Our fourth Bar Trash season unleashed a menagerie of MONSTER MAYHEM! in a programme where size really does matter…
MONSTER MAYHEM! offered a weekly field guide to cinema’s biggest beasts, featuring 16 epic kaijū films from Japan, USA, Mexico, UK, South Korea and Italy. The programme included origin stories, overlooked titles, unloved sequels and controversial remakes, all smashed together in a giant Godzilla sandwich.
Due to some licensing issues, we had to cancel our planned screening of THE BLOB (1988), which allowed us to screen our first ever Bar Trash Mystery Film? where we only revealed the title on the night. By happy circumstance, the massive audience response has given rise to another Bar Trash tradition; mystery screenings are now definitely a thing! Also pleased to say SPACE MONSTER WANGMAGWI went down a storm with one of its very few UK screenings.
#039: GODZILLA ゴジラ | Gojira d. Ishirō Honda (1954 / Japan / 96mins)
Genesis Cinema 31 MAY 2023 [full event info]
Possibly the best (and most significant) film we will ever show at Bar Trash, GODZILLA was a Japanese box office smash that would remain hidden from international audiences for decades. Ishirō Honda’s 1954 masterpiece was experienced by much of the rest of the world as the heavily re-edited GODZILLA, KING OF THE MONSTERS (1956), a Japanese-American co-production that featured additional footage of Raymond Burr (PERRY MASON, IRONSIDE) as an American journalist.
#040: THE BLACK SCORPION d. Edward Ludwig (1957 / Mexico & USA / 88mins)
Genesis Cinema 07 JUN 2023 [full event info]
THE BLACK SCORPION is a Mexican/USA co-production featuring exceptional stop-motion animation supervised by Kong’s creator, Willis H. O’Brien. The terrifying scorpion attacks and thrilling descent into the “lost world” beneath the earth’s crust were animated by Pete Peterson, who had previously worked with O’Brien on another big ape movie, MIGHTY JOE YOUNG (1949).
#041: THE MONOLITH MONSTERS d. John Sherwood (1957 / Mexico & USA / 88mins) + Bar Trash first birthday celebrations!
Genesis Cinema 14 JUN 2023 [full event info]
We celebrated the first birthday of Bar Trash with a personal favourite of mine that deliberately throws a spanner in the works… Rather than the usual kaijū film with a giant ape, dinosaur or blob running amok, THE MONOLITH MONSTERS features killer rocks from outer space… And despite the implied terror of the tagline, they don’t actually move…
THE MONOLITH MONSTERS is a prime example of why Bar Trash was created: to show films that aren’t being screened elsewhere but still have a lot to offer. Easily dismissed as ridiculous, but assembled with real craft and a compelling commitment to task, this is one less-familiar title that I was really excited to share. In celebration, we ate lots of cake and announced our biggest ever prize giveaway (a copy of each prize book from all four seasons of Bar Trash).
#042: MOTHRA モスラ | Mosura d. Ishirō Honda (1961 / Japan / 101mins)
Rule Zero 19 JUN 2023 [full event info]
Ishirō Honda’s MOTHRA (モスラ | Mosura) is a radical act of hope and optimism following the darkness of GODZILLA (ゴジラ | Gojira) and emerges from its cocoon in two halves. The first sets up the exploitation of the islanders in a story that riffs on KING KONG (1933) with charming echoes of other 1960s fantasies like Ray Harryhausen and Cy Endfield’s MYSTERIOUS ISLAND (1961). But then, things take a dramatic shift, as the kidnapped fairies – played by real-life pop duo The Peanuts – sing to summon their god…
#043: CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER d. Riccardo Freda, Mario Bava (1959 / Italy / 76mins)
Genesis Cinema 21 JUN 2023 [full event info]
CALTIKI, THE IMMORTAL MONSTER is a film almost as legendary for its production problems as it is for its spectacular, amorphous blob of a Mayan god-creature.
Soon-to-be “Master of the Macabre”, Mario Bava, was initially hired as cinematographer and special effects technician, but – depending upon who you believe – wound up directing some or most of CALTIKI after his mentor and the film’s original director, Riccardo Freda, walked away from the production.
#044: GORGO d. Eugène Lourié (1961 / UK / 78mins)
Genesis Cinema 28 JUN 2023 [full event info]
GORGO aka ‘the British Godzilla’ stomps through London in a film that blends GODZILLA (1954) and KING KONG (1933) with the distinctive flavours of European cinema. Director Eugène Lourié started his career as a production designer for French cinema legends Jean Renoir, Max Ophüls and René Clair. He was then pigeonholed as a director of science fiction “comic-strip monsters” after his first gig in the director’s chair, THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS (1953). He followed that with THE COLOSSUS OF NEW YORK (1958, actually a prototype ROBOCOP) and then THE GIANT BEHEMOTH (1959), another British kaijū eiga.
#045: KONGA d. John Lemont (1961 / UK / 90mins)
Genesis Cinema 05 JUL 2023 [full event info]
KONGA (original working title “I Was A Teenage Gorilla”) is a British KING KONG (1933) clone that takes a very different direction to the OG ape due to expensive licensing issues. Essentially, it’s a tale of toxic masculinity and murder (you will need to boo…) featuring Michael Gough (BATMAN) as a crazed scientist returning home after getting lost in Africa.
#046: YONGARY, MONSTER FROM THE DEEP 대괴수용가리 | Daekoesu Yonggari d. Ki-duk Kim (1967 / South Korea / 80mins)
Genesis Cinema 12 JUL 2023 [full event info]
Directed by Ki-duk Kim, GREAT MONSTER YONGARY – to give the film its original Korean title – was produced to compete with GODZILLA’s global franchise dominance during the great monster boom. It’s full of the kind of practical suitmation and miniature visual effects you’d expect. The producers even recruited Japanese SFX technician Kenichi Nakagawa to shoot the miniature action sequences and GAMERA’s suit designer Masao Yagi, to build the spectacularly horny monster.
#047: Queer Fest Special: KENNETH ANGER’S MAGICK LANTERN SHORTS d. Kenneth Anger (1947-65 / USA / various)
Genesis Cinema 15 JUL 2023 [full event info]
Kenneth Anger’s enormously influential short films serve up a mind-bending cocktail of homoeroticism, symbolism and occultism, mixed with a pioneering use of pop and classical music. His controversial life and career – Anger also wrote trash-talking dumpster fire, Hollywood Babylon – are spiked with falsehoods, radicalism, censorship (leading to a landmark civil rights judgement), violence, and scandal.
#048: GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH ゴジラ対ヘドラ | Gojira tai Hedora d. Yoshimitsu Banno (1971 / Japan / 85mins)
Genesis Cinema 19 JUL 2023 [full event info]
GODZILLA VS. HEDORAH aka The Smog Monster (1971) was the 11th spawning of Godzilla and possibly the most critically derided (to that point…). The big guy had by now transformed into a full-blown defender of the Earth – rather than its avenging destroyer – and goes into battle with shape-shifting/flying toxic sludge. Controversially, Godzilla even flies himself thanks to the power of his atomic ray…
#049: GAMERA THE GIANT MONSTER 大怪獣ガメラ | Daikaijû Gamera d. Noriaki Yuasa (1965 / Japan / 85mins)
Rule Zero 24 JUL 2023 [full event info]
GAMERA is the giant snapping turtle in Japan’s ever-expanding kaijū menagerie. Released by Daiei Film to compete with Toho’s world-stomping GODZILLA franchise, GAMERA became an endearing and enduring tribute act that found its own fanbase and survived multiple spawnings.
#050: THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER d. William R. Stromberg (1977 / USA / 85mins)
Genesis Cinema 02 AUG 2023 [full event info]
William R. Stromberg’s THE CRATER LAKE MONSTER relocates the Loch Ness Monster to Oregon and features early-career work from many of Hollywood’s special effects maestros, including stop-motion genius Phil Tippett (JURASSIC PARK, MAD GOD). A curious hybrid of kaijū horror and hillbilly comedy, the film ran into serious money trouble during production leading to shortcuts and cutbacks. Key sequences were then lost and the unfinished film was rushed into drive-ins. It has never been officially released in the UK.
#051: KING KONG LIVES d. John Guillermin (1986 / USA / 105mins)
Genesis Cinema 09 AUG 2023 [full event info]
Starring Linda Hamilton (THE TERMINATOR) and Brian Kerwin (TORCH SONG TRILOGY), John Guillermin’s KING KONG LIVES (1986) starts with Kong surviving his fall from the World Trade Centre at the end of the KING KONG remake (1976). This much-delayed but “idiotically entertaining” (John Wilson) sequel then wastes no time ripping into the big ape action.
#052: Mystery Film? SPACE MONSTER WANGMAGWI d. Kwon Hyeok-jin (1967 / South Korea / 83mins)
Genesis Cinema 16 AUG 2023 [full event info]
Our first ever Bar Trash Mystery Film was revealed to be the 1967, once-lost, now found, South Korean kaijū sensation SPACE MONSTER WANGMAGWI aka “The golden fleece of obscure unreleased kaijū films” (SRS Cinema).
I don’t know how many screenings there have been in the UK, but SPACE MONSTER WANGMAGWI only had its International release in July 2022 at Fantasia Festival followed by a North American blu-ray release from SRS Cinema in January 2023, so I’m guessing there haven’t been many… Which all helped make this surprise screening such a special treat. We’ll definitely be doing this again.
#053: GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA ゴジラ対メカゴジラ | Gojira tai Mekagojira d. Jun Fukuda (1974 / Japan / 84mins)
Rule Zero 21 AUG 2023 [full event info]
GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA (ゴジラ対メカゴジラ, Gojira tai Mekagojira) celebrates the 20th anniversary of the franchise by bringing director Jun Fukuda back for his fifth and final kaijū battle. His successful farewell film resurrects monster Anguirus – who first appeared in the OG sequel, GODZILLA RAIDS AGAIN (1955) – and introduces two fan favourites, godmonster King Caesar and alien mecha nightmare, Mechagodzilla. The film continues the hectic TV pace that Fukuda brought to the franchise and is one of the most violent in the whole series. A definite fan favourite, it played to a full house, packed with childhood joy and wonder.
#054: GODZILLA d. Roland Emmerich (1998 / USA / 139mins)
Genesis Cinema 23 AUG 2023 [full event info]
Roland Emmerich’s mega budget GODZILLA stands accused of turning a much-loved giant of cinema into a generic B-movie monster, ripping the ‘God’ out of ‘Godzilla’. Indeed, Toho Co. – the Japanese corporation behind the global franchise – now trademarks this version only as ‘Zilla’. Fat-shaming the original’s monster suit and removing Godzilla’s mythic motivations remain standout examples of big-studio stupidity. But… GODZILLA ’98 made massive amounts at the box office for a reason and, unlike Gareth Edwards’ 2014 reboot, can’t be accused of keeping its CGI creature hidden from view…
#055: TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA メカゴジラの逆襲 | Mekagojira no Gyakushū d. Ishirō Honda (1975 / Japan / 83mins)
Rule Zero 13 SEP 2023 [full event info]
TERROR OF MECHAGODZILLA (メカゴジラの逆襲, Mekagojira no Gyakushū) brings the Showa era of Godzilla films (1954 to 1975) to an end, reuniting both the original film’s director Ishirō Honda and composer Akira Ifukube to stage one final epic battle.
Following immediately on from GODZILLA VS MECHAGODZILLA (1974), this is a rare direct sequel that also delivers one of the darkest entries in the franchise to date. The twisted nightmare screenplay was written by Yukiko Takayama after winning Toho’s story contest for the next instalment in the Godzilla series and remains one of the few written by a woman.