Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

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I loved the '73 version, especially the ending

Is this an Anthology film sort of like the Creepshow movies?

Just curious never seen the original film.

Saw this Friday night and really liked it. I know this has gotten really mixed reviews, but count me as one of the ones that liked it. Some people might say the lack of humor in a story about a little girl being terrorized by talking miniature goblins makes it fall flat, but I liked that it was unapologetic about what it was and didn't try to force any humor in it. I thought it was even better than the original (which was good, but far from perfect). This isn't perfect either, but its a great dark fairy tale that expands on the original's concept. I've seen a lot of people criticizing the writing of the parent characters since they go through most of the movie not believing the girl, but I wouldn't believe my heavily medicated, emotionally damaged child if she told me there were tiny monsters terrorizing her either. And the one time they find proof of the creatures is when they decide to act. It just happens to be towards the end.

And I loved the new take on the creatures being evil tooth fairies. They don't flat out explain everything about the creatures, but they explain JUST enough to get the imagination going. That's a delicate balance and the movie walks it rather nicely IMO. The adult characters are a bit flat, but GDT is very much a traditionalist (almost to a fault) and I'm pretty sure that's just his way of emulating fairy tales by making the child the empathetic one. Katie Holmes was surprisingly good in her role, even if her character is a bit flat. Guy Pearce is good, but he doesn't have much to do. The stuff with the gardener character was a bit stupid, but just about everything else here worked for me. I love the downbeat ending also.

Guillermo del Toro's screenplay is very traditional, but (as I said) he's a traditionalist in a lot of ways and he embraces cliches, which can be a problem at times (the predictable ending of Hellboy 2 being another example), but it doesn't bother me, not even in a movie like this.

In a lot of ways, this is like a Gremlins movie played totally serious, a concept that might be a bit of a hurdle for a lot of people, but if you can suspend your disbelief enough for that concept, I'd say give this a shot.

I watched this last night and enjoyed it for the most part. The adult character were flat, but it wasn't that big of a problem since the main focus was on the kid. I really liked the monster, I thought they were pretty vicious and I liked that they didn't show them too often or too clearly. It would've been even creepier had they stayed in the shadows for most of the film, just giving the audience glimpses of their glowing eyes. Either way it wasn't bad.


Ricky