Growing up in Ohio in the seventies I was a monster movie junkie, and thankfully had access to two different horror movie hosts to feed that obsession. There were three things I could count on seeing at some point in any given month; a Universal classic from the thirties or forties, an AIP alien invasion or teen monster movie of the fifties, and a Toho or Daiei giant monster movie from the sixties. I don’t think there is a kid from the seventies who doesn’t hold a soft spot in his heart for the rubber suited Godzilla or Gamera.
One such kid was definitely Brad Warner. An ex-pat American and die hard kaiju fan living in Tokyo, and fulfilling every kid’s dream, working at Toho. While working on the show Ultra Seven, he experienced first hand kaiju fanatics going to ridiculous lengths to get a look at an episode that was pulled from circulation due to a, at the time, controversial storyline.
This event is at the heart of his homage to kaiju movies, Death to All Monsters. Bob Morningstar is an ex pat American and die hard kaiju fan, working at his dream job for Nakajima Productions, home of the giant radioactive lizard Gorezolla. The only copy of Death to All Monsters, a never seen Gorezolla film, goes missing and suddenly Bob is contending with American gangsters, Chinese spies, and the two biggest Gorezolla fans in the world (who kidnap his girlfriend), all demanding he find the film for them. Things get even more complicated when Bob is visited in what he believes is a dream by what looks like the alien featured in the missing film and told that Death to All Monsters contains footage taken at the crash site of one of their spaceships during WWII and that any attempt to replicate the engine shown in the footage could blow up the planet.
This is a fun and funny book featuring lots of chases and escapes, as the hero is either ordered to or forcibly taken around the world from Tokyo, to Hong Kong, to LA, to Calcutta and finally back to Tokyo; all the while unsure what to do with the film once he gets it.
One of the funniest scenes in the book is when the hero and his boss, Gorezolla director Nakajima, are in LA to look at a new Gorezolla movie being made by an American company and they can’t get the octopus they bought to move once placed on the table top miniture set. Nakajima steps in, pours liquor down the octopus’ throat and tosses him onto the set, where the animal thrashes around drunkenly for a few minutes. After the scene is over, Nakajima grabs up the octopus and has the on set caterers cook it for his lunch.
There is also a hilarious and nail biting escape from a mountain top Buddist monstary on a rusted cable car when Bob’s hiding place is discovered by the American gangsters, and a final confrontation with all the different factions on the Gorezolla set, where Bob and his girlfriend are chased while dressed in kaiju suits and riding bikes, that is literally explosive.
An enjoyable and heartfelt valentine to classic kaiju films, as well as an interesting adventure story with science fiction alien invasion overtones, Warner has crafted a funny and entertaining book that you don’t have to be a kaiju fan to enjoy.
