John Rozum's Blog, page 118

31 Days of Halloween - Day 28 - Mask of the Day

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I don't know where this print and cut out mask came from, but it looks like it was inspired by Dick Briefer's Frankenstein.

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 28

Jack Davis drew some great monsters including these two Slim Jim ads which I remember fondly from my youth. 

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Movie

Paranoiac (1963) is a tough movie to summarize without giving too much away. When Eleanor (Janette Scott) claims to keep seeing her brother, Tony, everyone thinks she's mad. Tony is believed dead, a suicide by drowning two years after the death of their parents thirteen years ago. Eleanor's self centered, mean, drunk of a brother, Simon (Oliver Reed) is more than happy to have Eleanor proven insane, this way he won't have to share the half a million dollars in inheritance that's due him in three weeks time. A problem for Simon's plans crops up when a man claiming to be Tony (Alexander Davion) arrives after an absence of eleven years. Is the man really Tony, or an imposter? In a house where everyone seems to be hiding something what secrets will emerge in the search for the truth?



Paranoiac is a Hammer film written by Jimmy Sangster and directed by Freddie Francis who gave us many of Hammer's finest gothic horrors. This movie is more of a thriller than a horror movie, and while it is contemporary in setting, there are still plenty of gothic flourishes to be found here. The black and white cinematography by Arthur Grant is gorgeous and the cast here, especially Reed is terrific. Every character in this movie seems to be hiding something, scheming, or not what they seem, which makes it riveting and keeps the viewer trying to unravel the secrets even after some of the big ones are revealed. Nothing is as obvious as it seems. I've seen this before, and still was trying to work out some of the machinations as the movie progressed.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 27 - Mask of the Day

Today's print and cut out mask is H.P. Lovecraft by Atomic Moo. They also have one of Edgar Allen Poe. You can download both here

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 27

For the past two days I've bombarded you with photos of monsters carrying away women. Today I'm going to show you a handful of photos of monsters getting carried away.



As a heterosexual male I will confess that cleavage does draw the eye just as a black hole pulls in light, and like a black hole it's inescapable. This doesn't mean I respect you ladies any less as human beings. If anything I respect you more.



It seems that monsters aren't immune to these charms either, especially Dracula as played by Christopher Lee. If you need evidence then examine the eyelines of the monsters pictured below.







The Wolf Man (1941)





The Horror of Party Beach [image error] (1964)





The Horror of Dracula [image error] (1958)



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Dracula - Prince of Darkness [image error] (1966)





Dracula - Prince of Darkness (1966)





        

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Spooky Bonuses

A couple of things which should be of interest to followers of this blog that tie in with the Halloween season:



Rondal Scott of the the awesome Strange Kids Club has interviewed me about Halloween, monsters, comics, cartoons, and other strange matters. You can read that interview here.



Speaking of monsters, comic books and cartoons, for you early risers, tomorrow morning at 7:00am EST, Cartoon Network will be airing my first episode of Super Hero Squad, "Night in the Sanctorum" in which the heroes find themselves without a headquarters and place to live.  Suitable to the Halloween season, the episode features Marvel's master of the mystic arts, Dr. Strange. This episode also features the Punisher and gets discussed in the Punisher: War Zone episode of the podcast How Did This Get Made? with special guests Patton Oswalt and Punisher: War Zone director, Lexi Alexander. "Night in the Sanctorum" comes in at around the 51:00 minute mark, and the discussed clip can be viewed in the comments section for that episode. Thanks to fellow Cryptmaster Shawn Robare for pointing this out to me.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Movie

Trilogy of Terror (1975) is a made for tv anthology movie made up of, as the title suggests, three stories, all horror related. The stories also all feature Karen Black as a different character in each one. The tales are simply named after these characters.



"Julie" appears to be something of a date rape turned blackmail plot by a college student which turns his professor into something of a sex slave for him, but not everything is what it appears to be.



"Millicent and Therese" features Black in a dual role as two sisters who are polar opposites. Millicent is repressed and almost puritanical, while Therese is an all around bad girl whose wicked ways Millicent is determined to stop.



"Amelia" is the story that everyone remembers and caused many a sleepless night for children living in the 70s who caught this on tv. Here, a woman trying to get out from under her mother's thumb buys a Zuni fetish doll for the new man in her life. The doll is supposed to house the spirit of a warrior who can bring the doll to life if a gold chain wrapped around its midsection is removed. Guess what falls off the doll?



The stories are all fine, if a bit dated, with scripts by William F. Nolan and Richard Matheson based on stories by Matheson. Their twists are predictable pretty much from the beginning, and producer/director Dan Curtis who brought to the world many classic television horrors of this era such as Dark Shadows and Kolchak: The Night Stalker, directs these pieces with such a formal stagey manner that it's difficult not to be aware that you are watching actors performing rather than characters living. He only finally lets loose a little bit with some potent rapid POV camera work and swift editing in the final segment turning the malicious assault by the Zuni fetish into some charged with viciousness and danger, making the doll a serious threat. Black is fine, but the characters aren't really diverse enough to make this a showcase for the range of her abilities as an actress, and again, Curtis' direction makes us all too aware Black acting out these characters vs Black transforming into these characters.

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 26 - Mask of the Day

For the Disney fan, here's mask of Lucifer, the nasty cat from Cinderella taken from an old box of Wheaties. You can also find some print, cut-out and color masks of characters from Monsters, Inc. here.

31 Days of Halloween - Day 26

Because there's no such thing as too much of a good thing, here are some more monsters carrying away women. Don't forget to check out yesterday's post for part 1.



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The Mummy's Tomb (1942)





The Monster that Challenged the World [image error] (1957)





Bride of the Monster (1955)





The Day the World Ended (1955)





Schlock (1973)





Night of the Bloody Apes (1969)





Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)





Curse of the Faceless Man [image error] (1958)



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Konga (1961)



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Frankenstein Created Woman (1967)





The Colossus of New York (1958)





El Retorno del Hombre Lobo (1981)



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The Hunchback of Notre Dame [image error] (1923)





From Hell It Came [image error] (1957)





Lady Frankenstein (1971)





The Monster of Piedras Blancas [image error] (1959)





The Return of Swamp Thing (1989)





House of Frankenstein (1944)





The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)





The Mad Monster (1942)





I Was a Teenage Frankenstein (1957)



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Dracula (1931) [Spanish version]



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Captive Wild Woman (1943)





The Mad Magician (1954)





Young Frankenstein (1974)





Glenn Strange ( Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein ) and Ann Blythe ( Mr. Peabody and the Mermaid [image error] ) on the Universal Lot (1948)





                            

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31 Days of Halloween - Day 25 - Movie 2

A huge mutant amphibious creature emerges from the Han River, rampaging and killing picnickers on its bank and snatching away young Hyun-seo before diving back into the river. All witnesses are quarantined, told they may have contracted a disease from the creature. A weak cell phone call from Hyun-seo lets her family know that she's still alive. Now they must escape quarantine and try and track her down somewhere in the sewers while evading various law officials and the creature itself.



The Host (2006)  is part political satire, part comedy, part tragedy and all monster movie. It's one of the best movies of any genre from recent years and one of the best monster movies of all time.

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