ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1993)
A Kaiju Who Deserved More
ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN (1993) was one of my first glimpses of the kaiju world that didn’t feature Godzilla or King Kong. As a child, I knew this movie was bad even though it had actors I adored (Daryl Hannah and Frances Fisher). Iad spent a summer trying to make myself like it because even as a fetus, I was leaning into any form of feminism. While this movie fails at almost every turn, it also captures the feeling of stepping into feminine rage. Could it have done that better? Certainly. Is it still admirable to see a Kaiju recognize that all women are made to feel too big? Too hysterical? Too little? Too much? Yes on all counts! That’s why I picked this hot mess to rewatch and reexamine this Kaijuly.
This version of ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN finds Nancy Archer (Hannah) as a mousy and abused heiress. Her husband Harry (Daniel Baldwin) openly cheats on her and doesn’t hide that he only married her for money and status. Her father, Hamilton Cobb (William Windom), treats her like a pest and doesn’t care what her husband does to her. However, he occasionally needs her signature for his own shady dealings, and he is in business with Harry. The whole town looks through this woman. Which is why they write her off when Nancy says she saw a flying saucer in the desert. They call the men in her life to deal with her and look the other way while assuming Nancy is unstable. When Nancy’s encounter with the aliens triggers her to grow to a ginormous size, people finally have to take her seriously for once in her life.
I was already very much aware that the world is not kind to women when this B-movie made its way onto my screen. I spent most of my childhood rewatches of ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN judging Nancy for not leaving her husband. I also wrote her off because I saw in her what I hated about the women around me. My mother, aunts, and even grandmother let the men in their lives get away with a lot. So, Nancy acting like she needed Harry made me pity her and instilled a strong dislike for her. Watching her still try to make it work with that deadbeat (after he left her for dead twice) is the reason I cannot root for her the way I would like to. I found myself on the side of her therapist, Dr. Theodora Cushing (Fisher), who kept pushing her to feel her feelings and speak up for herself.
As a woman in the world, the journey to accepting that I am entitled to feel angry was not easy. So, while rewatching this movie for the first time this millennium, I found myself giving Nancy a little grace. However, I still want more damage and destruction when her kaiju form stomps through town looking for her Harry. The restrained chaos is one of the many things that prevent this metaphor from truly working. Society is always policing women’s bodies, so watching a 50-foot femme go on a rampage is the kind of healing we deserve. This would also be more epic if she stopped trying to make things work with Harry. After all, part of learning to use your voice and have agency is recognizing when you have outgrown people, places, and things that no longer serve you. This movie has many missed opportunities that could have supported the thesis that it almost stumbled into.
I thought I was unnecessarily mean to this movie when I was a kid. However, upon this recent rewatch, I believe I should have been meaner. While I appreciate this 1990s stab at feminism for almost trying to do something, it’s not great by any means. It also still centers men way too much for Nancy to not stomp on a couple of them. Joseph Dougherty’s script never gives this aspiring kaiju baddie the room she deserves to cause true mayhem. Even Christopher Guest’s direction couldn’t make this iteration of ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN the moment we deserved. It is not funny, clever, or interesting. There are a few attempts to give windows into Nancy's emotional growth in addition to her physical transformation. Sadly, those never really stick the landing. As an audience member, you're left wondering what could have been had they followed any of those paths.
In case it’s not clear, ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN is one of the few movies that is actually really bad. However, it is also a 50-foot step forward for women monsters despite itself. Women are notoriously underrepresented when counting horror villains in this genre, which is often consumed by women. So, while this is not the greatest representation (Daryl Hannah deserved so much more), it’s another line on an embarrassingly short list of femme creatures. That, and the important conversations the movie almost wadded into, are why I think we should include this kaiju more often. We all know firsthand that this subgenre has seen worse films. Which is why I encourage you to support kaiju women wronged by watching this movie on YouTube.
