Image Source: “Dorsal Extraction” (1962) - Godzilla Analog Horror
“The Man in the Suit” is a short analog horror series created by Unknowingly on YouTube that focuses on the early Godzilla movies and their actors. The series has 11 episodes and spans the period from 1954 to 1964. “The Man in the Suit” focuses on body horror as people are mutated and twisted both physically and mentally under the cover of corporate greed.
The story starts normally, detailing the production process of the early Godzilla movies where an actor still played Godzilla in a suit. Things were going smoothly until Godzilla’s actor became obsessed with the suit and wore it every day without breaks. After a while, Godzilla’s actor began to call himself Goji, a nickname for his beloved suit. One day while on set Goji suddenly stopped for several minutes and started breathing heavily before desperately asking the producer and crew to remove the Godzilla suit. During the removal process the man saw that he was growing into the suit, his body swelling and inflating to fix the suit’s structure, flesh slowly ripping away as they attempted to open the entrance pocket. The removal was a failure and the suit was now his skin.
The corporation responsible for the Godzilla movies decided to keep the disgusting creation out of the public eye, one because they would be ridiculed and sued, and two so they could bank off the success of Godzilla. This decision to keep Goji and continue the production of Godzilla movies would lead to many more horrific deaths and mutations.
While “The Man in the Suit” is a somewhat new analog horror it quickly became a beloved part of the genre. Instead of having aliens or other monsters, it focuses on turning something real into something monstrous. In a genre oversaturated with extraterrestrial invasions, “The Man in the Suit” is a breath of fresh air for the analog horror genre.
“The Man in the Suit” doesn’t have especially realistic visuals which further relates it to the period it’s set in, a time when CGI and other modern movie-making techniques didn’t exist. Regardless of whether it was intentional or not it's a nice touch that makes the series feel a bit more complete. To make up for visuals, the series compensates with excellent storytelling and characters, as the descriptions of what happens to the characters are described in sickening and vivid detail, adding to the nausea that comes with body horror.
Overall, “The Man in the Suit” is a refreshing analog horror series that creates a sickening sense of nausea with its strong imagery and storytelling. Discarding the trend of aliens or extraterrestrial invasions, this series focuses on the well-known figure of Godzilla and turns the large lizard into something unnerving and twisted.
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