GILA! (2012) is a TV Movie that is a remake of 1959’s THE GIANT GILA MONSTER. The story takes place in what appears to be the 1950’s, the primary indicators being the classic cars and style of dress all the characters are in. The lead actor’s sister in the film has Polio and many of the characters are straight out of the Happy Days cast. As in THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, GILA! takes place in a small rural town who is plagued by a humongous Gila Monster which has mutated due to a company disposing of their chemical waste in a nearby cave, just leaving large canisters of dangerous waste sitting in this cave. There also are giant mutated crickets in one scene, so either the giant Gila Monster has been feeding on these oversized crickets or the leaking waste somehow came into contact with the lizard, causing it to grow to the size of a house and run around eating and killing people. Pretty much, that last sentence sums up the plot of the film.
GILA! stars actor Brian Gross (2001 MANIACS, RED TAILS), a very charismatic young man and one of the more talented actors playing the role of the super cool and very likable character Chase, who seems like he always has the hot girls hounding for him, even though he already has a smoking hot brunette girlfriend Lisa, played by Madeline Voges (WHITE ALLIGATOR), whom only has two other film credits on her IMDB.com filmography, but Chase is a good, little heartthrob and stays faithful to his sweetheart. Chase’s little sister, whom has Polio, is played by Jenna Ruiz, helps to show what a good guy and brother Chase is in one scene where he gives her a pair of leg braces ala FORREST GUMP to help her walk. Later, she is seen riding a horse all around. Isn’t that what every little girl wants in movies usually? A beautiful horse?
Jesse Janzen (CRY_WOLF) plays the bad boy, Waco Bob, whom holds a grudge against Chase from the past. He has come back to the town and actor Janzen who is also in another of Wynorski’s flicks, portraying the character Milo Sachetti in BONE EATER (2007), is the boyfriend of the delectable Christina DeRosa. The feuding between Waco Bob and Chase make for some decent fighting and elements to the story so it is just not focused on this crappy looking lizard. A nice fight that occurs at the auto repair shop Chase works at between him and Waco Bob is fun, as well as Chase thinking up of different names to call Bob besides Waco, like Wacko. Kelli Maroney, probably recognizable from her roles in NIGHT OF THE COMET, FAST TIMES AT RIDGEMONT HIGH, LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN, and another Wynorski flick CHOPPING MALL, plays the role of Deputy Wilma, generally flirting with every man with a penis that comes into contact with her, even with young boys who are young enough to be her sons. Kind of gross, Deputy Wilma. Deputy Perv would have been a better name for her.
Wynorski also fills the film with a couple of very beautiful supporting actresses, one of which, Christina DeRosa (PIRANHACONDA, EVIL BONG 3-D: THE WRATH OF BONG), plays the bad girl in the movie, Carla. I recalled her starring in another indie exploitation flick released by Vicious Circle Films (the horror and more extreme films division of Breaking Glass Pictures) entitled RUN! BITCH RUN! (2009). In RUN! BITCH RUN! (reviewed HERE), DeRosa is playing a good Catholic school girl Rebecca in the indie horror-exploitation flick and sporting some delicious breasts in it during a pretty violent rape scene. Seems like DeRosa has no problem doing scenes of nudity but Wynorski chose to have no T&A in GILA!, probably because it would tarnish the wholesome times in the 1950’s during which the film is supposed to take place during. For me, it would just been icing on the cake.
Terrence Knox (CHILDREN OF CORN II: THE FINAL SACRIFICE, TOUR OF DUTY (TV series)) stars as the small town’s sheriff, a veteran actor gliding by in this low-budget charming yet supremely ridiculous throwback flick inspired by/quasi-remake of the b&w THE GIANT GILA MONSTER (1959), that was filmed back to back in Texas with THE KILLER SHREWS of the same year by director and visual effects artist Ray Kellogg, whose visual effects were both on par with each other. Wynorski’s GILA! (2012) has some SyFy Channel quality CGI, but when one takes into account that the original THE GIANT GILA MONSTER (1954) filmed a live lizard (which I read was actually a Beaded Lizard and not a Gila Monster) on a tiny, scaled-down set and although I have not watched the original film yet, the trailer showed me enough of how hilarious some of the scenes are played out.
Julie McCullough, whom some of you may remember as being cast in television’s GROWING PAINS as the cute blonde, Julie Costello, has a role in GILA! as Vera, the mayor’s drunk and flirtatious wife, but she probably first became known to television and movie producers after gracing the cover of PLAYBOY in the February 1986 issue. Shortly after that, she got a role in the BLOB remake, directed by Park Ridge, IL native Chuck Russell (A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: DREAM WARRIORS) in 1988. Sadly, she only has one brief scene in the film.
The small-town sheriff, aptly referred to “sheriff” in the credits and played by Terrence Knox, starts off by beginning to investigate all the new disappearances, starting with the most important missing person: the mayor’s daughter. The mayor’s daughter got nabbed by the oversize wanna-be Godzilla at the beginning of the film and gives the town a clue to the foreboding danger it is in. There also was a good bit of fun deaths, blood being tossed across the screen or some more hilarious CGI, but at least it was fun scenes of death and over-the-top ridiculous scenes of gore. One really had to laugh at some of the scenes, but they still were entertaining. I was entertained the whole time. The script was simple and easy enough to follow along with no confusing scenes or dialogue that made zero sense. I enjoyed the film even with the horrible, giant, CGI lizard running around killing everyone.
Really, my only two major faults with the film was the shitty CGI and the fact that the hot female cast did not reveal anything more than some cleavage and nice long legs. I even could get past the less than award-winning acting, which was not even close to being up to par to any A-List film but most definitely on-par with many B-Movies. The reason why I can give the less than stellar delivery of lines and dialogue a pass is because it was really cool seeing so many familiar faces from past movies and television and the characters are really likable. Look for veteran actor Don Sullivan in the film portraying Dawes. Sullivan was in the original THE GIANT GILA MONSTER, as well as many other cult, exploitation, and horror films like TEENAGE ZOMBIES, THE REBEL SET, and THE MONSTER OF PIEDRAS BLANCAS. I also dug seeing all the cool classic cars racing around.
If one can get by the fact that the CGI for the giant lizard is some of the worst seen in a film, or the average job featured in any made for t.v. movie or about as good as anything played on the SyFy Channel, then one is in for a treat. Oddly enough, I have seen quite a few of films made by the now veteran director Jim Wynorski, and I tend to like them all. Granted, the films with more gore and nudity are at the top of my list like CHOPPING MALL, THE WITCHES OF BREASTWICK (reviewed HERE), VAMPIRELLA, and THE BREASTFORD WIVES, but even some of the ones lacking all the T&A are fun to watch.
I sincerely wonder if Wynorski had to pay actress DeRosa MORE money to NOT take her clothes off in the movie, because knowing his style and what he usually creates, having a woman as beautiful as DeRosa and not having her show off some of that beauty seems like a total waste to me! Yeah, if you could not guess, I really thought that DeRosa looked even more hot with the pin-up girl style and sass she was adding to her character in the film. She played the part perfectly and along with the Sheriff (Knox), they were my two favorite characters in the film.
Wynorski’s GILA! was actually far more entertaining a view than I actually thought it would be. It totally has a 1950’s monster movie vibe to it, full of classic muscle cars, girls wearing hop-scot skirts and varsity lettered sweaters, tough guys wearing black leather motorcycle jackets emulating greasers from the OUTSIDERS, and drag racing on the streets. Knowing Wynorski’s past films, many of which are horror or exploitation films, I was hoping for some gratuitous nudity, especially since the beautiful Christina DeRosa (whom has done nudity in the past) stars as the sexy “bad girl” hooked up with creep numero uno Waco Bob and he really seemed like the kind of guy that would demand some “road head” while he was busy racing Chase, trying to best him during the few scenes of drag racing.
Oddly enough, if I had to watch the film again, I would. It was good enough to be viewed more than once. I really do think I have a soft spot for this directors’ films. I can’t think of one that I have seen that I thought sucked. The films’ lacking plot is filled with gratuitous nudity and is somewhat, if not entirely, entertaining. I really just want to see the entire catalog of Jim Wynorski films!
