Creature Features

<p> This work offers a critical colorful and informative examination of different types of monster movies spanning the silent period to today. Chapter One focuses on dragons dinosaurs and other scaly giants from films like 1953's <I>The Beast from 20000 Fathoms</I> an impressive stop-motion production that ushered in a new era of atomic-spawned monster films. Chapter Two examines big bug flicks beginning with 1954's giant ant-infested <I>Them!</I> Chapter Three focuses on ordinary animals grown to improbable proportions through scientific or sinister experimentation such as the huge octopus in 1955's <I>It Came from Beneath the Sea</I>. Chapters Four Five and Six look at films in which nature goes berserk and otherwise innocuous animals flock swarm hop or run about on a menacingly massive scale including 1963's <I>The Birds</I> and 1972's <I>Frogs</I>. Finally Chapter Seven focuses on films featuring beasts that defy easy definition such as 1958's <I>The Blob</I> and <I>Fiend Without a Face</I>.</p>