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Destroy All Monsters (1968)
Monsters of mass destruction.
At the turn of the century, Earth’s monsters have been safely rounded up and studied on Monsterland. Chaos erupts when a race of she-aliens known as the Kilaaks unleashes the monsters across the world.
Destroy All Monsters (怪獣総進撃, Kaijū Sōshingeki) is a 1968 Japanese kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda and written by Honda and Takeshi Kimura (the latter under the pseudonym “Kaoru Mabuchi”). The film, which was produced and distributed by Toho Studios, is the ninth film in the Godzilla franchise, and features up to eleven monster characters, including Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, Anguirus, and Minilla. The film stars Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi and Yoshio Tsuchiya, with special effects directed by Sadamasa Arikawa, which were provided under the supervision by Eiji Tsuburaya.
In the film, humans have achieved world peace by the year 1999, and various giant monsters are confined to an area known as Monsterland. The monsters are freed from the area and are mind-controlled by aliens known as Kilaaks, who send them to attack major cities. When the monsters are freed from the Kilaaks’ influence, the aliens send King Ghidorah to challenge the other monsters.
Destroy All Monsters was released theatrically in Japan on August 1, 1968. The film was released by American International Pictures with an English-language dub in the United States on May 23, 1969. Contemporary American reviews were generally negative, with praise mainly held for the climactic monster battle. The film has since been considered a favorite among Godzilla fans for its “audacious and simple story”, “innovative action sequences”, and a “memorably booming” score by Akira Ifukube.
