Mant and Mosquito!

I previously posted about 13 Ghosts, the William Castle haunted house film in which the audience was given "ghost viewer" glasses (a variation of red/blue anaglyph 3-D glasses) to allow them to choose to either hide or reveal the on-screen ghosts.

The use of in-theater gimmicks to allow the audience to interact with what was happening on the screen was director William Castle's trademark, but he didn't have a monopoly on such ballyhoo.

Lawrence Woolsey's 1962 giant-bug film "Mant" was enhanced with gimmicky special effects, including vibrating seats, fireworks, and the in-theater appearance of the half-man/half-ant antagonist (achieved via a costumed actor).

Woolsey was a William Castle imitator who, like Castle, often appeared in the trailers for his films, to speak directly to the audience about his latest screen sensation.

For the Mant trailer, Woolsey speculates about the effects radiation might have on ants, and man.

The resulting mutation would be part man, part ant (hence, "Mant")...ALL TERROR!


Mant opens with stock footage of a nuclear explosion...

...before turning to the office of dentist Dr. Grabow (William Schallert) who is explaining to his patient Bill and Bill's wife, Carole (Cathy Moriarty) , that an ant must have bitten him while he was getting his teeth X-rayed.

How else to explain this most unusual side-effect?

In a situation reminiscent of 1958's The Fly, Bill must deal with the increasingly unbearable effects as first his head, then arms, followed by the rest of his body, slowly mutates into those of an ant.

But at least The Fly stayed the size of a man. As Mant transforms, he continues to grow at an enormous scale, until he's finally large enough to scale a skyscraper ala King Kong.

In a scene that may remind you of Castle's The Tingler, the giant ant runs loose through a movie theater... OUR movie theater... bursting right through the screen!

And then there's Mosquito!, another giant bug film, this one filmed in "Three Dimensional ProjectOVision" and featuring an in-theater gimmick as well.

Detail from the one-sheet for Mosquito!

Mosquito! even opens with the same nuclear bomb stock footage as Mant!

After the sensational opening titles have rolled, we meet Skeeter (Robert Dickman) and lady veterinarian Dr. Latimer (Suzanne Hunt), who are investigating the mysterious deaths of several sheep that have been found drained of blood and with large puncture wounds in the back of their necks.

Dr. Latimer speculates that the military's underground radiation tests may have something to do with it... but what? While driving to the army base to investigate, they hear a loud humming noise above their car...

It's a giant mosquito!

The mosquito lands on top of the car, piercing it with its giant needle before sucking the life out of poor Skeeter.

Dr. Latimer makes it to the base where Lt. Bradley (Barry Jenner) and Corky (Thom Adcox) call in the military for support.

But the mosquito isn't beaten yet...

Here's a rare photograph (circa early 1960s) of the in-theater gimmick that accompanied the exciting climax... a large mosquito prop that swooped over the audience, suspended from the theater ceiling.

Unfortunately neither Mant nor Mosquito! have ever been made available on DVD or VHS, but you can see clips of Mant in Joe Dante's fictionalized account of the Cuban Missile Crisis Matinee (1992) while scenes from Mosquito! can be seen in the slasher-film Popcorn (1991).

The Shadow Man (The New Twilight Zone, 1985)

While I never felt The (New) Twilight Zone (1985-1989) ever reached the heights of the original, I watched it faithfully each week, and some episodes stayed with me into adulthood.

"The Shadow Man", for example. Directed by Joe Dante (Gremlins, Matinee), its a short and shivery little spook yarn in the tradition of those classic tales told 'round the campfire (like the ones I previously posted here.)

Despite being thirteen-years old, Danny Hayes (Jonathan Ward) is still afraid of the dark and can't go to sleep without the lights on.

When his Mom finally insists on turning off his bedroom lights after scolding him for clinging to childhood fears he should have long outgrown, we find those fears aren't entirely unfounded.

SPOILERS BELOW!

Something rises up from under his bed: the tall, thin silhouette of a mysterious figure. Danny is terrified by the ominous spectre towering at the edge of his bed, who introduces himself in a raspy voice:

"I am the Shadow Man, and I will never harm the person under whose bed I live."

With that, he turns and hovers quietly out the bedroom window.

Danny is so frightened he abandons his room for the living room couch. We'll learn later, when he relays the story to his best friend Peter (Michael Rich), that he heard the ominous Shadow Man return to his room just before dawn.

Peter isn't convinced Danny's "Shadow Man" is anything more than the product of an overactive imagination. But at school that morning, there is talk of a dark, thin stranger that attacked two kids in the park overnight.

The following evening, the thing appears again, rising up from beneath his bed, and reciting:

"I am the Shadow Man, and I will never harm the person under whose bed I live."

..before slipping eerily out the window. This time Danny is armed with a camera to capture the evidence, but the flash fails and his photos are useless.

A week passes and the dark stranger who has continued to terrorize children that dare to be caught outside after dark has become the talk of the school.

At this point, Danny is starting to get accustomed to his unusual roommate, even daring to ask him one evening, as he makes his way out the window, "You'll never hurt me, right? Promise?"

To which the Shadow Man repeats:

"I am the Shadow Man, and I will never harm the person under whose bed I live."

When the bully Eric (Jason Presson), picks a fight with him at the local burger joint, Danny, hoping to impress a girl and perhaps put an end to Eric once and for all, challenges Eric to fight him later that night, at the park where the murdering maniac has been seen the most.

Eric, not wanting to look cowardly in front of the other kids, agrees.

That night Danny waits until the Shadow Man makes his nightly exit, then heads to the park for his rendezvous.

Eric arrives ready to fight, but Danny stalls until the Shadow Man arrives, appearing out of the darkness behind him.

Eric runs for his life and yells for Danny to do the same.

Danny, confident that he won't be harmed, dawdles in the park at the foot of the Shadow Man, even encouraging him to pursue Eric, who shouldn't be too hard to catch.

But instead, the looming Shadow Man seizes him by the neck and lifts him into the air. Gasping in fear, Danny protests: "You said you'd never hurt me! You promised!"

The Shadow Man hisses a chilling response:

"I am the Shadow Man, and I will never harm the person under whose bed I live...

...but I am a Shadow Man from under someone else's bed!"

The Shadow Man can be found on The (New) Twilight Zone Season 1 DVD.