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Date: 4/25/2022
On DVD:“Monster From Green Hell” and “The Night of the Demon”
Now, my interest in low-budget and frequently forgotten films has come out quite a few times in this column, and these two new releases underscore for me the advantages of physical media in not just presenting a movie, but giving it context. That additional information can turn a movie that is easily discountable into an enjoyable adventure into the nature of filmmaking.
My buddy Stephen R. Bissette is well-known in comic book circles as the legendary artist who worked on “Swamp Thing,” as well as the publisher of the groundbreaking horror anthology “Taboo.” His series on the life of a tyrannosaurus, “Tyrant,” also was acclaimed for its use of the comic book medium to tell a scientifically accurate story of prehistory.
Bissette has also been a movie guy as much as I am, and has published books of film criticism as well as “Cryptid Cinema: Meditations on Bigfoot, Bayou Beasts & Backwoods Bogeymen of the Movies.” Lately, he has started to be sought out for commentary tracks for DVDs and Blu-rays. The two of us collaborated on the commentary track for the recent release of Ralph Bakshi’s legendary and controversial animated feature “Fritz the Cat.”
He sent along to me his latest efforts, commentaries for two new releases of films of which undoubtedly 99 percent of our readers have never heard: “Monster From Green Hell” from 1958 and “Night of the Demon” from 1980.
Thanks to the extras on both discs, each film has been transformed from simply being an obscure horror film to a lesson in the realities in low-budget filmmaking.
“Monster from Green Hell” is a classic example of the use of footage from another movie. The producers bought footage depicting Africa from the 1939 film “Stanley and Livingstone” to use in a new story about two scientists tracking down giant mutated wasps. The producers dressed the two main characters as the actors in the stock footage to match shots. This cost-cutting technique allowed the budget to include a pretty impressive full-scale mock-up of a mutated wasp, as well as several sequences of stop-motion animation.
Is it a good movie? I enjoyed it because of the extras. There was a solid short film about the life and career of star Jim Davis, and Bissette’s commentary was well researched and lent much context to the film.
On its own, “Monster from Green Hell” is a moderately interesting cheap-jack big monster movie. With the extras it takes on additional significance. The new release is from The Film Detective.
Bissette’s other recent contribution is a standalone documentary that puts the Bigfoot horror film “The Night of the Demon” into the context of other Bigfoot horror films.
I bet you weren’t aware there is a sub-genre of Bigfoot movies, and Bissette expertly traces the development of those movies.
“The Night of the Demon” is a film that was re-shot by the producer in order to try to make it more desirable by distributors. As the interview on the disc with the director indicated, he shot a script that would have been rated PG. He had no idea until many years later when he saw the film was on VHS that numerous scenes with explicit gore had been added.
Severin Films have done a great job in restoring the film and providing numerous extras, including a previous film from the same producer that wasn’t released, as well.
The extras in this release tell us just how and why this film was made. The movie itself definitely has some exploitation gore shocks and generally is not my cup of tea, but again the complete experience becomes a compelling look in the world of very low-budget filmmaking, a look, by the way, that streaming services showing battered prints can’t match.
Notes from librarians
I’ve received several emails from area librarians about my column in which I discussed where to see many of the films nominated for Academy Awards. They reminded me that many area libraries have these films on DVD, which are available to be borrowed and watched.
I should have thought about that, but didn’t, and I apologize.
Always check out your local library for movies that are difficult to find or expensive to watch elsewhere.