Number 22—CONGO
For the month of October, we’re counting down the best horror movies of 1995! Check back every day for a new entry in the list.
Note to readers: If you want maximum authenticity in this first segment, imagine it’s read in the voice of crackerjack countdown radio show virtuoso: Casey Kasem! If you don’t know who that is then Google it, zoomer!
The year… is 1995. As the calendar turns to June, school children find themselves pining for the speedily simmering summer sojourn. 14-year-old Justin Tyler Carroll from Wynne, Arkansas takes the title in the 68th Scripps National Spelling Bee by correctly spelling the word "xanthosis" and MLB fans gasped at Texas Rangers pitcher Kenny Rogers’ consecutive scoreless inning streak finally ending at 39 in a 6-3 win over the Minnesota Twins. Movie theaters thrilled at the box office success of DIE HARD WITH A VENGEANCE and radios everywhere had us all chasing “Waterfalls” by TLC. In about a week those coveted spots will be co-opted by BATMAN FOREVER and "You Oughta Know" by Alanis Morissette respectively but between those colossal cultural criteria comes Michael Crichton’s cercopithecoid chiller, CONGO!
Second note to readers: You may now stop reading in the distinguished dulcet tones of Casey Kasem… actually, I’m not the boss of you. Read on in any voice you choose! If you want to keep reading as Casey Kasem, feel free! Shine on you crazy diamond!
Thirty years after the release of CONGO has got me thinking about how and why this film isn’t as artistically appreciated as Crichton’s anteceding animal action adaptation so I aver to accomplish an aesthetic autopsy. First things first—who is Michael Crichton you might ask? Well, he’s a Chicago native, Harvard Medical School alumnus, and writer/director who has penned properties adapted for the screen such as THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN (1971), WESTWORLD (1973), THE GREAT TRAIN ROBBERY (1978), RUNAWAY (1984), and JURASSIC PARK (1990). I said JURASSIC-fucking-PARK people! After learning he wrote one of the biggest movies of all time, his novels became ubiquitous in the United States during the ‘90s. Imagine a 2025 photograph of any gathering of people and then replace all the smartphones with Michael Crichton books to have an approximation of said author’s pop culture significance. Even a certain brunet-headed little pisher could be found plunking down duckets at Scholastic Book Fairs to secure his latest tomes, making those inevitable personal pan pizzas from Pizza Hut’s BOOK IT!® Program all the more delectable!
Okay, so we’ve got some blockbuster writing cred behind the project and they’re gonna adapt CONGO into a movie. I mean it worked with dino DNA! So who’s on board to make this jungle tryst transition from print to motion picture? Well after some stuttering attempts at making this in the ‘80s with Crichton himself in the director’s seat and Sir Sean Connery attached to star, the mammoth success of JURASSIC PARK breathed new life into the idea of CONGO as a feature film. Amblin Entertainment cofounder Frank Marshall was onboard to direct a screenplay adaptation written by Academy Award winner John Patrick Shanley with special effects helmed by Stan Wilson Studios! That’s right, true believers, the director of ARACHNAPHOBIA teamed up with the writer of MOONSTRUCK and the special effects team for PREDATOR to adapt the latest creature feature of the novelist who created JURASSIC PARK! If that doesn’t sound like the makings of a monstrous man-eating mutant ape magnum opus, I don’t know what does!
Writers, directors, and effects teams are great and all, but what about the talent in front of the camera? Well, I’m glad you asked because it’s an embarrassment of riches featuring performances from Laura Linney, Bruce Campbell, Tim Curry, Joe Don Baker, Grant Heslove, Joe Pantoliano, Delroy Lindo, Jimmy Buffett, and Ernie Hudson who holds this role among his absolute favorites in his illustrious career. No, that’s not a typo (I mean, it probably is). The man from "Margaritaville” is in CONGO. While perhaps not all A-listers this features a clutch cache of celebrated character actors that I for one would never kick out of bed for eating my sesame cake. Curry and Hudson alone boast enough gall and gravitas to gobble up scenery like hungry hungry hippos!
Speaking of, the two and half ton animatronic puppet hippopotamus is emblematic of what should be applauded about CONGO: the unabashed embracing of practical effects. In the original attempt to make the film in the ‘80s Crichton was discouraged by not being able to use real apes. When the project was resurrected in the early ‘90s CGI was all the rage in the wake of JURASSIC PARK but the technology hadn’t quite achieved the ability to convincingly capture hairy creature effects so Stan Wilson Studios was given the green light to go practical. Innovations in computer aided crafting of corneal bulges for the construction of more lifelike eyes along with silicone skin and hand-tied hair really brought the “Amy” character to life in terms of aesthetics and ambulation.
At this point in my diatribe you’re probably waiting for me to address two things: one, with all this cinematic savvy and vicissitude, why isn’t this rated higher by critics and fans and two, if you love CONGO so much why don’t you marry it? Well, to the latter I’ll say “rude.” I asked and we agreed that we were just in two different places in our lives. I was a boy and it was a film. It was a mutual thing! In response to the former there are actually several answers. Fans of the novel didn’t appreciate the thematic shift away from the scientifically based adventure about the schisms between technology, culture, and nature. Prop masters blamed the lighting in the final act demystifying the mutant murderous apes, critics complained about tonal inconsistencies, actors thought it could have been better promoted, and producers blamed monster movie fatigue citing that fans might have compared this too closely to JURASSIC PARK. For me, while not without its flaws, CONGO is a fun and fast paced action/adventure oriented creature feature and for my dime, its greatest crime is perhaps not quite living up to the prodigious potential implied by the sum of its parts.
And there you have ‘em. Keep your feet on the ground and keep reaching for the stars where your boss is certainly trying to use brutal brachiator blue blood diamonds to corner a burgeoning cellphone satellite market.
