The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms Review

        You may have noticed that I’ve skipped past the 40s in horror. I’ve decided to trim my reviews so that I don’t feel overwhelmed whenever I get to them after I’m done with my actual job. Rest assured, this isn’t going away by a long shot. There’s so many movies and multiple years of doing it. Best believe that we’ll try to cover all of the best in the decades past and future. Anyways, the 50s offer a different kind of horror, gone was the gothic element and a more sci-fi sense imbued with the public fear of the atom bomb. This is one of those films where it would inevitably create a genre and multiple franchises. 

1. The Beast

        If you’ve been following me, you’d know that I always lean towards the sci-fi horror of the 50s. As I mentioned, there was a lot of them that of course played with people’s fear of the atom bomb. It’s only natural that the studios decide to concoct or adapt a story that tells what would happen if humanity brought back something to life. Based on a Ray Bradbury short story, The Beast focuses on the creature being awakened from it’s frozen state by way of atomic tests. Thus creating havoc when it runs amok. 

        That’s the whole story, and if you’re looking for something deeper, just keep reading. So yeah, this is one of the rare entries of the American Monster movies that predates the Japanese Kaiju movies. And that’s not to say that this one and King Kong were the first to have giant monsters. Other films from the past and from different countries had monsters in them, but only the ones that were released domestically and Japan had made an immediate impact on cinema and in pop culture. I’ll elaborate more since this movie had a way bigger impact than one would think. 

        Anyways, we see just how the movie kicks off as a group of scientists decide to conduct tests in the arctic. One of the scientists named Thomas sees that a creature is roaming around and is knocked unconscious after getting hit from falling debris. We gradually see that Thomas tries to build a case that he did see something but is continually blown off by a paleontologist and his superiors. Only in these movies where we have someone sympathetic to indulge with the main character where they’re not crazy. And we saw the monster as well, so we know he’s not crazy. 

        And I like how there’s at least some bit of paleontology as Thomas sifts through which variety of dinosaur, he saw. When you think of it, we have a vast amount of knowledge that we know that everything we see from back then was just barely scratching the surface. And of course, the one dinosaur is the one that looks like a monster amongst the others Thomas goes through. Jokes aside, having it be an already established dinosaur would’ve been too unbelievable so the idea of a new type is at least apropos for this kind of movie. 

2. Ray Harryhausen

        I should at least give credit to the man that created the special effect. Harryhausen got his start by being a protégé to another stop motion effects artist named Willis O’Brien. The film that O’Brien got famous for was King Kong. The level of meticulous motion to create the Rhedosaurus is something to marvel at. Mind you, computers weren’t a thing yet and the level of patience that had to be applied for every step and motion had to be just right. At one point, the dinosaur was supposed to breathe fire, but it was deemed expensive for the budget. 

        Obviously when watching the film, you’re waiting for it to go on a rampage on New York City. While it’s not to the scope of buildings being knocked over which can be disappointing but seeing it before it became a checkbox for any monster-related movie is admirable. And just before, we see the attacks the dinosaur has that are slowly amped up. From attacking a fishing boat, a lighthouse and then the city is one where the filmmakers had the right idea to slowly elevate just how deadly this thing can be. It’s all great especially seeing someone get eaten where we see that it’s not a raging monster but an animal. 

3. Legacy

        To think, the level of influence this movie had is unbelievable. While it didn’t sway the critics at the time, it was one of the highest grossing movies when it came out. With the release of The Beast and re-release of King Kong prompted a rise of giant monster movies. Some even considered that this one movie helped inspired the creation of Godzilla. This one beat the King with being awoken from an Atomic test, albeit the other was created from the weapon. Inevitably, in a way the first American Godzilla film from 1998 feels like a remake of this movie specifically. 

        Ray Harryhausen would do more special effects work after this film. He would inevitably hit it big with his swords and sandals films like Jason and the Argonauts and Clash of The Titans among others where his stop motion effects would gain fame among the purists. As decades came and went, more monster movies would come out where it would rampage in a big American city. Films like The Lost World: Jurassic Park and Cloverfield would have a dinosaur and monster wreak havoc in a metropolitan area as one would expect. 

 

4. Overall

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms is one of the most important horror movies of the 50s, and one of the best monster movies all around.