To lighten the mood following the masochistic demons from beyond in Hellraiser I watched, along with my sweetie-wife, 1974’s Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla.

Released near the end of the ‘Shōwa’ era, 1954-1975, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is the 14th film in the franchise and pits the now heroic kaiju monster against am alien robotic duplicate.

In apparent accordance with an ancient prophesy that a monster will come to destroy to world Godzilla reappears and unlike his more recent heroic turn, once again cuts a path of destruction across the Japanese islands. Simultaneously two teams of scientists, a hard-science specialist, and an archeologist, chase down clues to recent events while shadowed and threatened by mysterious agents, some of which turn out to be another vanguard of invading aliens and INTERPOL officers. With the arrival of the OG Godzilla, the imposter is revealed to be a cyborg construction of the aliens. Mechagodzilla is more powerful than Godzilla that is until the correct interventions by priests, princesses, and the scientists. As with all the 70’s Godzilla movies the film’s resolution is never in any doubt and one does not watch kaiju movies from this period for suspense and dramatic turns, but instead for several men in outrageous costumes throwing down on a set filled with miniature mountains and buildings. Shōwa era Godzilla films, save the original masterpiece, are a fun guilty pleasure. I remember being quite disappointed when Godzilla vs The Smog Monster player at the local drive-in and no one in my family had the slightest interest in going. (I did eventually, only a few years ago, see the film and it is truly one of the weirdest Godzilla movies.) Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla will never listed as a great work of cinema nor is it every frightening, but it makes for a perfect light distraction during the more intense fare of the season.

Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla is currently streaming on HBO Max.