God of Clay and More Upcoming Horror Flicks at the Bigfoot Crest Theater

Thursday, June 23 – 7:00 PM

The Thing – Actor David Clennon, producers David Foster and Lawrence Turman, and cinematographer Dean Cundey In-Person!!

THE THING, 1982, Universal, 109 min.

A team of unsuspecting scientists at an isolated research station in the Antarctic are confronted by a hideous, mutating alien organism in director John Carpenter’s bleak, brilliant vision of the horror within. Kurt Russell is at his very best as sarcastic, sombrero-wearing helicopter pilot MacReady, joined by a terrific cast including Wilford Brimley, Richard Dysart, T.K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Masur and Donald Moffat. Gorgeous, chilling cinematography by longtime Carpenter collaborator Dean Cundey (ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK, HALLOWEEN) perfectly captures the frozen Antarctic wastelands – and master make-up F/X artist Rob Bottin’s mindbending alien horrors are among the most surreal and disturbing ever put on film. Adapted from writer John W. Campbell Jr.’s classic story “Who Goes There?” (earlier filmed by Howard Hawks and Christian Nyby in 1951 as THE THING FROM ANOTHER WORLD), Carpenter’s vision of THE THING easily ranks as one of the finest American sci-fi and horror films of the past three decades.

Thursday, June 23 – 9:30 PM

World premiere of The God of Clay with special screening of Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster

THE GOD OF CLAY 2009/2011, Marbling Fine Arts, 13 min. Dir. Koichi Kawakita and Nobuaki Sugimoto.

A legendary, never-before screened project created as a labor of love by some of Japan’s best-known F/X artists, The God of Clay is a loving homage to classic 1960’s-era Japanese kaiju giant monster movies. This short film, adapted from the anti-war children’s book by author Masamoto Nasu, revolves around a boy named Ken-chan whose parents are killed in WWII and who creates a tiny clay god to punish those who profit from war. Fifty years later, Ken-chan has become president of an arms company – and his forgotten God of Clay grows to enormous size, wreaking havoc and destruction until it confronts its maker. Co-director Koichi Kawakita is best-known as VFX director on the 1990’s Godzilla Heisei Series (BIOLLANTE, etc.). Produced by miniature F/X company Marbling Fine Arts, “The God of Clay” was the last film shot on the now-vanished Toho Built sound stages where Kurosawa made THE SEVEN SAMURAI and features contributions from Eizo Kaimai’s company (who created the original 1954 Godzilla suit), production designer Tetsuzo Osawa (“Ultraman” TV series), background painter Fuchimu Shimakura (DESTROY ALL MONSTERS) and many others. (In Japanese with English subtitles.)

GODZILLA VS. THE SEA MONSTER (aka EBIRAH, HORROR OF THE DEEP), 1966, Toho Co., 87 min.

One of the most entertaining of the mid-1960’s Toho giant monster films – and the first directed by Ishiro Honda’s successor, Jun Fukuda – this features one of Godzilla’s best-loved rivals, the giant lobster known as Ebirah, along with Mothra and a terrorist group known as Red Bamboo. Coincidentally, this was the very first Godzilla film that The God of Clay co-director and VFX master Koichi Kawakita ever worked on. (On 35 mm. English dubbed version).