Gargoyles was aired 21th of November, 1972, I guess as the CBS Late Movie. Shot in 18 days with one single camera and having a script way too ambitious for such a project - it could have been a disaster, but in the end it's one of the true classics of American television - not perfect, I'll get back to that, but still awesome all these years after! Maybe the awesomeness comes from Stan Winston's cool creatures, but the storytelling itself isn't bad at all, even if it kinda fizzles out towards then.
Cornel Wilde is paleontologist Dr. Mercer Boley, he and his daughter Diana (Jennifer Salt) meets up for a road trip. Mercer and his wife is divorced and it was a long time since he met his daughter. But there's one thing to do on the road, to drop by an old man who claims to have something very unique for Mercer's research: the skeleton of a Gargoyle! Mercer is an open-minded scientist and decides to take a look at it - but something goes wrong and suddenly the house is attacked from all side by real, living Gargoyles! They escape, but manages to bring the Gargoyle skull with them... what they don't know is that the monsters wants their friend back, and soon they're chased and they want Diana specifically!
It might be hard to understand by reading my synopsis, but I wonder if Wes Craven saw this TV-movie and had it in mind when he wrote The Hills Have Eyes? There is some similarites actually, not only the location. But that's probably just my imagination. The first half is a lot of fun, it goes directly into action, with some very cool attacks. The second half feels less exciting, mostly because we get to know the Gargoyle clan a bit more and it suddenly becomes more fantasy - with a pretty lame kidnapping-of-the-daughter-thingie that feels a bit too lame compared to the awesome start. It's not bad, make no mistake about it, it just becomes less fun.
Stan Winson's creatures are interesting. The faces actually looks fantastic - with a slight unrealistic, plastic look - but thaty's okay with me. What's even more cool is how all of them look different, and if that's because of different species of Gargoyle or just different personalities I have no idea. The lead monster looks like a devil and a friend of his looks more like a bird, with a beak and all. And so on. It's very imaginative stuff. What's worse is the bodies, which just looks like diving suits with color and some fleshy details attached.
I'm not entirely sure the slow-mo added to the monster-sequences works either. They did that to try to change the movements of the monsters, but now it just looks kinda awkward.
Just a lot of whining yeah? Forget about it, this is one cool and fun movie. It's not perfect, but the passion is there and it has enough interesting scenes to become a television classic. Why not put together a double feature with this one and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) at home? I'm sure it will be the best movie night in a long time!
"Maybe the awesomeness comes from Stan Winston's cool creatures"
Stan Winston was talented, and creatures always worth watching.
"Cornel Wilde is paleontologist Dr. Mercer Boley"
Wilde was a good director too, please do a review of No Blade of Grass(1970), The Naked Prey (1966), I would love that.
"What's even more cool is how all of them look different, and if that's because of different species of Gargoyle or just different personalities I have no idea."
Probably different personalities.....Winstons studio did the same in Predator 2....I love it when they do that, attention for detail.
"Just a lot of whining yeah? Forget about it, this is one cool and fun movie. It's not perfect, but the passion is there and it has enough interesting scenes to become a television classic. Why not put together a double feature with this one and Don't Be Afraid of the Dark (1973) at home? I'm sure it will be the best movie night in a long time!"
I haven´t any of these films (or the remake,Don't Be Afraid of the Dark 2010), so I might do that sometime.....great review and thanks, Fred.
Posted by: Megatron | June 06, 2013 at 15:38