Los Monstrous Del Terror

I finally added this film to my collection and will have a 'reaction' to it in a few days. Why reaction and not a review? Probably because I have reviewed it a number of times under its more common English language version - ASSIGNMENT TERROR. Yes, I have acquired yet another version of this film fav of mine from childhood. This time, I have finally found a copy of the ORIGINAL Spanish langauge version that is unedited and runs 85 minutes which is slightly longer that the American version and significantly longer than the horribly hack edited 75 minute British version. Best of all, the picture quality of it is excellent and it contains a REAL widescreen transfer as opposed to the fake, altered widescreen version that was offered in Ebay bootlegs.

This is a wacked and fun film and I never get bored watching it...as this blog is clearly evident of.

Where did the Humor Go?

Where did the humor go? Well, it was not around to begin with and that was my biggest most irresponsible error. While I have enjoyed pointing out some of the more interesting facets of science fiction and horror films, literature and pop culture, I have seemingly neglected to point out some of the more fun aspects of it. This is an unforgivable mistake on my part especially when one considers the fact that there is a great deal of absurdum in the fantasy genre (and even more absurdum surrounding many of the people attracted to it)so it has been utterly negligent of me to spend far too much time on droning, serious aspects. So, look for a few mentions and reviews of Abbott and Costello "Meet the..." tyoe films as well as marginal attempts to ponder the validy of films such as Santo Y Blue Demon Contra Los Monstrous. Keep watching the skies

Fantastic Poems

If you are into literature and those of a more surreal nature, you may wish to check out the following poem: Prayer To The Omnipotent FSM This is a unique poem that deals with the concept of omnipotence (as the title would suggest)and omnipotence is a subject that has a variety of different aspects and facets to it. As such, the poem is as complex as its subject matter and well worth investigating and reading. Sponsored by Fantastic Poems.

Influenced by a film?

It looks like the Virgina Rampage killer was influenced by a film that was produced in South Korea. I have not seen the film and am going by preliminary reports that are appearing in the news. This is going to lead to a firestorm of debate and will, sadly, become highly politicized. More on this as new information becomes available...

New print articles in the works

I'm not going to go into too much detail because everything is still in the early stages, but after an absence of far too long, I am ready to start a series of new entertainment and sports articles in print publications. Of course, some of these articles will revolve around horror and comic books. I am also returning to writing about competitive wrestling after five years of swearing I would never write another article on the subject ever again. (I got super stiffed for money)

Anyway...blogs and magazine articles have a different dynamic namely do to the fact that blogs are self edited and magazines involve a chain of command and directives coming from editors and publishers. More often than not, the publishers and editors provide valuable feedback that IMPROVES the quality of the article. (Sadly, they do not always get the credit they deserve for helping improve a writer's work)

Again, I will keep everyone updated on upcoming print magazine articles. Sadly, unlike this blog, you'll need to shell out money to read the articles....but you can afford it, cheap-o.

More on The Hulk

Again, I have to strongly disagree with the notion that The Hulk is a variant of Mr. Hyde for the simple reason that the Jeckyll/Hyde tale involves the internal battle between good and evil. In the Hulk comics, the Hulk is hardly an evil being. He is more a misunderstood outsider who does not have an actual home in the world. (This is an absurdity as the Hulk was created on earth, hence, he is NOT an outsider. He simply does not fit into the conveinent conventions of a world that refuses to accommodate him)

The Hulk essentially does a great deal of good for humanity, saving it from death and destruction a number of times. However, despite the great benefit he provides, he is rejected and unaccepted, making him a stranger in a strange land despite the fact that he is really NOT a stranger, but rather an indigenous being who the other indigenous people refuse to accept despite the fact that it was their creation of the gamma bomb that spawned him. In other words, they would rather drive him out than accept him and take responsibility for their own actions that spawned him

Naschy at Fangoria in Burbank in May

El Hombre Lobo will be in Burbank this May and here is the link to the website: http://www.creationent.com/cal/dod.htm
Fangoria conventions are usually really cool and it is suggested to purchase tickets well in advance. When I saw Rob Zombie there 2 years ago, tickets sold out rather quickly and several hundred people were turned away at the door. Even the $60 flew.

And even if you are not a Naschy fan, there are a million other cool guests who will be appearing so swing on over and check it out

Looking at The Incredible Hulk

So what does the Incredible Hulk have to do with horror? Could it be because Stan Lee always described the character as a retelling of the classic Robert Louis Stevenson Dr. Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde tale. True. Could be. Or, it could be that I have been too lazy to start up a Marvel Comics blog and this subject matter finds its way to Super Blog Beast. Or it could be the more accurate assessment: those who love horror and the fantastic usually have a soft spot in their heart for comic books and, for many, the Hulk remains a favorite character?

Why?

Is it because the child-like demeanor of the creature captivates young readers in the same way the Frankenstein Monster capitivates readers? (The Hulk and the Frankenstein Monster are, after all, "big kids.") Yes, to a great degree, this is accurate.

The Hulk is a child who does not wish to cause problems or harm, yet because he can not fit in an adult world he becomes and outcast. His wish? "Leave Hulk alone." What nebbish child would not wish to be left alone from the bullies or the authority figures that taunt them? How many kids idenitfied with this lumbering creature who repeatedly saved the world only to be cast aside because he was different. Is there a greater psychology present within the pages of the Hulk? You bet.
TO BE CONTINUED

4-16-2007

Horror. It is a word that often conjures up images of classics films that we saw in our youth or teen years. Despite the fact that "horror" is a word that is supposed to connotate painful and disturbing images, it has become associated most commonly with whimsy. To a great degree, this is because fanatastic monsters and creatures are no longer scary in a world when incidents such as what occured on 4-16-2007.

Today, 28 people were murdered in cold blood for the crime of being college students going about their business. This is the true horror that our whimsy represents. In a way, the image of classic monsters is a way of softening the brutality of the images of what exist in real life.

Can there be anything in existence more horrifying than what occured this morning at Virginia Tech? Will there be any answer that can be provided for the reasons for this event unfolding? If there is a reason, it can be nothing more than illogical insanity devised by a lunatic who decided to play God and destroy many people's lives in a maddening crusade of violence.

Prayers for all.

Legion of Monsters with The Man Thing and Simon Garth The Zombie

Call it what you will, but I spent a great deal of time these last few weeks writing about the joys of the old, classic 1970's Marvel Comics monsters The Macabre Man Thing and Simon Garth, the Zombie.

Well, lo and behold, what do I see on store shelves today? A new issue of Legion of Monsters that features an all new Man thing Tale along with the long awaited return of Simon Garth.

While Man-Thing has been around on and off in Marvel Comics for 30 years, Simon Garth was dropped down a black hole. TALES FROM THE ZOMBIE magazine was abruptly cancelled so no farewell story could be written. I guess if no one was buying the book, who would miss the character?

I didn't read the issue yet, but I promise to tear into it as soon as I can and give y'all a nice update. The previous Legion of Monsters issue was real cool and featured the first great Werewolf by Night tale in 25 years so I have high hopes for this issue.

Zombie out.

Looking At Those Paul Naschy Movies Through the Eyes of a Little Kid

When watching FRANKENSTEIN’S BLOODY TERROR and ASSIGNMENT TERROR today as an adult, I still thoroughly enjoy the movies. FTB is a fine horror film that benefits from great cinematography (will we ever get to see a theatrical 3-D screening?) and ASSIGNMENT TERROR remains a pretty dull film until the last third when all the monster mayhem breaks out.

As a little kid, however, these films were positively surreal. FTB held a hypnotic hold on me as a kid particularly in the scenes were Wolfstein screams his “curse” at the Vampire couple, Waldemar’s look of anguish from behind cell bars as the Vampires kidnap his girlfriend and, of course, I could never forget the weird music soundtrack that accompanied Waldermar’s transformation into the Wolfman after showing his friend the pentagram scar on his chest. (Curiously, I don’t seem to recall any childhood memories the werewolf vs. werewolf fight scene, a fight scene that is FINALLY available unedited on the DVD release)

For ASSIGNMENT TERROR, I have a number of additional memories: namely, the crazy scene of the werewolf battling the Mummy and the Frankenstein Monster, the Mummy smashing a brick wall apart to chase the hero and the heroine as well as the weird ending where the castle goes boom.

I also used to dig the old Channel 48 UHF “buffer” between commercial breaks where they would freeze-frame on the werewolf’s face while the announcer would state “And now we return to….ASSIGNMENT…terror.” It was little touches like that that made the whole Saturday Afternoon Spectacle a lot of fun and such touches are sadly missed today.

As a kid, ASSIGNMENT TERROR was more of an action film with monsters while FTB was more akin to shocking horror, but both remain indelible in my memory. Many thanks Senor Naschy!

Werewolf By Night

It would seem that the tale of a man cursed to turn into a rampaging werewolf on the nights of the full moon would equate to a wildly popular comic book. In the early 1970’s, for a brief period of time, the trials and tribulations of the Jack Russell, the tortured werewolf, was a decent seller in Marvel Comics celebrated (and short lived) horror line. Despite publishing such popular titles as Tomb of Dracula and Monster of Frankenstein, the good folks at Marvel simply could not get their horror stars to sell books at the same level of the company’s hero line. This is a shame as these were generally excellent books. Now, they have been reprinted thanks to Marvel’s excellent reprint “Essential” series. After 30+ years since the title was canceled, it is now possible to reexamine the life and times of Jack Russell in The Essential Werewolf By Night.

When he hits his 18th birthday, Jack Russell discovers he is cursed to become a werewolf when the moon rises. His late father was cursed as a werewolf and passed the curse to Jack. Now, Jack must discover a cure before his sister hits her 18th birthday and she also becomes afflicted with the curse. In Jack’s travels, he must face weird monsters, fellow werewolves, a secret society out to kidnap him, a bizarre vigilante named The Hangman, and even DRACULA!

In a special twist, the early tales are told in the first person narrative (well, the yellow boxes are first person) and the reader gets a unique perspective into the head of Russell as he recounts his troubles. (Unfortunately, the first person narrative was abandoned in a hugely mistaken editorial decision) This makes the book super creepy reading!

I first discovered Werewolf By Night in 1980 when I found a torn up old back issue. I would purchase back issues when I could, but never amassed more than half the series 41 issue run. In this Essential volume, the first half of the werewolf’s appearances in Marvel Spotlight, Marvel Team Up and his own title are gleefully reprinted. When reading the tales in their proper chronological presentation, it becomes clear that this was definitely one of Marvel’s better titles. (It became particularly good when the legendary Marv Wolfman took over the main writing duties)

Sadly, the Werewolf never saw his title revived except one miserably failed time in the 1990’s. This was a pity because the character was interesting, unique and novel. Don’t believe it? Pick up a copy of Essential Werewolf By Night and enjoy!

Dr Jeckyll Y El Hombre Lobo

Oh, Paul Naschy is one weird dude! He is, also, a highly talented film maker and the bizarre horror films that he produced in Spain in the 1960’s and 1970’s such as Frankenstein’s Bloody Terror, Assignment Terror, and Werewolf vs. The Vampire Woman all have their own unique and kooky charm. And, despite the silliness present in these films, there is also a significant spookiness that makes the films scary as well. When Naschy’s character Waldemar Danisky turns into a werewolf, he turns into one no nonsense, take no prisoners werewolf who tears apart extras and scenery with wild, over the top abandon. Nope, there will never be another werewolf like the one Naschy played! However, in order to keep making films that are interesting, the werewolf needs to be placed in a number of new scenarios that will prove interesting to the audience. Rehashing and remaking the same film ala the Friday the 13th series would not have been the formula for success so Naschy went into a number of different directions with his sequels. And, boy oh boy, is having the rampaging werewolf meet up with Dr. Jekyll is one definite “new direction.”

In the film, Waldemar discovers the long lost relative of Dr. Jekyll may have the secret to how to cure Waldemar of his werewolf curse. The plan of action is to inject the werewolf with the Mr. Hyde formula and hopefully the two will cancel each other out. You know where this is going….Waldemar ends up becoming Mr. Hyde! Mayhem ensues! The film is a wacky, nonsensical tour de force that balances wackiness with scares to a successful degree. While the cinematic clash between a werewolf and relatives of Dr. Jekyll is not going to be a film that wins an Oscar, it does provide an impetus for fun. In 1971, this would have been a joy to view in the Drive In theaters, but now we have to be happy to enjoy it on DVD. Either way, it is still great to see this wacked film with great picture and sound quality. (Note: the DVD is slightly edited and missing some R Rated material that was present during the film’s initial theatrical run)

Paul Naschy is still cranking films out to this very day and is finally receiving some acclaim for his B Movie work. Such acclaim is long overdo and because he is finally receiving some notoriety, many of his classic films are finally getting proper releases for his classic films. It is about time!

Grindhouse performs poorly

So who had the bright idea to open a movie like Grindhouse on Easter Weekend where it would be buried by the family friendly films?

It is tough enough making bank with a three hour film (less screenings per day, but to openan R-Rated horror film on Easter Weekend made it triply difficult. And by the way, did anyone else notice that this film was not promoted as a horror film in the trailers? If you are old enough to remember Grindhouse fair like POOR WHITE TRASH or KILL OR BE KILLED (and its funky sequel KILL AND KILL AGAIN), then you probably got a lot of the inside jokes in the trailers. The problem is that those action, chase movie drive in classics have long since been dead. Horror is what is hot these days on the exploitation market and GRINDHOUSE really missed the boat by not pushing horror tales. What a misfire. (Marketing wise, anyway)

For people like myself who remember the grindhouses and all the cool fanzines that sung their praises in the 1980's and 1990's, the concept of the film was truly divine. For the other 99% of the world, the word Grindhouse makes ZERO sense and the audience really needed to be further educated on the history of what those types of theaters were and what type of homage they were going to be in store for with the film. Again, the marketing department truly missed the boat on properly presenting this one. I guess they figured the names of two big directors each coming off two big hits would be enough to carry the film. At a dismal $11 weekend gross, I guess not.

Eaten Alive! (The book, not the actually happening)

When a film book bears a title like “Eaten Alive!” it is a safe bet that the types of films that the book is going to deal with are probably of a somewhat lowbrow nature. Then again, perhaps lowbrow is a negative word. How about films that are an acquired taste? That would probably be the most apt description of the classic Italian Cannibal and Zombie films.

From the early 1970’s through the mid 1980’s, the country of Italy had a booming film industry that was producing a number of low budget horror films that were doing excellent business overseas. Within this horror film genre there was also a subgenre of films that deal with rampaging cannibal zombies or run of the mill average human cannibals. It is hard to say what spawned the human bad guys, but the zombie bad guys were clearly inspired by 1968’s Night of the Living Dead. 1974 saw the Italian rip-off of Night entitled The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (aka Don’t Open the Window and Let Sleeping Corpses Lie). This zombie film was a huge hit, but it would be 1979’s seminal classic Zombie that would be the biggest hit of them all. In 1978, George Romero scripted a sequel to Night entitled Dawn of the Dead and Zombie was a funky voodoo inspired rip off of Romero’s sequel. Directed by cult director Lucio Fulci, Zombie would go on to gross (no pun intended) $30 million dollars worldwide essentially launching an avalanche of future zombie films.

All of these glorious B-movies from the grindhouse and drive-in era are collected and reviewed in this classic text. Slater’s reviews provide a rundown of the particular merits of each film as well as also providing a few historical facts about the films production and release. This makes for interesting reading on a subject that is never going to get decent treatment in Film Comment Magazine.

It is funny when one considers how vilified these types of films were when they were first released into theaters way back when. Now, time has passed and the public has grown more fond of these glorious exploitation and B-movies. Thanks to such interest having been stimulated by the famzines of the 1980’s and 1990’s, people began taking the subject somewhat more serious from a pop culture historical perspective. This is where such cool books along the lines of Eaten Alive! derive. Hopefully, we will see more funky books such as this one.

Werewolves on the Tube?

Does anyone out there know of any special appearances by werewolves on weekly TV shows? I remember two werewolf episodes on Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, David Hedison turning into a werewolf on an episode of Fantasy Island (as silly as it sounds), then there was the old Fox series Werewolf. Ah, there was a werewolf on the old Friday the 13rg TV series. A guy who thought he was a werewolf on Barney Miller. Of course, Kolchak met a werewolf on the old Night Stalker series. Any others?
Ah, she-wolf of London was a short lived weekly series.

TV movies like Moon of the Wolf, Midnight Hour, the remake of House of Frankenstein and Death Moon don't count.

How I Remember Bob Clark

Ashen. white faces. Blood shot eyes. Scary. That is what Andy the returning vietnam vet looked like when he returned home. He looked that way because, you see, he really DID die in the war. Now, he is decomposing abd he needs blood to survive.

This was probably the most frightening variant on the classic zombie/vampire yarn as presented in Bob Clark's brilliant 1974 film DEATH DREAM. Watching DEATH DREAM as a child on Saturday Afternoon TV was a surreal and frightening experience to say the least. This film was way different from other horror films that propogated on local TV because very few films maintained the same level of social commentary that was preset within the running time of DEATH DREAM. It is a unique film and a huge testament to the talents of Mr. Clark, a greta diretor who unfortunately directed some not so great films. True fans of the late Mr. Clarke realize he was a true visionary when motivates and DEATH DREAM is a testament to such skills.

RIP Mr. Clarke. You will be missed.

Neurosis?

I was listening to the Radio Factor With Bill O’Reilly this week and he was discussing the subject of Rosie O’Donnell and her surreal rants on THE VIEW. (No, I am not going to discuss Rosie on this blog so bear with me) O’Reilly mentioned that he believed her bizarre rants were some form of her revealing a neurosis that she may have underneath the surface. This brings me to a unique question.

Is there a neurosis that motivates people to watch horror movies?

There are two different sphere that you could look at when discussing this issue. The first would be to look at it from the perspective of the villain, the victim and the last victim. From the perspective of the villain, there has been put forth the psychological point that people who view horror films identify with the villain/monster. (I strongly disagree…I believe most people who follow horror movies identify with either the last victim and, in the case of older horror films, the hero….Remember when horror movies used to have heroes?) The reasoning behind this is that people who feel powerless will identify with the villain to as to take in a feeling of power. In particular, they seem to enjoy the dominance the villain performs on people.

While I would not say that there are people who do feel this way, I would have a hard time believing that most people identify with the villain because that would make all fans of the genre delusional, cynical and nihilistic. If that were the case, horror films would not make the money that they do because such a person is rare and indicative of a truly unhealthy person. For my money, most people will identify with the victim because the victim displays the tragic flaws that people feel they have. In this manner, the horror film becomes a morality play to them

Mental Hygiene - The Book

As mentioned in my previous post, the perfect text (well, probably the only text) on the subject of demented educational films of years gone by would be Mental Hygiene: Better Living Through Classroom Films 1945-1970. Brilliantly written by Ken Smith, this tome provides incredible background information on lost 'classics' of an era that was long, long ago. If the subject matter piques your interest, disregard the part in the book that mentions that these films are impossible to locate. (The book was published in 1999 - many 'lost' educational films have been located and preserved and released on DVD by the nice people over at www.somethingweirdvideo.com)

Who would have thought that the films no one wanted to watch in High School would now become in demand collector's items? Who wudda thunk? Yes, we live in a weird, werid world folks!