘Monster’ Talk with The Frankenstein Complex Filmmakers & Its Release, and Interview

Gilles Penso – Movies, Bio and Lists on MUBI

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Since the early days of Hollywood becoming the hub of movie-making to now, the approaches to making monsters come alive often required experimenting. The first creature creations were Dracula and Frankenstein. However, historians know Georges Méliès The Haunted Castle (1897) had skeletons dancing about. It wasn’t until Thomas Edison‘s 1910 short film, Frankenstein’s Monster, that gave Americans a taste of what cinematics can offer! Lon Chaney‘s contributions in how to achieve the horrific only furthered the horror film genre in its infancy. He took extremes in his makeup design to become the Man of a Thousand Faces.

Much of this history is quickly explored in directors Gilles Penso and Alexandre Poncet documentary Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex, but it hurries to get to the masters from the 60s and onwards. Their passion is certainly very evident. But it should be noted It’s tough to pack a complete look of creation of monsters in cinema with a 107 min runtime. A lot of details like the why isn’t always delved into–that’s all saved for the blu-ray package which consists of two documentaries, many extended interviews and an interactive video, which is now available to purchase online (like Amazon USA).

Alexandre Poncet - UniFrance

The standalone documentary scratches the surface to what makes a monster appear magical on screen. The latest documentary on Phil Tippett shows why he’s so deserving of those Oscars he earned over the years. He’s also being honoured at Fantasia Fest 2021 as his stop-motion pièce de résistance film, Mad Gods, debuts!

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Resurrecting Familiar Tropes in The Mummy (2017) Second Trailer

The Mummy

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

After looking at the second The Mummy trailer multiple times in the past few weeks since its release, I still can not shake the feeling I have seen this story before. I’m not as excited as the first trailer has led me to believe.

While I plan to see how this reboot helmed by director Alex Kurtzman and written by Jon Spaihts and Christopher McQuarrie pans out, I am setting the bar low because of what I have seen in past and present products about bringing dead Egyptians back to life. King Tut must be rolling in his grave; A film about his haunted tomb sounds like a better idea than where the creators are going with this film. At the same time, I’m left wondering if all the studio producers wanted is to take the best from what Stephen Sommers created from his trilogy and make simple creative changes to make this reboot seem original. After reading the fourth issue of Hammer Comic’s The Mummy, I’m finding I’m liking their story better. At least cults and hungry devourers from the afterlife are involved than a secret agenda which Dr Jekyll (played by Russell Crowe) no doubt harbours.

Much like Rick O’Connell, Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) is a soldier fighting in a war, and after a building gets blown up, he stumbles across a tomb (actually, a prison) which he makes the mistake of disturbing. He may also have a past that connects him to the Mummy (Sofia Boutella). Jenny (Annabelle Wallis) is just as smart as Evie and has knowledge of Ancient Egypt’s lines of pharaonic successors. As revealed in the first trailer, birds come crashing upon the transport plane carrying the sarcophagus, and as for whether the corpse was awake to summon them, that’s a detail not revealed. Maybe someone has read from a book to awaken The Mummy and to cause the carrier to crash. Everyone should be dead, except for Morton, and Jenny provides all the back story that’s needed to get people interested in this film up to speed.

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The Mummy in 2017 – A Detailed Analysis and Thoughts

Yes, I’m excited for this new take of The Mummy. It’s definitely a story with potential leanings to ancient astronaut conspiracies and pacts with alien gods.

The Mummy (2017) Movie PosterPlaying in theatres June 9, 2017

Yes, I’m suitably excited for this new take of The Mummy. It’s definitely a story with potential leanings to ancient astronaut conspiracies and pacts with alien gods. When the military is involved, even a shade of the original movie Stargate can not go unnoticed when it comes to unearthing corpses that should be best left buried.

Nick Morton (Tom Cruise) is the tactical leader of an operation which unearthed an Egyptian sarcophagus from deep within the Earth (always not a good sign). It’s been airlifted by a helicopter and later put on a transport plane. This American team is taking it home, perhaps to a nearby base. The details of the cavern and coffin are very alien-like. The headdress looks fin-like, and perhaps this look is why part of the film takes to the sea to find the coffins of the followers of this cult.

The Mummy (2017) Terror Underneath
All screen captures are copyright to Universal Pictures.

Continue reading “The Mummy in 2017 – A Detailed Analysis and Thoughts”

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