Here's what you need to know; an Atomic Bomb test in the Arctic Circle goes a bit wrong when physicist Tom Nesbitt is found dying of hypothermia and babbling about a monster, and when he is flown back to the States for treatment, he is met with harsh resistance and mockery for his tale. But Nesbitt's monster is no delusion, but an ancient dinosaur freed from its frozen tomb by the bomb test, one that's carving a path of destruction southward towards New York where the true horror of its existence is revealed.
Should you be wondering why I'm opening my Godzilla vs. Kong special with this film, allow me to explain; The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is a film I remember very fondly from my formative years, but I didn't really remember the film all that much, just that there's a giant monster in New York and it dies in a theme park. That was literally it, yet I vividly remember drawing a massive picture of the monster's death, tangled in the burning wooden cage of the roller coaster, and while the film was a fuzzy, distant memory, I never forgot about it entirely, and my reaction, first to finding a DVD of it many, many years ago on a car boot sale, then to finding it on Blu Ray in HMV, was the same, I was ecstatic. However, similar to another film I'll be reviewing this month, having it on DVD doesn't mean I watched it, and so The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms sat next to Gamera: Guardian of the Universe on my shelf, patiently waiting. I watched this film for the first time in god knows how long back in October, and started writing this review for it then, but then life got messy; debilitating anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, you know, the usual, but I'm in a better place now and after neglecting this blog since Halloween and with Godzilla vs. Kong close enough to taste, what can I say, the time has come, let's talk about some god damned monster movies.
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms opens with about as 50's monster movie an intro as you can possibly get, as final preparations are made for "Operation Experiment," the code name for a top-secret experiment being carried out in the Arctic. There is a fantastic sense of tension throughout this sequence as it slowly and deliberately builds to the big boom, splicing in military stock footage as these sorts of films do. It's here where you really get a taste of what this film is, and if you already decide by this point that you won't enjoy it, I'm not going to persuade you otherwise because for better and worse, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is a product of its time. The film really wastes no time in getting to the Beast though, as our hero and a fellow scientist encounter it in a blizzard before it buries one of them in snow, and I'll just say it, I love this sequence, seeing the Beast towering over the humans is always going to be a badass image, one that beautifully showcases the film's biggest selling point, its effects. The effects for The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms were done by none other than Ray Harryhausen, and if you don't know that name, I feel sorry for you because his work in visual effects is legendary, and like with suitmation and Supermarionation, I was raised on his work; this, Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts, I have a lot of nostalgia for this kind of film making, but what kind, you ask; stop motion. I usually start talking about characters and story with my reviews before then going to effects and action, but I have to stress this aspect of this film because it really is the star of the film, which is both good and bad.
The good is that Harryhausen's effects are beautiful, taking a model dinosaur and making it look and move like a living, thinking animal. But more than that, similar to Godzilla a year later, the Beast's integration into the effects shots is black magic, convincingly selling the size and power of the animal as it crushes cars and smashes buildings. The bad however is less an issue with the film, and more with the perspective of the viewer; I have a great amount of appreciation and nostalgia for these kinds of films, other do not, and that makes films like this a bit of a hard sell. You see, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms came out in 1953, way before the advent of CG, its monster is animated with stop motion, and it was filmed in black and white to boot, and without trying to sound harsh, there are people who just will not entertain a film like this because of those reasons; it's old, it's not in colour, it's got crappy effects, only two of which are true, and the third is subjective, of course it'll be crappy if the only thing you'll watch is a modern blockbuster. At least this film is in English, as a Godzilla fanatic, that at least clears the hurdle of people not wanting to 'read a movie.' Like a lot of the best monster movies, your enjoyment with The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms will depend entirely on your suspension of disbelief and your willingness to look at a film from a different point of view, as once you give it a chance, you'll learn that this film has some truly brilliant and memorable sequences.
There are a few standouts in my mind, from the sequence in which the Beast attacks a lighthouse, to the finale in the theme park, to the Beast's rampage through New York, all of which delivering the thrills and excitement that only this kind of film can. The lighthouse sequence and its use of silhouette is downright fantastic, while the New York rampage scratches the itch you're certain to have with some good old chaos and destruction. But while The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms completely delivers in these sequences, the film has its flaws, take a guess what flaws they are. While those monstrous moments are things of beauty, they are spread out throughout the film which, despite only being eighty minutes long, is a surprisingly slow burn, and it doesn't do the film many favours. The rest of the film focuses on Tom Nesbitt and his mission to prove the existence of the Beast, and you already know where this is going so let's not shilly-shally. The human story makes up the bulk of the runtime, as Nesbitt chases down fellow witnesses and tries to prove that he isn't crazy, along the way reclaiming the respect of old friends in the Army and making new ones with a respected Palaeontologist and his young and beautiful assistant. Of course the Army is going to end up killing the monster, of course the young and beautiful assistant becomes a love interest, and of course the Palaeontologist pays the ultimate price in his pursuit of knowledge, this film doesn't have twists or turns.
Instead it has a story full of characters that are there to move the plot, though to criticise a film for not breaking the mould it helped to make would be a bit silly, it would make more sense to criticise the mould itself like I have done a few times before. The human plot is functional but unremarkable; Nesbitt is a charming and tenacious hero, his Palaeontologist friend, Dr Elson is at first cautiously sceptical of a prehistoric monster being brought back to life by an atomic bomb, as any sane person would be, but struggles to hide his child-like enthusiasm, also like any sane person would because hell yeah, dinosaurs, man. And it wouldn't be a 50's sci-fi movie without the love interest and as is often the case, I don't care, because sure, pretty girls are cool, but do you know what's cooler, giant monsters. One thing I feel is fair to criticise the film for though is its pacing and the introduction of the disease. As I said before, the bulk of the film focuses on the human story, but once the Beast comes ashore in New York, you're already in the final stretch of the film, as now it becomes a matter of trapping and killing it, which they ultimately do in the theme park by shooting it in the neck with a radioactive isotope, fucking woof. But the issue I have is that the film establishes that the Beast is carrying a dangerous disease, forcing our heroes to figure out a way of killing it without contaminating all of New York, and this happens right at the end of the film.
The reveal the the Beast is a germ carrier just comes too late in the film for there to be any building of tension from it, which is a shame because it's a really cool idea, one that the film could have played with. Instead, it's an obvious afterthought that pops up at the eleventh hour and feels more like it's there to force our heroes to kill the Beast creatively, which is does do, to be fair. It all comes to a head in the finale, which I felt to be a bit anticlimactic if I'm honest. The Beast gets trapped in a theme park and shot in the neck, bad luck sets the rollercoaster on fire and the Beast dies in agony from radiation poisoning. This sequence may be sensational to look at, as is the case with the rest of the film's effects shots, but that doesn't make it feel any less abrupt. The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is also very light on themes, unlike many of the films it inspired. By the end of the film, it doesn't feel like it's trying to say anything, which would be less weird if the film didn't open the way it did, it's less detached than the American cut of Rodan, for example, but even the surface level themes of a film like Gamera: The Giant Monster are absent here. The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms sets itself up with a brilliant premise but doesn't do as much with it as it could have, which is one of those product of the time things I guess, and as a vehicle for visual effects, which it's fair to say it is, it completely kills it.
No Wind Ever Made A Sound Like That
The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is a quintessential monster movie, for better and for worse, but mostly for better. The film does not do anything brave or unconventional, in fact it's one of the films that wrote those conventions, and it is an absolute powerhouse of visual effects, offering some of the best work Harryhausen ever did and some truly awesome monster action. But the film suffers from many of the issues that a lot of the classic monster movies also suffer from, chiefly a shallow and slightly dull human story, the film's ending also leaves something to be desired and its pacing can be a bit wonky. But in spite of its issues, I do kind of love this film, the nostalgia I feel for it is not misplaced because at the end of the day, this film has a cool arse monster and awesome special effects, and watching a dinosaur rampage through a city is something that will never get old, I'm simple like that. The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms is definitely worth watching.
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