GILA!

GILA!

A young couple park up on the outskirts of a Middle American town, talking about leaving the sleepy place while preparing to make out. Moments later, a giant gila monster slithers into view and makes for the car. The kids try to drive away but they're not quick enough: the creature gets its prey.

On the other side of town, mechanic Chase (Brian Gross) is indulging in his favourite past-time - racing in his hot-rod against his best pal Pike (Chase Adams). Well, the girls seem to love it.

Their fun is spoilt when local bad boy Waco Bob (Jesse Janzen) turns up in his car and challenges Chase to a more serious race. Compelled to accept the challenge, Chase beats his opponent ... much to the humiliated rogue's chagrin.

Waco Bob gets his girl Carla (Christina DeRosa) to pay Chase a visit at his garage and come on to him. Fortunately he only has eyes for homebird Lisa (Madeline Voges), and so he politely knocks her back. Incensed even further, Bob then turns up and a fistfight between the two boys ensues. Well, the girls seem to love it...

This is broken up by Sheriff Parker (Terrence Knox), who has been asked by the Mayor to locate a couple of missing kids ... Can Chase help? Being the good boy that he is, he's certainly keen to pitch in.

But little does he or anyone else know, the reason behind the disappearances - along with the deaths of two scoundrels dumping toxic waste in a nearby cave, and an aged couple ran off the road by Bob - is down to a huge black lizard-like creature crawling around the outskirts and occasionally giving chase to whoever stumbles into its path ...

Once the gila monster is finally discovered, can Chase save the day?

Directed by Jim Wynorski and boasting no less than four writing credits (Steve Mitchell, William Dever, Jim Neilsen, Paul Sinor), GILA! is a remake-of-sorts of the cult 1959 cheapie THE GIANT GILA MONSTER.

Wynorski began his career in the 80s as protégé of Roger Corman. His most notable directorial credits from that era include the likes of CHOPPING MALL and NOT OF THIS EARTH. He's since been relegated to helming no-budget Z-grade tosh but, to give him his due, he's continued to churn out films with gusto.

GILA! sets itself in the 50s and shows Wynorski's obvious fondness for the era. Vintage cars, authentic rock 'n' roll diners, original songs from the era, bygone dialogue such as "get your girl ... and scoot" - GILA! could easily have been made five decades ago, were it not for the obvious digital sheen of its presentation and a few moments of minor gore.

Oh, and some bloody horrible - albeit very amusing - CGI.

The monster is shown from the start. The only reason it's not shown too much is because the story then strays from the creature aspect for a good half-hour and settles into focusing on the rivalry between Chase and Bob. This section does sag a little, despite the odd abysmal performance eliciting titters - and the fact that Janzen occasionally has the look of a young Nick Cave.

Creature effects are computer generated and, as mentioned above, are funnily terrible. As are most performances and a fantastically bad scene of two guys' faces melting off their skulls.

But Wynorski is not the hack he makes himself out to be. Check out the lighting, framing, editing, musical cues: he knows his craft. Methinks he's playing to the fact that he's working with such a low budget and such trashy material and deliberately ramping up the cheese for our benefit.

No matter. It's very entertaining.

Polyscope Media's region free DVD presents the film in its original 1.78:1 aspect ratio. The picture has been enhanced for 16x9 televisions.

GILA! is uncut and looks great considering its mega low budget origins. Detail is well served, blacks are solid and colours strike boldly throughout playback. It's a nice, sharp presentation.

English 2.0 audio is evenly separated, clean and consistent.

The disc is defaulted to open with a trailer for Wynorski's feature debut, THE LOST EMPIRE. We're then taken to a static main menu page. From there, an animated scene selection menu allows access to the film via 8 chapters.

Extras begin with a 6-minute slideshow of stills from the film.

Next we get a tribute to the original 1959 film. But before you get excited, this transpires to be a single page of text. As does the "Cast and Crew" link. And "The Mushroom Song" (reprints lyrics to a song featured in the film). And "The Golden Age of the Drive-In". A bit of a cheat, no?

At least we get a trailer for the original THE GIANT GILA MONSTER. A fantastic monochrome 101-second affair, this is worth it for the footage of a small lizard edited to look like its terrorising people. Brilliant.

A 97-second trailer for GILA! completes the set in suitably breathless, fun style.

GILA! is gleefully, almost purposefully bad. But beneath its cheesy, trashy veneer that is skill at work. It's fun for those who can live without decent production values and are willing to forgive the worst special effects conceivable.

Review by Stuart Willis


 
Released by Polyscope Media
Region All
Not Rated
Extras :
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