For the Love of Classic Monsters

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T11:26:00.002-05:00

Happy Hunting!

The Night Strangler (1973) - Kolchak's Second Movie

2011-10-19T11:23:00.000-05:00

The better of the made for TV Kolchak movies, from 1973:

Sounds of Terror (1974) from LP

2011-10-18T11:19:00.001-05:00

Once you listen past the unfortunate remake of "Monster Mash", this is a special album full of vintage horror thrills--stories told through sound effects.

Wade Denning & Frank Daniels - Sounds of Terror (1974)

As If I Need Another Copy of Frankenstein...

2011-10-10T15:04:00.003-05:00

An edition of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein laid out using characters and glyphs from PDF documents obtained through internet searches. The incomplete fonts found in the PDFs were reassembled into the text of Frankenstein based on their frequency of use. The most common characters are employed at the beginning of the book, and the text devolves into less common, more grotesque shapes and forms toward the end.

Buy yours online.

Monster Friday: The Tunnel

2011-09-16T11:05:00.001-05:00

Scary? Yes.

Dark? Yes.

Personally, I didn't need to see the monster down in the tunnel (and I love monsters). Everything is scarier in the dark. Brilliant pacing, though.

Monster Brawl

2011-09-12T12:26:00.002-05:00

Silly--yes, a little. But with homages to my favorite creatures, I'll be there.

Synopsis: “Set in the tradition of a Pay-Per-View main event, comes a grotesque and hilarious fight to the death featuring a cast of eight classic combatants in all. Along with their colorful managers, these Monsters compete in visceral bloody combat in the ring to determine the most powerful monster of all time.

Monster Brawl stars comedian Dave Foley (Kids in the Hall, Bugs Life, Despicable Me), wrestling icons Jimmy Hart — The Mouth of the South, Kevin Nash, revered MMA referee Herb Dean, Robert Maillet (300, Sherlock Holmes, The Immortals), Art Hindle (Porky’s, Black Christmas) and the voice of horror legend and Call of Duty narrator Lance Henriksen (Aliens, Terminator). Monster Brawl is sure to be a cult classic in the making!”

Check out the Monster Brawl Facebook page for more.

The Monster Goes to School

2011-09-06T13:37:00.000-05:00

I'm awfully tempted to buy a couple of these for my kids:

You can check out the details at the Neato Shop. It's a little on the pricy end, but so special. Anything with Frankenstein's monster as a theme is a win in my book.

Top Five Friday: Mad Scientists

2011-04-22T08:29:00.003-05:00

Mad Scientists: they go with monsters like peanut butter goes with jelly. In fact, some are monsters themselves. Here are five of my favorites (with two honorable mentions).

Honorable Mention: John Lithgow as Lord John Whorfin/Dr. Emilio Lizardo in The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension.

Honorable Mention: Marlon Brando as Dr. Moreau in The Island of Dr. Moreau. (Hey, Moreau is an awesome mad doctor... Too bad this movie sucked.)

And the top 5:

5. Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes in The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Kiss me baby.

4. SkekTek the Skeksis (voiced by puppeteer Steve Whitmire) in The Dark Crystal. Scared the essence out of me as a kid. Still does.

3. Jeffery Combs as Dr. Herbert West in Re-Animator. Get that damn needle away from me.

3. Maximillian Schell as Dr. Hans Reinhardt in The Black Hole. Killer robots, zombie crew, and a bitchin' God complex.

1. Colin Clive as Dr. Henry Frankenstein in Frankenstein. Yes, It's Alive!

So who did I miss?

Too Much Horror Buisness - Kirk Hammett

2011-04-12T08:29:00.001-05:00

"Any longtime Metallica fan knows that lead guitarist Kirk Hammett has an obsession with horror films. Many of his guitars are decorated with classic horror imagery, like The Mummy, Frankenstein’s monster, the Bride of Frankenstein, and much more. Hammett is an avid collector of horror memorabilia, so it makes sense that the musician would put together a photo book of all of his very rare collection, which will include commentaries on each piece written by Hammett himself."

More on Geeks of Doom...

Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller in Danny Boyle's Frankenstein

2011-02-28T15:48:00.000-06:00

Frankenstein's Army...Oh Yeah!

2011-02-14T10:05:00.003-06:00

Richard Raaphorst, the conceptual artist behind Worst Case Scenario (the zombie-Nazi mash up), is the brainchild behind the forthcoming Frankenstein's Army film...and yes, it does my fan-boy heart a whole lot o' good on this Valentine's Day.

Here's the official description: "Toward the end of World War II, Russian soldiers pushing into eastern Germany stumble across a secret Nazi lab, one that has unearthed and begun experimenting with the journal of one Dr. Victor Frankenstein. The scientists have used the legendary Frankenstein's work to assemble an army of supersoldiers stitched together from the body parts of their fallen comrades – a desperate Hitler's last ghastly ploy to escape defeat."

Friday Freak Out: Suspiria

2011-02-11T14:16:00.001-06:00

Why did it take me so long to see this movie? Suspiria is the closest thing to a nightmare on screen I've ever experienced.

The Creature from the Black Lagoon

2011-02-07T10:00:00.004-06:00

Being a late entry to Universal's classic line-up of monster, the Creature doesn't always get his due. Today at Monster Awareness Month, Mark West gives his take on this classic:

"...[the Creature], for me, is the highpoint of Universal horror icons. "

Holy Monster Awareness Month!

2011-02-02T15:32:00.002-06:00

Yes, February 2011 has been deemed Monster Awareness month by the good people at Beyond Fiction, and the monsters have their own blog.

I was lucky enough to talk about Frankenstein (1931) today:

Aside from the central conceit about a young doctor experimenting with the power to bring life to dead tissue, the film bears little resemblance to the book. There are no lengthy discussions between the creator and his creation. Karloff’s “monster” speaks no words. It is only through a series of grunts and gestures that Boris Karloff brings life to the role. Colin Clive creates the quintessential “mad doctor” as Henry (rather than Victor) Frankenstein. The scene of the unholy act isn’t an attic apartment in the city of Ingolstadt—no, it is a ruined tower, a true mad scientist’s lab loaded with electrical equipment and buzzing machinery, lost in dark and gloomy mountains of some strange England/Germany hybrid countryside. Henry employs a hunched, leering assistant (Fritz, played by Dwight Frye), the prototypical Igor. All of these deviations from the novel will serve as popular monster movie tropes for years after Frankenstein, and hint at the power of the film’s popularity today.

(click to read the rest of my essay, and be aware of monsters, dear readers)

Great Screen Monsters: Fiend Without a Face

2010-12-06T08:00:00.002-06:00

Ah, the 1950s...

Poor misunderstood atomic power, Cold War Tensions, and monsters.

If you haven't had the opportunity to watch1958's Fiend Without a Face, you've missed one of the more original of the '50s atomic power gone wild spinoffs--original in terms of the monsters, anyway.

At first, the "fiends" are invisible, killing via two puncture holes in the back of a victim's neck through which the creature sucks out said victim's brain and spinal column. Sounds delicious. Speaking of sounds...the fiends always announce their presence with a grotesque sucking noise as they inch along.

Once we see them, wow. Each one is a brain-like slug, moving about by means of an inch-worm motion of its attached spinal column tail. Tack on eye stalks and tentacles, and these little critters become something special.

The movie is tense and noirish to start, much like the mystery at the beginning of another 1950s atomic monster-fest, Them! It packs a good amount of entertainment in 75 minutes, and works just fine if you suspend any knowledge of how nuclear power actually works (and doesn't).

(slurp, slurp, slurp...)

Gifts for Monsters: Dick Briefer's Frankenstein

2010-12-02T08:44:00.002-06:00

The first volume in Yoe Book's thrilling new series, "The Horror Comic Book Masters Library," fittingly features the first and foremost maniacal monster of all time... Frankenstein! Dick Briefer is one of the seminal artists who worked with Will Eisner on some of the very first comic books. Briefer created a bizarre, twisted version of the classic Frankenstein that is legend among comic book aficionados. If you like the comic book weirdness of cartoonists Fletcher Hanks, Basil Wolverton, and Boody Rogers, you're sure to thrill over Dick Briefer's creation of Frankenstein. The large format book lovingly reproduces a monstrous number of stories from the original 1940s and '50s comic books. Briefer did both a dark horror take and a more humorous-yet twisted-styling of Frankenstein, and both are powerfully showcased here. The stories are fascinatingly supplemented by an insightful introduction with rare photos of the artist, original art, letters from Dick Briefer, drawings by Alex Toth inspired by Briefer's Frankenstein-and much more!

Only $14.95 at Amazon.com

RIP Ingrid Pitt

2010-11-30T08:21:00.002-06:00

Ingrid Pitt (1937 - 2010)

Thanks for all the screams, Ms. Pitt.

Obituary: Ingrid Pitt (at LA Times)

Beautiful Film Stills from Frankenstein (1931)

2010-11-24T09:58:00.000-06:00

Just to direct you to the Monster Brains blog.

Beautiful pics. Just beautiful.

Happy Birthday, Boris Karloff

2010-11-23T00:01:00.001-06:00

(23 November 1887 – 2 February 1969)

Born in England as William Henry Pratt, Karloff emigrated to Canada in the 1910s. He held several jobs in his life, but is best remembered for his roles in horror films from Universal, particularly his portrayal of Frankenstein's monster in Frankenstein (1931) and Bride of Frankenstein (1935).

Sara Karloff Interviewed in 2005

2010-11-22T09:35:00.001-06:00

Dracula's Hometown, in Pictures

2010-11-03T11:51:00.003-05:00

Just to redirect your attention to the Huffington Post pictorial article about Sighosoar, Romania, the purported home of Dracula.

(if you haven't seen it already)

Boris Karloff Man-Crush

2010-10-31T16:07:00.000-05:00

*a special poem for Halloween

She sneers when she
talks about the rubber
Frankenstein’s Monster
I keep on the shelf next to
pictures of our trip
to Cancun.

Once, I caught her
with a plastic grocery bag
loaded and heavy with
Fangoria
Famous Monsters
and one old Aurora catalog
I rescued from Grandpa’s trash bin
when I was eight.

Ashes to ashes,
pulp to pulp, she said.

No, I said.

Not Boris Karloff.

Doesn’t she understand
this is Karloff?
The Karloff
who garnered enough fame under
gallons of spirit gum to simply
be known as one word.

The Creature:
Karloff.

Doesn’t she understand
this is about growing up with
silver-screen television late night horror show
blood thudding through my veins?

No I will not throw out
the molded plastic drinking glasses
or the bobble-head
or the fired-clay bust from ninth grade art.

Her eyes roll,
she hands me the bag,
and I stash my treasure
under the tall, Lucite-framed
original lobby card
announcing The Monster Demands a Mate,
hanging from the basement wall
of my shrine.

Doesn’t she know?
Boris Karloff is only a man-crush after all,
and not a threat?
Not much of one,
anyway.

Happy Birthday, Bela Lugosi

2010-10-20T00:01:00.001-05:00

(20 October 1882 – 16 August 1956)

Born Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó, Lugosi was a Hungarian born actor who is most famous for his portrayal of the legendary vampire, Dracula, on stage and in Universal's Dracula (1931). He went on to co-star with Universal stalwart Boris Karloff in a few films, including the often underrated The Black Cat (1934).

(which, for the record, has very little to do with Edgar Allan Poe's tale despite advertising to the contrary)

Paper Monsters Everywhere

2010-10-11T08:41:00.003-05:00

Build your own paper Frankenstein's Monster (by Bob Canada):

Download the template.

Frankenstien, the Puppet Show?

2010-09-20T14:15:00.001-05:00

Odd but true...

Frankenstein: the Trouble Puppet Show, an adaptation of the novel, is playing through October 3rd in Austin, TX.

Check out Trouble Puppet's website for more detail. http://www.troublepuppet.com/

Saving Dracula from the Twilight-Tweakers

2010-04-14T08:50:00.000-05:00

Tired of all the squeaky, emo-teen vampires? Need your monsters to be, well, monsters?

"Well, one university is taking an academic trip down memory lane with a conference dedicated to "relat[ing] the undead in literature, art, and other media to questions concerning gender, technology, consumption, and social change." Sub-topics for the event include "teen vampire/zombie fiction," "identity politics," and "celluloid vampires: adaptations and incarnations.""

Sounds like fun.

Read the rest of the article.

Splice the New Frankenstien? Try The Island of Dr. Moreau

2010-04-12T10:51:00.003-05:00

From Sci Fi Wire:

"The sci-fi movie Splice, starring Adrien Brody and Sarah Polley, is getting a lot of online buzz based on its initial trailer, and director Vincenzo Natali told reporters that the creature feature is a modern-day Frankenstein."

Right. Mixing human and animal DNA...have we forgotten a step in our evolution, Mr. Director?

That's right: H.G. Wells already told that story over 100 years ago. Now, with Guillermo del Toro as producer, I'll try to withhold final judgment. I'm just not a fan of comparisons to Frankenstein being tossed about lightly.

In the Footsteps of Dracula

2010-04-05T18:53:00.002-05:00

From the Sacramento Bee...

In the Footsteps of Dracula Author tracked down sites linked to Dracula and Vlad the Impaler

Monstrous Toys for the Kids (and Parents)

2010-01-03T08:27:00.006-06:00

Yes, the holiday gift-binge season has passed for another year, but Monsters will always be with us. The kids disappointed with Santa's deliveries?

May I suggest:

Groovy Tube - Monsters: the Hunt and the Capture

The best part? A tube full of plastic monster figures. Yes, all the classics are there...Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula. What makes this tube-o-monsters special is the inclusion of Cthulhu. Get it for less than $14.

Mudpuppy - Magnetic Monster Action Figures.

Build thousands of different monstrous combinations from three sheets of magnetic monster parts on four different backgrounds. The tin is magnetic, so the kids can take this one in the car. Of course...ours are on the refrigerator so Dad can play.

Scooby-Doo Haunted House 3-D Board Game.

Yeah, the ghost makes a ridiculous sound when you push him down. Yeah, the whole thing shakes and pops (it is designed to knock game pieces off, you know). But what makes this game special...it's a 3-D haunted house straight out of Scooby's universe. Tentacles in the pond, a spider, a haunted suit of armor, crazy vampire eyes on a portrait, a mummy who pops out of his sarcophagus...it all adds up to spooky awesomeness. Just make sure to play on a hard surface (like a table).

What I Owe Boris Karloff

2009-11-24T08:49:00.004-06:00

I'm know other bloggers have more tidbits from the vaults to share about Mr. Karloff. So I ask myself, what can I bring to the table that's different?

Only my story.

As a senior in high school during the fall of 1992, I purchased a copy of Frankenstein (1931) on VHS. I'd grown up with the monster series from Crestwood Studios, but had never seen the film.

I have always been a fan of dark things. Even though doing so brought nightmares, I watched Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th with my neighbors, the Sullivans. We played silly games in the basement, games designed to terrify each other. They had a collection of old copies of Fangoria and Famous Monsters of Filmland.

But I hadn't actually seen Karloff in action until I was 17.

Elm Street and Friday the 13th weren't my style. Too much gore. Too little introspection. (Yeah, I was as goofy as a young kid as I am now) But the Monster...under all that make-up, Karloff pulled off pain and longing and betrayal and confusion and...

Wow. He made me believe in monsters. More accurately, he presented a monster I could believe in.

There's more, of course, and part of Karloff's story should be an inspiration to anyone working to make a go of his/her dream. The man made dozens of films and worked as a stage actor before Frankenstein, but work was never consistent. He filled the gaps with manual labor, digging ditches and driving a cement truck. Times were tough, and Karloff quite lean at 44 when the Monster was unleashed in 1931's Frankenstein.

The inspiration? Keep plugging away even when the dream is impossible.

Thanks Mr. Karloff. Thanks for bringing the Monster to life. Thanks for inspiring my love for the weird and gothic, and my continuing affair with Mary Shelley's hideous progeny. Most of all, thanks for all the hard work. Without you, there would be no odd stories trickling out of brain, no sympathy for the things that go bump in the night, no understanding that the monsters around us are people, too.

A Lego Tribute to Boris Karloff

2009-11-23T06:01:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday, Mr. Karloff.

Next Week: Boris Karlof Blog-a-thon!

2009-11-20T10:24:00.002-06:00

(be there)

Monster-a-Day: Frankenstein

2009-10-31T07:31:00.003-05:00

Boris Karloff stars in the quintessential monster film, Frankenstein directed by James Whale (1931). Leaner and hungrier (literally) than he would appear in 1935's Bride of Frankenstein, Karloff became an icon with this film.

Frankenstein at All Movie

Frankenstein at IMDb

Read Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (for free) at Project Gutenberg

or, listen to the book (also available free thanks to Project Gutenberg)

Monster-a-Day: Dracula

2009-10-30T08:30:00.002-05:00

A native of Hungary, Bela Lugosi (born Béla Ferenc Dezsõ Blaskó) was nearly 50 years old when he played the iconic count in Tod Browning's 1931 Dracula. Dracula at All Movie

Dracula at IMDb

Read Dracula by Bram Stoker (for free) thanks to Project Gutenberg

or, listen to the book (also thanks to Project Gutenberg)

Monster-a-Day: The Mummy

2009-10-28T08:30:00.000-05:00

Better known for his role as the creature in Frankenstein, Boris Karloff brings long "dead" Egyptian priest Imhotep to life with chilling results in 1932's The Mummy. A special nod to Karl Freund's direction, a great example of what one could do with a camera, even in the early '30s.

The Mummy at All Movie

The Mummy at IMDb

"The Mummy's Curse" (an article by John Warren at Tour Egypt)

Monster-a-Day: The Invisible Man

2009-10-27T08:47:00.003-05:00

The classic H.G. Wells novel became a vehicle for Claude Raines (directed by James Whale of Frankenstein fame). A tale of the corrupting influence of power, The Invisible Man utilized landmark special optical effects that influenced generations of filmmakers.

The Invisible Man at All Movie

The Invisible Man at IMDb

Read The Invisible Man by H.G. Wells (for free) at Project Gutenberg

or, listen to the book (also available free thanks to Project Gutenberg)

Monster-a-Day: Phantom of the Opera

2009-10-26T08:42:00.006-05:00

Phantom of the Opera (1925) made Lon Chaney a star and Universal the go-to studio for horror films in the 1930s. Give me spirit gum and imagination over digital effects any day.

Phantom of the Opera at All Movie

Phantom of the Opera at IMDb

Read The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (for free) thanks to Project Gutenberg

New Edition of Frankenstein

2009-10-12T12:18:00.002-05:00

A new edition of Frankenstein is available, one that hopes to "clarify" the authorship of the classic gothic novel. Newsweek ran a nice article a few weeks back. Check it out, and then grab yourself a copy of the book. (If you're a collector like me, you know you want to)

Speaking of Zombies

2009-09-11T14:35:00.004-05:00

Zombies.

Love 'em or hate 'em, they're ala mode. Zombieland, while it looks entertaining, doesn't strike me as much of a thinking person's film. Tracing zombie roots to Voodoo isn't all that hard, but western culture has captured the fiends and created ghouls of its own for decades--undead monsters that deviate from the classic slaves of a powerful bokor (sorcerer). Although the Romeroesque zombies have been the fodder for the horror biz since the "ghouls" first stumbled up to a secluded farmhouse in the late '60s, they've received a few upgrades since gnawing on those chicken bones...a few wear track shoes and learned to sprint...others started to think (and remember).

A few questions still haunt me...late at night...when I'm thinking too much.

1. Why don't zombies eat each other? They obviously don't care that much about sanitation (just look at them) and are pretty indiscriminate about what they put in their mouths. I'm sure somebody has cooked up the "virus doesn't taste good" or "don't eat their own kind" argument, but that's just lame. In the real world, the whole zombie problem would probably be over in a few hours after the outbreak, just after they devour each other. The National Guard can wait around and pick off remainders.

2. Although popular, the whole "brains" idea is too restrictive. Zombies want meat. Brain meat is hard to attain. (ever try cracking that nut?) One would think the mindless rabble would simply chomp down on the convenience food...each other (see #1) or a nice juicy thigh with no bones to get in the way.

3. Why, if most living people caught by the horde are devoured, does the size of the zombie mob keep growing? It's not as though they take one bite, decide you taste bad, and move on to the next shrieking victim. I've watched plenty of disembowelings on film; those poor bastards aren't getting back up, even as a member of the undead.

4. Running zombies? Are you kidding? Ever try to do a 40 yard dash with rigor mortis? (Don't tell me zombies don't experience rigor mortis...they sure as hell look dead.)

I could go on, but why? Regardless of "reality", zombies are scary as hell and entertaining. I'm willing to suspend my disbelief just for the fun of it.

Zombie (Lucio Fulci, 1979)

What "reality gaps" are you willing to look past for a good gut-muncher?

"Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell

2009-05-23T13:59:00.004-05:00

Just finished watching The Thing (1982 John Carpenter). I'm positive this is a copyright violation, but this site has the entire text of the novella, "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell, that inspired both movies (1951 and 1982).

Though some folks out in Interweb^TM land might want to read it.

Castlevania: The Greatest Classic Monster Video Game

2009-05-08T09:00:00.006-05:00

When the original Castlevania game was released for the NES in the mid-80s, classic monsters found their way to console gaming in a big way.

One quick look at the boss line up for the original game, and you know this is the one:

Stage 1: Giant Bat (foreshadowing Dracula in Stage 6?)
Stage 2: Medusa
Stage 3: The Mummies
Stage 4: Frankenstein and Igor
Stage 5: Death (yes...that Death, The Grim Reaper)
Stage 6: Dracula

Thanks to the Nintendo Wii, fans of the original game (one of the best in the the long-running series), can play Castlevania without the NES console.

It's Alive!

2009-04-24T10:03:00.003-05:00

"It's Alive!" - Frankenstein (James Whale, 1931)

One of the classic scenes in all of movie monster history:

The line "In the name of God, now I know what it feels like to be God" was struck from the original release of the film, deemed too blasphemous by the censors.

The Thing from Another World (1951)

2009-04-17T10:01:00.007-05:00

Um, thinking vegetable? Doesn't sound all that scary, but in The Thing from Another World (1951), that is exactly what a small group of scientists and airmen are up against at an isolated North Pole base.

James Arness, who found later fame as Marshall Matt Dillon in Gunsmoke, is the monster, a thinking vegetable man from another planet. The eponymous Thing feeds on human blood, creepy, sure. Realistic, heck no. But it does echo back to H.G. Wells's War of the Worlds.(Remember what the Martians used human blood for in that book?)

The Thing might be a 'B' movie, but it is about as tense and fast paced as it comes for 1950s sci fi/horror. Fans of vintage Frankenstein films will recognize a bit of Karloff's make-up influence in Arness's costume. The Thing from Another World was remade in 1982 by John Carpenter (simple titled The Thing), a frightening film in its own right. Both movies were based on a short story by John W. Campbell, Jr., although the 1982 version is more faithful to the source material.

The movie ends with the famous last line, "Keep Watching the Skies", a nod to cold war tensions and the fear of the unknown.

A Little Something for Frankenstein Fans

2009-04-03T04:31:00.002-05:00

If you have yet to discover the tremendous Frankensteinia: The Frankenstein Blog, waste no more time and cruise over there immediately.

Mary Shelley's "hideous progeny" is one of the archetypal monsters, arguably the great-grandaddy of modern zombies and various biologically created aberrations of humankind. I could say more, but Frankensteinia does it better.

The Fearless Vampire Killers

2009-01-22T14:06:00.004-06:00

Roman Polanski is one of my favorite directors, especially for his ghoulish and blood-soaked interpretation of Macbeth (1971). With this in mind, I picked up The Fearless Vampire Killers (1966) from the public library. I had heard of the film and knew it was somewhat comedic, somewhat creepy.

If you like Benny Hill, then you'd love The Fearless Vampire Killers. The movie is by far more slapstick than black comedy, but some moments are truly chilling. My favorite scene, one of the more frightening scenes I've seen in a film of its era, takes place around the 1:30 mark in this clip:

The professor and his apprentice are trapped in the castle, and by this point evening begins to fall. When Polanski (playing the young apprentice) says, "Good gracious....I'm...I'm frightened" I was too. The timing is well done, and the shot of the sarcophagi opening is delightfully wicked.

Vampires are best when they inspire terror, I think.

The last two minutes of the film are pretty dark, but overall it is a delightful romp. It was fun to see a younger, more innocent Polanski, one who was unmarred by the violent death of his wife, Sharon Tate, at the hands of the Manson family.

Movie Review: The Ruins

2008-12-17T09:04:00.003-06:00

I liked The Ruins. A little. Even if the premise was somewhat silly. (Killer weeds? Really?)

And then it became an exercise in futility truncated by illogical hope.

To explain: I take issue with much of modern American cinema. Namely, we (Americans) can't seem to be okay with total tragedy...someone always needs to escape. Hope is always an option.

Enter, The Ruins. Six twenty-somethings set out for a hidden Mayan temple. One makes it out alive. The primary villain/monster? Weeds that only grow on the temple. I can't believe in a weed that must feed on flesh--not one that moves as quickly or with as much intelligence as the killer plants in The Ruins. It just isn't biologically possible. One character even remarks that the plants must be really old because insects and birds don't land on the temple. How did the plant survive then, without the flesh it seemed to need? I can stomach something this implausible if it is presented as supernatural, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

The first 45 minutes set up the tension and suspense well, culminating with the moment (in my opinion at least) that one character falls down a shaft into the heart of the ruined temple and breaks his back. After that point, the audience knows they are going to die. All of them.

But they don't. No...in the worst tradition of "hope wins out" cinema, one character--one of the least likeable characters--escapes in the end. I like my tragedies Shakespearean. Kill 'em all.

Read the book (I haven't, but I heard the ending is much more...logical).

Race and Night of the Living Dead

2008-12-05T22:11:00.006-06:00

I first watched Night of the Living Dead when I was eighteen. I grew up in a small town in Kansas. Sheltered, I guess you could say. The eighteen-year-old me didn't grasp the heavy race-relations overtones in the film.

I just watched it again at thirty-three. The thirty-three year old me wants to beat the eighteen year old for not understanding the depth and complexity of that movie.

Boy, have I changed. The whole movie can be read as a treatise on race in the 1960s. Notice the whole mob is white? Did you watch the credits and see those pictures of the "ghoul" lynch mob posing next to Ben's body? I'm not the first to point any of this out, and I won't be the last. How shocking was it for a crowd in the late 1960s to see a black man slap a white woman? Were those crowds paying attention?

Are we paying attention now? Horror is often considered the bastard cousin of the more legitimate speculative fiction. Horror is just for thrills, they say.

Watch Night of the Living Dead if you haven't already. Watch it again if you have seen it.

Music for Monsters: Bauhaus

2008-11-16T17:14:00.003-06:00

I picked up Crackle by Bauhaus last week.

Then I had a few nightmares.

I'll admit, the first I heard of the band was an accidental download of their "Ziggy Stardust" cover. Their prime time was a little before mine, and if I had listened to them in junior high, I probably wouldn't have appreciated it as much as I do now.

One song--if you can even call it a song--stands out as a dark musical masterpiece. "Bella Lugosi's Dead" (known by some from the snooze-fest movie, The Hunger) is an amazing piece of noise. The lyrics are perfect for monster lovers: "The virginal brides file past his tomb..."

Other tunes stand out as deliciously dark and creepy..."Silent Hedges", "Hollow Hills"--the titles alone would make nice horror films/stories/novels.

At times the music is too new wave/post disco for this monster fan, but I'll suffer through the pulsing high hat just to have a taste of lead singer Peter Murphy's haunting voice, the scratchy guitars and menacing bass.

Good stuff, monster lovers--and they give a nod to Lugosi.

Film Recommendation: Eyes Without a Face (1962)

2008-10-23T19:19:00.003-05:00

George Franju's Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage in the original French) is a horror film built on a solid foundation of melancholy and despair rather than shock-fest fright. At its heart, Eyes is the story of a father who becomes a monster to atone for an accident that left his daughter literally without a face. The tale is plenty dark, and its combination of imagery, pacing, and subtly building music creates a poetic, somber tone that haunts after the final, surreal scene.

Known among some circles for a key scene--a bit of film history where a woman's face is surgically removed with a scalpel, and yes the camera allows no escape during that seminal moment--the film as a whole delivers an unflinching sense of sorrow and regret.

(He later transplants the skin on his own daughter...ewww.)

I give it 8.5/10 surgical scalpels.

Eyes Without a Face at allmovie.com and imdb.com

Analysis: The Day the Earth Stood Still & Forbidden Planet

2008-10-20T10:13:00.001-05:00

We are the scariest monsters.

Two science fiction movies from the 1950s act as a poignant reminder that people (and the technology we create) are the scariest monsters. The Cold War provided the backdrop for painting the portrait of the human monster. The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951) carried a disarmament message that I'm not sure the world's nuclear powers have taken heed even in 2008. People may "watch the skies" but the weapons mankind has constructed are far more frightening than a flying saucer. This film is a reminder that their is a gulf between being able to do something (e.g., create atomic bombs) and the wisdom recquired to use that ability.

MGM's Forbidden Planet (1956) made some very serious statements about the danger that lurks in humankind's subconscious mind. Produced at a time when the Soviets and Americans were developing technology at an alarming rate (especially weapons)--the parallels between Altair-4's history and Earth's present were quite vivid. The society on Altair-4 destroyed in a single day? I remember playground discussions about how nuclear weapons could, almost instantly, destroy all life on earth.

These two movies tried to show us that the real beast was lurking right here, on this planet, across the globe, across the street, and in our own minds. Have we, since the Cold War, become less monstrous and more human--less able to destroy each other and more likely to cooporate?