Chadwick H. Saxelid's Blog: Ghoulies, Ghosties, and Long-Leggedy Beasties, page 12

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #5

Wicked Trio
Lucifer is joined by the eternal Bad Girls, Demonica and Diabolica, forming a triumvirate of evil unparalleled on any place of reality. Ever treacherous, the sensual ladies are the perfect match for the father of all lies. 

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) / X the Unknown (1956) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 30, 1957
John McCarty, in his seminal book Splatter Movies Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen, shared how his "young, monster-movie addicted eyes were quick to spot a series of starkly lettered handbills that had been tacked to the trees and telephone poles." [Splatter Movies, Pg. 16]

Those handbills were hyping the imminent release of today's subject du jour, a double-bill of two terrific, top tier Hammer Film productions: The Curse of Frankenstein (1957) and X the Unknown (1956).

Going in order of production, 1956's X the Unknown, the 'B' feature of this double-bill, began as a sequel to The Quatermass Xperiment,  a moneymaker for the company. Only there was one small detail Hammer Film had not factored into the equation. Screenwriter Nigel Kneale, who had created the character of Bernard Quatermass and retained the rights, refused to have his creation appear in anything that he himself had not written. 

Even with any and all marketable connections and/references to The Quatermass Xperiment excised, X the Unknown is able to stand on its own as a cracking good monster movie. 

First-time screenwriter Jimmy Sangster, having penned a sturdy and reliable script for X the Unknown, was then entrusted with scripting Hammer Film's first color film, 1957's The Curse of Frankenstein. 

Curse took a very different approach than the 1931 Universal film and its sequels, for reasons that were both legal and artistic. In this film Baron Victor Frankenstein turns out to be every bit as dangerous and deadly monster as his witless creation.

Audiences ate it up and Hammer Film, seeing that it had struck gold, proceeded to mine the Gothic Horror genre for every penny it could uncover.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #74

Another Chris Foss production design illustration. 

Hell Motel - Review

Although Hell Motel does not bear the name Slasher, it could very well serve as the sixth season of the masked killer anthology series. It has the same creative team, both in front and behind the camera. It has a masked killer, a convoluted mystery and motivation behind the killings, which are linked to a past tragedy, injustice, or abuse, and a roster of colorful and morally, or ethically, compromised victims, who get ruthlessly whittled down, one by one, until the identity of the killer is revealed.
The whittling down of that roster is the series entire reason for existing. Whenever the narrative turns its focus on a particular character's backstory, the viewer knows that character's head has been placed atop that episode's chopping block. 
What makes it fun, more often than not, is in learning how past and present events will converge at the end of the episode. Until that moment, the viewer has no idea if they will be feeling a joyous frisson of catharsis when said character gets dispatched, of if there will be a pang of regret, because the character, while not all the great of a human being, did not deserve that.
Which makes the meta-commentary in the limited series' next to last episode, titled Cat and Mouse, so delightfully cackle inducing. True Crime academic Andy Lecavalier (Jim Watson), in a character shading flashback, is shown defending his doctoral thesis and it does not go well, at all.

"The movies that you site, which I had to endure in order to adjudicate your thesis defense," the lead panel member sneers at Andy, "are unequivocal trash. Full of two dimensional characters so grotesque and idiotic, one would hazard they deserved to die. Will you be advocating for the real world suffering of Wilie E. Coyote next?" Ouch.
Andy tries to marshal something resembling a counter argument to this brutal dismissal, but gets cut off and stomped all the flatter. If that is even possible.
"No, no, no, no," the panel member continues, with zero patience or mercy. "Turning your gaze to the simplistic and righteous gutter that you pretend to critique does nothing but reveal your inane and very questionable obsession with that very gutter."
Oof. While there is no shortage of gory and torturous killings in Hell Motel, this scene gets my vote for its most brutal murder. I also appreciate how it nods, winks, and nudges its viewers with all the subtly of a hammer being pounded upon a nail.
As was the case with both Slasher: Flesh and Blood, which served as my introduction to the series, and Slasher: Ripper, what I enjoyed most about Hell Motel were the layering of all the over the top plot twists and character revelations. Some were absurd, while others were predictable. Slasher tropes will always be troping, you know?
I thought I had figured out the killer's identity by the time the final episode kicked off, but I was wrong. This time. I did guess right with Slasher: Ripper, but Slasher: Flesh and Blood had me hopelessly flummoxed.
The big downside for Hell Motel is that it fails to stick its landing. There were a few moments and revelations that, in retrospect, did not fit together as well as they should. While that did not keep me from enjoying the show as whole, it also left me thinking Hell Motel was the weakest of the three I have seen to date.

Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) - Newspaper Ad

Oakland Tribune - July 29, 1948
Having played out their roster of monsters with a cycle of ever increasing silly, albeit entertaining and seldom boring, films in the first, war torn half of the 1940s. Universal Pictures decided to combine them with their equally played out comedic duo of Abbott & Costello.

The result was box office gold, although it seems that it took some convincing on Lou Costello's part to actually make the film. KBHK (Channel 44, Cable Channel 12) had a dedicated Saturday midday time slot for Abbott & Costello films and would cycle through them over and over. 

While I would pass on the stuff like Pardon My Sarong and Buck Privates, I tried not to miss whenever an entry in their own semi-series of monster comedies, or monster comedy adjacent fare such as Hold That Ghost, was broadcast. Fun times, good memories.

Lady Death: Dark Alliance - Trading Card #4

Ghostly Guidance
Aided by the spirit of dead police detective Virgil Solomon, Lady Death traded in her crib in Hell for the streets of New York. Little did she realize that the evil found among men would make anything in Hell's sulfurous depths pale in comparison. 

Chamber of Chills #11 - Review

Vol. 1, #11 - July 1974
Growing up, when it came to comic books, I was more of an occasional dabbler than a regular reader. 

While I knew of Batman and Superman and Spider-Man, I was far more interested in stories about, well, ghoulies, ghosties, and long-leggedy beasties. Lucky for me the 'Bronze Age' of comics saw a significant resurgence in horror and monster-themed books, so there was plenty for me to choose from throughout the mid-to-late 1970s.

I do not remember any of the titles, much less the actual issues, of the various comic books that I would partake of every now and then. There are only flashes of images and a few weird stories that, for one reason or another, got seared into my memory.

Back from the Dead, the second story in this collection of horror comic reprints, is just one such tale. A man escapes from the police and hides out on Easter Island, only to then learn its devastating secrets. Simple and straightforward stuff.

Revisiting it some, maybe, fifty-plus years after reading it, I am amazed by just how vivid my recall of this story was. There were certain panels that looked just how I remember them to have looked. It was uncanny.

The cover illustration, however, did not jog loose any memories of my having seen it, back in the day. The only thought that popped into my head was, "Hey, I remember this story!" Which is why this eleventh issue of Chamber of Chills was one of my final impulse purchases at Monsterpalooza this year.

I feel I should also point out that, while there is a woman on the cover, no woman appears in the actual story. Make of that what you will. 

According to the Marvel Database, this July 1974 issue was placed on shelves, or in spinner racks, on April 16, 1974. At that time I would have been all of six years old and halfway through the first grade. Okay, then.

As vivid as my memory of Back from the Dead, which first appeared in Tales of Suspense issue #18, in June of 1961, no additional memories were jogged loose or stirred up when I read the other three stories reprinted in this issue.

First up is The Ghoul, which first appeared in Adventures Into Weird Worlds #10, in September 1952. An on the lamb murderer is quick to regret taking a short cut through a cemetery, when he is discovered and mistaken for a ghoul that has been defiling the graves.

Torture Room, a concentration camp set tale of retribution, follows Back from the Dead and first appeared in Adventures Into Terror #4, in June 1951. Although it pre-dates both The Twilight Zone episode Deaths-Head Revisited, by ten years, and the Night Gallery segment A Question of Fear, by twenty, it reads and plays like a mash-up of the two. Satisfying, but probably more potent for a reader in 1951 than this reader in 2025.

The issue's closing story is Werewolf, a reprint from Menace #3, from May 1953. Waldo, ruthlessly henpecked by his shrewish wife and mocked by his disbelieving neighbors, is desperate to prove that there is a werewolf prowling the area on the nights of a full moon.

But poor Waldo has forgotten an important rule of thumb. Always be careful of what you wish for, because you just might get it.

This was a fun and nostalgic read for me, if only because one of its stories somehow managed to become photocopied into my memory. Perhaps it was the fact that Jack Kirby illustrated that particular story. Maybe. I have no idea, really.

But I am glad I can now identify it.

Deep Blue Sea (1999) - Newspaper Ad

San Francisco Examiner - July 28, 1999
I think I had the most fun watching Deep Blue Sea on the big screen than any other film released in 1999. No surprise, considering Jaws is my favorite movie of all time and Deep Blue Sea is awash with homages to Jaws, Jaws 2, and even Jaws 3D.

Deep Blue Sea is an unapologetic and energetic pulp-trash thrill-ride of a movie. Jaws meets The Poseidon Adventure.

Have yet to see any of its DTV (DTS?) sequels, though.

Alien (1979) - Trading Card #73

Wonder if the set painter that was captured and immortalized in this behind the scenes candid shot ever found out about it. I'm sure there would be plenty of weirdo fans that would have loved to have had him autograph this card. There is no way I could be alone in thinking that would be a fun thing to have.

Delicious in Dungeon, Vol. 2 by Ryoko Kui - Review

So, what is on the menu in this volume? Well... we have vegetables grown from golems, bread prepared with the help of some orc refugees, treasure insect snacks, some surprise sorbet, and boiled mimic.
Not all at once, of course. Each item is individually prepared and served at the end of its very own chapter. Said chapters also allow of one, perhaps two, of the group members to step forward and take center stage.
First Chef Senshi takes care of his golem gardens. Marcille then engages in a fierce debate with an orc regarding the ethics of plundering and how colonialism can fuel and forge ongoing conflict. It was a pretty lively debate that did not give arbitrary moral high ground to one side over the other, which made reading it all the more satisfying.
The group then discovers the remains of another deceased hunting party and must do battle with poisonous treasure insects. Here is where Laios learns his sword just might have a mind all its own. The group's bug battle aftermath draws the attention of some ghosts looking for fresh bodies to possess. Some quick thinking on Senshi's part leads to his finding a rather unique method of creating sorbet!
Chapters 12 and 13, Court Cuisine and Boiled in Salt Water, respectively, are my favorite of the tasty and zesty dishes offered up in this volume. Cuisine has Laios venturing into living pictures, so that he might return with some food for the group. Something easier dreamed than done.
In Boiled Chilchuck gets trapped in a room with a mimic, alone. Now he has to stay one step ahead of a hungry monster, while also trying to figure how to unlock the trap that is keeping him in the room. It is a really fun romp.
The volume ends with Senshi introducing the group to a kelpie he befriended while he fished from a large underground lake. Reluctant to the point of being hostile to the use of magic to cross the lake, Senshi hopes to the enlist the aid of his kelpie friend and shenanigans ensue.
This was another delicious delight that left me craving to learn what would be served in volume three.