Movies

Last Universal Classic Monster Actor, Ricou Browning, Dies at 93

Published

1 year ago

March 1, 2023

Actor and stuntman, Ricou Browning, who played the Gill-Man monster (underwater) in The Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) died of natural causes this past Monday. His daughter Kim told The Hollywood Reporter that her dad passed away at his home in Florida, “He had a fabulous career in the film industry, providing wonderful entertainment for past and future generations.”

Browning was the Hollywood go-to for underwater stunts (It should be noted that actor Ben Chapman played the Gill-Man creature on land.). He may be famous for his work in Lagoon, but he also helped out with productions that featured bodies of water as a location. For instance, he assisted Richard Fleischer in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and “played all the bad guys,” in the popular late 50s TV adventure series Sea Hunt starring Lloyd Bridges.

Beyond that, he helped out James Bond on movies such as Thunderball and Never Say Never Again. But he was also responsible for directing the Jaws-like “Doodie” scene in Caddyshack.

With all of his success in Hollywood, Browning will always be remembered as one of Universal’s original classic monsters, right up there with Bela Lugosi and Boris Karloff. The Creature From the Black Lagoon didn’t come until later in the canon of Universal’s monsters; it was released in 1954. By then Dracula was 20 years its senior and The Wolf Man, 10.

Additionally, Browning’s performance ended Universal’s run on great horror films. After 1954, there were no real movies of note within that universe. He had become an all-star in the exclusive cache of black-and-white horror movies of the era and a legacy within the company.

In an interview, Browning said that his underwater suit was cumbersome at the start of filming, “But once I got into the movie, I forgot I had it on. I became the creature.”

When asked in 2019 about the rubber suit and if water ever got into it, Browing said, “No. The lips of the suit sat about a half-inch from my lips, and I put the air hose in my mouth to breathe. I would hold my breath and go do the scene, and I’d have other safety people with other air hoses to give me air if I needed it. We had a signal. If I went totally limp, it meant I needed it. It worked out well and we didn’t have any problems.”

One of his surviving daughters, Renee, said of her father’s dedication to water and the animals who live in it:

“Every time he got an idea for a movie, he would bring the animals home,” she said. “We had a sea lion that sat at the dinner table. … We had otters, a baby black bear and a female peacock that would sit on our shoulder and drink iced tea out of our glass. All the kids in the neighborhood wanted to come over our house, because it was like a zoo.”

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Movies

‘Evil Dead’ Film Franchise Getting TWO New Installments

Published

16 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

It was a risk for Fede Alvarez to reboot Sam Raimi’s horror classic The Evil Dead in 2013, but that risk paid off and so did its spiritual sequel Evil Dead Rise in 2023. Now Deadline is reporting that the series is getting, not one, but two fresh entries.

We already knew about the Sébastien Vaniček upcoming film that delves into the Deadite universe and should be a proper sequel to the latest film, but we are broadsided that Francis Galluppi and Ghost House Pictures are doing a one-off project set in Raimi’s universe based off of an idea that Galluppi pitched to Raimi himself. That concept is being kept under wraps.

“Francis Galluppi is a storyteller who knows when to keep us waiting in simmering tension and when to hit us with explosive violence,” Raimi told Deadline. “He is a director that shows uncommon control in his feature debut.”

That feature is titled The Last Stop In Yuma County which will release theatrically in the United States on May 4. It follows a traveling salesman, “stranded at a rural Arizona rest stop,” and “is thrust into a dire hostage situation by the arrival of two bank robbers with no qualms about using cruelty-or cold, hard steel-to protect their bloodstained fortune.”

Galluppi is an award-winning sci-fi/horror shorts director whose acclaimed works include High Desert Hell and The Gemini Project. You can view the full edit of High Desert Hell and the teaser for Gemini below:

^{High Desert Hell}

^{The Gemini Project}

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Movies

Fede Alvarez Teases ‘Alien: Romulus’ With RC Facehugger

Published

17 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Happy Alien Day! To celebrate director Fede Alvarez who is helming the latest sequel in the Alien franchise Alien: Romulus, got out his toy Facehugger in the SFX workshop. He posted his antics on Instagram with the following message:

“Playing with my favorite toy on set of #AlienRomulus last summer. RC Facehugger created by the amazing team from @wetaworkshop Happy #AlienDay everybody!”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Fede Alvarez (@iamfedealvarez)

To commemorate the 45th anniversary of Ridley Scott’s original Alien movie, April 26 2024 has been designated as Alien Day, with a re-release of the film hitting theaters for a limited time.

Alien: Romulus is the seventh film in the franchise and is currently in post-production with a scheduled theatrical release date of August 16, 2024.

In other news from the Alien universe, James Cameron has been pitching fans the boxed set of Aliens: Expanded a new documentary film, and a collection of merch associated with the movie with pre-sales ending on May 5.

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Movies

‘Invisible Man 2’ Is “Closer Than Its Ever Been” to Happening

Published

18 hours ago

April 26, 2024

Timothy Rawles

Elisabeth Moss in a very well-thought-out statement said in an interview for Happy Sad Confused that even though there have been some logistical issues for doing Invisible Man 2 there is hope on the horizon.

Podcast host Josh Horowitz asked about the follow-up and if Moss and director Leigh Whannell were any closer to cracking a solution to getting it made. “We are closer than we have ever been to cracking it,” said Moss with a huge grin. You can see her reaction at the 35:52 mark in the below video.

^{Happy Sad Confused}

Whannell is currently in New Zealand filming another monster movie for Universal, Wolf Man, which might be the spark that ignites Universal’s troubled Dark Universe concept which hasn’t gained any momentum since Tom Cruise’s failed attempt at resurrecting The Mummy.

Also, in the podcast video, Moss says she is not in the Wolf Man film so any speculation that it’s a crossover project is left in the air.

Meanwhile, Universal Studios is in the middle of constructing a year-round haunt house in Las Vegas which will showcase some of their classic cinematic monsters. Depending on attendance, this could be the boost the studio needs to get audiences interested in their creature IPs once more and to get more films made based on them.

The Las Vegas project is set to open in 2025, coinciding with their new proper theme park in Orlando called Epic Universe.