Kaiju Theory: Could ‘Godzilla -0.0’ Use Hedorah To Add A Dose Of Cronenbergian Body Horror?
More about Toho’s follow-up to Godzilla Minus One, a direct sequel officially known as Godzilla -0.0 (“Minus Zero”) is coming into focus. However, we still don’t know what the fullness of multi-hat-wearing director/writer/VFX specialist Takashi Yamazaki’s vision will entail. He has stated the film will be bigger, but will it be darker, and even scarier? More importantly, what could “scarier” mean in Yamazaki’s mind?
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Our deepest fears vary from person to person, but the average consumer of monsters and terror has it hammered into their brain from the time they are little that what you don’t see is more terrifying because your imagination fills in the gaps. Meanwhile, Stuart Gordon, John Carpenter, Clive Barker, and David Cronenberg made cinema history by leaving as little as possible to the imagination, and letting audiences stew in the ugliness of their brands of full-frontal existential dread.
Kaiju fans have seen glimpses of that kind of “Thing” in Godzilla canon before, especially in Shin and Biollante, but never to the degree of a master of horror who ruled the 1980s. I once posed the question of what an R-rated Godzilla film from Japan might be like. Now, I’m compelled to take that contemplation a step further as I consider how grotesque such a picture can get.
Thanks to YouTube Kaiju news guys DangerVille speaking it into the ether, a theoretical scenario can posit a mighty big, and tragic, swing Toho and Yamazaki could take in -0.0. And it gets better: a Titan of trash we don’t see often enough factors in here.
You may recall a while back that Yamazaki expressed admiration for Godzilla vs. Hedorah as well as a desire to remake that groovy experiment. Well, he may see the opening to shoot his shot and do just that, but to a degree and in a way no one was expecting. In their update, DangerVille ponders the dark and disturbing direction -0.0 could take to introduce Hedorah to a new generation.
The entry point would be Noriko and the strange black scar seen on her neck at the end of Minus One, which, still a mystery, could be a sign that she is changing. Like Cronenberg’s remake of The Fly, Yamazaki could turn the love story between her and Koichi into a tragedy.
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Koichi is a tragic enough character as it is; his fear, inaction, and mere existence seemingly brings death and destruction to everyone around him wherever he goes. He can’t really blame himself when there is a war going on and giant monsters roam the Earth, but the young pilot still internalized everything under the impression Godzilla followed him like a curse stealing any shred of happiness he could find.
Imagine the final nail in that coffin taking the form of seeing his love evolve (or devolve) into a creature that consumes pollution, and grows to become a threat to Godzilla as well as humanity. This gut punch would make -0.0 even more emotional than -1.0 and mark a departure for Hedorah. Just as any good archrival of the King would, the creature originated in space, coming to our planet where the conditions are right for it to develop a shape-shifting kaiju form.
If DangerVille is proven right, Hedorah’s Reiwa origins would be put in line with Biollante, which would kill two Kaiju Theories with one stone. That would be something, but even if Yamazaki doesn’t go full Akira-meets-Cronenberg with a body-horror-inspired retcon, the anticipation for Godzilla -0.0 is only getting hotter.
