User blog:Danijo/Darker/Edgy Monster Films

Let's face it...we all love monster films when it's comes to dark and edgy. Light-heart monster films just doesn't cut it. Or it's a kind of a love-it-or-hate-it thing.

Today, i wanted talk about the more, serious monster films that brought out the gloom and despair in the hearts of many fans that love the edgyness.

Here's my list of is my favorites that have this kind of tone. Note: American and European monster films do count, as well. I don't want to limit to just Asian kaiju films, mind you. Anyways:

American Monster Films

 * King Kong: First, I'm starting with King Kong. It was him, that jump started the whole genre in some way. Released in 1933, in the wake of the Great Drepression. I felt the setting was fitting to the tone of the movie. It helped ALOT that it was also in black-and-white. i felt rooting for King Kong more than anything else. There was no happy ending. More of bittersweet ending, to put it.
 * The Beast From 2,000 Fathoms: Notable for jump-starting the whole nuclear monster trend. AND being the inspiration for Gojira, this film was very grim for me. Because the main theme played a sense of fear for nuclear war and weapons. Not to mention, paranoia.

European Monster Films
X The Unknown: This is, in my opinion, by far...the most grim and grisly of European monster films. The film tells of a radioactive, blob monster that feeds off radiation. And as it start to move it's attention for more nuclear energy, it leaves death in it's wake. The character deaths were very gory. And it's one of the few monster films to show death of a child. This is very rare thing to happen in films like this. Even Gojira wouldn't go that far.

Asian Kaiju Films
But that's my list. So what are your favorite edgy-and-dark monster films?
 * Gojira: This film tops it off. Ten-fold. There was a major sense of despair, fear and sadness rolled-up in one. With story of the Lucky Dragon Incident serving as a basis, Gojira was born in a way...that was never played for laughs and entertaiment. Godzilla represented as the tragic victim of radiation testing. Which happened tragicly to the crew of Lucky Dragon. You could tell Godzilla was in very, much pain than you can imagine. The scene of the little girl crying over the death of her mother...was the most heart-breaking part. I will admit that I did shed a tear. The score added alot.
 * Godzilla 1984: Get's special mention. All i can say is...I love it. The tone and all.
 * Gamera v.s. Barugon: A favorite of mine. I like that the fact that it was very mature for a Gamera film. But the grey cloudyness added alot to it. The characters were very serious-minded. And Gamera, himself, looked really intimidating. No children in it whatsoever. The first film in the series to lack that.
 * Gamera 3: Revenge of Iris: This one was icing on the cake in the Heisei Trilogy. Grim and edgy, all seriousness, and deaths galore. This would put most Godzilla films in the Hiesei series to shame (Godzilla 1984 excluded). the fact alot of deaths occure in the film is...strangely what I liked. That and Gamera's appearence was far more, menacing than anything. If you watched the previous ones, you'll noticed that it's tone and setting is drastically different.