Traveling through the Southwestern United States with his daughter, paleontologist/anthropologist Dr. Mercer Boley takes a gander at intriguing bones recently excavated in Arizona by a local coot. The doctor may call the bones bullshit right to Uncle Willy’s face but an attack on the shed where the remains are stashed necessitate a change of opinion. The skeletal remains force a colony of actual friggin’ gargoyles to make their presence known, hoping to grab the proof and go on existing outside of the purview of mankind. Uncle Willy doesn’t survive the attack but the father and daughter manage to escape the burning shed. Papa grabs the skull before making his exit and this gets them winged-demons hot on their tails. The police think a group of dirt bikers are behind the damage to Uncle Willy’s shack but the doctor and his daughter know that ain’t true. The slow motion creatures manage to get their claws on the skull but one of them gets hit by truck as they flee. Now the doctor has a fresh corpse to examine as opposed to some bleached old bones. The daughter confides in lead biker (an almost unrecognizable Scott Glenn) but he dismisses her claims of reptile humanoids stalking the land. Eventually the daughter gets abducted by the beasties and learns why they’re raising such a big stink about staying in the shadows. Her panicking papa pleads for help from the cops and the dirt bikers. The gargoyle costumes are pretty damn fun (legendary effects man Stan Winston had a hand in ‘em) and Bernie Casey adds a certain level of gravitas as the leader of the gargoyle clan which is even more impressive when you realize they overdubbed his voice with a different actor’s. The damn thing does not shy away from showcasing its monsters, which puts it a step above other TV terrors of the time. It’s still a little lame but what are you gonna do… there’s also a gargoyle on horseback and how the fuck do you expect me to hate something that throws that at me?
No comments:
Post a Comment