Why Old Movie Monsters Are Cooler Than Modern CGI | Original Geek | S1E13

Grab your popcorn and dim the lights — this week on Original Geek, we’re firing up the old TV set for a trip back to Creature Double Feature! 👾

Steve and Jeff dig into the evolution of the movie monster — from the campy rubber suits of the 70s to the CGI behemoths that crush cities (and box offices) today. We’re talking Godzilla, Gill-Man, Dracula, Demogorgons, and the glorious weirdness that made monster flicks a geek rite of passage.

Rubber suits beat pixels.

In this episode, we revisit creature features, practical effects, and the monsters that shaped generations of geeks. From camp to cool, we explore why physical monsters still hit harder.

Topics include: monster movies, practical effects, CGI, horror history, pop culture nostalgia.

Welcome to Original Geek—the podcast for anyone who rolled their first d20 on shag carpet, waited hours for a comic book JPEG to load on dial-up, and wore the label “geek” back when it got you mocked, not monetized.

Hosted by stand-up comic Steve Scarfo and Forever DM Jeff Shaw, we dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the '70s and '80s—and how that underground culture became the mainstream multiverse we live in today.

🎙️ Subscribe for weekly episodes on Dungeons & Dragons, Star Wars, comic book chaos, geek court debates, and critical hits from your childhood basement.

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Transcript

Steve Scarfo (00:19)
All right. Welcome to Original Geek. This is the podcast for anybody who rolled dice in a basement, waited all night long for comic book covers to download or proudly wore that label a geek back when it could get you shoved into a locker. Each week, we dive deep into what it meant to be a geek in the 70s and 80s and how that compares to today's pop culture multiverse. We are your hosts. We are two of the Gen X survivors who didn't just watch geek culture evolve. We lived through every awkward phase. Hey, I'm Steve Scarfo.

Jeff (00:48)
and I'm Jeff Shaw and we'll be your puny human pilots, hopelessly outmatched in our Mecca, praying the nuclear core holds up long enough for one last heroic punch. What's our topic today, Steve?

Steve Scarfo (01:06)
Today we're going into creature double feature. Back when Saturdays and for me, I think it was Sundays really meant a creature double feature. It was two of the best old horror movies. ⁓ It was a Sunday afternoon tradition and 12 o'clock and two o'clock. You could be guaranteed for some rubber suited, like wonderful, horribly.

awesome horror movies. Usually they were Godzilla or some sort of movies. We here in New England had TV 56, one of the UHF channels. I understand that there was one in Pennsylvania, I think one in New York we found and then apparently a bunch. So let's start with this, Jeff. Why don't you tell folks what it was? What was a real creature double feature?

Jeff (01:53)
Yeah, so, ⁓ and for those of you who are not Gen X and older, this is probably a weird concept for you, but we had ABC, NBC, CBS, and PBS. And that was it. And then you had these independent stations like Channel 56. And they would get other content.

and just try to fill some spaces. And so this creature double feature filled some spaces in their weekend and then ended up filling us with some entertainment. Because these were not, these were a lot of B movies, like The Mummy and Creature from the Black Lagoon. Well, I guess they weren't all B movies, but like older black and white horror films.

And the newer ones were definitely like either B movies or some of my favorites, all those Godzilla movies. ⁓ And so that's, it was a double feature of creature based movies, either horror or sci-fi or a combo of horror and sci-fi. This is a double feature, so.

Steve Scarfo (03:08)
Yeah, they were they were the best. We used to plan our Sundays because we got we had TV 56, but we also had TV 38. And every Sunday morning from like eight to 10 was eight to 10, maybe nine to 11. It was a couple hours in the morning on TV. 38 was the three stooges, which we'll probably have to talk about the stooges at some point in time. And then we would switch to 56 because it was the creature double feature. So it was planned. My brother and I

think my sister ever watched with us. But John and I would sit down and we would watch every creature double feature. It was just the best part of the weekend. Because and I can't even say if it was like, we knew they were campy or we just loved the old school. Because let's be honest, when they made them, I don't think they intended for them to be campy. I think they thought they were making like a good creature movie. But when

and 60s and 70s when these things were being made, like, it was cutting edge for them to build an entire miniature city for a dude in a big rubber suit to walk through. Like that was the best that they could do.

Jeff (04:20)
no, mean, Godzilla was, know, what they were doing was cutting edge for that time. Like, as even, you know, to a certain degree, even to today, like, cause I know ⁓ Guillermo del Toro, who's, you know, did Pacific Rim, he avoids computer generated graphics and tries to do real.

So there's still, ⁓ well, and actually what? Star Wars was miniatures, right? Like initially, like so that whole, ⁓ you know, using, you know, kind of miniature and scale models and not computer generated graphics. Yeah, they thought they were making, and to a certain degree they were, they were making something pretty groundbreaking and ⁓ inspirational for the most part, but some...

Steve Scarfo (04:56)
Yes.

Jeff (05:19)
I know if you're familiar with Ed Wood, he was a director. Johnny Depp did a, there was like, yeah, they made a movie about him. And he was not as interested in creating something quality. He wanted to do something really quick. Campy was fine and he was just trying to make a buck. So there was a bit of that too, but mean, Creature Double Feature had Dracula and Frankenstein, the fly.

Steve Scarfo (05:23)
yeah.

Johnny Depp made the movie, yeah.

Jeff (05:49)
You know, was giant creatures, classic monsters, mad science. And for us, because I was not as a kid, I was not into horror. I didn't really. And I know technically that stuff was, but like it didn't seem even that scary to me. I know it was creature double feature, but I don't remember being all that scared

Steve Scarfo (06:11)
No, I mean, I remember. I forget, of course, which one, because there were a thousand different versions that felt like of Godzilla. But I remember one, they were like these two little Japanese girls. Was it Mothra? And they were they were like the cutest little thing, and they would sing to Mothra and Mothra would be, although Mothra was considered one of the good guys, right? ⁓ Which was the I mean,

Jeff (06:25)
That's Mothra. I just rewatched that.

You

Yes.

Steve Scarfo (06:41)
As goofy as some of this was, you do have to give them a bit of a nod to the storytelling. They still had a good guy and a bad guy. They were just all creatures, right? Godzilla was traditionally seen as the bad guy. ⁓

Jeff (06:53)
Well, it's

interesting because it was really, it's really complicated. And I thought I didn't appreciate that as a kid, but I was rewatching the original Godzilla, which I probably never watched. So apparently in the, U S we got Godzilla King of the Monsters and Americanized version had the actor Raymond Burr in it. And, actually when I rewatched, when I watched the original Godzilla for the very first time, cause I'm

that I did not see this version. I was amazed because we don't even get to see Godzilla until 30 minutes into the movie. They weren't trying to make something campy. They were inspired by King Kong and so they were trying to make their own version of King Kong and they wanted it to be pretty dramatic and they were using like he was the it was the nuclear testing.

Steve Scarfo (07:36)
Yeah.

Jeff (07:49)
that disrupted the environment of Godzilla that made him rise up. Whereas I always thought that it was more like the nuclear stuff created Godzilla, not that he already existed, he was already there, but we disrupted his environment. And so...

Steve Scarfo (08:06)
That's funny,

I guess I always thought the same.

Jeff (08:08)
Yeah, so I think what's interesting is, is that, know, they, you know, I can't remember what, like the point I was trying to make, but the point I was trying to make was that I lost my, the last, oh yes, that's right, the good guy, the bad guy. That Godzilla was, like, that was our fault. And so like the characters in the original Godzilla were kind of conflicted because

Steve Scarfo (08:28)
Good guy, guy,

Jeff (08:38)
they realized that they ruined Godzilla's environment and that's, so he was just out, he was angry and trying to get back at them. And so they felt a little bit bad about it. So yeah, he was the villain, but he was like an anti-hero kind of. ⁓ You kind of rooted for him a little bit, but also wanted him gone.

Steve Scarfo (08:58)
Now, did you watch

the English version? So I did a quick live Google, because I wasn't sure when. ⁓ The original Godzilla was actually called Gojira, and it was 1954. Then it came out again in 56, which I'm assuming was the American version.

Jeff (09:12)
Yeah.

Yes, that's what I was watching.

Yeah,

yeah, was. they took like that. ⁓ I definitely as a kid, I waiting 30 minutes for Godzilla to show up. I don't know if I would add the patients. So I'm sure I watched the the god the the Americanized version. That's I'm sure what we got.

Steve Scarfo (09:38)
there.

we don't have any patience for anything here. We are always

in its worst today. ⁓ Not in the same genre, but I just rewatched a movie with my daughter, Death Becomes Her. And I remember thinking, that wasn't a bad movie. It was Bruce Willis, ⁓ Goldie Hawn and

Meryl Streep. ⁓ It's an interesting movie. The whole idea revolves around this obsession with beauty and longevity and youth. And they take the special ⁓ potion that keeps them young forever. But then they get killed. And they're like zombies, essentially. ⁓ And it's campy and silly. But it took 40 minutes to really kick in.

Jeff (10:03)
in

Steve Scarfo (10:31)
Like there's a lot of storytelling, there's a lot of background. Like and this is only like 20 years ago, 25, maybe 30 years ago. ⁓ it's one of those like, so just.

Jeff (10:39)
Wow. Well, hey, it kind of fits in with

our creature double feature.

Steve Scarfo (10:45)
It's creature ask, but ⁓ it follows that older model is what I'm trying to talk about. Like it takes forever to get to stuff. And I was watching this movie going, why is this so slow? I don't remember being this slow. Because, know, you watch a movie now, a creature movie today, and we'll talk about some of the new stuff coming up. But ⁓ it's like, bang, like the first scene, someone gets ripped to shreds, right? Because we don't want to wait.

Jeff (10:47)
It's got that horror, yeah

Yeah,

right,

All right. So creature double feature. I have to admit one thing that stands out to me ⁓ from that time period is influenced by the creature double feature. And that was the Shogun Warrior toys. I loved and I know it's not creature double feature. So I'm probably not, I shouldn't be going down this tangent, but I loved.

that some of the toys we had as Gen X and it got canceled because of, and so the Shogun Warrior, so part of the genre, this kaiju with Japanese creatures is in order for puny humans to fight them, they had to get these giant robots. And ⁓ the Shogun Warriors were this toy brand that was inspired by those giant mechas.

Steve Scarfo (11:49)
I'm gonna tsk tsk you.

Yes.

Jeff (12:14)
that and then you see that in the Pacific Rim many, years later. But I love that. I love that the Shogun Warrior toy and but it was was considered too dangerous because it was actually projectiles that that you could like shoot like out of their arms and they're worried that you'd shoot someone's eye out kid and but man I loved I love those toys. So

Steve Scarfo (12:42)
I don't

remember those. I remember the the huge Mecha's for the movie.

Jeff (12:44)
Yeah.

And it actually, and it does tie in because Godzilla was the same Mattel brand and they had a, and we got a giant Godzilla so we could make our Shogun warriors fight Godzilla, even though technically the Shogun warriors were a separate thing from Godzilla, but it was the same idea, the Mecha warrior against the Kaiju. And by the way, I'm saying Kaiju like I knew what they were. I didn't.

Like we grew up watching Kaiju films and I don't think I ever heard that word until Pacific Rim came out. And then since then the movie Pacific Rim, I don't know when that was like 13 years ago. ⁓ But since then I've also heard that term used in, ⁓ man, the new Superman. There was like a Kaiju we had to fight. then in, ⁓ man. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (13:39)
Yeah, I just watched that clip earlier. 2013

for Pacific Rim

Jeff (13:44)
Okay,

2015, so 10 years ago. ⁓ then, ⁓ God, the ⁓ Suicide Squad. So I think James Gunn must have been inspired, because he used the word Kaiju for some of their giant monsters as well. So ⁓ yeah, so before I knew what Kaiju were, I knew that they were called Kaiju, which just means like giant, strange monster or beast or something. So yeah.

Steve Scarfo (13:57)
He must be like a Godzilla fan.

Yeah, I don't remember. I think we talked about this before the episode, too. Like, I don't remember that word either until probably Pacific Rim. ⁓ We're going to talk about it in another segment, but there's a newer show where they use that term more. ⁓ But in terms of flashback, I.

I do, God, I think my entire flashback is our whole episode, right? Because it was the start of, there was a lot of time where I loved horror movies. I loved Friday the 13th, I loved the Freddy movies, I loved the, oh God, the Hellraiser movies, the guy with the needles in his face.

Jeff (14:38)
Yes.

Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (14:56)
I got into all of those and I think it started because I was every Sunday morning. It was I love the these movies and ⁓ the show I'm going to talk about it, I think in evolution in or we're going to maybe do the in geek court is is like the epitome of the best parts of all that stuff. But yeah, I just I love that Sunday Sunday ritual.

Thinking about these movies just talking about these movies brings me back to like a warm and cozy blanket watching TV 56 and You know or whatever channel you watch it on that's what I watched it on if you guys haven't figured it out by now I have a little bit of a cold. I apologize for all the the the Grainy crappy sound ⁓

Jeff (15:45)
I'll,

well, I can do some of the heavier lifting then. So yeah, so I agree like the, you know, as we flashback and think about the creature double feature, I mean, when we were growing up, ⁓ I think in Gen X, you know, more so than, than, you know, some of the other generations, cause like I live in a neighborhood full of kids that I hardly ever see cause they're often inside and not playing outside.

Steve Scarfo (15:51)
Woo.

Jeff (16:14)
We got kicked out of the house. So when I could actually get to watch Creature Double Feature, when my mom didn't force me out of the house, stop watching TV, get out there. Must've been like bad weather or something that I could actually do. And I loved those movies. However, for me, I did not think of them as scary. And I know I was supposed to. know like Dracula and Frankenstein were supposed to be scary, but maybe because they were black and white. I don't know, just didn't.

scare me as much, because I did not get into Halloween and Friday the 13th and any of that until probably maybe you, because I think it was the first horror movie I remember, like true horror movie, that wasn't part of creature double feature that I remember watching was Nightmare on Elm Street. That was the first one I saw in the movie theater. I thought it was pretty scary. And then Hail Razor, I thought it was really scary. That was 87 though, so, you know, 17.

Steve Scarfo (17:03)
Yeah.

Yeah, those were yeah. And those were great. ⁓ One little note, though, I guess ⁓ it's funny because we never thought about this stuff at the time, but the reason that they did a creature double feature apparently is because they were cheap because these movies were like not even second, third run, like 10th run, right? They were well, we were in the 70s, late 70s and early 80s, and these movies were made in the 50s and 60s. So

There were no licensing errors or issues rather. There was no super huge cost. So what they were doing is a time filler, call it a creature double feature, just like, we'll fill four hours on a Sunday. We don't even have to think about it. ⁓ was a catalyst.

Jeff (17:57)
Yeah, I mean, so just, you know, this is before

VHS. This is before streaming. This is before like you didn't, we didn't have a lot of options. And if, and because these were independent, these were independent TV stations, they didn't have CBS sports that they could do, like play a baseball game or a football game. They had to fill some hours and they needed to do it as cheaply as possible. So they found these movies.

Steve Scarfo (18:09)
no, was creature double feature or snow. That was it.

Jeff (18:26)
that were 20, 30 years old and they put them out there. But we got the benefit, right?

Steve Scarfo (18:30)
Yeah.

We got

to live that, I think it's probably why I remember TV shows as if they were new, but they were black and white shows, didn't, know, black and white wasn't a thing when we were kids ⁓ for new stuff. Like TV was in color by the time we were watching TV. ⁓ Not that my kids would let me admit that because they think I'm older than God, but. ⁓

Jeff (18:46)
Yes.

Steve Scarfo (19:03)
We grew up watching, well, Creature Double Future, Laurel and Hardy, The Three Stooges, Abing Costello, like...

Jeff (19:10)
I thought I was watching

Gilligan's Island for the first time, even the black and white ones. And actually to show you what a coward I was about not liking scary things, I had a reoccurring nightmare because there was an ending to Gilligan's Island where Gilligan and the Skipper are being chased around the island by a gorilla and they cut to black. I like, did they get away? I don't know. So I had a reoccurring nightmare about

Steve Scarfo (19:13)
Gilligan's Island

I remember that.

Jeff (19:39)
the gorilla catching up to Killigan and the Skipper. So I was scared. I was not comfortable with horror movies. And so that's why it's funny to me that I didn't really, I looked at this creature double feature more than I think the sci-fi type of lens and less so horror.

Steve Scarfo (19:43)
my God, that's hysterical.

You

Yeah, and there were a lot of those too.

All right, so we're talking classic horror or creature versus modern. I'm gonna say horror or creature just to widen our choices a little bit, but we're talking creature double feature. So.

I forget which way we said we were going to go. Classic.

Jeff (20:27)
So I'm taking the classic. So I'm going

to argue for classic horror, those classic creature films. What was great about it is that ⁓ they really, were ⁓ pure escapism. Like you could be a kid watching it, you could be an adult watching it, and people, like the whole family could enjoy that kind of classic creature horror that you could not pot, well.

I wouldn't, like I said, like as a kid, I wouldn't want to watch some of this modern horror. just could not handle that. So it was atmospheric over gore, know, it was just more like shadows and tension and lighting. mean, if you think about like Dracula, there was that suspense, but you didn't see a lot of like blood or gore.

or ⁓ there are things happening, but you didn't get to necessarily see it. I I know this wasn't part of creature double feature, but I'm just gonna use this psycho. The shower scene, you see the knife rise and fall, you see the shower curtain, you see the silhouette of the victim, you see ⁓ what's actually chocolate syrup, not blood, but it's black and white so you couldn't tell.

Steve Scarfo (21:33)
yeah.

Jeff (21:47)
you're circling around the drain. You never see the knife enter the body. And so you didn't need that kind of, you know, gore. You could make it so that, you know, it, you could tell the tale. You could increase the tension through other means. You had to be creative and the same thing, you know, with those Godzilla special effects, you know, those, those scale models were incredibly detailed. And, you know, we kind of laugh about

Steve Scarfo (21:51)
now.

Jeff (22:15)
about what that looks like now and today, but we can just do it better today. And there, like I said, Guillermo del Toro ⁓ is still creating content using very similar technology. It just looks better because we have better tools at our disposal. So for me, I'm going to argue that the classic creature horror and classic horror, that's where it's at. What do you think?

Steve Scarfo (22:23)
Guillermo.

Obviously taking the other side here. I'm going more modern and I think the stuff you're talking about are valid points from for those movies at the time Right. We always talk about looking at things in context, but those movies were more family-friendly Because they were less intense. I as a kid by the way watch psycho ⁓ And it terrified me

Jeff (23:09)
You are a psycho.

Steve Scarfo (23:11)
It terrified me. I didn't wanna watch it. was one of those, my mother's like, you should watch this movie with me. And it was the most horrible thing. I was 10 or 12. I was like, this was not something I should have watched. But on the thing about the modern, and I have to expand, because I'm thinking about it as we're talking. I can't think of a modern creature story, right? There are zombie movies. There are,

Jeff (23:17)
What? That's crazy.

Steve Scarfo (23:40)
once we're gonna talk about more in depth with Predator and aliens, but in terms of a creature, they're all the same creatures.

Jeff (23:48)
the shape of water,

right? Is that that's Gairmo d'Otoro.

Steve Scarfo (23:53)
Well, Shape of Water wasn't really a horror movie though. Pan's Labyrinth was pretty good. Right, but that's what I'm saying. They're not new. Like all of the movies that are coming out are, there are no new creatures that I can think of offhand. ⁓ I love zombie movies. Walking Dead's one of my favorite shows. It's a creature show, right? But it does everything, especially,

Jeff (23:54)
Pan's Labyrinth.

He's got Frankenstein coming out.

Steve Scarfo (24:20)
The Walking Dead did stuff I loved because you never knew where that writing was gonna go. Now, I never read the books. I know you read some of the books when they were just graphic novels. So some of that stuff you knew was coming that I didn't know about. But there, his ability, oh, what's his name, Robert, the guy who created the book, I'll have to look it up. But he,

He had no problem killing off main characters, right? The idea that we would... No, no, no. For who wrote the... Not Game of Thrones, this is for The Walking Dead.

Jeff (24:53)
George R. R. Martin? ⁓

Walking Dead?

Walking Dead, yeah. Kirkman, I think.

Steve Scarfo (25:05)
Robert Kirkman, yeah. So Kirkman, he gave us this universe, but in the TV show and that adaptation of it, it's everything that those other movies weren't. It was gory. They didn't cut away. They leaned in. ⁓ I remember one scene, I don't even remember the character's name. He was a younger kid. They found him in like season two or three, but in season eight or whatever it was, he gets caught in a

Like they're running from zombies and he gets walkers as they call them. It's a turnstile door and it's a close up shot of his face just scrunching and it just his whole face explodes. I was just watching the first couple episodes of the new it on HBO Max and it is as graphic and gory as you can imagine and

You can hear it in my voice is disgusting as some of these scenes are. I love that the stress of it. I feed on that. ⁓ I for the record did watch that show during the day because I don't need to have horrible nightmares. But I love the modern take. Right. The writing is solid. The characters are solid. It's, you know, the original Godzilla's in those movies. We aren't there. We aren't here without them there. But they

I I ⁓ have so many things in my head at the same time. I think that they really present these stories strongly. I love the, that they lean into this intensity. one of my favorite horror movies of all time that still disturbs me to this day is not a creature movie. And that's the movie seven with Brad Pitt. ⁓ and, that disturbs me for

Jeff (26:51)
Hmm.

Steve Scarfo (26:58)
That movie scares me more than any Walking Dead. And that's because of the potential for reality in Seven is much higher than the potential for The Walking Dead. So that's my thing. I love modern horror, but I always have that level of detachment when I'm watching it. the idea is like, what are they gonna do? How are you gonna try to gross me out? How are you gonna try to blow my mind?

Jeff (27:05)
Mm-hmm.

yeah.

Steve Scarfo (27:26)
And it's why I love The Walking Dead because they blew my mind at least twice a season with a character death or some crazy shit that they pulled.

Jeff (27:35)
Yeah, actually, think the really, really scary stuff is the stuff that could actually happen. And that's why I think Psycho was more impactful. You you found that more frightening than the creatures. ⁓ And the same thing, I think, with Silence of the Lambs. mean, they're all, both of those are based on Ed Gein. They're based on a real serial killer, right? So, I mean, that's scarier than...

Steve Scarfo (27:43)
Yes.

Yes.

Jeff (28:04)
like Alien, I never saw the first Alien movie. I saw Aliens. ⁓ That was my first introduction to that franchise. And that was more of an action movie. ⁓ But then I did watch Alien later and it's scary. But it's a creature and so you can kind of get that separation. Whereas when you watch some of these other ⁓ like the

Even the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, also Ed Gein based, ⁓ it's scarier, because there could really be a psycho like that. That could really happen.

Steve Scarfo (28:41)
Didn't know all those were based on the same guy for the record. This is new information for me. I didn't know. Apparently, thank God for Ed Gein, there's like three different horror franchises were spawned.

Jeff (28:44)
I know Ed Gein is like an inspiration for some us. Without him we

don't have Psycho. Texas Chainsaw Massacre or Silence of the Lambs.

Steve Scarfo (28:57)
No Texas Chain Saw Massacre.

Jeff (29:00)
What a guy.

Right, so my basement treasure is the fact that if you have HBO Max, you can watch about a dozen of the original Godzilla movies from the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 80s. And so you can experience the cheese, but also the delight that were these movies. mean, a giant moth against Mothra against Godzilla. mean, you gotta enjoy that. And then...

When Mothra is defeated, she's on this egg and this egg hatches and these two little, ⁓ I don't know what they're supposed to be, but they're almost like giant, they're like slugs almost and they shoot out, ⁓ or caterpillars maybe, they're caterpillars, because I guess that's what Mothra, right, guess they're caterpillars. And they're shooting, they cover,

Steve Scarfo (30:02)
fair.

Jeff (30:07)
They cover Godzilla in this goo. It's so dumb. Just enjoy it. And often, you know, we can't, you know, a lot of these classics you got to either buy or dig someplace else, but it's right on HBMX. So I think that's pretty good. That's my treasure.

Steve Scarfo (30:12)
I don't remember that one.

I'll

have to jump back into some of those. Like I said, I was just watching the new it and it is on also HBO Max. For me, it was going to the video store because now this is probably fast forwarding to 15 or 16 for me. So would have been 70. No, 84 maybe.

82 somewhere in there. Around that, when we first got our first VCR, my brother and I both, ⁓ we had, very Italian, we're very Catholic, we did a confirmation, all the family came up, and we, you know, the traditional Italian Catholic way of celebrating these things is with a card with money in it, and so we pulled the money that we both got, and we bought a VCR. So that was our...

We bought our first VCR. we would go to, I don't even think it was Blockbuster at the time. ⁓ I don't remember what the video chain was back in the day, but it was pre-Blockbuster, but we would go looking for movies. And so all of these classic movies were in there. Well, I won't say Nightmare on Elm Street. I don't remember when that one came out, but there were these classic horror movies. And so for me, it reminds me of going to the store as a kid.

Jeff (31:35)
Now that didn't exist.

Steve Scarfo (31:56)
and feeling like I had this power to choose ⁓ what the entertainment would be. And I always liked the horror movies, which probably pissed off the rest of the family, but I did.

Jeff (32:08)
That's funny.

Steve Scarfo (32:09)
⁓ But that was then, Jeff, and this is now.

All right, so.

To stick with the creature parts of this, we talked all about the original Kaiju 52, 54 for Godzilla. ⁓ I do remember they made one, they made a Godzilla movie, I want to say probably mid 80s, maybe even the 90s with Matthew Broderick, I think it was.

Jeff (32:48)
I thought that was in the 90s. Yeah, that was forgettable.

Steve Scarfo (32:49)
Was that the 90s? And they actually the first

I think yes, very forgettable. The first time the special effects were pretty good. But I think it's the first time I remember them actually using the word Gojira in an Americanized Godzilla movie. ⁓ But now we have Godzilla versus Kong. There's a couple of those movies, Rebirth or whatever the heck it's called.

Jeff (32:55)
You

I don't remember that.

Steve Scarfo (33:20)
⁓ but yeah, this is it's it's evolved.

Jeff (33:22)
Well, the Godzilla is the longest

running franchise. It's it's Yes. Yeah. So it's it started in 54 and it continues to this day. It's considered the same franchise and it's. And so, I mean, as far as an evolution, it it really has gone through a number of different kind of of shifts as to if we just look at.

Steve Scarfo (33:26)
Of any?

Jeff (33:50)
at Godzilla and I have to admit I have not seen Godzilla minus one. But I've heard good things but I actually liked and I know not everyone did the new Godzilla King of the Monsters. I think it was 2018 that they came out. It had the actress from.

strange, strange thing. ⁓ Yeah. Yeah, I actually like that. And then ⁓ although I admit I did not, I've seen some of the new King Kong ones. I actually like, it's not, I haven't, I have to admit, I haven't watched all of them because I didn't watch the Godzilla versus King Kong where you're telling me he's got a metal gauntlet. So.

Steve Scarfo (34:13)
⁓ Millie Bobby Brown. Yeah.

Hehe.

Yes.

That's the new empire, yeah.

Jeff (34:43)
Yeah, so I haven't watched all of that, but I think, you know, and I know we touched about it before, but that whole notion of kaiju and how that has evolved out of just Japanese films that now it's commonly being used in the, in James Gunn's, you know, DC universe as kaiju, Pacific Rim was using the term kaiju and having, that clearly was an inspiration there. ⁓ Steven Spielberg.

says that for Jurassic Park, he was inspired by the Godzilla films ⁓ to make Jurassic Park. in, I keep bringing it up, Guillermo del Toro, I don't always pronounce his name properly, but he also found that style of film very inspirational. And so the creature film, it is with us today. ⁓

Steve Scarfo (35:29)
Hehehe.

Jeff (35:42)
And I think, you know, you know, Jordan peel quote is horrors. The most honest genre. tells you what people are afraid of today. And, know, when we, you know, when Godzilla came out, people are afraid of nuclear and nuclear power and the effects of it. And, ⁓ and then you get to, ⁓ you get to something, you know, more modern today in a lot of our.

Steve Scarfo (36:01)
Yeah.

Jeff (36:12)
Yeah, a lot of our horror is, it seems like we're kind of scared of other humans. And all the A24 movies, the horror is the creepy, horrible things humans can do to one another. Hereditary, midsummer, us, yeah. exactly. Yeah, the strangers.

Steve Scarfo (36:31)
Well, isn't one of them called us? Us and them.

Those are two of the movies.

Yes.

Jeff (36:41)
Yeah,

it's like, you know, it's not that there aren't there. And I know you were talking about like you couldn't think of any, you know, other creature films. I mean, they're out there. mean, the zombie films, the creature films, Alien, you know, for instance. But I think that that by and large there was that that the impact that legacy is with us today in the Godzilla films.

Steve Scarfo (36:57)
Yeah.

Jeff (37:09)
and you had mentioned on Apple TV show, I haven't seen that one, but that's your critical hit though, isn't it?

Steve Scarfo (37:17)
Yeah, it is. We'll get back to that in a minute. ⁓ It's funny because we keep using this word and I realize I feel like I'm indigo Montoya. You keep using that word. I don't think it means it. Do they get means? I didn't know what it meant. Apparently I thought Kaiju was like a proprietary term because I was starting to wonder like how are all these people using the word Kaiju? Right? Because I thought it was like ⁓ Godzilla. I thought it was a name that somebody created.

Jeff (37:20)
Okay.

Steve Scarfo (37:46)
but apparently it's just, it's like saying beast or monster. That's all kaiju means. It just sounds cooler. It's the Japanese word for strange beast or monster. And Godzilla is just the most famous example of a strange monster. So literally kaiju is a monster movie. So a kaiju movie is a monster movie. ⁓ I don't know why I find that fascinating at the moment, but I do. Like that's just wild. I didn't know that.

Jeff (37:51)
just sounds cooler when it's Japanese.

And what's weird, you when I was watching ⁓ in the term used in like the new Superman movie, is they're saying it like we all know what that is. And I feel like we didn't all know what Kaiju meant. Like Green Lantern, Guy Gardner in Superman is like, there's a Kaiju beast or something like that, which now is just redundant to say a Kaiju beast.

Steve Scarfo (38:33)
⁓ no.

Yeah.

He lands, I just saw

the clip he lands, you see Superman crawl out from under the beast. And he lands and says, Kaiju Steaks all around. And he goes, he says, I was hoping we could have taken it ⁓ humanely or something like that. And he's telling us like, she's like, don't be a wuss. ⁓ But that's the character. But yeah, he says Kaiju stakes. And it's just funny, because you're right. Everybody kind of knows what that means now. But

Jeff (38:53)
Okay, nice

Sorry.

Steve Scarfo (39:10)
probably 15, 20 years ago, people would have been like, what the hell is a kaiju?

Jeff (39:14)
No, we just said Godzilla, we said beast, we said monster, we said creature, we didn't call them Kaiju.

Steve Scarfo (39:18)
Yeah.

Here's what I want to say. ⁓ Let's keep these movies alive and this genre. ⁓ And I think the one of the cool things like I didn't realize that that Godzilla was one of the largest or longest running franchises. So ⁓ in a world divided by everything that's happening these days that we're afraid of us them and the government. ⁓

This is something that everybody can relate to. Right, because there is the there's a reference point from 1952 all the way to 2025. And in fact, the show I'm going to talk about during our hits and fails, the next season comes out next year. So it's not over. So I love the idea that multiple generations, us old geezers and the new kids today can

can watch the same evolution of this character type. ⁓ If you haven't been someone who's watched these movies, the beauty of these movies is they are kind of sanitized in a way. They're not as gross and disgusting as like ⁓ the It that I was just talking about or Walking Dead. They have, know, people die and it's crazy. It's a creature movie, but they're typically not.

gory or disgusting for the sake of disgust. They usually have good special effects and they usually have great storylines. So I mean get out there and watch some Godzilla man.

Jeff (40:59)
Yeah, I agree. And I know I'm not usually the one to ⁓ to be the you kids don't know how good you got it. But I have to admit, you know, in this case, it's absolutely true when like you can just now you can just stream any of this content. We had to wait until Saturday or Sunday for those double features. ⁓ And it was the only time because they the ABC NBC, they they weren't showing these films.

Steve Scarfo (41:08)
Yeah.

Jeff (41:28)
We caught them on the weekends. Now you can catch them streaming. So enjoy these classic creature films. Go get caught up on your 1964 Mothra versus Godzilla.

Steve Scarfo (41:29)
now.

Do you know what's funny? It not only was there no streaming, these weren't even the mainstream channels. I don't know that we said this at the beginning, but TV 56, TV 38, because of the way TV transmissions used to work, there was very high frequency and ultra high frequency. VHF and UHF. VHF had a longer reach distance wise. So.

Jeff (42:04)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (42:11)
A VHF channel would be ABC, NBC, CBS. Those were the big three and those were on the best signal that could send at the longest distance. These UHF, even though it sounds better because it's ultra high frequency, they were shorter throw. So you couldn't always get these. So we were living in Maine and you could barely get TV 56 and 38. And if you were living in upstate Maine, never, sir, you know, we were in Southern Maine. We were about as close to New Hampshire as you could get. So.

Just a little history, if you don't understand what we're talking about, it's because not only were they only on specific channels, but if you didn't live within a certain radius of that tower in Boston, you didn't see these things ever. That's why some people will be like, what do you mean creature double feature? Because they didn't have a UHF style channel. So you probably didn't see these things growing up. So definitely go.

Jeff (42:54)
Yeah.

Steve Scarfo (43:05)
Sorry, a little history lesson for you guys.

Jeff (43:06)
I loved

it.

Steve Scarfo (43:13)
All right, well, listen, I am gonna get the cat out of the bag. I keep talking about this show and this is my critical hit. ⁓ I thought they did a phenomenal job. It's an Apple TV show called Monarch Legacy of Monsters. ⁓ I described it before as if you're a Marvel fan and you probably are if you're listening to us at any point in time. It's like Agents of Shield was for the Marvel Universe. It is a crossover TV show about Godzilla.

and how it relates to the rest of the kaiju. Now in this universe, the most recent iteration, they're coming through portals from another world and there's some time dilation to time travel involved. But the really cool part to me, A, the storytelling is great, the special effects, it's Apple, they spend all the money. It's a great special effect. Kurt Russell plays this character in the show and

they flash back and forth between modern times and the 60s or 70s. And the actor who plays him as a younger man is his son, Wyatt Russell. So they play the same character, but it's father and son. I ⁓ know it seems like a small detail to some folks, but I thought it was really brilliant casting to use the same actors from the same family. And Wyatt Russell, of course, is a Marvel guy. ⁓

Jeff (44:24)
That's cool.

Steve Scarfo (44:39)
And so he's a great actor. ⁓ Kurt Russell is just Kurt Russell. He's been in everything and he can be really serious, super campy. And this definitely has some lighter touch to it, which is fun, ⁓ but absolutely phenomenal show. If you love this, this is what I talking about before. If you love this genre, this keeps it going. And it's the right amount of, you know, creature showdowns and...

political intrigue and great characters and funny and some of it's just silly, but it's great. So definitely go watch Monarch.

Jeff (45:14)
Nice, yeah, I'll give that a shot. And my epic fail is an epic fail on the square, because it's kinda not a fail. It's this production company called The Asylum, and they make knockoffs. And they name them in such a close way that you might think you're watching the real thing. So the epic fail is when you turn on Battle of Los Angeles.

thinking you're watching the Battle Los Angeles movie. It's very close, has the exact same plot. They're fighting off an alien invasion. Only one case, you've got super low budget, cheesy as cheesy as can be, where like when they want the effect of like a ship getting, you know, of movement, they're actually, everyone in the room is pretending to move and the camera's moving.

Steve Scarfo (45:45)
Yes.

Jeff (46:10)
The room doesn't ever move. Yeah, like, So ⁓ they've got some other great like campy movies like Sharknado and all of the Sharknados. That's the asylum. ⁓ They came up with Atlantic Rim instead of Pacific Rim. And people, snakes on a train instead of snakes on a plane. So alone for Christmas instead of home alone.

Steve Scarfo (46:10)
It's Star- It's the old Star Trek.

My favorite is snakes on a train.

Jeff (46:39)
So they just are ripping off movie after movie after movie. But I will admit that to a certain degree, like this is what would have been on creature double feature. So I can't get too upset about it because it's that cheap, quick production and get it out there and direct to video, direct to streaming. And they've made so many

many movies. The only thing that makes them a fail really is when you think you're watching the real McCoy. Maybe you actually paid to stream it or rent it or whatever and the next thing you know you've got the knockoff. ⁓ Sharknado actually those are really fun and entertaining and I've seen a lot of their stuff.

Steve Scarfo (47:31)
I will say.

I will say it's funny because we were making fun of that company earlier because they have just go to the asylum.com and read all the titles because that'll make you giggle for like 20 minutes. I know it did make me but I wasn't thinking them of. Yeah.

Jeff (47:47)
Like, two headed shark attack was followed by three headed, then four headed, then five headed,

then six headed shark attack.

Steve Scarfo (47:55)
But I wasn't thinking of it in terms of these are the new Creature Devil feature movies. That's brilliant. I love that because they really are. They're the horrible start.

Jeff (48:00)
Yes, these are like these

are the new creature double features

Steve Scarfo (48:07)
It does suck that they're ripping off like really good properties. not that I'm, yeah.

Jeff (48:11)
Yeah. Well, yeah, because you're tricked by it because the

Meg came out and they came out with the movie Megalodon. You might be, you might be thinking, we're going to watch the Meg. And I can't remember who it was. I remember someone watching Atlantic Rim and I had seen Pacific Rim and I really loved it. And I was talking to that person like that movie sucks. The graphics are bad. like, what are you talking about? No, it's like the special effects are amazing.

Steve Scarfo (48:35)
Yeah

Jeff (48:41)
⁓ And then we realized we're talking about two different movies.

Steve Scarfo (48:44)
So I think in this message to the new generation, we have to include a warning label that says, make sure you're watching the right one. Please make sure you're watching the right ones because some of these are just shit and some of them are amazing. So go watch the real ones. ⁓ So we have some questions for you, our faithful listeners. What was your first creature double feature memory? Do you have one?

Jeff (48:52)
Hahaha

Yes.

Steve Scarfo (49:13)
Did you have a version of Creature Double Feature? Was it just creature? Right, because some people I guess didn't get to back to back. ⁓ Did you, you know, do you, is this the kind of thing that you're still into? ⁓ Let us know and if you like a different genre of these movies, we've touched on a couple with the other creatures ⁓ with zombies and stuff like that. Like I know there's Walking Dead has their own universe and but yeah, if you have something like that, that's one. Write in, let us know.

originalgeekpodcast.gmail.com ⁓ and make sure that you're going out. Do all the things right. Like, subscribe, give us five star reviews. All this helps us keep this thing moving. Make sure that you check out our merch. I don't have it on me today, but the originalgeekpodcast.com slash merch. I'm going to try to start putting up some

Episode related merch, maybe we'll have to do a creature merch shirt ⁓ and see what we can.

Jeff (50:10)
nice maybe we can do a tie-in

with the Asylum the new creature double feature production company

Steve Scarfo (50:14)
the new creature

double feature I have. I have a mock-up I'll show you afterwards, but I did actually do one. ⁓ But yeah, so originalgeekpodcast.com, ⁓ originalgeekpodcast@gmail.com. Please like, subscribe, and tell us what you love, tell us what you hate.

Jeff (50:37)
All right, thanks OGs, see you next time.