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The Beast of Hollow Mountain (1956)
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Pow
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 21, 2021 1:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Regarding the gas that placed the Beast into suspended animation, Bruce, we could go two ways.

1.) The gas simply does not affect humans, or has dissipated enough over time so as not to be potent enough any longer to affect humans. That is also why the Beast is awakening now.

2.) What if there existed in this strange and bizarre underground an exotic and previously unknown form of plant life and microbes. When the giant meteor struck earth it was in the Mexican region of the world. These plants have a survival mechanism that allows them to "sleep" for thousands and thousands of years. They awaken only when they cans sense it is again safe to do so.

The Beast has managed to get himself deeply entangled within this jungle of plant life. The same processes that allow them to go into hibernation has also affected the Beast. Both life forms fall into suspended hibernation together.

Of course, there's no way that 19th century cowboys could even theorize about such an event.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Thu Oct 21, 2021 2:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Excellent thinking! It's interesting that you suggested exotic vegetation. I had some similar thoughts . . . sort of.

When I was creating the post about the Hang Son Doong cave "Lost World" I pondered various ways to keep the dinos bottle up, despite the cave being open to the outside world. I thought perhaps the vegetation in the underground ecosystem was special in some way, and the dinos had to have it survive.

But I like the idea about their sensitivity to direct sunlight better.

Speaking of big caves, I'm not clear on how the T-Rex figures into your story after all the people are trapped by the landslide which seals the entrance. The large group of people from the town are trapped in the big cave with a hungry T-Rex, right?

Have you devised and exciting climax yet? Something like . . . the steady diet of gobbled-up Mexican peasants gives the T-Rex gas, and the hero ignites the buildup of methane to blow the entrance open!

Hey, that might work!
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Oct 26, 2022 12:35 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pow wrote:
Another way to go, Bud, would be to set the bulk of the movie within Hollow Mountain itself for a change of pace.

The cowboys for some reason enter Hollow Mountain. They could be fleeing an outlaw gang, taking refuge during a violent storm. Perhaps the outlaws have descended en masse upon the Mexican town we see in the movie. People battle them best they can, but the gang is just too large and well organized to stand up against.

People then start to flee the town and some wind up at Hollow Mountain. I'm including the town because I was always impressed by its look. It appeared to be an authentic 19th century Mexican town and not a studio back lot replica western town.

Our group who has reached Hollow Mountain decide to enter it to hide from the bandits. To add to their woes a fierce storm has arisen driving 'em further into the cave.

The intense storm causes boulders to fall from the mountain and block off the entrance. This forces the group to enter even deeper into the cave.

What they discover astonishes them all!

The cave is incredibly large. Similar to the 3-million year old Hang Son Doong cave discovered in central Vietnam.

That cave is so enormous it has its own localized weather system and eco-system. Collapsed ceiling have allowed microscopic organisms to grow. It has rivers rushing throughout it.

So the Hollow Mountain cave will be just like Han Son Doong, maybe even larger!

The group was able to flee the town in several wagons, perhaps they also meet some wagons that were going into town and warn them of the siege of the town. These wagons join up with our group.

I'm including this plot point because these wagons could have various supplies in them that will allow the group of reluctant spelunkers to have critical items in exploring the cave.

Rifles, ammo, fuel for cooking, food and so forth.

Unfortunately for all of them, they come upon the Beast just as it is awakening from its centuries long hibernation.

The rest of the film is them trying desperately to avoid the dinosaur and make their way out of the cave.

I thought it'd be fun to set the film within the cave instead of the usual trope of a monster coming out into civilization.

The people would be on their own without any help from the outside world. This'd raise the stakes.

Maybe at some point they are able to fashion their wagons together to float along the river?

I thought this would be a different approach by setting the movie inside a cave. Few films seem to have made a cave the primary setting. Journey to the Center of the Earth, The Core, and some horror films have done so. Still, its not exactly an overused trope.

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