They Don't Paint 'Em Like This Anymore

German Frankenstein (1931) poster.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Hunting!

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

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

Sounds of Terror (1974) from LP

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...

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

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

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

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

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

"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

Frankenstein's Army...Oh Yeah!

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

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

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!

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

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

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

Ingrid Pitt (1937 - 2010)

Thanks for all the screams, Ms. Pitt.

Obituary: Ingrid Pitt (at LA Times)

Beautiful Film Stills from Frankenstein (1931)

Just to direct you to the Monster Brains blog.

Beautiful pics. Just beautiful.

Happy Birthday, Boris Karloff

(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).