Another Sixteen Screams For Halloween: Day 9 (Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris)

It wouldn't be a spooky marathon without some Kaiju Time, so here we are once again! This is actually a bit of a culmination, as for 2012 and 2022 I covered the two previous Gamera films in this trilogy. I quite liked them for what they were, but they didn't exactly hit the greatest of all time status or anything when it came to kaiju films. Not that that's bad, but it is the truth. Gamera 3: Revenge Of Iris is where that changes. The more I think of it, the more I find to love about it. Revenge Of Iris is a truly great kaiju film, on par with the likes of my favorite Godzilla pictures (the original, 1984, and Shin Godzilla, for the record) and one that was well worth the two year buildup towards.

This is a film that's so much more than just giant monsters fighting each other; in fact, there isn't a whole lot of that to be had in the movie. What is here is thematic and compelling. There is so much going under the hood of this thing, and so much of it is enriched by looking at it with a Japanese lens, that I can't cover it all. I don't have the capacity to, but these are only quickies so I don't have to. The film combines evolution, science, and spirituality together into this uniquely Japanese cocktail about harmony with one's self and the natural world, as well as humanity's place in it as the world moves on and evolves. It's all really fascinating stuff that's going on, with a good three or four plotlines happening in tandem as scientists and spiritualists alike react to the return of Gamera and Gyaos (the kaiju from the first Gamera film) in their own way.

It's the plotline with Ayana that I want to highlight though. The previous Gamera films had a girl form a spiritual and mental bond with Gamera using a magical magatama. Ayana, a new character in this film, is the inverse of this. She hates Gamera, the supposed defender of humanity, because her parents died as collateral damage during the first film's battle with Gyaos. Her dislike of Gamera is what helps her form a spiritual and mental bond with the antagonist kaiju, an evolution of Gyaos which she names Iris after her lost cat, also collateral damage from Gamera. If Gamera was all about finding empathy and understanding by making connections, this is the dark flip side of it. Hate and misery leading like minds to join together for the purposes of destruction. Destruction is rampant through the film, even by the hands of Gamera. More of that collateral damage occurs during the first big battle of the film against a random Gyaos, and it's not a pretty spectacle. Flames and fire engulf the city, debris rains down, and we see incredible losses of life directly because of Gamera's battle. Iris itself evolves into a terrifying creature that sucks the life out of things, leaving them withered husks. 

It's both terrifying, and a metaphor for what hate and misery can do to you if you let it fester: it will hollow you out. Iris's goal is to merge with Ayana, to become a fully evolved being and bring about more destruction. To hate, to kill, to destroy ever after. It's when Ayana is fused with Iris that she sees from its perspective, and sees the horrid truth: a pre-evolved Iris killed her new foster family. Hate breeds hate, misery breeds misery... and it is Gamera, eventually, who saves her from the clutches of Iris and destroys the monster, who shows her the power of empathy and compassion. Holy goddamn. This movie's heavy, and these are but surface level readings. There is so much more going on here, but color me impressed. What a way to close this kaiju film trilogy. Happy trails, Gamera. Perhaps, one day, we'll meet again.