Walter Fanik

Walter Fanik was a human film director who lived during the 20th century.

In the early part of his career, Fanik specialised in directing low budget science fiction B-movies for Artificial Light Studios. These films typically featured actors in unconvincing rubber suits.

The 1957 film Swamp of Horrors was one of Fanik's most famous films. Its storyline involved Professor Derek Spire and Melody Malone searching for the Fountain of Youth in the Louisiana bayou. While there, they discovered that giant animals - including snakes, alligators, eagles, locusts, turtles and snow leopards - were terrorising the people of Hammerston. Spire and Melody assisted the United States military to defeat the giant animals. Their efforts were both helped and hindered by Dr. John Smith and Melanie Bush.

Artificial Light was initially reluctant to release the film without significant re-editing as they believed that its political message was subversive. However, Fanik stood his ground and the film was released unedited, partly because Artificial Light was not willing to allow a film with "such stunning special effects" escape its grasp. The groundbreaking special effects of Swamp of Horrors and all of Fanik's subsequent films were provided by Ann Allen, an extremely reclusive woman with a hunchback who refused to reveal the secrets of her technique.

Fanik shot the majority of Swamp of Horrors in a documentary style, which a reviewer later claimed gave it a much needed grounding in reality. The reviewer also noted that Fanik made two appearances as himself in the film. The first came when Dr. Smith and Melanie attacked an actor in a rubber alien suit whom they mistook for a genuine alien. In his second appearance, Fanik was furious that a giant alligator had destroyed one of his cameras, though the footage from it was recovered. Some critics described these appearances as a clumsy attempt at breaking the fourth wall.

The reviewer believed that Swamp of Horrors marked an important turning point in Fanik's career as his subsequent films made the ecological and political subtext of Swamp of Horrors explicit. Although they were disliked by the American government, his films proved to be highly popular with the growing youth movement of the 1960s and the 1970s. (PROSE: Swamp of Horrors (1957) - Viewing Notes)