Know Your Monster: 29
VIRAS
A gigantic squid-like creature from Outer Space, Viras battles Gamera in the 1968 film Destroy All Planets, also known as Gamera Vs. the Space Monster Viras. It’s the one and only screen appearance by Viras, barring fleeting glimpses of him seen in stock footage shown during other Gamera movies.
Viras is the leader of an alien race intent on conquering the Earth. He sees Gamera as the only threat to stop his plans, so he targets the flying turtle, preying upon Gamera’s one weakness — a kindness and affinity toward children. Viras kidnaps two Boy Scouts and holds them hostage on his spaceship. With Gamera coming to their rescue, Viras can employ his arsenal of tricks, including telepathy and mind control, to defeat the Earth monster. Otherwise, Viras has a limited arsenal of weapons. He doesn’t spit fire or hurl radioactive beams. He can only smother opponents with his tentacles or spear them with sharply pointed head.
We already presented the theatrical trailer for Gamera Vs. the Space Monster Viras in our Know Your Monster installment on Gamera. So, instead of repeating the trailer, here’s a well-done review of the movie — well-done, with one exception. The reviewer slips out of the gate and calls the monster “Varan” instead of “Viras.” Oh, well, nobody’s perfect. And he does catch and correct the mistake moving forward.
ARVE error: need id and provider
Tomorrow’s featured monster: Yonggary
Varan is one of the most fascinating Kaiju, but also less well-known than other Japanese movie monsters. That’s because he’s appeared in only two films. The first — Varan the Unbelievable! from 1958 –received only a limited distribution in the United States. Otherwise, Varan has been seen only in a cameo role in the omnibus Destroy All Monsters.
Ultraman is a Japanese superhero who first appeared on a 1960s television series battling new monsters every week. The series ran for 39 episodes in 1966 and 1967, sometimes pitting Ultraman against kaiju (the gigantic mutant monsters from our own planet) and other times having him square off against seijin, or alien invaders aiming to conquer the Earth. The central role played by monsters in the series is hardly surprising. Ultraman was created by Tsuburaya Productions, under the command of Eiji Tsuburaya, the special effects pioneer who brought Godzilla to life. He recruited many Godzilla veterans to take part in the TV show, notably monster suit actor Haruo Nakajima.
The Shobijin are not monsters, but rather high priestesses from Infant Island assigned to watch over one of the most famous monsters of them all — Mothra. A few things worth noting about the Shobijin:
Reptilicus is one of the few Kaiju who originate from a nation other than Japan. This serpent-dragon can trace his origins to Denmark, of all places. He’s the one and only Danish monster to star in his own movie. The 1961 release chronicles an attack by Reptilicus on the city of Copenhagen. AIP issued an American version of the movie, but deleted scenes showing the monster flying, supposedly because the special effects looked less than convincing. In place of the flying scenes, AIP added a sequence where the monster spews green acid slime from its mouth.
Besides gigantic monsters or Kaiju, one other recurring element exists in vintage Japanese sci-fi thrillers — mutant alien races that use the Kaiju as weapons in a quest to conquer the Earth. The Mysterians served as the prototypes. In a 1957 film called The Mysterians, this scientifically advanced race descends upon the planet in a dome they erect near Mt. Fuji. They issue two demands they want Earthlings to satisfy: Build them a small landing strip and give them the right to marry Earth women.
enduring fan base, especially among women. Perhaps this is because Mothra doesn’t seem as terrifying as other Japanese movie monsters. After all, she is a giant lepidopteran, part butterfly and part moth, summoned by miniature fairies to serve as a protector of the natural world. She is slow to rise up in anger, only going on the offensive if someone threatens her worshipers or one of her brightly colored blue and yellow eggs.
Minilla, also known as Minya or Minira, is presumably the offspring of Godzilla, based upon his introduction as such in the 1967 film Son of Godzilla. The funny thing about that movie: We never see Mrs. Godzilla. Minilla hatches from an egg, so we don’t learn anything about Godzilla’s mating rituals or whether Mrs. G also lives on Solgell Island, where Minilla is born.
