Reliving Childhood Terror: Don't Be Afraid of the Dark

It was just some obscure TV movie that I had seen as a small child on afternoon syndicated TV. Yet it remained burned into my psyche well into adulthood. In fact, I would sometimes wonder if it had ever been a real movie at all, or just a half-remembered figment of my overactive childhood imagination.

In the pre-internet days, before IMDB, I would mention it now and then to others my age, to see if they had seen it, too. A creepy, quirky little flick about a woman haunted by demonic creatures in her furnace, desperate to drag her down to become one of them. To my astonishment, some folks also had half-recalled, vague memories of such a TV movie. Once the internet came into the picture, I still couldn't quite track it down, because I had no idea what the title was, or any of the actors in it. For some bizarre reason I thought Bonnie Franklin was in it. I have no idea why, but alas, I was wrong...

It took years before I was finally able to identify the movie as Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, a TV production originally aired on ABC in October 1973. I had seen it some years later, most likely on a lazy Sunday afternoon at my grandparents' house, where we would go every week, like a good Italian-American family. It scared the living daylights out of me, and I never forgot it.

One of the benefits of writing The Vault of Horror has been that I've been able to get in touch with and share ideas/memories with horror fans both near and far. In this case, one of the near ones, whom I happen to work with, not only was just as obsessed with the movie as myself, but actually had a Japanese DVD in her possession! And so, at long last, I was able to finally return to the movie that had haunted my dreams for some 30 years (Thanks, Tracy!).

Amazingly, so much of it was exactly as I had remembered it from that afternoon long ago. Kim Darby (of The Searchers and Star Trek's Miri episode) plays Sally, a poor young housewife neglected by her over-ambitious husband Alex (played by Jim Hutton, Timothy's dad). To her dismay, upon moving into the home bequeathed to her by her grandparents, Sally finds herself the target of menacing little monsters that she has unwittingly freed from their bricked-in prision within the old furnace in the basement. Over the course of the next hour, they taunt and torture her mercilessly, as she desperately tries to convince those around her that she's not imagining things. Until finally, they drag her kicking and screaming into the furnace. The end.

A large part of what scarred me as a kid was the uncompromising grimness--my Disney-trained brain couldn't conceive of such a tragic ending. And I'm glad to report that the movie remained just as foreboding to me now--although I have no way of really knowing if much of that had to with my memories of it, since my wife was certainly less than impressed.

I'll admit, we're not talking about fine cinema here. But Don't Be Afraid of the Dark is about as good as one can expect an early 1970s network TV movie made in three weeks to be. The acting leaves something to be desired, and unfortunately, the silly little costumes of the furnace creatures are decidedly less frightening now than they were to me then.

Nevertheless, I maintain that the movie still held much of its original power to get under my skin. The score, by prolific TV composer Billy Goldenberg, is genuinely eery and atmospheric. The persistent, whispering calls of the demons ("Saaalllyyyy.....We want you, Sally....") are just as spine-tingling as I remember, and have definitely held up much more than the costumes! What I also love is that you never learn what the creatures are, or how they got there. Creepy as hell.

Apparently, I wasn't the only one who was traumatized by Don't Be Afraid of the Dark as a kid. No sooner had I jumped on Facebook after watching the movie than I discovered a group entitled "U Saw Don't Be Afraid of the Dark in the 70s and Are STILL SCARED". Ha. Plus, there's the astonishing news that none other than Guillermo del Toro is prepping a theatrical remake to be released next year! Not bad for a supposedly obscure little TV movie. And you can bet your life that there is much room for improvement here--this is one remake I'm looking forward to with mucho excitement.

I'm not sure about the proprietary rights, but someone needs to put out a box set of TV horror movies from the '70s and early '80s--there's a fortune to be made. Throw in this one, Dark Night of the Scarecrow, Gargoyles, When Michael Calls, etc. There are a lot of us out there who have fond memories of these chillers!

"Ssaaaalllyyyy......"

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Andy Hallett 1975-2009

Some of you may have heard this by now, but for those who haven't, I have some truly sad news to report today. Andy Hallett, beloved for his role as the crooning demon Lorne on the Buffy spin-off series Angel, has died of heart failure at the age of 33.

Hallett had been struggling with heart disease (presumably congenital) for a few years now, and had been admitted to the hospital for treatment in the past. He passed last Sunday night, and E! Online first reported the tragic news on Monday.

The actor spent four years on the show, from 2000 to 2004, and actually didn't do much other acting, instead focusing on his music--a taste of which Angel fans got to enjoy from time to time on the show. In fact, he hadn't appeared on screen since Angel's cancellation.

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First MonstersHD, Now FEARnet??

Folks, we as horror fans need to stand up and get angry. It's time to do something. The loss of Monsters HD was a crippling blow to anyone who enjoys watching uncut horror flicks on TV--and now comes the enraging news that Time Warner Cable has dropped the FEARnet on-demand service from its lineup.

FEARnet.com reported the news last night, and it was brought to my attention by colleague and FEARnet.com writer Scott Weinberg. Apparently, Time Warner must feel that there is not enough support for a 24/7 on-demand horror film provider, but clearly we know this isn't so. And they need to know this.

If you've had FEARnet dropped from your service and you're pissed off, or even if you have a different provider and you're still pissed off, call this number: 1-877-FEAR-247. FEARnet will connect you with your cable operator, so you can voice your complaint.

Let me remind you that this is how it started with Monsters HD last year, first getting dropped by one provider at a time, until it ultimately closed its doors, depriving horror fans of a superb source of entertainment. I would not be surprised if FEARnet is headed in the exact same direction, if nothing is done to alter this course. And then all we'll have is ChillerTV, so for God's sake people, we need to do something.

I'm baffled as to where this lack of confidence in the concept of a horror channel is coming from. In my experience, horror has a much stronger mainstream following than science fiction, and yet the Sci-Fi Channel has been going strong for many years. Hell, there's even an Encore Westerns channel. Horror fans, unite and speak up!

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Maurice Jarre 1924-2009

The Vault marks the passing last Sunday of one of the world's most prolific and acclaimed film composers, Maurice Jarre, whose horror credits included Eyes Without a Face (1960), Dreamscape (1984), The Bride (1985) and Jacob's Ladder (1990).

Eventually composing for movies in six different decades, Jarre began his career in his native France, where one of his early scores was for the aforementioned Eyes Without a Face, directed by Georges Franju.

He made a major splash in Hollywood in 1962 with his epic score for Lawrence of Arabia, which netted him his first of three Academy Awards. Perhaps his most famous score, for Dr. Zhivago, landed him the second one three years later. He also won in 1985 for A Passage to India, and was nominated six other times, most recently in 1991 for his score for Ghost.

Jarre was also honored with two BAFTAs, for Witness (1986) and Dead Poets Society (1989); four Golden Globes, for scores that included Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and A Walk in the Clouds (1996); and a Grammy for his Zhivago score.

Among his many other scores were The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Firefox (1982), Top Secret! (1984), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Enemy Mine (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986) and Fatal Attraction (1987). He was also responsible for the music to the TV miniseries Shogun (1980), and my personal favorite of his, the immensely stirring theme to Franco Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth (1977).

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A Quarter-Century of Krueger: Freddy's Famous Friends

In case some of you hadn't noticed (I'll admit I didn't at first), the year is 2009. This means a lot of things, but to me at least, near the top of that list of things is the fact that it marks the 25th anniversary of the original A Nightmare on Elm Street. That's right, Mr. Fred Krueger has been haunting our dreams for one score and five years now, ever since Wes Craven first birthed him onto the cinematic landscape in 1984, one of the most brilliant creations since the heyday of Universal Studios.

In honor of this momentous anniversary in the history of horror, over the course of the year, The Vault will be devoting a series of posts to various aspects of this groundbreaking and beloved movie series. For my first post, I've decided to take a look at some of the established actors who have appeared in Nightmare flicks over the years. In some cases, they were already well-known performers who provided an air of legitimacy to New Line's fledgling franchise; other times, they were unknowns on the rise. In either way, they became an inextricable part of the NOES legacy.

John Saxon
My personal favorite, and I know I'm not alone. In an earlier time, when matinee idol looks were valued above all else, the square-jawed Saxon would've been a contract player, and a much bigger star. In the post-Dustin Hoffman era, he had to content himself with becoming a demigod of exploitation cinema. His roles in Enter the Dragon, Black Christmas and Tenebre, among many others, made him star enough amongst a certain subculture of fandom. And he adds a touch of heft to the proceedings in the first Nightmare as Nancy's exasperated and incredulous police chief father. He would reprise the role in Part 3, meeting his end at the hands of a Harryhausen-esque Krueger skeleton.

Johnny Depp
Yes, it's Elm Street's most famous former resident. Three years before 21 Jump Street made him a star, Depp made his movie debut as Glen, Nancy's dreamy if ill-fated boyfriend. The future Capt. Jack Sparrow buys the farm in Freddy's most infamous kill ever, coating his bedroom ceiling with an impossibly voluminous torrent of adolescent blood. Despite rising to become on the finest actors of his generation, Depp showed loyalty to the franchise that launched his career, making a cameo appearance in Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare.

Blink and you'll miss him:
Charles Fleischer
Four years before becoming the unmistakable voice of Roger Rabbit, this prolific vocal actor and stand-up comic made a brief appearance as the befuddled dream specialist who tries to get to the bottom of Nancy' dream issues.

Clu Gulager
After a long career as a TV cowboy in the 1950s, '60s and '70s, Galager seemed to be on the fast track to obscurity, until two memorable 1985 appearances--in A Nightmare on Elm Street 2 and The Return of the Living Dead--instantly reinvented him as a horror movie mainstay (a role he still enjoys, as evidenced by his work in the Feast trilogy.) As dad to Lisa's clueless boyfriend Jesse, Clu is an admirable follow-up to John Saxon in the role of ineffectual father figure.

Patricia Arquette
The third NOES film might be the one with the most future star-power in it. Roseanna Arquette's little sister debuts in the movie as Kristen, Freddy's newest target, and she's quite good in the role. It would be years before she got some recognition in the early '90s with parts in True Romance and Ed Wood, but we should have already known Patricia was destined for bigger things when she neglected to reprise her role in Part 4. Ironically, she can now be found on the highly successful paranormal-themed TV series Medium.

Laurence Fishburne
Back when he was just plain ol' Larry, this veteran bit player can be seen befriending Arquette's Kristen as sympathetic mental institution orderly Max. Despite small but memorable appearances in Apocalypse Now, The Color Purple and The Cotton Club, it would still be a few years before Spike Lee and John Singleton helped make him a bona fide star. Back then, he was fresh off playing Cowboy Curtis on Pee-Wee's Playhouse--a far cry from Morpheus.

Blink and you'll miss them: Dick Cavett & Zsa Zsa Gabor
Kind of cheating, since they make brief cameo appearances as themselves, but it also says a lot about the appeal of the series and how mainstream it had become by this point that two such recognizable folks would pop up in NOES 3. Think they would've done the same for Friday the 13th?

Blink and you'll miss her: Linnea Quigley
The '80s scream queen turns up as the face of one of the souls that emerge from Freddy's body in the climax of Part 4. And I don't really have much else to say about that.

Blink and you'll miss them:
Ted Nugent, Rudy Sarzo & Eric Singer
Fans of cheesy '80s rock (and there would likely have been many of them in the average movie audience for a NOES flick) sat up and took note of the band "Hot Seat" which appears in The Dream Master and features the future conservative wacko, the bassist from Quiet Riot and the drummer from KISS. Plus, rumor has it that MC Lyte turned down the role of Alice's friend Yvonne.

Yaphet Kotto
For my money, the finest actor to ever take part in a NOES film. Too bad it was in what is hands down the weakest of the series, Freddy's Dead. It's hard to watch Parker from Alien playing it all serious as the doctor amidst some of the most ridiculous, over-the-top garbage that gets (literally) thrown at us in this 3-D crapfest. Thankfully, Kotto was able to rebound nicely later in the '90s with a highly acclaimed role on Homicide: Life on the Street.

Blink and you'll miss them:
1. Alice Cooper
He isn't even mentioned in the credits, but it's the snake-wielding rocker who turns up as none other than Freddy Krueger's dad in an admittedly funny flashback sequence.
2. Roseanne & Tom Arnold
During their brief but highly entertaining marriage, Roseanne & Tom cameoed as a couple. Tom Arnold's illustrious film debut. I liked him better in The Stupids.

Kelly Rowland
Otherwise known as "one of the other two chicks in Destiny's Child who isn't Beyonce," in Freddy vs. Jason Ms. Rowland fills the requisite hip-hop/R&B star position that seems to come with the territory for some reason in teen-oriented horror flicks of the past decade.

Zack Ward
Hey, it's the crazy red-headed kid from A Christmas Story! Ward somehow survived child stardom without going nuts, and a breakout spot in Almost Famous made him into a bona fide grown-up star three years before his turn in FvJ. Genre fans might also known him from Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Transformers.

Blink and you'll miss them: 1. Rey Mysterio
OK, WWE's master of the 619 only appears in Freddy vs. Jason as a stunt double for Robert Englund during the Crystal Lake battle sequence. But it's still pretty cool if you ask me.
2. Evangeline Lilly
Look close, and you can spot the soon-to-be star of Lost as a walk-on extra during one of the school scenes. This one truly lives up to the "blink and you'll miss her" moniker:

Whether big stars on the wane, or burgeoning stars on the rise, the Nightmare on Elm Street series has played host to more than its fair share of celebrities. Of course, with the exception of the Saxonator, Donald Pleasance would have owned them all. But hey, such is life.

Keep a look out for further installments of "A Quarter-Century of Krueger"!

Freddy cartoon by Montygog

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Jason Breaks Character, Stalks Children

The Hollister Free Lance News reported yesterday that two schools in Hollister, California were shut down for a half hour due to a report of a man wandering the area wearing a hockey mask and carrying a knife.

San Benito High School and R.O. Hardin Elementary School were locked down at 11:45 a.m. and remained so until local police thoroughly checked the situation out.

No word on whether or not police actually apprehended the Jason wannabe. The incidents marks a surprising departure from his usual m.o.--since we all know that Jason's always gone out of his way to avoid threatening kids, right? This guy should have done his homework a little better.

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One More Reason to Like Judah Friedlander

Not only is he one of the people that make 30 Rock such a hilarious show, but Judah Friedlander is also one of us! Check out the shirt he wore yesterday to the Opie & Anthony Show on Sirius XM...


Yes folks, you heard it here first: Friedlander digs the F13. Picture was posted yesterday on Twitter by O&A co-host Jim Norton.

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Oh No! The American DVD of Let the Right One In is F***ed!!

Y'all know by now how much of a supporter I am of Tomas Alfredson's brilliant vampire film Let the Right One In. Last year's finest horror movie for my money, the Swedish picture was finally released here in the U.S. of A. on DVD just a few days ago. Kick-ass, right? Wrong!

The irrepressible Justin Bishop of Send More Cops tipped me off yesterday to the unfortunate fact that the new DVD has apparently been thoroughly lobotomized as a result of one of the worst subtitling jobs of all time. Unlike the excellent English subtitling done for early screeners of the film that leaked on to the web prior to its official international release, this new version appears to have been translated by Sloth from The Goonies.

Have a gander. First the screener we've all grown to love...


And now the American DVD...


Original...


American DVD...


And finally--screener...


Brain-dead version...


For more examples, check out the original story over at Icons of Fright. Apparently, the person who subtitled the screener so well, one Ingrid Eng, got stiffed by Magnolia, the company distributing LTROI on DVD. It would appear that rather than pay her again for the use of her subtitles, they went a much cheaper route, and got some seriously lazy, slipshod subtitles as a result.

This is a travesty. Extremely disappointing. Having grown to love this film, I can't in good conscience recommend the new American DVD to those who haven't seen it yet. So much of the nuance, subtle humor and delicate character moments seem to be gone in this version. Hopefully, if enough of an uproar is raised on sites like Icons of Fright and this one, something can be done about this. Otherwise, I would advise you to find another way to see this flick the way it was meant to be seen.

FYI: Magnolia's website.

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Rondo Hatton Winners, Bram Stoker Nominees Announced

Today was a big day in the world of horror-related awards. The winners of the 7th Annual Rondo Hatton Awards--doled out by the venerable Classic Horror Film Board and voted on by thousands of online fans worldwide--were officially announced. And as if that wasn't enough, the Horror Writers Association officially released the list of finalists for the 22nd Annual Bram Stoker Awards, the Holy Grail of horror writing.

Now, just to get it out of the way, yes, The Vault of Horror did score an Honorable Mention in the Rondos' brand-new Best Horror Blog category. Thanks to everyone who voted, I'm honored by your opinion of this web-filled corner of the horror blogosphere. The Rondos are a very big deal, and even getting an Honorable Mention really blows my mind.

As for the rest of the awards, here were some of the other winners:

• Best Classic DVD: Psycho Special Edition
• Best Classic Horror Collection: Ray Harryhausen Collectible DVD Set
• Best Classic TV Collection: The Munsters: The Complete Series
• Best Restoration: Vampyr, Criterion DVD release
• Best DVD Extra: Night of the Living Dead, "One for the Fire" documentary
• Best DVD Commentary: The Mummy (Rick Baker, Scott Essman, Bob Burns, Steve Haberman, Brent Armstrong)
• Best Independent Film: Spine-Tingler: The William Castle Story
• Best Book: The Twilight Zone by Martin Grams
• Best Magazine: Rue Morgue (also would've won "Highest Priced"....)
• Best Blog: Video Watchblog (Runner-Up kudos to The Drunken Severed Head; Honorable Mention kudos to Final Girl!)

For the complete list of winners and runners-up, check out the Rondo Hatton Awards official website.

And now, the Stoker nominees:

Superior Achievement in a Novel

Coffin Country by Gary Braunbeck (Leisure Books)
The Reach by Nate Kenyon (Leisure Books)
Duma Key by Stephen King (Scribner)
Johnny Gruesome by Gregory Lamberson (Bad Moon Books/Medallion Press)

Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Midnight on Mourn Street by Christopher Conlon (Earthling Publications)
The Gentling Box by Lisa Mannetti (Dark Hart Press)
Monster Behind the Wheel by Michael McCarty and Mark McLaughlin (Delirium Books)
The Suicide Collectors by David Oppegaard (St. Martin's Press)
Frozen Blood by Joel A. Sutherland (Lachesis Publishing)

Superior Achievement in Long Fiction

The Shallow End of the Pool by Adam-Troy Castro (Creeping Hemlock Press)
Miranda by John R. Little (Bad Moon Books)
Redemption Roadshow by Weston Ochse (Burning Effigy Press)
The Confessions of St. Zach by Gene O'Neill (Bad Moon Books)

Superior Achievement in Short Fiction

"Petrified" by Scott Edelman (Desolate Souls)
"The Lost" by Sarah Langan (Cemetery Dance Publications)
"The Dude Who Collected Lovecraft" by Nick Mamatas and Tim Pratt (Chizine)
"Evidence of Love in a Case of Abandonment" by M. Rickert (Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction)
"Turtle" by Lee Thomas (Doorways)

Superior Achievement in an Anthology

Like a Chinese Tattoo , edited by Bill Breedlove (Dark Arts Books)
Horror Library, Vol. 3, edited by R.J. Cavender (Cutting Block Press)
Beneath the Surface, edited by Tim Deal (Shroud Publishing)
Unspeakable Horror, edited by Vince A. Liaguno and Chad Helder (Dark Scribe Press)

Superior Achievement in a Collection

The Number 121 to Pennsylvania by Kealan Patrick Burke (Cemetery Dance Publications)
Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales by Fran Friel (Apex Publications)
Just After Sunset by Stephen King (Scribner)
Mr. Gaunt and Other Uneasy Encounters by John Langan (Prime Books)
Gleefully Macabre Tales by Jeff Strand (Delirium Books)

Superior Achievement in Nonfiction

Cheap Scares by Gregory Lamberson (McFarland)
Zombie CSU by Jonathan Maberry (Citadel Press)
A Hallowe'en Anthology by Lisa Morton (McFarland)
The Book of Lists: Horror by Amy Wallace, Del Howison and Scott Bradley (HarperCollins)

Superior Achievement in a Poetry Collection

The Nightmare Collection by Bruce Boston (Dark Regions Press)
The Phantom World by Gary William Crawford (Sam's Dot Publishing)
Virgin of the Apocalypse by Corrine De Winter (Sam's Dot Publishing)
Attack of the Two-Headed Poetry Monster by Mark McLaughlin and Michael McCarty (Skullvines Press)

Major league congrats to my colleagues Chad Helder and Vince Liaguno for their nomination in the Anthology category. The League of Tana Tea Drinkers is really taking the horror world by storm these days!

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I've Kaiju Under My Skin: A Guide to Showa-Era Godzilla, Part 3

When last we left our lovable 40-story-tall radioactive dinosaur, he was shepherding a series that seemed to have hit a serious snag, both creatively and financially. And while there were certainly worse days ahead, Godzilla would have a few more classic moments in the sun before retiring to Monster Island for the first time in 1975...

Destroy All Monsters (1968)

In addition to having one of the coolest titles of any movie ever, this entry is an absolute kaiju-lover's wet dream, returning the series to its former glory. Featuring the largest assortment of monsters ever seen up to that point, the flick even managed to incorporate kaiju from other Toho franchises, such as Manda, Baragon and Gorosaurus. The opening credits alone, with its driving Akira Ifukube theme, is enough to get the hairs on the arm standing. Unfortunately, the Showa series would never again return to this level of quality.

Godzilla's Revenge (1969) a.k.a. All Monsters Attack

From one of the best, to one of the very worst. In fact, it's hard to imagine that this movie followed directly after the excellent Destroy All Monsters. Featuring a talking Minya, boatloads of stock footage from previous Godzilla films, and the beginning of the series' obsession with little boys in tiny shorts dubbed by women, this is the film which finally completes Godzilla's metamorphosis from terrifying force of nature to benevolent, kid-friendly superhero. Still, it's always good for a nostalgic laugh for those who grew up with it.

Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster (1971)

This one seems to generally divide Godzilla fandom. A trippy, radical departure from the 1960s entries, it was the product of an entirely different creative team, put together while series producer Tomoyuki Tanaka was temporarily incapacitated (Tanaka was apparently less than pleased when he returned). I, for one, love it. With its bizarre visuals, unusual bad guy and classic theme song "Save the Earth", this flick is truly in a class by itself amongst Godzilla movies. I will say that its one major problem is that it features the series' most boring, horribly paced fight sequences.

Godzilla on Monster Island (1972) a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Gigan

Gigan, the giant bionic bird-like creature with hooks for arms and a buzz saw in his belly, is truly one of Toho's greatest creations. It's just too bad he never really had the opportunity to be in a great Godzilla flick. This one is almost as panderingly juvenile as Godzilla's Revenge, with Big G and his buddy Anguirus actually speaking to each other in English (translated, a narrator informs us, from their monster language)! Plus, you have one of the series' most mind-numbingly dull plotlines, involving something about insectoid aliens taking human form to conquer the Earth somehow via a kaiju theme park (I know it sounds awesome, but it isn't). Not even the return of King Ghidorah can save this one.

Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973)

With Jun Fukuda back in place again as the series' regular director, things were not looking up for Godzilla in the 1970s. With perhaps the lowest budget of any Godzilla film, this is the movie that a lot of Godzilla-haters typically point to when generalizing about the sub-standard quality of these movies. The giant cockroach Megalon is one of the worst suits Toho ever created, plus the fight scenes are exceedingly goofy, often choreographed like wrestling matches. You do get the uber-cool robot Jet Jaguar, Toho's obvious nod to Ultraman. And at least the MST3K boys got to have some fun with it...

Godzilla vs. The Cosmic Monster (1974) a.k.a. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla


For its final two entries in the original series, Toho somehow managed to summon up a bit of its former glory to deliver a couple of lesser gems. This one features the debut of Mechagodzilla, an inspired concept that pits the big guy against a robotic version of himself. There's also an interesting, mammalian kaiju by the name of King Ceasar who turns up to help Godzilla out. Interestingly, this is also perhaps the bloodiest of the Godzilla movies; kaiju gore, once forbidden by Toho, became more and more prevalent in '70s Godzilla flicks.

Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975)

Ishiro Honda triumphantly returns to helm the final entry in the series he kicked off 20 years earlier. Since Mechagodzilla had been such a hit, they brought him back again this time around, and added Titanosaurus, one of Toho's most underrated kaiju, for good measure. Unfortunately, not even the high quality of this last Showa flick--with its dark Ifukube score, stark imagery, and return to serious themes courtesy of Honda--was enough to save the franchise. Diminished ticket sales meant that the ol' rubber suit would be packed up in mothballs after this one--at least for a decade or so.

And thus the glorious Showa era of Godzilla came to a bittersweet end, a series that managed to find its creative legs right before the end, but nonetheless fizzled out after going to the well a few too many times. It would remain for an entirely new generation of kids outside Japan to discover the movies in the late 1970s and early 1980s thanks to TV syndication. And when the time was right in 1984, Toho resurrected the big guy and started the second major phase of his career.

Stripping away a lot of the camp that had accumulated over the previous decades and attempting to return the monster to its roots, the Heisei series of the 1980s and '90s would become the favorite for many a Godzilla fan that had longed for a more serious, better-budgeted approach. But although I enjoy all 28 movies in the series, it's the original 15 made between 1954 and 1975 that I find myself re-watching whenever I'm in the mood for some giant monster action. For my money, nothing made since has equaled the raw power of the first film, or the amusing fun of so many of the sequels.

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