Taxidermia

This is possibly the weirdest trailer for a movie I have ever seen.



I have absolutely no idea what it is about. But I'm getting a kind of Gargantua and Pantagruel impression. Here is a second trailer, in which we observe English speaking distributors trying desperately to add some sense of the familiar and/or structure:



I love it.

Oh internet. Why must you distract me with your grotesqueness?

Sharktopus

Hybrid bodies have become quite a theme on this blog so far (including such luminaries as the elephant/fly, animal/animal corpse sculptures, and human/animals), ostensibly because of their connection to early definitions of the traditional grotesque. Plus, I just like them.

Clearly the universe shares my sentiments, for not only are there murmurings of a Sharktopus movie in the wind, but a Dinoshark movie as well! These creatures are, as you would expect, shark/octopus and dinosaur/shark hybrids respectively.

If anyone is still unsure, here is Tony Colella's artistic rendering of Sharktopus:




I want one.

The above pic was taken by Jason Ku, who used it to make his own version of Sharktopus out of paper.



Jason has made a huge variety of origami creatures, some of which are hybrids, including a basilisk:



And a gryphon:



Considering how difficult it is to wrestle an A4 into a paper plane (trust me - I just tried), this kind of technical skill is pretty incredible. You can see more of Jason Ku's work on his website.

The Sharktopus movie is apparently going to be directed by Roger Corman, a man who has produced an astonishing number of B-movies - including the epic 1963 version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Raven:



This movie is amazing. It's worth the DVD rental price for the wizards' magic battle alone. Anyway, back on topic, it turns out that Corman produced a hybrid horror as recently as 2004: Dinocroc. I'm not entirely sure about the different between Dinoshark and Dinocroc, but I'm sure it's significant.



Couldn't you just watch that trailer over and over? It's the "woohoo" that does it for me. In any case, I have high expectations of Sharktopus. It won't be out in time to make a cameo in my thesis, but that is probably for the best.

Back to work.

[Pics by kind permission of Jason Ku]

City/Face

I really like the merging of city/body/machine in this poster for Terminator Salvation:




This Sony Pictures animation is even better, as it shows the metamorphosis of the image.




It plays on the idea of the urban landscape as a menacing life form, a threatening city/face that watches you. It also raises the spectre of terrorism and 9/11 through the two burning holes that form the eyes. I suppose you could also argue that the emergence of a human skull, usually representative of death, from the contours of a human city acts as a commentary on human self destruction through the 'termination' of the natural landscape. "The End Begins" indeed.

Interesting. I'm sure I've seen other images recently on this theme... I'll try to remember where.

[Via Trash]

Gentlemen Don't Eat Poets

The Grotesque starring, among others, Sting and Trudie Styler.



Lady skeleton? Check. Frog poking? Check. Man kissing? Check. Possible cannibalism? Check.

It's time to visit ye olde video library again.