Bert I. Gordon – Rest in Peace

March 8, 2023 by Jon Kitley in Rest in Peace and tagged Bert I. Gordon, Empire of the Ants, Food of the Gods, King Dinosaur, The Amazing Colossal Man, The Cyclops | Leave a comment

Affectionally known as Mr. BIG because of his earlier pictures all dealt with some sort of a larger than normal monstrosity that was threatening mankind, Bert I. Gordon made a lot of entertaining films in his career. While most critics might say they were trash, awful, terribly made, or any of the other criticisms, doesn’t matter because the fans watching them were having a blast. And, if you’re counting on how much money they made, then you have to say that he was a successful filmmaker then as well. He gave us titles like King Dinosaur (1955), which was his first feature film, made with 4 actors, shot in 7 days, and with a budget of only $15,000. But it made a good amount of money at the drive-ins! He followed that up with titles like The Amazing Colossal Man (1957), The Cyclops (1957) to the more modern ones (for the time) Food of the Gods (1976) and Empire of the Ants (1977). I know I was always entertained by his work when I was growing up and I still enjoy watching them today.

But Mr. BIG left us today, passing away at the age of 100! His reputation will also be huge, as well as his fandom, because he truly created films that capture the excitement of our youth, giving us giant monsters of all kinds, and while they may make us laugh and snicker at times now when we really shouldn’t be, it still doesn’t take away the fun. And at the end of the day, that is what it is all about.

Our thoughts go out to his friends and family at this time. Rest in Peace, Mr. BIG.

Discover the Horror Podcast: Episode 15 – Bert I. Gordon

April 20, 2022 by Jon Kitley in Discover the Horror Podcast and tagged Bert I. Gordon, Food of the Gods, King Dinosaur, The Cyclops | 4 Comments

King Dinosaur (1955), The Cyclops (1957), & Food of the Gods (1976). What do these three films have in common? They all came from Mr. BIG himself, the one and only Bert I. Gordon. Known for films that featured giant monsters, such as giant grasshoppers, spiders, teenagers, and rats, he usually had some sort of small threat that is made larger with either shooting them on smaller sets or super imposing them over a back projector screen. No matter what the latest creature is, coming from Mr. BIG, you can be sure that fun usually ensues. So tune in and get our take on these films as well as some other interesting topics we cover.

Movies we mentioned in this episode:

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Turkey Day 2005

March 6, 2015 by Jon Kitley in Turkey Day Marathon and tagged Alligator, Blood Freak, cheezy movies, Food of the Gods, Lady Terminator, Turkey Day Marathon | Leave a comment

For this marathon, I was not going to have to make this journey alone. I found a sucker…I mean, a fellow movie fan that had the guts to put his love of bad movies to the test. Dr. AC (aka Aaron Christensen) joined me that faithful day to for another festival of B-movies and other such wonders. Though, he must have been pretty trusting of me since we’d only met a few months earlier. Little did he know of the horrors that I was going to put him through….(cue devilish laugh here) heheheh.

Blood Freak (1972) – Yes, we did watch this film last year. And since this was AC’s first Turkey Day experience, I didn’t want to give him a full frontal assault right away. But I felt that since he had never witnessed Blood Freak before, that we’d have to make that the first film. Sort of breaking him in. Or breaking him down. Not sure which. And even I had watched it last year, watching this movie with a new viewer is almost as fun as watching the film itself for the first time. The look on their faces is always a riot. When the turkey monster first makes its appearance, and they look over at you with this “Are you fucking kidding me?” look….priceless.