Variety’s “100 Best Horror Movies” List Has A Condescending Review Of The Original ‘Gojira’ Contrasted By Reverent Analysis Of ‘King Kong’
Halloween is on the horizon, which means it’s scary movie season. There is no shortage of recommendations (especially from us) just as there’s no end to updated top 100 lists year after year.
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Variety’s countdown of reviews is one of the latest accounting for all the usual suspects, such as The Exorcist which shockingly didn’t take the top spot (The Texas Chainsaw Massacre did, FYI). However, that is not why their list is making news.
A specific fandom is upset at the placement and language used to describe what is, for them (and me, I’m not going to lie), not just one of the greatest movies ever made. It also ages beautifully. G-Fans don’t much like the way Variety talked about Godzilla.
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Bear in mind that the version making their list is the Japanese original from 1954 (Gojira), in particular, and not the re-edited American cut with Raymond Burr – better known as Godzilla: King of the Monsters (I’ll be honest again here: that one is pretty good too).
The writer gives the classic passing praise, but they are unable to help themselves and categorize Gojira as “preposterous” and “kitsch.” They then compare the special effects to toys and the burned, irradiated texture of Godzilla’s skin – meant to evoke the damage of an A-Bomb blast – to “shag carpeting.” His dorsal plates, to Christmas trees of all things.
It was just a man in a suit, after all. Never mind the fact that man, Haruo Nakajima, took his craft seriously, and set a standard for suitmation that reigned supreme as a method for 50 years. His work still holds up and often shows more character than today’s CGI.
Perhaps that is the logic Variety used to justify placing Gojira at 47, sandwiched between The Thing and The Birds. Sure, it breaks the top 50, but barely and possibly begrudgingly. Contrast that with the glowing treatment King Kong gets.
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Earned as it is for the national treasure of the Eighth Wonder, there’s not a lot of consistency from these writers. Kong ranks 12th with the word “awesome” getting thrown around by a critic clearly talking about their favorite movie of all time.
They rightly call Willis O’Brien’s stop-motion “revolutionary” and close on this note: “no film about an otherworldly creature of elemental fear was ever so moving.” Really? Well, that sentiment can apply to Godzilla’s finale as well with its pyrrhic victory and the sacrifice of Serizawa.
That shouldn’t be too difficult to notice or even acknowledge. The significance and concerns of the postwar period that spawned Godzilla in the first place shouldn’t be either. It makes you wonder if the writer actually watched the movie they critiqued all the way through.
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