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Excuse the
representative
banner title. We've strayed outside the boundaries of our initial
1950s + 60s
science-fiction / fantasy / creature-feature
Blu-ray
and 4K UHD
entries - expanding to include many new titles that
deserve acknowledgment - a few horror.
We've only briefly ventured outside the date range.
The appeal remains inherent from the
innocence of childhood - overflowing with campy
nostalgia - to inspiring imaginative future-esque
adventures or mythical fantasies recognized by
inventive, alluring titles, frequently set in
isolated islands, outer space, distant planets or
quaint, small towns steeped in tradition.
'Creatures' remain a
strong focus of many of the chosen films -
preferably of the
Ray
Harryhausen, claymation, variety - they
are often dinosaur or dinosaur-like, sometime alien,
fable-deviations, or accidentally man-made (enter
wayward scientists or mad doctors etc.). There can
be human-hybrids of animals (from a fly
to an alligator). Automatons are appealing; robots
utilized as
potentially dangerous and unreadable tertiary
characters - powerful and inscrutable. Both
Universal and
Japanese monsters are mainstays.
We've added some
'Republic Serials' and
avoided comedy/satire
(Jerry
Lewis films
Visit to a Small Planet and
The Nutty Professor or
Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine
and
The 10th Victim)
and intentionally neglected
movies that are
primarily occult and horror - notably Gothic period
films, although we have included a few very worthy
Hammer Studio titles.
Our rational is
indefensibly thin, excluding
Frankenheimer's
socially-probing and deep
Seconds, the
Thunderbirds series with their delightful Supermarionation
process. Kubrick's
2001: A Space Odyssey deserves it's own
category. Alain Resnais'
Je t’aime, je t’aime (1968) is a great film
but doesn't fit-in here. What about Hitchcock's
The Birds? Science-fiction? creature
feature? Committee says 'yes' - it's added.
Some of the most
desirable titles are still not
available on
Blu-ray;
The Day of the Triffids, 1953's Invaders
From Mars, The Amazing Colossal
Man, 51's When Worlds Collide and
Five, 1958's
Attack of the 50 Foot Woman, plus
Monsters on Campus,
Cult of the Cobra,
Dr. Cyclops,
The Leech Woman,
The Cosmic Man,
The Flying Saucer,
Stranger From Venus,
Invasion of the Saucer Men,
Day the World Ended,
The She-Creature ,
The Flesh Eaters, and many
more. Perhaps Criterion will upgrade their
Monsters And Madmen set with The Haunted
Strangler, Corridors of Blood, The Atomic Submarine
and First Man into Space or their Fiend
Without a Face. We have added some posters of the most
coveted below, and a few book recommendations.
We remain flexible in our selections and look forward to
updating the list with more titles as they are upgraded
to the
Blu-ray format.
Please
tell us your preference! P.S. Thanks again
to Gregory!
The listing is in
alphabetical order (click review buttons to also see
comparisons where applicable): |
