Shockwave Cinema on UPN doesn't offer the old stuff. Instead, it's showing new films with their roots in the old stuff. Campy but well made, they not only entertain but do it at an hour early enough for us older people to stay awake through the entire movie.
The program's "hostess" is a suitable update for this modern take on an old premise. She's a cgi-generated futuristic biker chick with a body like Barbie and the attitude of Stone Cold Steve Austin. She runs the movies out of a bootleg TV station -- in the year 2066 government runs all the media.
The first offering I caught was a neat little tribute to the teen angst monster flicks of the 50's called, appropriately enough, Monster! Its opening scenes were a thinly disguised take on The Blob, and introduced Lloyd Reeves and the little town of New Purgatory, CA. Forty years earlier, Lloyd starred in six monster movies, all filmed in New Purgatory. Now, he's in the looney bin for insisting a development company is unearthing the unearthly by excavating the local quarry where the monster lies buried.
Lloyd's grandson, Travis, springs him, but not for long. Two of the local teens get turned into sushi, and Lloyd is discovered in the vicinity with an ax. He's conveyed to the local jail and Travis has to save the town or risk having the monster escape to terrorize the world.
It seems that every three years, when New Purgatory celebrates its brief claim to fame with a Monsterfest, the creature rises anew "for two nights of murder and mayhem." It's up to the "town hero" -- formerly Lloyd, now Travis -- to destroy the monster. And no method of destruction works twice. That's one of The Rules.
What are The Rules? Well, anyone who's addicted to monster movies knows them. One is that the local sheriff will refuse to believe in the monster's existence "until it's too late." Another is that a freak storm will invariably bring down utility wires, shutting the town off from the outside world. The town hero always wears a letter jacket, especially when he's going to kiss his girlfriend. Her name is either Jill or Jane or Sally, and she's the town doctor's daughter.
