Friday, July 15, 2016

Creature Designers: The Frankenstein Complex (2016) Fantasia 2016

This is a must see love letter to movie monsters that will make you love them more.

Forgive me this is not a rational review- I love this film too much to do anything except gush about it.

Gilles Penso and Alexandre Poncet have made an awesome film about movie monsters. I've seen hundreds of films on how to make a monster but this is the first time that brings it all together into one place. Its all here from history, to techniques, to design to anything you can imagine. While it will not tell you how to tell you everything in detail it will explain the process from scripting (they talk to writers like Ed Pressman) to design to filming.

Penso and Poncet were smart enough to talk to everyone they could and as a result they've talked to eveyone including Alec Gillis, The Chiodo Brothers, Rick Baker, Joe Dante, John Landis, Guillermo del Toro, John Howe, Steve Johnson, Phil Tippett, Denis Muren . The result of this we really learn everything- even if you're someone like me who thinks we've seen it all.

Its also full of tons of footage from the footage and behind the scenes material. Some you've seen some you haven't and all of it is great. And through it all you get a history of how things were done from practical effects to CGI and back again.

The thing that sold the film to me was the moment ten minutes in when I realized that the film is way beyond a DVD extra. This is something else. Its something more, Its a glorious celebration of  effects and the wonder of the movies. This is what movies on movies should be,

I love this movie.

An absolute must see- and one I desperately want a copy of it because even on its own terms its a great film.

One of the treasures of this year's Fantasia

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