Gila! (2012)

As I said at the start of my review of Return of the Killer Shrews, that Film Masters Blu-Ray of The Giant Gila Monster and the original Killer Shrews proved to have both its up- and downsides, the latter being how the special features made me aware of some obscure, modern day follow-ups/remakes that I now had no excuse not to cover along with the originals. In the case of Gila!, it may have been mentioned on The Giant Gila Monster's commentary track, but I really remember first hearing of it during that disc's two-hour audio interview with Don Sullivan. There, Sullivan specified how it was a TV movie remake and he had a brief role in it as a Gila monster expert. And that was about all I knew of Gila! when I first decided to track it down online. Looking up more info on it (which was somewhat scarce, as it doesn't have a Wikipedia page), I learned it was directed by Jim Wynorski, which definitely gave me more of an idea of what kind of movie it was. And when I first found a stream and saw a little bit of it, and got a look at the awful, CGI Gila monster, it seemed as though my suspicions were verified. Watching the entire movie, however, I will say that, unlike the Killer Shrews follow-ups, Gila! isn't the kind of movie that mocks the original. It's not a full-on parody like Attack of the Killer Shrews! (no Lloyd Kaufman here, thankfully) and, for the most part, it plays itself a bit straighter than Return of the Killer Shrews. It does definitely have fun with the original, as it plays up the 50's setting and style, specifically in the rock and roll and hot-rods, keeps many of the character names and archetypes, and its tone is most definitely tongue-in-cheek, but it's also not a smarmy put-down, which, as someone who genuinely loves the original, I do appreciate. That said, it's nothing great, either. While some are entertaining, most of the characters are one-dimensional, the digital effects are horrendous, and the pacing feels slow, with the story focusing on plot-points that ultimately go nowhere. But since I was expecting a lot worse, I can deal with those flaws.

It's the 1950's, and a small town in the Midwest is bustling with young people who love rock n' roll and hot-rod racing. It's also close to Christmastime, but this holiday is shaping up to be anything but merry. While making out in a wash outside of town, Betty Wheeler and her boyfriend, Don Fielding, are attacked by a giant, mutant Gila monster. They try to escape, but the car stalls and the monster devours Don, before going after Betty. Meanwhile, Chase Winstead, a popular young mechanic and skilled drag-racer, is confronted by Waco Bob, an old nemesis of his from high school. He challenges Chase to a race, which he loses, and then declares that Chase cheated and that it's not over. Unbeknownst to anyone else, the monster, created by illegal dumping of chemicals in a cave in a quarry, continually wanders out in search of prey. The local sheriff, Matt Parker, is tasked by the town's overbearing mayor, Norbert Wheeler, who happens to be Betty's father, with finding her. He enlists Chase and his girlfriend, Lisa, in helping him track down the missing couple, and while searching the wash, they find Don's abandoned car and Betty's purse, splattered with blood. Parker radios his deputy, Wilma Powers, and when she arrives, she tells him that she's been getting reports of missing livestock and smashed fences, as well as one about shots fired at the Swenson farm. While Parker goes there to investigate, and Wilma takes photographs of the crime scene, Chase goes to get the wrecker to impound Don's car. On the way back, he gets a glimpse of the monster when it crosses the road behind him. At the Swenson farm, Parker finds Karl Swenson lying on the ground, mumbling about something big that wouldn't die, and also takes a sample of a green substance he finds on the ground. He calls an ambulance and tells Wilma to come there as well, but on the way, a car slams into a telephone pole in front of her. She attempts to radio for help, only to be faced with the monster, which promptly devours her. Chase, meanwhile, finds Betty near the wash, bloody and unconscious, and races her to the doctor. After Chase tells Parker about his seeing the enormous creature that crossed the road, and Parker learns that the substance he found is saliva from a Gila monster, the two of them realize they need to kill the beast before more people fall prey to it.

It's amazing that it's taken me this long to do a movie by Jim Wynorski, considering how the guy has literally over 200 writing, producing, and directing credits on his filmography (but I'm going to make up for it, as we'll be talking about him a couple of more times this month). I guess that shows that I do have some actual taste and don't go looking for out and out trash (unlike some people who shall remain nameless), especially porn, which he's specialized in since the Millennium. In fact, Gila! (which somehow had four people attached to it in the writing department) was made in the midst of his doing a swath of those soft-core parodies and porn movies in the 2010's, like The Hills Have Thighs, Sexy Wives Sindrome, Busty Coeds vs. Lusty Cheerleaders, Sexy Wives Sinsations, Pleasure Spa, and Sexipede!, to name just a few. Of course, he was also doing some Roger Corman-produced Sci-Fi Channel originals around this time, like Dinocroc vs. Supergator and Piranhaconda, so it wasn't that much of a departure. I don't think Gila! was made for Sci-Fi, but I'm not sure what channel it did premiere on.

As in the original movie, Chase Winstead (Brian Gross) is portrayed as a really likable, earnest young man who's quite popular about the town, not just with his friends and family, but also with Sheriff Parker. Like in the original, he works as a mechanic at a local garage owned by a Mr. Compton, and does whatever he can for his family, including getting his young sister, Missy, some walking braces and gifting them to her as an early Christmas present. He has a bit more of a Steve McQueen vibe to him here, as he loves drag-racing with his friends (in the original, he himself never does it, but some of his friends seem to have a reputation for it). He also has a lifelong nemesis in the form of Waco Bob, who's always trying to get even with Chase for supposedly wronging him back when they were in high school, which Chase denies doing. While he calls Waco out on how crazy he acts, and is more than willing to race him when he first confronts him, Chase refuses to race him again later on, as he knows doing so at night is unsafe. Moreover, even though he beats Waco during their first race, and defends his methods when Waco accuses him of cheating, Chase offers to give his car a tune-up, saying his engine is why he lost. Then, when Waco shows up at his garage and tries to pick a fight with him, Chase tries to make him leave without having to resort to violence, which doesn't work. And yet, after Parker breaks up the fight and asks Chase if he wants to press charges, he opts not to.  Chase is such a pure soul that, when Waco's girlfriend, Carla, tries to hit on him, he makes it clear that he's not interested and remains loyal to Lisa. Both he and Parker come to realize there's a monster roaming the area at about the same time, with Chase getting a glimpse of the Gila monster when it crosses the road. The two of them work together to try to kill it but, like in the original, Chase is the one who ends up putting it down.

As in the original, Chase's girlfriend, Lisa (Madeline Voges), doesn't have much to do other than be loving and supportive towards him. Significantly, though, when Sheriff Parker asks her and Chase if they know anything about Betty Wheeler and Don Fielding, Lisa suggests that the two of them may have eloped, as she's close enough with Betty to know of her feelings for Don, as well as how she doesn't care for her father and stepmother. Thus, when she goes with Chase and Parker to the wash, and they find evidence that Don and Betty may have met a bad end, Lisa is brought close to tears over it. She's also not at all happy whenever Carla, whom she already thought was slutty, tries to put the moves on Chase. And when Carla goes as far as to sing a sensual song at a dance to try to seduce him, she and Lisa get into a fight (this prompts the band to start playing a song called Cat Fight), and Chase and Waco have to pull the two of them apart. Like in the original, Lisa aids Chase in getting what he needs to kill the Gila monster and saving his family, saying that she considers them to be her family as well. But in a major departure, she joins the others in firing on it using Compton's weapons. 

The most pointless addition to the remake's story is the character of Waco Bob (Jesse Janzen), a punk from Chase's past who's hated him ever since junior high. The reason is because he accuses Chase of getting him sent to juvie hall for three years, saying he ratted him out for stealing some milk that he meant for his little sister. Chase denies doing this, but Waco, of course, doesn't believe him. He also seems to think that Chase loves how Carla is flirting with him, even though he makes it clear that he finds it annoying (Waco himself flirts with Elsa, a waitress at a fast food place, early on, and while Carla is in the car with him, no less). It's obvious he's just an insecure bully who's stuck in high school mentally and jealous of Chase's popularity. He also blames Parker and the entire town for the way his life went, saying they never gave him a chance and hated both him and his father. Parker does admit that Waco has gone through some tough times, but when he acts like such a hateful prick, it's hard to feel bad for him. He spends the entire movie trying to get even with Chase in some way, be it by beating him at drag-racing or just plain beating him, like when he shows up at Compton's garage, looking for a fight. He's even clearly willing to murder Chase, as during their fight, he grabs a bottle, and seems to be ready to break it and slash Chase, when Parker intervenes. And after Lisa and Carla's fight at the dance, Waco talks about heading out to Chase's home with a gun. Both Chase and Carla call Waco out on his obsession, with the latter growing especially sick of it. By the end of the movie, Waco finds himself alone, as Carla leaves him. He then randomly shows up at Chase's house during the climax but, instead of trying to fight or kill him, he offers to help get his loved ones to safety while Chase takes care of the Gila monster. He even tells him, "Hey, Winstead: don't die." After the monster is destroyed, Waco is the only one who opts not to attend the party at Chase's house, instead leaving town for good... which I couldn't care less about.

Carla (Christina DeRosa) is a big part of Waco's problem, as she often makes him feel like even more of a loser whenever Chase beats him, as she acts ashamed. She also openly flirts with Chase, seemingly thinking he's more of a man, and resulting in a growing conflict between her and Lisa. That comes to a head during the dance late in the film, when she sings a sultry song called Fever to try to get Chase's attention, and then gets into a fight with Lisa over it. Her and Waco's relationship is pretty toxic in general, as he's often manhandling her when he's frustrated, and physically forces her to come with him after the fight at the dance. By the end of the movie, Carla decides she's had enough of Waco's obsession with Chase, with the final straw being when he intends to go over to his house with a gun. At the Christmas party at the end of the movie, Carla and Lisa are now inexplicably friendly with each other, and the former opts to stay in town, while Bob drives off.

As with Sheriff Jeff in the original, Sheriff Matt Parker (Terence Knox) is a really decent guy who's well-liked by the townspeople and has a good relationship with the kids, especially Chase and Lisa. Early on, he steps in and stops Waco from attacking Chase at the garage, and then asks Chase if he wants to press charges. Though he's disappointed when he  opts to only charge Waco with "reckless littering," Parker does let him off with a warning. He also admits that he has some sympathy for Waco, saying he's had a lot of bad luck in his life. And when Mayor Wheeler is talking about how he doesn't approve of his daughter dating Don Fielding, whom he refers to as a "miscreant," Parker defends Don, saying he's a good kid. Like in the original, Wheeler is often on Parker to find out what's happened to his daughter, and Parker has to deal with his condescending criticism after he's been running himself ragged, trying to do just that. Thus, it's satisfying when, as he starts to suspect that there's a monster, and that Deputy Wilma Powers might be dead, Parker tells Wheeler to shut up when he starts badmouthing her. Once Parker learns there's a giant Gila monster prowling around, he enlists Chase's help in finding its lair and killing it. The two make use of the massive stockpile of weapons that Compton has in his garage and seal the monster up in its cave at the quarry, but that only proves to be a very temporary solution. When the monster reemerges, Parker deputizes Chase (whom he earlier told would make a good deputy), Lisa, and their friends, as well as Compton, and they head out to face the monster, which is heading right for town.

While Sheriff Jeff was literally on his own, Parker does have at least one deputy: Wilma Powers (Kelli Maroney). She's a rather feisty and sultry old gal, as Parker catches her reading a dirty magazine at her desk, and when she meets up with Chase while photographing the spot where they found Don's car and Betty's purse, she tells him, in a fairly sensual manner, "I like action. Action photography, that is. I love movement, bodies in motion, checkin' the action. You know what I mean?" She even comes on to him a little bit, putting her hand on his shoulder and asking if he needs her help in towing the vehicle. And when she leaves to go meet up with Parker at the Swenson farm, she asks Chase if he's going to be okay by himself. He answers, "I got it, Deputy," and Wilma says to herself, "And how." Speaking of Parker, there's a genuine mutual respect between, and Wilma isn't shy about voicing her disdain for Mayor Wheeler. After Wheeler demands that Parker come out to his house over the phone, she says, "Just wait till I catch him speeding one of these days. I'll whip the cuffs on him so fast..." Parker then says, "Yeah, you will. Won't you?", and she just smiles. Unfortunately, Wilma doesn't make it to the halfway point. While on her way to the Swenson farm, a man being chased by the Gila monster crashes into a telephone pole in front of her. She tries to call for an ambulance, as well as Parker, when the monster shows up at the scene. Surprisingly calm, she remarks, "You're a big fella, aren't ya?", and fires her revolver, but it doesn't do any good and she's quickly devoured.

Instead of just being the wealthiest man in town, in this film, Wheeler (Gerard Pauwels) is the mayor. But that doesn't make him any less of an asshole. He's not only constantly on Sheriff Parker, accusing him of being lazy and not getting results in his investigation of what happened to his daughter (in his first scene, he threatens to fire him if he doesn't find anything soon), but has it out for all of the kids in the town, rather than just Chase. He despises them for their love of hot-rods and rock and roll, which is why he doesn't like Betty dating Don Fielding. When Chase's friend Pike pulls up in front of him to tell him that Chase found Betty, Wheeler is initially looking for a reason to take his license away, just because. But, fortunately, when Pike tells him what's going on, he not only gets in the car with him but gives him permission to give it the gas. Later, after walking into the empty sheriff's office and answering the phone calls while Parker is out, Wheeler is about ready to talk crap about Wilma when Parker says he doesn't know where she is, but Parker tells him to shut it. Wheeler then quickly runs out of the building, knowing it's best not to press the issue with him. During the third act, when the Gila monster reappears and is rampaging across the countryside, Parker personally takes Wheeler to a spot where he can see the monster. From then on, he backs off of criticizing Parker, and even joins in on the attempt to destroy the monster, before Chase has to take care of it. During the Christmas party at the end, Wheeler is now decent enough to offer to pay for the repairs to Chase's car, which got blown up along with the monster.

In her one scene at their home, Wheeler's wife, Vera (Julie McCullough), proves to be a drunken floozy who immediately comes on to Parker, offering him a Bloody Mary. It's also clear that her and Wheeler's relationship is anything but steady, with Vera constantly putting him down. When he describes the town's hot-rodders as, "Obsessed with speed, loud music, and living lives with no direction or purpose," Vera comments, "And Norbert thinks that's a bad thing. Tsk, tsk, and tsk." Furthermore, when Wheeler suggests that Betty may have been kidnapped because, "People know I have money," Vera retorts, "He's got it. He don't spend it, but he's got it." Wheeler repeatedly tells her to be quiet, and is especially aggravated with her flirting with Parker, not that she cares.

While Chase's employer, Mr. Compton, didn't have much of a role or character in the original, that's not the case here. Sherwood Compton (Rich Komenich) is portrayed as a gruff and hard-drinking, but likable, old guy. In fact, he's sort of this film's Old Man Harris equivalent. Before he first appears onscreen, you learn he's at the sheriff's office, having been found in a drunken stupor on top of his car, and is now sobering up. He's also a veteran of three wars and, as such, is prepared for any kind of threat that comes his way, be they Communists, aliens, or even giant Gila monsters. He shows Chase that he has a massive stockpile of weapons hidden in his garage, telling him, "Three wars I've been in, Chase: WWI, WWII, and Korea. I seen stuff nobody should see. Preparation, Chase. That's what saves lives... I don't care if it's Martians or Commies. I'm gonna be ready." Said stockpile proves valuable when Chase, Sheriff Parker, and everyone else take on the Gila monster, although Compton is initially unwilling to let them use it. Parker, however, tells him that he could get fifty years in prison for said stockpile, despite Compton trying to use the Constitution as an excuse. During the third act, when the Gila monster breaks its way out of its sealed up lair and heads towards town, Compton, who's very accepting of the idea of it (as well as aliens, as he even told Lisa earlier that Chase and Parker were going off to battle Martians), allows them to take everything they can and even joins in on the action, wielding a big, ammo-fed gun like he's Rambo. When he first sees the monster, he comments, "Next time somebody tells me pigs can fly... damn, I'm gonna believe 'em!", and laughs and yells like a maniac while firing on it, screaming for it to get out of there. When it turns and goes in a different direction, Compton then growls, "And don't you think about comin' back!"

While he hadn't acted since the early 60's by this point, and he does nothing but spew exposition, it's still cool to see Don Sullivan in his brief cameo as Linden Dawes, the expert whom Parker brings in to examine the substance he finds at the Swenson farm. Dawes tells Parker that it's Gila monster saliva, and while he doesn't really believe him when he suggests said Gila monster is the size of a car or bigger, Dawes does say that such a creature would be cause for concern. He also tells him what kind of environment Gila monsters can be found in, as well as that, at this particular time of year, they're searching for food before they return to their nests to hibernate. He adds that said nests are often something akin to a cave, where they'll be safe from the cold, which gives Parker the idea of investigating the one in the quarry. Dawes then asks Parker why he's suddenly so interested in lizards, and he answers, "Oh, I'm thinkin' about gettin' some house pets." This would prove to be Sullivan's last film appearance, as he died six years later.

Like the original, Chase's friends aren't all that memorable, save for maybe Pike (Chase Adams), whom he beats during a drag-race at the beginning, and who takes Mayor Wheeler to the hospital after Betty has been found. He also acts like a gentleman after Waco Bob is really awful towards Elsa (Callie-Nycole Burk), a Danish exchange student who works at a fast food place. Speaking of Elsa, she's the closest the movie comes to how Lisa was portrayed as an exchange student in the original. She doesn't care for 

Waco acting sleazy towards her, and when he mistakes her accent for French (another allusion to the original), she says, in Danish, "Oh, look... your thing must be the size of a herring's." Betty Wheeler (Adrienne Atkins) and Don Fielding (Brian Patrick McCulley), the Gila monster's first victims, have a bit more to them than Pat Wheeler and Liz Humphries in the original. For one, they actually get some dialogue, and there's a switch around, as Betty is the one with the overbearing father. Moreover, as was merely 

suggested in the original, she does want to elope with Don, eager to get away from her crappy life in town. And while Don gets eaten, Betty, after seemingly suffering the same fate, is found alive by Chase during the second act. However, this proves dramatically pointless, as she never regains consciousness onscreen, even though it seems like she's going to pull through. Chase's mother, Dorothy (Ellen Kingston), and Missy (Jenna Ruiz), don't have much more to them than they did in the original. In fact, aside from coming off like a really kind mother, 

Dorothy has no standout moment whatsoever here. And save for when she tries to show Chase that she can walk in her leg braces and Chase, at the end, sings The Mushroom Song to her, the same goes for Missy. This time, however, Dorothy does get caught up in the Gila monster's climactic rampage, rather than disappearing before the third act, and they do specify that Missy's leg problems are a result of polio. On the flip side, though, the reason for Chase's father not being in the picture is never mentioned like before.

There are a few random townspeople who are memorable for one reason or another. After the scene at the fast food joint, Waco plays Chicken with Lars (Robert Hay Smith) and Clete (Micheal Price), two old guys who are driving around in an old pickup truck, drinking whiskey. After Waco nearly causes them to crash, Clete (who's an Irishman), grumbles, "Damn drunk drivers. They should keep 'em off the road." They're then confronted by the Gila monster, and it chases them down the road, as Clete drives in

reverse. Rather than eat them, it ends up killing them by crushing and destroying their truck. Karl (James Wolford Hardin) and Maybelle Swenson (Judy Joseph Crippin) also have an encounter with the monster when it wanders onto their farm. Karl, who's about as stereotypical country as you can be in those overalls, is nearly killed when it attacks him while he's in the barn, but he actually survives falling out of an open window up in the loft to the ground below. Maybelle (who randomly calls her own husband "Mr.

Swenson"), however, isn't so lucky, as it gobbles her up when she goes outside to investigate. And like in the original, the monster destroys a train, but here, we get a little bit with the engineer (John Bender) and fireman (Ron Mackay). The engineer tells the fireman about how he recently came home to find his wife nearly being talked into shilling out $800 for some aluminum siding, and that he immediately nipped it in the bud. When they then see the monster on the tracks ahead of them, he initially thinks it's a local man's

escaped bull, but they soon get close enough to see what it is and try to dive off the train. However, the very fat fireman literally gets stuck in the open doorway, causing the two of them to die when the train hits the monster and explodes.

I shouldn't be surprised, given that we're talking about a very low budget (according to IMDB, it was only like $900,000), made-for-TV monster movie by Jim Wynorski, but, holy hell, does Gila! have "cheap" written all over it. As with Return of the Killer Shrews, it has that shot on digital aesthetic that I always hate, though thankfully it doesn't come off as amateurish as Attack. However, I will say that I think Return is more visually appealing, as the color-grading there was fairly rich and bright, while this has a more desaturated look (in some shots, it looks as 

though the color has been drained out of the image), probably to enhance the feeling of it being set in the Midwest in the winter. Also like Return, while it was filmed on location, there are shots where it seems as though the actors are standing in front of a green screen, even when there's no special effects work around them. An example is one shot of Chase and Parker running out of the cave and into the quarry, which looks like there's a really bad, traveling green screen behind them. However, where it's plan as day 

is in the many driving scenes, especially when there's a close-up on a character's face up against a window. And the cheap digital aesthetic makes the already crappy visual effects come off all the worse. Moreover, there are some glaring continuity errors regarding the environments in some scenes, which I'll get to, and when Parker, Wilma, or anyone else pull their guns, they look like plastic toys! And while fair for the most part, the cinematography can get a little

too handheld and shaky in certain scenes, with things sometimes being off-center. Direction-wise, Wynorski does have a few standout moments, such as a memorable shot between Lisa's legs when Chase and Waco are about to race at the beginning, and a shot of the approaching Gila monster reflected in a hubcap. Also, the race scenes, well nothing amazing, are edited fairly well, as is the movie as a whole, making it watchable, if nothing else.

While the original movie took place in more of a little rural community than an actual town, this one is set in and around a small city, which was Franklin, Indiana in reality (since the patrol cars are marked as Johnson County, where Franklin is located, and the movie itself never says otherwise, let's just assume that it is actually set there). While it still has the air of a fairly quiet place where not much happens for the most part, this place might as well be Metropolis compared to the original, as we get shots of the town square, the movie theater, and most notably, the distinctive 

Johnson County Courthouse, which serves as the sheriff's office exterior and is definitely more impressive than that tiny little shack Sheriff Jeff had. However, a lot of the movie still takes place in the rural areas around the city, like isolated county roads, including one where the kids drag-race at the beginning; the little fast food place they visit shortly afterward; the farms, railroad tracks, and wide open countryside where the Gila monster does a lot of its rampaging; the eerie, desolate area of Wilson's Wash,

where Betty and Don encounter the monster; and the large quarry with the cave that serves as both the illegal chemical dumping ground and the monster's lair. We get to see a little bit of the cave's interior, and because it's so big, empty, and barren, it feels more like an abandoned mine than a natural cave. Like in the original, Chase lives with his family in a small farmhouse, although they're clearly more well off here, as it's where they hold the Christmas party at the

end, and they're even able to afford a horse, which Missy rides in one scene. Mayor Wheeler, again, lives in a very large, fancy home outside of town, and while Compton's garage isn't that much different than the original, it's still slightly bigger, feels a bit more like an actual garage, and, notably, has his weapons stockpile in the back. And finally, though it acts as little more than a window dressing for the story, the movie's being set during the winter and at Christmastime does make it stand out somewhat.

What's interesting is how, even though the movie is set in the 50's, it doesn't shove it in your face as much as you might expect. We're never told the exact year, but since Compton mentions having served in the Korean War, it's obviously in the mid-to-late 50's, and even possibly 1959, when the original was released. Regardless, we do have classic hot-rods and cars, clothes and hairstyles of the period, an old-fashioned fast food restaurant akin to a Sonic, and some occasional slang from the era, but it's all employed in a fairly natural manner, rather than feeling like the 

film is constantly reminding you that it's the 50's. What's more, the young people, especially Chase and Lisa, are much more amorous in their kissing and flirting than you would ever see in a movie from the era, but which we know is the case in reality, and that's to say nothing of the scene where Carla sings a sensual song to try to seduce Chase. In fact, other than a newscast that Chase hears on the radio about how, according to the government, there's no danger of fallout from the latest Soviet tests, the most 

overtly 50's element is the music, both the score, which has some unmistakable old-fashioned sci-fi sounds to it, and the plethora of rock and roll songs on both the soundtrack and in the film itself. Given that it's Wynorski, it's really amazing that this didn't turn into a full-on parody of the time period and the types of monster flicks that proliferated it. It seems like it is going to be that at first, given the exclamation mark in the title, and how the opening credits are done in a very colorful, tongue-in-cheek 

manner, with the title itself coming out of a freeze-frame of Betty's screaming face (specifically, it comes out of her mouth), the credits colored in a mixture of radioactive green and yellow, and up against a background pattern akin to the Gila monster's scales, all while Little Bitty Pretty One by Bobby Day and the Satellites plays on the soundtrack. But then, the movie starts and it's not nearly that pronounced.

Indeed, the film's overall tone is not as jokey, smarmy, or low-brow as in the two Killer Shrews follow-ups. It's not dead serious, that's for sure, and has a tongue-in-cheek, campy air about it, but the portrayals and personalities of the main characters, as heightened as they can be, don't quite tip over into feeling like caricatures. It's a different story with some of the side and peripheral characters, as I mentioned earlier, like Wilma, but the actors playing Chase, Lisa, Waco Bob, Carla, Sheriff Parker, and Mayor Wheeler feel sincere in their 

performances. Even Compton, for the most part, doesn't come off as over-the-top as you would expect someone like him to be, even when he's talking about Martians and his right to stockpile weapons. Now, that said, there are moments that do come feel off-kilter and akin to a spoof, like the scene with the two guys who dump the chemicals in the quarry's cave, particularly in how they lay out exactly what they're doing in their dialogue, and Elsa insulting the ignorant Waco's family jewels to his face in Danish. There are plenty others during the second half, like 

the scene where Chase and Parker first consider the idea of the culprit being a giant mutant monster, with completely straight faces and not considering how ludicrous the idea is (I also find the angle of that close-up on Chase to be kind of odd). When they later discuss finding and killing the monster, Chase asks Parker if he has a plan and he admits, in a deadpan manner, that he doesn't. After they drive out to the cave, Chase learns that Parker isn't sure if it really is the monster's lair, leading to this exchange between 

them: "So, in effect, we're guessing." "We're investigating." Chase also expects them to stake out and wait for the monster to emerge, and isn't too happy when Parker says that they're going in after it. But, he reluctantly goes to get the nitro, per his orders, and they walk in, while Parker admits he'd rather be anywhere else. As I said, when many of the townspeople confront the monster during the climax, Compton is wielding his belt-fed weapon as if he's

Rambo. Moreover, when we first see him with it at the garage beforehand, he's framed in front of a picture of the American flag, remarking, "Let's go lizard huntin'!", not to mention what he yells when they fire at the monster (that's about the closest it comes to becoming a parody). And when everyone's loading up, you hear When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again playing on the soundtrack. But those are just individual moments in a movie that manages to avoid being a send-up but isn't totally straight-laced, either.

If there's a downside to the tone and approach that Wynorski goes for with Gila!, it's that it doesn't allow for the original's instances of surprisingly creepy atmosphere. Not that you would expect either this or The Giant Gila Monster to actually be scary, but as I said in my review of it, I've always liked how it had that eerie feeling it derived from the idea of something lurking in the woods, enhanced by some of the spooky nighttime scenes and the music score. Here, you do have moments where Chase is spooked while scanning the woods, and after he and Parker

find the spot where Wilma was gobbled up, they look around the surrounding countryside, but it's not as spooky as the original. Granted, you shouldn't expect someone like Wynorski to attempt such a thing anyway, but I really wish we could get a modern version of The Giant Gila Monster that could expand on that, likely, accidental aspect.

Given that he grew up in this very era, and began his career working for Roger Corman, it doesn't surprise me at all that Wynorski seems to have an affection for 50's B-movies like The Giant Gila Monster. In fact, this is a very faithful remake. Besides the identical plot, time period, and a number of the same character names, it also hits many of the same beats. It opens with two teens getting attacked by the monster while they're parked by themselves, listening to music; one of them is Wheeler's child, and after they disappear, 

he's constantly on the sheriff's back about learning what happened; the sheriff enlists Chase Winstead and his friends to help him look for the missing couple; Chase lives with his mother and younger sister, and scrapes together enough money to buy some leg braces for the latter; Missy, at one point, tries to walk across a room towards Chase but isn't successful; the monster is briefly glimpsed crossing the road; it destroys a train; and it's defeated when Chase drives a car filled with canisters of nitro 

glycerine at it. And besides the original movie's star having a cameo, at the end, Chase sings The Mushroom Song and, not only is everyone else into it but, they start singing along with him. There's even a slight nod to a cliche that was seen a lot in the 50's: somebody coming up behind someone else and startling them by putting their hand on their shoulder, which Wilma does to Chase at one point. And Pike, at one point, flat-out asks if the monster was created by the traditional radiation. Like I said in the intro, as somebody who does genuinely like the original, I appreciate that this remake has fun with it, the time period, and its old-fashioned conventions, rather than just mocking it.

Unfortunately, something else that Gila! has in common with the original is that the Gila monster itself is one of its least successful elements. To be fair, it is portrayed as more vicious and actively dangerous, often running after its prey, as opposed to the sluggish and indifferent-looking original. It also has more of a natural motive: instead of just randomly killing people, you learn that it's eating as much food as it can because it's going to hibernate soon, and that it may be intending to lay eggs as well (which turns 

out to be true, as a much smaller but still big Gila monster appears outside the Winstead home at the very end). That said, there are moments where it ends up killing people but doesn't eat them, seemingly because it killed them in a way that either left them unappetizing or hard to get to: spraying them with the chemicals, crushing them in a vehicle, etc. And, if nothing, it does look like an actual Gila monster, at least in terms of the color patterns, whereas the original used a beaded lizard. But that doesn't change the fact that, in the end, it's just a generic movie 

monster. Unlike the vague explanation that was only posited as a suggestion for its origin in the original, you get a definitive one here, with the illegal dumping of toxic chemicals in a cave in the quarry near town. But, while I do think it could've been better handled in the original, I prefer how there was no real answer before, whereas this is so typical. There are also some abnormally big crickets in that cave, another byproduct of the dumping and which, it's suggested, the monster feeds on when it's not foraging for food

outside, further contributing to its mutation.  Okay addition, but it's still really generic. And finally, there's the horrendous CGI used to create the monster, which is something that hurts the movie overall. Like Return of the Killer Shrews, it's that really bad, floaty, Sci-Fi Channel original movie kind of CGI that makes the monster feel like it's not even in the same plane of existence as the actors, let alone the same scene or setting. That's why I don't watch Sci-Fi

originals if I can help it, as bad digital work like this immediately turns me off and takes me out of it. Yeah, the special effects in the original film certainly weren't great either, and you never buy that the Gila monster is as big as it's made out to be, but those effects have a charm to them that this crap certainly doesn't. I know it was a tiny budget, and that this kind of stuff is par for the course when Wynorski is at the helm, especially in the later parts of his career, but there's only so much leeway I can give it.

The monster itself is far from the only example of bad digital effect here. There are several egregious CG explosions, such as the monster destroying the train and Chase's nitro-filled car hitting it, and the same goes for the effects of the monster eating people. Probably the worst effect of all is early on, when the two guys dumping the chemicals in the cave get sprayed in the face with it, and the stuff proceeds to melt and dissolve them. What could've been a cool-looking makeup effect, with the one guy ripping his melting flesh off to reveal his skull, is instead ruined 

by the crappy digital work. (And by the way, don't go into this expecting a lot of gore, because you're not getting it.) And there's a lot of really bad digital smoke and gas effects, and fake gun muzzle flashes, throughout the movie as well. Ironically, as awful as the digital giant crickets could've been, they're kept almost entirely offscreen, so we don't have to endure looking at them like we do the monster.

The original film is hardly the most exciting, action-packed thing you're likely to ever see, but another major problem with Gila! is that it's a pretty slow movie, despite being only 91 minutes long, and has long sections where not much happens. And even when something does happen, the shitty CGI often makes it hard to enjoy. Like the original, we get our first scene with the Gila monster immediately, when it comes upon Don Fielding and Betty Wheeler while they're making out at Wilson's Wash. They hear it 

snarling and rustling through the forest nearby, then see it coming towards them. Don starts the car and attempts to drive away, flying down the gravel road, with the monster in hot pursuit. They manage to get pretty far, when the car suddenly dies and Don is unable to start it back up. He tells Betty that they need to make a run for it and gets out of the car, when the monster catches up to them. Don has enough time to say, "Shit," before the monster grabs him in its jaws and swallows him whole. Betty then gets out of the 

car and tries to make a run for it, when she gets cornered and screams, leading into the opening credits. After that, we get a pair of rather unimpressive drag-racing scenes, first between Chase and Pike, then between him and Waco Bill, both of which he wins. Following that is the scene where the two guys arrive at the cave in the quarry and roll in a drum of toxic chemicals, before carrying it over to the pile in the back (on the way, you get a glimpse of one of the large crickets crawling up the wall in an overhead shot looking down on the guys). Just as 

they mention what would happen if someone learned what they're doing, the monster stomps towards them. Rather than eating them, it turns around and smashes the drum between them with its tail, spraying them with the corrosive chemicals and leading into that awful-looking melting effect. It then wanders out of the cave and towards a nearby country road, where it comes upon Lars and Clete after Waco has played Chicken with them. It stomps towards their pickup truck, which Clete throws in reverse, and chases them down the road for a few miles. It proves fast enough 

to keep up with them, to the point where it's almost on top of them, and ends up smashing the truck's roof in with its head, then puts its weight on the hood and causes the engine to explode, killing them both. And that night, there's a shot of the monster heading back inside its cave (it has a day-for-night look to it, I might add).

You do later see the monster emerging from the cave in the middle of the daytime, but the next significant scene is the fight between Chase and Waco at Compton's garage. It's not much of a fight, just the two of them trading punches for a little bit, when Waco grabs a nearby, discarded liquor bottle. Before he can use it as a weapon, Sheriff Parker shows up and shoots it out of his hand. Following that, the monster next appears at the Swenson farm. Karl and Maybelle are having breakfast, when they hear the

sound of their cow mooing right outside, seemingly indicating that she got loose. Looking out the window but not seeing anything, Karl decides to go investigate, thinking it may be some pesky coyotes. Walking outside with his double-barrel shotgun, he heads towards the very large barn in the back and opens the door. Scanning the interior, he climbs up to the loft, and seems to think the "coyotes" are up there, as he yells for them. Outside, the monster approaches the barn, the inside of which begins to shake from it.

Karl points at the wall across from him, when the monster's big head smashes through it. Karl fires his gun, but not only does it not injure the monster, but its flailing around in the hole causes Karl to lose his balance and fall out a window behind him. Out on the house's front doorstep, Maybelle, hearing the commotion, grabs a nearby pitchfork and walks down the steps, calling for Karl. She then comes face-to-face with the monster, which gobbles her up before she can make a move, then spits out the blood-covered pitchfork. Following that, we got a long 

section where Chase, Lisa, and Parker find Don's car and Betty's purse at the wash; Parker goes out to the Swenson farm, where he finds and takes a sample of the green substance that later turns out to be the monster's saliva, as well as Karl lying on the ground; Chase drives the wrecker out to the wash and glimpses the monster crossing the road behind him on the way; and Wilma heads out to the farm, when a car goes across the road in front of her and crashes into a pole. After checking on the driver, who's badly injured and mumbling about something coming after 

him, she goes to call for help, while, back at the wash, Chase hears something in the bushes nearby. He goes to investigate and finds Betty lying on the ground, bloody and unconscious, but alive. He then races her to the doctor ("Doc Loomis," by the way), using the wrecker's two-way radio to inform Compton of this.

At the scene of the accident, Wilma continues trying to contact Parker, but can't get through to him. That's when we see the monster's reflection in one of her patrol car's hubcaps, as it stalks towards her. She then hears it stomping and growling, and turns around to see it. Drawing her gun, she empties her entire payload into the monster, but it does nothing but cause it to slightly recoil each time. Dropping the gun, Wilma runs for it, but the monster grabs her with its tongue (at least, I think that's what's supposed to have 

happened; the CGI is so bad that it kind of looks like the monster just inhales her), then chews her up, and swallows her. It lets out a satisfied roar once it's done. Back at the Swenson farm, where the ambulance that he called for Karl has arrived, Parker gets a call from Chase about finding Betty and having taken her to the doctor. Chase also informs him of Wilma's attempts to inform him about the crash, as he got some of her message, and that he's on his way to the site. (Not only do we not see him get the message, but why he got it and not Parker is never made clear. They  also 

seem to suggest that the monster is somehow messing with the radio, as Parker says he's been trying to contact Wilma for half an hour, just as she was trying to contact him, but that's not explained either.) Not long afterward, he arrives there, only to find no sign of Wilma, and learns that the man inside the crash car is dead. Parker then shows up and, after Chase tells him what he's found, he discovers Wilma's gun and sees that all six rounds have been fired (she fired like eight or nine, I counted). That's when Chase tells him about his glimpsing the Gila monster, and suggests that a giant, mutant creature of some sort could be to blame for what's happening.

The next scene with the monster comes when it destroys the train that rolls into town. As I alluded to earlier, there's a massive continuity error here, as when they first see it on the tracks ahead of them, they're going through a heavily-wooded area, but in the wide shots where it starts down the track towards them, stands in their path, and they hit it, they're in a wide open piece of countryside where the only trees are in the background. After the train crashes into it and explodes, sending a big plume of smoke up into the sky, the monster continues on down the track (and

again, the environment changes in-between shots). Following Parker's scene with Linden Dawes, he and Chase meet up at Compton's to discuss what to do. Parker figures where the monster is probably nesting and, taking a bunch of Compton's weapons stockpile, including some canisters of nitro glycerine, they head out to the quarry. Parking in front of the cave, they arm up and head inside, with Parker telling Chase to leave the nitro right by the entrance. (He says it's so they don't blow themselves up by running with it, but they could've easily left it in the car.) It doesn't take

them long to find the barrels of chemicals in the back of the cave, which have a number of the large crickets crawling over them (again, it's so dimly lit that you can barely see them). Chase inspects the barrel that melted the two guys earlier, when they hear and then see the monster, as it's snoozing away nearby. Chase shushes Parker, only for him to then make a noise that wakes the monster up! There's a close-up of its angry eye, and it then gets up and starts after them. They run outside and, when they're far enough away from the

entrance, they stand there, with their guns pointed at it. When the monster emerges, they fire at the nitro, hitting it and sparking a big explosion, sealing up the entrance. As the dust clears and settles, they breathe a sigh of relief over their apparent victory. But then, no sooner do they head out, with Chase heading back to the garage, then the monster smashes its way through the rubble and stomps off into the countryside.

Following a detour back into the ongoing drama between Chase and Waco, with Carla and Lisa getting caught up in it as well, we get back to the monster. An old woman named Shirley goes to take her dog for a walk, when she sees the monster making its way through a nearby field. She calls and tells Parker about it, and on his way out, he runs into Mayor Wheeler. Deciding to get him off his back once and for all, Parker has him come with him. Once they find it, along with the remains of some cattle it apparently devoured, Parker next takes Wheeler to Compton's to

load up. Chase happens to be there, along with Lisa, Pike, Elsa, and a couple of other of their friends. Parker and Wheeler tell them what's up, with Parker proceeding to deputize all of them. Compton goes to fetch the weapons, grabbing his own rifle, and everybody else grabs a weapon as well. Next, they're in a convoy of cars, heading to intercept the monster, which is barreling down the road leading into town. They all park atop a hill overlooking part of the wash, and it isn't long before they see it coming (even though it was traveling down a paved road in the 

previous shots of it). When it gets close enough, attempting to go through a barbwire fence, they all open fire on it at the same time. Rather than hurt it, the onslaught just annoys it, but they do manage to turn it away from its current direction. Though most of them initially celebrate this victory, Lisa realizes it's heading towards the Winstead farm. Knowing his mother and sister are in danger, Chase jumps into his car, accompanied by Lisa, and they head to go get 

more of the nitro, while Parker tries to get word to the farm. Unfortunately, Dorothy and Missy happen to be outside, with Dorothy helping Missy walk in her braces, when the phone call comes through. Chase and Lisa stop at the garage, grab the rest of the nitro, and speed off towards the farm.

There, Dorothy and Missy see the monster approaching from off in the distance. They're about to run back into the house, when Chase and Lisa arrive. The two of them hop out and Chase says they need to get out of there using the family car, which is parked nearby. But, after everyone piles into it, Lisa tries to start it but the engine won't turn over. In the distance, the monster knocks over a wind-vane, when Waco suddenly pulls up in the driveway and offers to help. Chase has the girls get into his car and he drives them to safety, while Chase stays behind to face the

monster. As it quickly approaches, Chase puts the nitro on the front of his car, then gets in and races right at the monster. When he gets close, he tumbles out of the car at the last minute, as the vehicle heads on towards the monster. It stops and hisses at the car, when it rams into its front left foot. The nitro instantly combusts, blowing the monster to smithereens and sending burning chunks of meat raining down around Chase. As he watches the fire, he comments, "Well,

there go my insurance rates." The movie then ends with the Christmas party at the Winstead farm, with everyone singing along to Chase playing The Mushroom Song, but the last shot shows another, smaller mutant Gila monster roaming through the front yard, as it starts to snow.

The music score was done by Al and Jon Kaplan, who'd worked with Jim Wynorski before on Dinocroc vs. Supergator and Piranhaconda (as well as The Hills Have Thighs), and have since go on to contribute some songs to the Terrifier films. For Gila!, they leaned into the 50's B-movie tradition, creating a number of pieces that incorporate a theremin-like sound, as well as classic bombastic-sounding, monster music, and also coming up with some era-appropriate rock and roll music for scenes like during the climax. It's not the most memorable score by a long shot, and like me, you'll probably forget it as soon as the movie's over, but it's not an irritating or obnoxious one, either. Far more memorable is the soundtrack and all of its classic songs, like the aforementioned Little Bitty Pretty One, Rock-A-Beatin Boogie by Bill Haley and the Comets, Little Black Book by Jimmy Dean, and Rockin Robin by Bobby Day (which plays out the opening credits), just to name but a few. There are also some songs that are played at the dance, the most memorable of which is Fever, a smooth jazz tune which Carla provocatively sings and performs to try to seduce Chase. It's as if this was the closest Wynorski could get to putting in some sort of sex appeal. Still, it's actually not a bad song, and Christina DeRosa sings it quite well. There's also Cat Fight, which the band, MG and The Gas City There, start playing when Carla and Lisa get into a fight over it. And, like I said, during the final scene, Chase sings The Mushroom Song from the original movie, which is guaranteed to make any fan smile.

It's not surprising that Gila! is a really obscure movie, as it was kind of fated to become one, given who made it, and for television, no less. And there are a number of reasons why it's unlikely to become a cult classic: a bunch of one-dimensional characters, an overwhelming feeling of cheapness about it, right down to how it looks, really bad CGI and digital effects, a slew of continuity problems, and a story that moves rather slowly and tends to focus on plot-points that ultimately prove pointless. But, at the same time, it does have fun with, as well as affection for, its source material, with many of the character names being retained, the 50's setting, the incorporation of vehicles, clothing, hairstyles, and music from the period, and it is quite faithful to the original. What's more, there are some likable and memorable people amid the cast, it manages to come off as a bit off-kilter without becoming a full-on parody, and above all else, it doesn't flat-out mock the original. It could've been done a lot better, but given that I was expecting much, much worse, I can't say that I'm coming away from this angry. If you're like me and have a soft spot for The Giant Gila Monster, or if you just love Jim Wynorski, you should check out Gila! at least once. That'll probably be the only time you will watch it, though.