No Gods, No Monsters

Bonus Episode [PREVIEW]: Godzilla x Kong Trailer Reaction

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In this episode we share our thoughts on the first full trailer for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire. We make some predictions for the movie, give thoughts on the style, and read out some Youtube comments. Enjoy the dialectic struggle between hype machines and anti-hype machines!

Episode 76 ft. merritt k: Godzilla vs King Ghidorah (1991)

We're joined by merritt k as we continue through the Heisei series in this bananas time traveling kaiju flick. Is the film an attempt to push Japanese nationalism or a warning about the country's late '80s financial bubble? Are the eco-terrorists a force for good or evil? Is this the best Ghidorah yet, or is he mid?

Check out merritt's short stories on OtherStrangeness.com, her work on patreon.com/merrittk, and follow her on Bluesky @merrittk.com

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Episode 75: Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

We continue or UFO movie streak with this Spielberg classic. Our discussion revolves around the somewhat contradictory nature of the film's liberal message, and touches on themes of misogyny, family, the false promises of technology, authority and fascism, secular gods, translation, and lines of flight. 

 

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Episode 74: Godzilla vs Biollante (1989)

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A kaiju movie brimming with '80s anxieties, this film splices together fears of genetic engineering, international oil conflicts, environmental destruction, the cold war, psychic powers, and bioweapons into one grotesquely beautiful adversary. 

 

Episode 73: Xtro (1982)

We discuss this practical effects-driven British alien film and how it plays with ideas of identity, parenting, and gender, mostly in ways that involve eggs. 

Things get slimy, things get Oedipal. 

Episode 72: King Kong Lives (1986)

We decide this is probably the least racist Kong movie and Barto tries to make the case that it's also the most biblical. 

Episode 71: Gamera: Rebirth (2023)

We interrupt our scheduled programming to discuss the brand new Gamera anime! We talk QAnon conspiracies, paranormal phenomena and homages to kaiju history, while we attempt to tease out a coherent stance on authority from the show.

Episode 70: Nope (2022)

We discuss the film's portrayal of spectacle and how it relates to capital, entertainment, our views on nature, and the history of paranormal phenomena. And we use a bit of Guy Debord's "The Society of the Spectacle" to do it. 

Episode 69: The Return of Godzilla (1984)

Godzilla is back in his first film of the Heisei era. He's bigger but so is everything else so we'll call it a wash. We talk Star Wars, nuclear proliferation, how the film envisions Japan within the structure of the Cold War, and Godzilla as the ouroboros.

Episode 68: Paranormal Activity (2007)

When they brought Blair Witch to the suburbs, the filmmakers behind Paranormal Activity accidentally gave us a peak into the bubbling anxieties of upper-middle class America before the 2008 housing crisis, as well as the toxic masculinity that was normalized in the era. Scary stuff!