Notícias

Gojira came to be only as a consequence of one of history’s worst moments. Nine years after the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1954, producer Tomoyuki Tanaka had a vision for a monster movie. He wanted to bring those horrors of nuclear destruction to life. Inspired by America’s The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, Tanaka conceived his creature as a walking nuclear bomb, a tummy-churning reminder of the bombing, saying, “Mankind created the bomb, and now nature was going to take revenge.”

Under US occupation still, the horrors of radiation were fresh in the memory of Japanese people. Survivors, quite vividly, described the ant-walking alligators – people who were burned so badly their skin was blackened and leathery, with red holes where their mouths should be. They could not scream and could only make an insect-like murmur.

A still from Godzilla (1954) | Credit: Toho

Tanaka’s monster needed a name for the big screens.

Quick Links Showa Era Godzilla (1954) Godzilla Raids Again (1955) King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) Mothra vs. Godzilla (1964) Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964) Invasion of Astro-Monster (1965) Ebirah, Horror of the Deep (1966) Son of Godzilla (1967) Destroy All Monsters (1968) All Monsters Attack (1969) Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) Godzilla vs. Gigan (1972) Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974) Terror of Mechagodzilla (1975) Heisei Era The Return of Godzilla (1984) Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah (1991) Godzilla vs. Mothra (1992) Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II (1993) Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla (1994) Godzilla vs. Destoroyah (1995) TriStar Era Godzilla (1998) Millennuim Era Godzilla 2000: Millennium (1999) Godzilla vs. Megaguirus (2000) Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack (2001) Godzilla Against Mechagodzilla (2002) Godzilla: Tokyo S.O.S. (2003) Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) Reiwa Era (Ongoing) Shin Godzilla (2016) Godzilla: Planet of Monsters (2017) Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle (2018) Godzilla: The Planet Eater (2018) Godzilla Minus One (2023) Monsterverse (Ongoing) Godzilla (2014) Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) Godzilla vs. Kong (2021) Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

Godzilla — a...

Adam Wingard's new film "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" has, tonally speaking, strayed far from Gareth Edwards' 2014 MonsterVerse kickoff film "Godzilla." Edwards' film was somber and sad, featuring very little "fun" monster destruction. As the MonserVerse series has progressed, however, it has crept inexorably toward a sillier tone before striking it rich with Wingard's 2021 entry "Godzilla vs. Kong." That film featured a battle between the titular titans, but also a cameo from Mechagodzilla, a monstrous robot extrapolated from the skull of the dead King Ghidorah. "GvK" also featured a fleet of human-built UFOs and a magical portal that led into the Hollow Earth, an unusual underground realm ruled by monsters.

The Hollow Earth idea is straight out of Jules Verne, but the mayhem-forward approach to a Godzilla movie comes from several of Toho's films released in the 1970s. Indeed, many critics and pundits have been comparing "GxK" to the series' Shōwa era,...

A few years back, The Criterion Collection released the epic Godzilla: The Showa Era box set, collecting all fifteen Godzilla films of Japan’s Showa era together for the first time.

Starting today, Bloody Disgusting has learned, the 15-film Godzilla: The Showa-Era collection is available now on Vudu, Fandango’s premium on-demand video service!

The set includes Godzilla, Godzilla Raids Again, King Kong vs. Godzilla, Mothra vs. Godzilla, Ghidorah the Three Headed Monster, Invasion of Astro-Monster, Ebirah Horror of the Deep, Son of Godzilla, Destroy All Monsters, All Monsters Attack, Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Godzilla vs. Gigan, Godzilla vs. Megalon, Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla and Terror of Mechagodzilla.

You can digitally purchase or rent the individual films at the following links:

Godzilla Godzilla: King of the Monsters Godzilla Raids Again Ghidorah: The Three Headed Monster Mothra vs. Godzilla All Monsters Attack Invasion of Astro-Monster Terror of Mechagodzilla Son of Godzilla Destroy All Monsters!

Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1933 mega-hit "King Kong" was a marvel of special effects. It employed stop-motion animation, outsize models, rear-projection, and novel composting methods to convince audiences that a giant ape was interacting with human co-stars. Compared to modern, ultra-slick CGI effects, the 1933 King Kong may not look as realistic, but the ape shimmers with life and personality beyond what many modern effects can accomplish. Kong is the most sympathetic character in the movie, as he was kidnapped from his home and exploited by would-be entertainment moguls. Using bi-planes to shoot Kong off the top of the Empire State Building wasn't a moment of triumph for a masterful humanity, but the tragic execution of an animal that doesn't understand what it was thrust into. Not bad for a film that's going to celebrate its 91st birthday in April of 2024.

Interpreting "King Kong" in 2024 is fraught. Cooper...

U.S. audiences tend to accept Toho's earlier Godzilla movies as being high camp, usually thanks to Gen-x's half-remembered airings of late-'60s kaiju flicks broadcast on Uhf TV channels back in the 1980s. While there are some absurd and terrible Godzilla films from the Showa era (1954-1975), and many of them contained surreal, kitschy plot elements like invading aliens, one might also find several movies -- "Gojira," "Destroy All Monsters" -- that focus on Japanese national pride, the role of destructive weapons in the world, and a barely-simmering resentment lingering after a massive attack on the country. If modern superhero movies sprung from the U.S. subconscious as a fantastical revenge/preventative measure against 9/11, so too did Godzilla spring fully formed from the trauma left behind by the U.S.' atomic bomb attacks.

In the original "Gojira," that is literal. The titular creature, a stories-high amphibious animal,...

Japan’s most iconic giant monster is set for a big screen return in Takashi Yamazaki’s upcoming film “Godzilla Minus One.” Until that day, it’s a perfect time to reflect on the long-lasting legacy of “Godzilla.” Originally conceived as a metaphor for the horrors of nuclear warfare, the kaiju has seen its fair share of unique variations. Yet, the beauty of why this character remains solidified in cinema history is for the ideas that come with its creation and existence, along with many unique interpretations. Like many movie series, the franchise’s quality frequently fluctuates, yet plenty of these movies are good, some even fantastic. Here is an exploration of the King of the Monsters’ finest hits throughout the years.

Buy This Title

on Amazon 1. Godzilla (1954)

The original film that started it all. “Godzilla” remains a masterpiece all these years later. Ishiro Honda weaves together a simplistic yet...

We're back with another jam-packed edition of Horror Highlights! In today's installment, we give you a preview of Josie Cotton's upcoming album Invasion of the B-Girls, there's an exclusive Q&a with Tiffani Fest, and we have details on a new book called Screaming for Pleasure, a new horror podcast called The Scaredy Cats Horror Show, a deal between Gunpowder & Sky and Circle of Confusion, and Legion M's pop culture face masks:

Josie Cotton's Invasion of the B-Girls:

From the Press Release - “Josie Cotton makes the unlistenable unforgettable,” wrote legendary filmmaker/actor/artist John Waters about the New Wave icon's upcoming album Invasion Of The B-girls on which she covers the theme songs of campy cult films. When you have a quote like that from the supreme King of Cult Classics, you pretty much don’t need to do anything else in life but dig a hole and lie in it.