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Science Fiction Pint and Pizza Night featuring Danish and Japanese Monsters

What:

Science Fiction Pint and Pizza Night featuring Danish and Japanese monsters with Reptilicus (1962), Attack Of The Monsters (1955), Conquest Of The Pole (1912) with a live synthesizer collage by Michel Sargent and other psychotronic weirdness, trailers, short films and strange giveaways Wednesday, June 23, at Arcata Theatre Lounge, 1036 G St. in Arcata. Doors open from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., cost is free with $5 minimum purchase of food or beverage and is all ages. Sponsored by La Dolce Video, The Arcata Eye, Daisy Drygoods, Vintage Avenger, Tin Can Mailman, The Clothing Dock and more!

See a mighty city trampled to destruction! See missiles and atom bombs powerless! See civilization rioting with fear!

Reptilicus (1962) is a Danish-American giant monster film about a fictional prehistoric reptile. The tail of a dinosaur is excavated from the frozen tundra in Lapland and shipped to the Danish Aquarium in Copenhagen for safekeeping in this hilarious sci-fi mess. Someone turns off the refrigeration, alas, and the tail thaws. Regeneration sets in with alarming dispatch and soon the serpent-like monster, named “Reptilicus” by the learned paleontologist in charge, is devouring a paper mache Copenhagen. Carl Ottosen stars as the American General Grayson, angrily shouting his every line for unexplained reasons. Ottosen’s wooden performance is second only to that of Bodil Miller, a former Universal starlet who appears here for no apparent reason other than to accompany Ottosen’s general on a pleasant night out at the Tivoli amusement park.The monster, meanwhile, fights his battles in what appears to be a child’s model train landscape while hundreds of extras do their utmost to look sufficiently frightened.

Attack Of The Monsters (1969) is one of the most unusual Gamera films because most of the action takes place on another planet instead of Earth. However, it pretty much is like all the other films in the series except for the fact that the producers pretty much up the level of violence. Also, the villainous aliens in this film are women, just like in Kaiju soshingeki (aka Destroy all Monsters). Three children, two boys and a girl, stumble upon a flying saucer. The boys both step in without hesitating, and are whisked away to a planet in Earth’s orbit but on the exact opposite side of the Sun. Inhabiting this planet are two women with Midwestern accents, who hypnotize the children to find they fantasize about milk, donuts, and Gamera, our favorite hero turtle. The women simply want to eat their brains. Back home, no one will believe the little girl’s story of alien abduction, not even Officer Concha (pronounced “Cornjob”).

Conquest of the Pole (1912) is a science fantasy film by Georges Méliès, based on the novel The Adventures of Captain Hatteras by Jules Verne, and deals with an extraordinary race to the north pole by rival parties of balloonists.

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