Monsters are Alive and Well..

...and coming to a movie theater near you! Our Home Fry-ed Movie for August/September is The Killer Shrews, a silly, little creature feature from 1959. Monster movies were in abundance in the 1950s and 60s -- deadly creatures from outer space, atomic mutations, ancient monsters awakened from their graves. Monsters are still popular in the movies, only they are embedded in much more complex storylines than the movie monsters of the past.

Let's look at some of the "monster" movies from 2012:

There are monsters in Prometheus, although they're really just new species the scientists discover as they explore a distant planet. The movie works primarily as a sci fi action thriller, with some scares along the way. 

The main character in Chronicle eventually becomes a "monster," but not until the end of the movie. For most of the film, he's just an angst-ridden teenager with a crummy dad, a sick mom, low self-esteem and some special powers. (Okay, an angst-ridden teenager does sound scary, no matter what the circumstances are.) 

The Cabin in the Woods is chocked-full of monsters of all kinds, but its unique structure, starting out as a stereotypical slasher film, mixing in some Lovecraft and some science fiction, and ultimately becoming a parody of itself, makes the movie difficult to classify.

Perhaps the best monsters of this year weren't monsters at all, but the pack of wolves that chase Liam Neeson and his companions through the icy north in The Grey.

Monsters? They're everywhere, with no sign of disappearing. (Unless, of course, they're invisible, i.e., Predators.) 

Taking a Drive on the Film Noir Highway

January's Home Fry-ed Movie is Detour (1945), and even though it's a low budget film with some actors you've probably never heard of and some continuity problems, it's still considered one of the best examples of that style of Hollywood movies from the 1940s and 50s known as film noir. Film noir is distinguished by its use of low-key lighting, shadowy backgrounds, and distorted angles. The movies are dark in appearance (as implied by the word "noir," French for black), as are the stories. The characters are often morally compromised, with a male lead that's right on the edge of doing something wrong, and a female character (the "femme fatale") who's there to push him over the edge.

To understand what film noir is, you just need to watch a few. In addition to Detour, there's also D.O.A. (1950), another Home Fry-ed Movie. This one is about a man that's been poisoned. He has only a few hours to live and spends the time trying find out who his murderer is.

Here's some required viewing when it comes to film noirs (or is it films noir?):

Double Indemnity (1944) - Insurance salesman Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) plans to murder the husband of his lover Phyllis (Barbara Stanwyck) and collect the insurance money, but can he really trust her?

Laura (1944) - A police detective investigating the murder of a beautiful actress falls in love with her portrait.

The Big Sleep (1946) - Detective Phillip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) finds himself pulled deeper and deeper into a complex scandal. At least Vivian (Lauren Bacall) is there to make it seem worthwhile.

Out of the Past (1947) - Unable to escape his past, a former private detective must face the rich man who hired him to find his runaway girl years earlier.

Sunset Blvd. (1950) - On the run from creditors, a down-on-his-luck screenwriter takes refuge in the mansion of a washed-up silent movie star, who wants him all to herself.

There are dozens more but those are just some of my favorites.