HOW TO MAKE A MONSTER
US, 2001, 91 minutes, Colour.
Clea Du Vall, Steven Culp, Tyler Mane, Jason Marsden, Karim Prince, Julie Strain.
Directed by George Huang.
How to Make a Monster is one of a series of American International films of the 1950s and 60s which were remade in the 1990s and into the 21st century. The originals were small-budget and fairly basic in their presentation of horror themes. The remakes are quite glossy and higher-budget in their presentation. However, the plots remain much the same and are updated to the technological 21st century.
This film is about a group of computer games experts who have a month to prepare a frightening game, especially a monster. They each have their expertise, clash amongst themselves without cooperating, find that they have created a monster who in turn plays the game on them and destroys them. Clea Du Vall is the intern helping in the process – and who learns some lessons about ruthlessness in the business world and becomes something of a monster herself. Steven Culp is the smooth hero who turns out to be the industrial spy.
The film was written and directed by George Huang, a television director, who made a mark in cinema with the 1995 film Swimming with Sharks.
1.The popularity of this kind of horror film? From the 1950s? The beginning of the 21st century?
2.Production values, gloss? The technology? Special effects? The monster?
3.The background of computer games? 21st century and how to create a monster for a video game? The techniques, the computer knowledge? The role of computer games in society? Experts? People literally becoming possessed by the games?
4.The introduction to the process: the official, her demands, expectations, giving the group a month to create a monster?
5.The members of the group: Peter Drummond, smooth, the hero, not knowing as much about technology as the others, in charge? Hardcore, the tall man, his expertise; Bug, the nerd, lonely, feeling unloved, the music, his expertise; Sol, his being a mastermind, his skills, his being taken over by the monster?
6.Julie Strain as herself, the model for video games? The techniques of her performance and their being computerised? The reversal of the process?
7.The drama, the pressures, the skilled work? Squabbles amongst themselves? The need for the backup, playing the game, Laura winning? The deaths?
8.The monster, the struggles, the pursuit – the standard for computer games?
9.Laura, the intern, her boyfriend coming, wanting to get out, his insulting her? Her trying to play the game? Discovering the truth about Peter? Her surviving, her position in the company, repeating the words of the boss, the young girl interviewing her, her brusque answers, her final speech, a monster of commercialism?
10.Peter, smooth, not expert, trying to survive, in the ducts, the explosions, the monster? Laura seeing him on the surveillance tape? The industrial spy? His final words of ruthlessness?
11.An entertaining horror film? Acknowledging the interests of the 21st century audience? A moral fable about games and the games possessing the players?
