The overall idea we now have of the so-called “Western” dragon is the result of a stratified conflation of different traditions, and this process culminated in the Middle Ages, wherein traditional dragons, due to their innate serpentine quality, as well as common traits with the Leviathan of the Book of Job, began to be… Read More Special: Of Dragons and Wyverns – Part 2
Here be Dragons. When a dragon in a fantasy work — be it a novel, a film, or a videogame — is depicted as having just two wings (often also locomotory limbs) and two legs, the argument is often made that “it is not a dragon; it has two wings and two legs, therefore it… Read More Special: Of Dragons and Wyverns – Part 1
In the last part of the Monstrous Hundred, here’s a carousel of films from the 2000s onwards! Pitch Black (2000) This film packs a clever, outside-the-box narrative with an equally interesting subversive man as its main character, pitting him and an unlikely crew against swarms of truly outlandish alien creatures that are neither hammerhead sharks,… Read More Special: Monster Legacy’s Monstrous Hundred – Part 4
The Monstrous Hundred continues with the 90s, a turning point in effects-making with the advent of CGI. Tremors (1990) Kicking off the 90s roster of creature features on a fabulous note, Tremors is one of the most brilliant, all-around engaging monster movies of all time. From the witty dialogue penned by S.S. Wilson and Brent… Read More Special: Monster Legacy’s Monstrous Hundred – Part 3
Back in 2002, I was a small kid watching Free Willie on a local channel. During an ad intermission, a trailer was broadcast for what was coming afterwards. It didn’t have a hard time selling it to my young eyes — “monsters from beneath the Earth! Now they’re back, badder and hungrier!” were all the… Read More Special: Monster Legacy’s Monstrous Hundred — Part 1
“Three years ago, when I was here for King Kong,” humbly said Carlo Rambaldi at the 1980 Academy Awards, “I don’t know English, and I said ‘Thank you’. Now I learn very well English, and I say, ‘Thank you very much!’”. Carlo Rambaldi (September 15, 1925 – August 10, 2012) was an Italian special effects… Read More Exclusive: “The Mechanics of Monsters: From Carlo Rambaldi to Makinarium”
Monster Legacy had the privilege and honour to interview Adam Johansen, head of Odd Studio, about their work on Alien: Covenant. For the film, Odd Studio merged with Conor O’Sullivan’s Creatures Inc. to create a series of practical creatures that would serve both as onscreen effects and as reference for the digital effects.
As Kate Lloyd enters the ancient spaceship — in the climax of Matthijs van Heijningen’s The Thing — she discovers a luminous, shapeshifting tower. Hologram pieces continuously assemble and disassemble, moving geometrically. It is here that she is attacked by the assimilated Sander, who has taken the form of a distorted creature. The final cut… Read More Special: Why was the Pilot fired from ‘The Thing’?
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