all these men end up being killed in a horrific and astonishing fashion

November 4, 2013 8:01 PM

In the 1933 movie King Kong, the titular hero kills a group of sailors by throwing them off a log. But some were supposed to have survived the fall, only to meet a gruesome end at the bottom of the ravine. When King Kong was edited, this terrifying scene was lost. So director Peter Jackson decided to re-create it!
The Lost Spider Pit Sequence

The Mystery Of The Spider Pit Sequence

Perhaps the most discussed facet of King Kong by fans, besides all the fan made custom t-shirts, the Spider Pit sequence has actually ever been seen by a relative handful of people. This footage existed in prints shown to preview audiences before its general release in March of 1933, so this was the only opportunity to have seen these deleted scenes. Taking place immediately after Kong shakes all the sailors off the log and drops it into the chasm, several of them actually survive the precipitous plunge but are quickly set upon by hideous creatures lurking in the murky depths. Of course, all these men end up being killed in a horrific and astonishing fashion.

posted by the man of twists and turns (20 comments total)

I saw Jackson's remake, which included the ravine full of creepy-crawlies, and the big thing I remember about the scene is thinking that it really slowed down the film and probably should've been cut. Which, I guess, is probably why it was cut from the original.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:08 PM on November 4, 2013 [10 favorites]

Fun!

I liked how, in Jackson's remake, he included an analog to the original scene. I loved how weird and creepy and out-of-place it was.
posted by Sticherbeast at 8:09 PM on November 4, 2013

I wanna be an editor on the next Peter Jackson film. Easiest job ever. Just leave absolutely everything in the movie.
posted by Broseph at 8:25 PM on November 4, 2013 [12 favorites]

That was my favorite scene from the movie. It should have ended with everyone, including King Kong, being devoured by giant insects and spiders.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 8:26 PM on November 4, 2013 [2 favorites]

After all the Lord of the Snow-Covered Mountains movies.. all the Hobbits, and King Kong.. I still feel Peter Jackson's best film is Braindead aka Dead Alive. It's economical, clever, disgusting, over-the-top, and hilarious all at the same time. It doesn't overstay its welcome, has amazing special effects, and doesn't look too fancy. I really wish Peter Jackson could go back to those days, but well.. only in my dreams. I wonder if he will ever again be able to make a film lasting less than 180 minutes.
posted by ReeMonster at 8:46 PM on November 4, 2013 [8 favorites]

I remember borrowing a tape of Dead Alive from a friend in high school and thinking it was the funniest thing I'd ever seen. ("I kick ass for the LORD!") Nowadays the gore would bug me, but at the time it was amazing.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:52 PM on November 4, 2013

My favorite is Bad Taste. Love that ending theme.
posted by Redfield at 9:27 PM on November 4, 2013

After all the Lord of the Snow-Covered Mountains movies.. all the Hobbits, and King Kong.. I still feel Peter Jackson's best film is Braindead aka Dead Alive.

Sumatran Rat Monkey—Beware the bite!
posted by zamboni at 10:17 PM on November 4, 2013 [1 favorite]

My friends and I were recently having a "movie you loved but everyone else hated" conversation. One of mine was Peter Jackson's "King Kong."

That is all.
posted by Joey Michaels at 1:56 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sometimes, when The Lord of The Rings or King Kong or any of his other more recent projects comes up, I just think to myself "Holy shit, I can't believe the amount of money they will throw at the guy who directed Meet The Feebles."

And then I smile.
posted by louche mustachio at 2:22 AM on November 5, 2013 [7 favorites]

"movie you loved but everyone else hated"

I thought John Belushi should have won an Oscar for "Continental Drift"
posted by thelonius at 3:40 AM on November 5, 2013 [3 favorites]

I thought King Kong was a truly great two-hour movie that unfortunately was three and a half hours long.
posted by kyrademon at 4:25 AM on November 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

Also, Jackson's Kong is too heroic - the original, and even the first remake, gets this right - Kong is a force of nature that should not have been trifled with by humans. He is a literal god, and his wrath comes without justification or moderation - it's what makes him scary, and he should be scary, as well as sympathetic. He's gunned down at the end not because he's a victim, but because he steps on innocent people like bugs when annoyed - he sows the seeds of his own destruction. Jackson dumbed down this frightening complexity to "Monkey Good, People Bad" and the movie was worse off for it.
posted by Slap*Happy at 4:36 AM on November 5, 2013 [2 favorites]

Speaking of the spider pit scene in Jackson's version, the band Blotted Science recorded a song called "Cretaceous Chasm" that's (intentionally) perfectly synced to the action. Video here.
posted by saladin at 4:48 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

NOPE.
posted by St. Alia of the Bunnies at 5:00 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

I thought John Belushi should have won an Oscar for "Continental Drift"

Continental Divide, right? I loved that movie.

On a similar tip (departure from the oddball/gross-out norm of a famous comedy actor), I thought The Razor's Edge with Bill Murray was great. I haven't seen it since I was a kid, but it changed my sense of possibilities, and with it probably the course of my life.

Regarding the topic of this post, I thought Peter Jackson's King Kong would have been great had it not been overshadowed by the original, which is perfect. I agree with Pope Guilty, the spider scene was a good cut.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 5:01 AM on November 5, 2013 [1 favorite]

Pope Guilty: "I saw Jackson's remake, which included the ravine full of creepy-crawlies, and the big thing I remember about the scene is thinking that it really slowed down the film and probably should've been cut. Which, I guess, is probably why it was cut from the original."

Yup. Apparently producer Merian Cooper said after a screening with the scene in, "It stopped the picture cold, so the next day back at the studio, I took it out myself."
posted by Chrysostom at 9:50 AM on November 5, 2013

Among certain subsets, shouting out "SINGAYA! THE BITE!" before popping someone in the shoulder is a perfectly valid analog to Punchbuggy.
posted by FatherDagon at 12:45 PM on November 5, 2013

Watched this scene last week with my son & godson, and as it ended paused it to say how it was one of the creepiest scenes I've watched, though granted I don't watch many horror films...

That was when we noticed something on the floor, which turned out to be rat guts, with the back half of the rat in the doorway and the chewed-on head out on the porch...

Not everyday your cat whups ass on a multi-million dollar Hollywood director.
posted by dragonsi55 at 6:07 PM on November 5, 2013

Trivia: those really weird looking bugs are gigantic versions of a New Zealand native bug called weta. Which is also the name of Peter Jackson's production company "Weta Productions".
posted by aychedee at 10:58 PM on November 6, 2013