# "Callbacks" to older monster movies in more recent films **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 4, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867 "2025-02-04T12:47:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/1 "2025-02-04T12:47:13Z")
We watched **The Substance** over the weekend, and I couldn’t help but notice similarities to David Cronenberg’s version of _The Fly_ in the final sequences. Both are “Body Horror” films, of course, but it’s deeper than that If you’ve seen both movies it’s obvious, but I’ll spoiler this: Final very grotesque transformation requires full very lumpy body suit Transformee loses fingernail Transformee loses front teeth Lots of goop I noticed something similar in Quentin Tarantino’s **Hateful Eight** , but not until the very end, when I heard the Ennio-Morricone-composed music originally written for John Carpenter’s 1982 version of **The Thing**. That’s when I realized that Both films have Kurt Russell in a prominent role Both involve a group of people trapped in a warm place during a cold winter Both involve distrust and paranoia, as it’s not clear who’s keeping a secret, and who is intent on killing the others Both films end with only two left alive cat the end, and not likely to survive. There must be other cases where films pay homage to earlier films in such a subtle fashion, but most cases I can think of were too brief and obvious (The shout-outs to the 1933 _King Kong_ in _Rocky Horror Picture Show_, The references to the stop-motion of Harryhausen’s _Jason and the Argonauts_ in the deleted “Don’t Feed the Plants” number at the end of the musical _Little Shop of Horrors_; The use of Kevin McCarthy from the 1958 _Invasion of the Body Snatchers_ in both the 1979 remake and in _Looney Tunes: Back in Action_) Any other cases out there? By the way, being a big fan of Bernard Herrmann’s film scores, I caught the so-brief-they’re-almost-subliminal “quotations” from his score for _Vertigo_ in _The Substance_. I’ve been in correspondence with another Hermann fans recently, and listened to a lot of his music, which probably kept him in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/2 "2025-02-04T12:55:07Z")
I should add that these aren’t simply similarities that occur to the avid (or obsessed) film-watcher. The filmmakers have acknowledged their paying homage to the earlier films in these cases. In fact, there are a lot of call-backs to other Cronenberg films in _The Substance_ (arguably _The Elephant Man_, _Videodrome_, _eXistenZ_, and possibly others). The magazine _Cinefantastique_ dubbed Cronenberg “The Master of Venereal Horror”, which is, I suppose, a subset of Body Horror. ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/3 "2025-02-04T14:27:06Z")
I don’t know if it was confirmed as intended by the makers of _Godzilla Minus One_ but there’s a pretty nifty homage to _Jaws_ in that film. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/095VqvRlvqY/maxresdefault.jpg "Godzilla: Minus One Scene with Jaws Music Edit") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=095VqvRlvqY) ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/4 "2025-02-04T14:31:36Z")
ETA: The soundtrack to that vid was added by a YouTuber. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/5 "2025-02-04T14:37:41Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > In fact, there are a lot of call-backs to other Cronenberg films in _The Substance_ (arguably _The Elephant Man_, _Videodrome_, _eXistenZ_, and possibly others). The Elephant Man was directed by David Lynch, not David Cronenberg, right? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/6 "2025-02-04T14:43:52Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > The Elephant Man was directed by David Lynch, not David Cronenberg, right? Aak! You’re right! Sorry about that. Got my Weird Cinema directors named David mixed up. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/7 "2025-02-04T14:52:15Z")
No worries. I probably wouldn’t have even remembered that if not for all the recent articles about Lynch after he passed away just a couple of weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/8 "2025-02-04T15:29:23Z")
Starting at 1:28 of this _Jurassic Park: The Lost World_ scene, there is a callback for a few seconds to Godzilla movies of old… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/7du0i2Mdt0U/hqdefault.jpg "Jurassic Park:The Lost World-T-rex attack in San Diego") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7du0i2Mdt0U) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/9 "2025-02-04T15:30:22Z")
Jordan Peele’s _Nope_ has more than a few shout-outs to _Jaws_, from the steely-eyed Quint-esque figure who ends up devoured to the monster’s defeat via an explosive device in its mouth. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/10 "2025-02-04T15:36:43Z")
Toho loves to do this. Other Godzilla movies have included Steven Spielberg’s father as young naval officer and included a Terminator type character among other callbacks. ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/11 "2025-02-04T16:39:11Z")
I don’t know if [Colossal](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4680182/) qualifies, but the director did say it was the “cheapest Godzilla movie ever made”. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/12 "2025-02-04T18:03:05Z")
I hadn’t heard of his one. I’ll have to see it. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/13 "2025-02-04T20:21:50Z")
I see callbacks to the “It’s alive!” scene in _Frankenstein_. _Young Frankenstein_, of course, referenced it. (Complete with the original’s lab gear.) The most recent US reference I’ve seen was on _The Big Bang Theory_, but that’s a TV show. I know I’ve seen it since on a British thing but I can’t remember where. I use it myself when I bring a dead electronic thing back to life. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2025, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/callbacks-to-older-monster-movies-in-more-recent-films/1013867/14 "2025-02-04T23:43:28Z")
This scene from _Austin Powers in Goldmember_ features a monster that looks like Godzilla…but due to international copyright laws, it’s not. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/Fu62k4K4sQ4/maxresdefault.jpg "Austin Powers in Goldmember - Godzilla Scene") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fu62k4K4sQ4)