Scary Heroes

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Hey, it's time to get some free candy today from the neighbors! But before you do, let's remember some of the scarier "heroes" who tried to save the day from time to time even though they didn't look like Captain America.

Swamp Thing

I never really understood the appeal of this guy, but I used to watch him on Nicolodean's late 70's/early 80's comic book show where they read comic books with sound effects. Definitely low-key for a kid's show, but I loved it (I still hear the theme song of "Flight of the Valkyries" every time I go through the back issues of an old comic store).

From what I understand the comic took a freaky turn after he became a part of the Vertigo line. He's recently returned to the DC universe as the "big reveal" of the Brightest Day storyline.

The Spectre

Ok, so he's not that terrifying to look at, but you'd better believe that when he showed up to hurt you, it was not going to end well.

Jim Aparo took this otherwordly character and made him one serious avatar of justice, having him deal with criminals by cutting them in half with giant scissors, turning them into a wooden statue before cutting it to pieces with a buzzsaw, and having their flesh melt off. Yep, he was someone even Batman thought was too tough on bad guys.

Aparo's entire run can be found in a trade paperback collection that you really want to read. Even though the Spectre today has been turned into a caricature of himself, the Aparo version will make you respect him again.

Deadman

Again, not scary to look at, but how tough must it be to be a superhero no one else can ever see or talk to?

He can possess anyone and has often gotten involved in many JLA adventures and teamed with Batman quite often in the original Brave and the Bold series of team-ups. The thing that really makes him fresh and tragic is the fact that he was the bearer of the White Lantern ring for a while, got to come back to life and be normal again, and then died saving Dove only to become Deadman again rather than have peace in the afterlife. I have to give DC credit on this one: they really did it right for this character in recent books.

Neal Adams' work on this character is unparalleled. While there have been a number of folks who've drawn him, I think Adams still stands as the best.

The Phantom Stranger

While Deadman was the hero no one could see or hear, the Phantom Stranger is the hero no one understands. DC has never (to my knowledge) given this hero a true origin--and I'm absolutely fine with that! Wolverine shall forever stand as a lesson for those who wish to take the mystery man and give him a backstory thinking it will make him interesting. Wrong move, Marvel!

What powers does the Phantom Stranger have? Mysterious magic stuff. Nothing definite, but he can pretty much defend himself against most magic attacks. He appears when needed and disappears immediately afterward. He's never been a regular member of any team, and has pretty much kept the same costume since his first appearance. Like the character, the look is timeless and always a fun read.

Werewolf By Night

Jack Russell (yep, just like the terrier) became Marvel's Werewolf by Night every time the full moon came out (which in the Marvel Universe was whenever he needed to become the monster rather than once a month). And he somehow always wore green pants. I guess he got his clothes from the same color-changing tailor the Hulk got his always-purple pants from.

I don't know how Marvel managed to keep this character going through his own series for so long, but they did. The gimmick seems simple enough--man becomes wolf, doesn't want to be wolf, tries to find cure while not hurting those he loves, etc--yet he found his way working through a number of Marvel titles, helping Spider-Man and even fighting Dracula himself. The title even introduced the world to Moon Knight, who was originally a werewolf-fighting hero.

Ghost Rider

I couldn't finish the list without including this guy, the original Spirit of Vengeance. He suffered a rather less-than-stellar movie adaptation (and a sequel that will at last give every comic fan something they've always wanted to see: Ghost Rider using the bathroom), but the title started out interesting enough.

Ghost Rider was a member of the Champions for the entirety of their existence, and he was a part of the new Fantastic Four along with Wolverine, Hulk, and Spider-Man for a very short bit.

It was very fortunate Johnny Blaze became Ghost Rider. Think of how much less you would respect the hero if his secret identity was Cecil Feather.

The Legion of Monsters

I'm just throwing this in to grab a few remaining ones I missed. Morbius, Man-Thing, Werewolf by Night (as opposed to Werewolf By Day, which isn't nearly as scary) and Ghost Rider teamed up to fight the baddies for an issue of Marvel Premiere.

Give Marvel credit on this one, it was a fun little group. I'm just glad they didn't throw Howard the Duck in there with them.

Now go grab some free candy!

Finding The Flesh Eaters

Posted by Admin at 4:56 PM 0 comments

Stop me if you heard this one: A group of people become stranded on a desert island . . . where they encounter a horde of monsters that viciously kill them one at a time!

Oh, you have heard of that? Well, what if the island monsters were the product of MAD SCIENCE! BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

So you've heard of that one too. OK, Mr. Smarty Pants--what if the mad science was NAZI mad science and the monsters were MICROSCOPIC FLESH EATERS!!!

That's the premise of The Flesh Eaters, a creature feature that was originally released back in 1964 and the only movie ever directed by Jack Curtis. The movie's plot follows a charter airplane pilot, an alcoholic actress and her comely assistant, a marine biologist and a shipwrecked beatnik as they struggle to find their way off of an uninhabited island that's surrounded by the titular flesh eaters, whose presence render the ocean water around the island acidic.

For as grim and gory as this premise sounds, don't be fooled--The Flesh Eaters is 87 minutes worth of low-budget camp, with hammy scripting, unconvincing effects, and dramatic performances that vary greatly in their quality. (Several reviews I've read of this movie have even speculated if it was the accidental inspiration for Gilligan's Island.) That said, The Flesh Eaters is not without its charms and it has enough interesting details to earn a footnote mention in American low-budget horror history. Read on for the full flesh feast, with a side order of jellyfish sushi.

I first heard about The Flesh Eaters when it arrived on the shelves of a local video store as a Monterey Home Video VHS release back in the mid-80s. The video stores in my town rarely carried any horror films that were released before 1970, so to see this cheapjack horror B-movie from 1964 placed alongside cheapjack horror movies from the 70s and 80s made it an oddity of sorts. Further helping it to stand out like a rotting, gangrenous thumb was its cover art: While many other horror B-movies had colorful, lurid art to help sell them to the indiscriminate renter, The Flesh Eaters just had a black and white drawing of a man screaming with a red spiral imposed over it.

The slightly truncated VHS cover of The Flesh Eaters,

courtesy of the Affection for OUR collection site.

From what I can recall of the film's description on the back of the VHS box, it hyped the film's gore and how some of the film's production crew members were also involved in the sexploitation film circuit. (Of particular titillating mention was that of Radley Metzger, the film's credited editor, who would go on to make a few adult movies during the 70s.) Obviously, Monterey Home Video designed the VHS cover to give you the impression that The Flesh Eaters was an early pioneer in low-budget girls 'n gore movies. While it doesn't quite live up to that promise, it nevertheless provides an interesting glimpse into the cheap creature features from the early 60s.

The most notorious feature of The Flesh Eaters is its level of gore, which was higher than most other horror films of its time. Yet in comparison to the horror films that were yet to come, as well as the movies made by then-contemporary Herschell Gordon Lewis (a.k.a. the "Godfather of Gore"), The Flesh Eaters is pretty tame. For example, a human skeleton washes ashore early in the movie, the remains of one of the flesh eaters' first victims. Yet the skeleton looks so clean and intact that the shot looks like someone stole a skeleton from a high school biology lab and left it on the beach for someone to find. Watching the actors trying to look shocked and horrified at this skeleton, something that is so far from shocking and horrifying, is one of the film's funnier moments.

Somewhere out there, a doctor's office is missing its skeleton.

Adding to The Flesh Eaters' infamy was its inclusion of brief, suggestive nudity in scenes that were inserted in one of the film’s later theatrical edits. These scenes were flashbacks to the Nazi experiments that were conducted to create the flesh eaters, and the experiments involved scientists forcing undressed women into a water tank where they were to be striped to the bone by the man-made micro monsters. The scenes were included as extras in the 2005 DVD release by Dark Sky Films, since they weren’t part of the Curtis’ original cut.

Nevertheless, the flashback scenes gave The Flesh Eaters the dubious distinction of being one of the early, brief examples of Nazi exploitation cinema (a.k.a. "Nazisploitation"). According to the definition provided on IMDB, Nazi exploitation is "a subgenre of exploitation film and sexploitation film that involves villainous Nazis committing criminal acts of a sexual nature often as camp or prison overseers in World War II settings. Most follow the standard women in prison formula, only relocated to a death camp or Nazi brothel, with an added emphasis on sadism, gore, and degradation." While these scenes hardly come close to the exploitative nature of Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS and SS Experiment Love Camp (both titles our local video stores carried, by the way), it did pre-date Love Camp 7 (1969), the first feature-length Nazisploitation film.

In spite of its seedier aspects, I found The Flesh Eaters to be a fun low-budget horror romp. Some of its appeal stems from the oddball lineup of characters that populate the story (particularly the drunk, bitter actress and the spaced-out proto-hippie), which gives The Flesh Eaters a certain flair that most other films of its type lack. The film is also rife with skilled deep focus cinematography and creative shot compositions that add an uneasy mood to its limited number of sets, which mostly consist of beaches and a tent. It should be noted that the "uninhabited island" in The Flesh Eaters was actually Long Island--the beaches of Montauk, to be exact--and director Jack Curtis makes the most of this scenic location. (This choice of location sort of reminds me of Shock Waves (1977), another film about forbidden Nazi science run amok, where the deserted island was in fact a location just outside of Miami.) With such a polished look, The Flesh Eaters never looks as quite as cheap as it really is. It even makes the film’s bargain-basement gore and creature effects look more interesting than they should be.

If you’re looking for a creature feature that isn’t a classic but an above-average example of a fun campy b-movie from the drive-in era, The Flesh Eaters is a must-see.

The Why of The Fly

Posted by Admin at 4:31 PM 0 comments

If you're a fan of The Fly movies, check this out: The cover story of the latest Rue Morgue issue is a retrospective devoted to the five Fly films. The retrospective's features include an interview with David Cronenberg, where he briefly mentions the "oblique" sequel script he has written to his 1986 version of The Fly, as well as a look back at the original Fly trilogy and its respective man-fly monstrosities. A noteworthy highlight in this issue is the interview with Chris Walas and Eric Stolz about The Fly II, which provides some fascinating insight into the production of this troubled sequel. Judging from Walas' comments about the original story that he had in mind, The Fly II could have been a much more worthy continuation of Cronenberg's movie had the studio heads just let him do what he wanted instead of forcing him to restructure his story to target a particularly desirable-yet-misunderstood audience demographic.

Not to be left out of this Fly fan fun, I figured that now would be a good time to post an article I wrote about Hollywood’s most infamous insect hybrid. Before I started blogging about all things monster movie related, I got my first movie monster article published in issue #116 of Filmfax magazine back in the fall of 2007. Having no idea how to get my fan appreciation-oriented writing published, I figured that I’d write about one of my favorite movie monsters in a way that would coincide with Fox Home Entertainment’s release of The Fly Collection, a four-disc DVD box set of the original Fly trilogy: The Fly (1958), The Return of the Fly (1959), and The Curse of the Fly (1965). The article was titled “The Multifaceted Fly”, and it examined one of the more unique horror/sci-fi trilogies in Hollywood history to understand why it continues to bug film fans to this day. Read on…

When I say that The Fly is one of my favorite movie monsters, what I really mean to say is that it was one of the few monsters that really terrified me when I was a kid. When I first began reading about classic movie monsters during the early 80s, The Fly was the only monster that I could truly call hideous, more grotesque and bizarre than any of the other classic monsters. Then there was the plot of The Fly movie, which made my kid-level brain reel. It was a nightmare like none of the other movies: to become an instant abomination as the result of an unexpected switch in body parts with an insect, and then to be stuck in a tiny web screaming “Help me!!!” over and over just moments before you are fed upon by a normal-sized spider that you would otherwise squash beneath your foot.

A resin garage model kit of the human-headed insect from The Fly.

The Fly was not about being stalked and killed by a monster; it was about disfigurement, degradation, insanity and helplessness all rolled up into one single film. Given these themes, The Fly's most logical companion film from the same decade would be The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957). There have been other teleportation-related monstrosities lurking in the halls of classic horror, such as the title abominations such as The 4-D Man (1959) and The Projected Man (1966), but even with those pale in comparison to the tragic freak show that is The Fly.

“The Multifaceted Fly” examines the themes in each of the original Fly movies and why I think they hold together well as a complete trilogy. It also looks into the background of George Langelaan, the author of the short story upon which the first Fly film is based, to understand how he could have come up with such a wild concept as an insect-headed man. Click below to see JPG files of the article, or you can order the original issue at the Filmfax site.

Reasons the 90's Almost Killed Comics (Part 2)

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Last week we looked at the first of my list of why the 90's are the "Dark Ages" of comics. Here we go with some more:

1. Feral Wolverine

I have to admit that stealing the adamantium from Wolverine by having Magneto rip it from his bones was a pretty cool idea. I give them points for being daring as far as that goes. And letting him have bone claws was pretty cool as well because that meant his claws were actually a part of his mutant abilities and it was a shocker to see them pop out.

And then Marvel got greedy.

For some strange reason the Marvel writers decided to take things to the extreme by having him slowly turn into an animal. The decision to make him an actual wolverine that had mutated apparently raised its ugly head again and they brought him down. He eventually went to wearing a bandana and even a ninja mask before it was all said and done.

2. Jackets and Pouches Everywhere

I can appreciate how comics try to stay relevant to the times with some changes. In the 90's, things went crazy. The X-Men were the epitome of crazy as far as costumes went.

I don't know if Xavier kept it freezing in the mansion or of they were just cold-natured, but for some reason jackets were in style. Gambit wore his well and it was cool. Everyone else just ripped him off.

Dazzler (a hero who shouldn't be in any comic) wore a jacket. Rogue wore a jacket. Jubilee wore a coat. Cyclops had more pouches than Batman's utility belt. But let's not leave out the Avengers, who loved their jackets too.

Black Knight wore one over his armor. Sersi wore one (sleeves pushed up, of course) over her costume. Crystal, the Wasp, Wonder Man, Firestar, Jusice and even Black Widow sported jackets during the 90's. I don't know why it became the norm for Marvel heroes, but they definitely weren't afraid to put them out there.

Eventually jackets phased out for a while and spandex made a return, but the damage had been done. At least Spider-Man never wore a jacket...unless you count the Scarlet Spider's hoodie.

And don't get me started on DC's Vibe. That costume just has no explanation.

3. Bloodwynd

The 90's gave us a number of weird heroes, but we can't skip Bloodwynd. I'm the first to admit I wasn't a huge Justice League fan, but when I saw him show up in their confrontation with Doomsday (just before he killed Superman) my first thought was "When did Spawn join the JLA?" This character was an unabashed ripoff of Spawn and I have no idea how they avoided a massive lawsuit.

Just as quickly as he appeared, he was gone. I don't know that he's made any major impressions in the DC universe in over a decade. As a matter of fact, I doubt he made it through the recent reboot alive.

I have no idea if you should blame the writers for not knowing what to do with the guy, or the character itself, but Bloodwynd was a ripoff that stumbled out of the gate. But hey, at least he wasn't wearing a jacket.

4. Destroying Major Heroes...Then Bringing Them Back

The purpose of a reboot is to give us something new. Maybe sales are flagging on a title and they need to give the old horse a shot in the arm. Maybe new writers come in with new ideas. Or maybe a hero has just outlived their usefulness. For whatever reason, reboots are a hit-and-miss affair.

The 90's were brutal to the major heroes. Last week I talked about how Marvel tried to replace Spider-Man, but DC went ape-crazy in the 90's with wiping out their crew...though most of those deaths were short-lived.

So what did they do in the 90's? Well, they killed Superman (for a few issues). They broke Batman's back and replaced him with Azrael, who eventually went crazy and had to be put down by a healed-up Bruce Wayne. They turned Green Lantern into a crazed homicidal maniac who killed Sinestro with his bare hands...along with several members of the Green Lantern Corps. Then eventually he became Parallax, died saving the universe, became the Spectre, and then came back as Green Lantern again.

Many publishers would stop there, but they didn't. They had Aquaman lose his hand to piranhas and decide getting a harpoon/hook thing in there was a bright idea. They also gave him a new long hair and beard look that was supposed to make him "edgy". He stayed like this for a while, then they gave him a magic "water hand".

They killed Green Arrow with a bomb, until Parallax brought him back just before he died himself. They killed Hawkman and brought him back again thanks to his reincarnation powers. They didn't kill Martian Manhunter, who didn't deserve the pass but they made up for it big time by killing him off in the mid-2000's.

And hey, Marvel had their fun too. Besides replacing (and then bringing back) Spider-Man, they went brutal on their guys. Wolverine lost his adamantium through having it ripped from his very pores. The Fantastic Four and the Avengers were thrown to a new universe for a 12 issue "Reborn" reboot. They destroyed the Avengers again and gave us such classic "extreme" teams as "Force Works" (remember them?). Then Marvel had an "extreme fest" by giving us so many X-Men titles to follow that it was impossible to understand where any hero was supposed to be at any time. X-Treme, X-Men, X-Factor, X-Force, X-Man, and so many other titles brought to you by the letter "X".

The thing that annoyed me about it in the 90's was how short-lived it all was for the most part. In some cases it lasted for a couple of years, while in others the changes were mere months before you could see things reverting back (Superman was foreshadowed as back in the game almost immediately). On the other hand, it was a good thing those changes were short. Most of them were horrible choices.

Baphomet Says, "Happy Halloween!"

Posted by Admin at 7:12 PM 0 comments

Now that I have your attention, I just thought that I'd let you know that the fine folks over at the Fierce and Nerdy site have asked me to contribute a few thoughts about the best holiday of the year, Halloween. In my post, I write about how much I enjoy Halloween and why, how horror film fans can best celebrate the holiday, and suggestions of what you can do if you're stuck in a community that treats Halloween like Satan's annual membership drive. You can read the post here.

A Gallery of Low-Budget Gill Men

Posted by Admin at 5:05 PM 0 comments

Last August, I saw on the Tears of Envy blog a link to a post in The Guardian's Film Blog called "Where's the thrill in today's cookie-cutter monster movies?" by Phelim O'Neill. In the post, O'Neill bemoans the lack of creativity in recent movie monster designs. As his post states, "The big movies this year have been full of monsters, aliens, robots – all sorts of creatures and creations. On the surface, there's never been a better time for lovers of monster movies. But when you look closer at the beasties themselves, you see how similar they are to one another; how they look like they were clumsily Frankensteined together from existing ogres. In truth, there's never been a worse time for movie monsters."

Personally, I think that O'Neill has it all wrong--not so much about movie monster designs, but about monster movies in general. The overwhelming majority of creature features are usually cheap rip-offs of superior films, both in terms of plot and monster design. This was true during the early days of Hollywood and it is no different now. O'Neill waxes nostalgic that "we're not seeing anything like the iconic creatures of old", but for every classic example he cites--Frankenstein (1933), Alien (1979), Basket Case (1982), and so on--he ignores the countless movie monsters that were inspired by the classics but fell far short of being effective and original. Not every monster designer can be the next Ray Harryhausen, Rick Baker or Stan Winston, and even those who are don't always get the recognition they deserve.

To emphasize my point, consider Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954). It's one of the classic examples that O'Neill cites, and rightfully so. Even though the titular Creature is really just a guy in a suit, it's easy to forget that when watching it on the silver screen because the suit was so well designed. Even more impressive was that the suit could be used to shoot lengthy underwater scenes where the Creature swims gracefully among fish, seaweed and other denizens of the deep, thus further convincing the audience that what they were seeing wasn't human. Such an impressive feat inspired many imitators, all of which bear some similarities to the original Creature but come nowhere close to being successful on their own due to lack of creativity, sloppy design and poor funding. This photo gallery is devoted to these bargain-basement beasts, both how they were depicted in their movies' posters and what they actually looked like. Click below to see the gallery.

The Phantom From 10,000 Leagues (1955)