Yog, Monster From Space

Yog is, plain and simple, a Kaiju film.

It doesn't pretend to be anything else, there's nothing odd about it, it's very straight forward. But that doesn't mean its box art is exempt from being laughed at because WOW does this thing look like crap. Yet another installment in the "We let our child draw this" series, this cover art for Yog is downright awful. Actually titled "Space Amoeba", and only retitled for the American release in 1971, Yog might be one of the few movies I've covered with no decent title whatsoever. I mean, "Space Amoeba" is just as generic as "Yog, Monster From Space", and the fact that they tried to title the film after one singular character when it's full of kick-ass Kaiju creatures really tells you how very little the American film industry knew of foreign film at the time.

The film is somewhat notable, however, for it being the final film with special effects work done by Toho special effects studios in Tokyo, which sadly shut down shortly before the film was released in Japan. At least it has some sort of place in history beyond its hideous artwork.

It doesn't help that this thing looks like it's been through hell and beaten with two different variaties of an ugly stick. Seriously, it's all ripped and torn and tattered, like it's been floating in a locked chest in the ocean for centuries before some poor unfortunate soul who didn't know what curse he was in for once opening the box was in for. But are there any real facets to this box other than its crappy artwork? Not really. I have to admit, I love the "We dare you to watch these pictures ALONE!" box at the bottom of the back, if only because, like...

...okay? I mean, it's just guys in rubber monster suits. Like...that's not scary? I'd easily be capable of watching those pictures alone, probably even in the dead of night, cause I know I'm such a badass. I would even sleep without a nightlight later, that's how not scared I would be.

Honestly, the artwork on this is far more reminiscent of say "cheaply produced local amusement park horror themed dark ride" than "Kaiju Battle Fest". It really does look like something on the front of your average Evil Spirits Haunted House attraction than anything else, which only adds to the humor of the whole situation. And what's with that font for the title? It looks more like something you'd see on a piece of jewelry bought at Claire's in the mall than a scifi horror epic. So that's Yog, I guess, and we don't have any box variants to -

...well where the fuck am I supposed to go with this? This is awesome! Why didn't you guys just do something like this from the get go? See, where as the top images Yog portrays more of a gremlin or gargoyle type creature - a somewhat understandable artistic decision if only because that's more familiar to the American audience of 1971 - this slick ass mother fucker portrays the actual creature within the film in all its tentacle writhing glory. Just LOOK at the colors and the linework on this son of a bitch! That title font is pretty on point too, though it could've been a tad more horror like but whatever. Now this is a piece of artwork I wouldn't mind slapping up on my walls.

And therein lies the issue.

It all comes down to the artistry, doesn't it? It all comes down to just how much a company is willing to shell out for a decent artist to create a decent piece that might just draw decent attention to it. Many people make the argument that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and yet book covers have increasingly become unrelated to the text inside and more about visual appeal in graphic design and aesthetic pleasantries than anything else, and the same could certainly have been said for VHS tapes.

When perusing your local video store late at night for something, you often went by what a VHS box had as a great piece of art on its cover. Often it was simply the movie poster, which was always a safe bet, but perhaps for these smaller releases that couldn't afford to lease out the license for that piece and instead had to go a different way, they would often make their own and it was usually terrible, thus leading to nobody renting the damn thing. But if you simply found someone with enough skill, who would work within your budget (hard to do since most of these companies had a budget of absolutely zero dollars and zero cents), then you might just be able to get some rentals after all.

But they rarely went that extra mile.

No, instead they let their kid draw on some colored paper and then slapped it onto the front of the box, because that was more their style.

This piece is excellent, and it looks like the cover to an old EC Comics book, honestly, or a dimestore scifi novel. It gets the point across, while still being intriguing enough to the common movie goer, and is all around just an impeccable piece of artwork to boot. Really wish I could maybe find this on a more large scale view so I could theoretically hang it in my house someday.

Yog doesn't have many variants, and it isn't all that interesting. I'm sorry this post lacks as much as the last had, but hey, at least we finally got a really cool piece of artwork to review, right? That's worth it, isn't it? Please god tell me it is.

I really don't think I could've taken another "my kid drew this" box.