House of Kaiju at Chapeltown Picture House
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Can you really appreciate the true majesty of a giant lizard on your LCD television? This May, Chapeltown Picture House is paying homage to the Kaiju — cinema’s city-crushing monsters — with an all day marathon film event that puts them back where they belong: on the big screen.
The genre originated in Japan with 1954’s Godzilla, and that’s exactly where Chapeltown begins its movie marathon. Made for the legendary Toho Studios, Ishirō Honda’s film spawned no end of sequels, remakes, spinoffs and homages in which all manner of massive creatures have wreaked global destruction.
Billed as ‘House of Kaiju’, this all day event continues with screenings of a couple of American blockbusters, starting with Guillermo del Toro’s battling ‘bots in Pacific Rim, followed by Cloverfield, Matt Reeves’ found footage-style spin on the genre.
Rounding out the marathon is The Host, a typically well-crafted, politically-attuned effort from Parasite-director Bong Joon-ho. Mixing action, comedy and horror as a huge, semi-aquatic monster terrorises Seoul, Bong’s effort is a purring example of pop cinema firing on all cylinders.
