Again: Do shameless appeals to the hottest trends in hollywood make for crazy sexy internet traffic? This time, VAMPIRES will tell us!

…gibt es auf einer Seite namens Golden Age Comic Book Series, die ich heute grade via Nerdcore entdeckt habe. Übrigens ist das hier grade eine Premiere: Der erste Blogeintrag, den ich aus der Uni, ganauergesagt von einbem Stabi-Computer schreibe. Und das alles nur weil eine gewisse Person mir verboten hat nach Hause zu gehen Aber zurück zum Film. Neben Bildern von sehr interessanten Vintage-Comics  oder auch von Marilyn Monroe gibt es hier auch extrem coole alte Filmposter zu finden, z.B. alte Horror-Schinken mit Bela Lugosi und Boris Karloff oder aus dem (S)Exploitation-Genre (zu deutsch frei übersetzt etwa:  Softporno mit künstlerischem Anspruch) . Beispiele für beides siehe unten. Allesamt sehr künstlerisch gestaltete Poster zu Filmen, von denen man nicht gadacht hätte, das es sie geben könnte. Leider ist kein Shop dabei, wo man die Dinger kaufen könnte – muss ich doch wieder auf’m Flohmarkt am Sonntag schauen.

Mehr gibt’s unter: http://goldenagecomicbookstories.blogspot.com/

Zum Beispiel die hier:

Und zum Exploitation-Genre:

    “Black Friday” is an odd film for Universal to have included in the new ‘Bela Lugosi Collection’ recently released. This is mainly  due to the fact that Lugosi’s role in the film is small, blink and you will miss him.  The film really belongs to Karloff. Lugosi’s character, though he gets second billing is minor in the film and on top of that, Lugosi and Karloff do not even have one scene together.  Various sources have pointed out that Karloff was originally scheduled to do the dual role of Professor Kinsley and gangster Red Cannon with Lugosi as Dr. Ernst Sovac, the role eventually played by Karloff. Apparently, uncomfortable with the dual role, Karloff switched parts taking on the role of the mad scientist, a part he could play with one hand tied behind his back. Lugosi, for some reason, either chose or was regulated to the minor role of mob guy, Eric Marnay, instead of the larger and more appealing part of Kingsley/Cannon.

    Told in flashback, we meet Dr. Ernst Sovac (Karloff) as he walks the last mile to the electric chair for the murder of his friend, the mild mannered college professor, George Kingsley (Stanley Ridges). On his way to the chair, Sovac hands over his notes to the one newspaper man who has been kind to him. From here on the film goes into the past as the story unfolds.

    Eric Marney and some of his boys attempt to bump off mob boss Red Cannon. Cannon’s car swirls off the road severely injuring Professor Kingsley. At the hospital, we discover Kingsley has a brain injury and the hoodlum Red Cannon a severe spinal injury.  When Sovac learns that Cannon has $500,000 in stolen money hidden somewhere, he begins to think how that kind of money can be used to fund his scientific research.  He performs an illegal and dangerous brain transplant, taking Cannon’s brain and replacing it inside that of his friend, the Professor.    

   The experimental operation is a success and Kingsley soon recovers, almost. Now, I am no scientist but it seems to me that if it were even possible to do a brain transplant, the personality of the brain, no matter what body it was in, would not change, logically gangster Cannon’s brain in the Professor’s body would still act like Cannon. Well, not so fast in movie land… After the operation, the Professor seems to be just like his old self, the gentile mild mannered man he always was. Somehow, Cannon’s personality has been suppressed, at least for now.

   Sovac, convinced that Cannon’s brain knows the where bout’s of the half million dollars is going to force his personality to emerge. This should not be too difficult since the Professor’s brain is not there any longer to begin with! Sovac attempts to extract the information by taking the professor to  New York City to haunt the places Cannon was familiar with. Amazingly, Cannon’s personality begins to surface, only he is more interested in getting even with his hoodlum associates  and his former lover (Anne Nagel), than showing Sovac the money. One by one, Kingsley/Cannon is knocking off his former cronies including Marney, who suffocates in a small closet.

    “Black Friday” is a strange brew of sci-fi, mad scientist and small time gangsters.  Co-written by Curt Siodmak who seemed to have a thing for “brain” movies previously writing the novel, “Donovan’s Brain” which was adapted three times for the screen, (The Lady and the Monster (1944), Donovan’s Brain (1953) and The Brain, in1962). Siodmak also was the screenwriter for the low-budget 1955 film, “Creature with the Atomic Brain.”  The direction by Universal hack Arthur Lubin is uninspiring to be kind. Lubin is probably best known for directing  Abbott and Costello movies (Buck Privates, Hold That Ghost), Francis the Talking Mules movies and  the Nelson Eddy 1943 version of “The Phantom of the Opera.”

    By 1940, when this film was made Lugosi’s career had seen better days. While there was still a few good films coming (The Body Snatcher), some fair ones (Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man) his filmography was becoming filled more and more with poverty row throwaways like “Ghost on the Loose”, “Spooks Run Wild” and “Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla” with Martin and Lewis imitators Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo.  Stanley Ridges in the duel role of the kindly Professor and the gangster is the real star in this film with his Jekyll/Hyde transformation smoothly done. The change in character is primarily accomplished with voice modulation and facial mannerisms than with makeup. “Black Friday” is a bit messy, totally unbelievable yet remains fun to watch.

En estos tiempos aciagos en los que estamos, en los que el cine de terror está en la cresta de la ola debido a cierta adaptación de un best seller de “terror vampírico“, parece que hablar del  género de terror sea hablar de un cine palomitero de “segunda fila “ dirigido a un  público de jovencitos con acné, poco exigentes, ávidos de  aventuritas  amorosas y soporíferas de licántropos y vampiritos cachas .

 Nunca más alejado de la realidad, pues dicho género nos ha regalado verdaderas obras maestras del séptimo arte que han hecho las delicias de millones de espectadores y han influenciado a muchos de los más respetados cineastas de la historia del cine.

Pero a la vista está que el género de terror no está pasando por su mejor momento en cuanto a calidad y originalidad se refiere.  Aun así sigue aguantando el tirón,  produciendo excelentes resultados de taquilla,  generando muchísima expectación y  de vez en cuando, muy de vez en cuando, también nos obsequia con alguna que otra obra más que digna.

Pero siendo completamente sincero (cosa que siempre intento ser) y realista, dirijo mi mirada hacia  atrás y mis pequeños ojos se entristecen. Llenos de melancolía, recordando tiempos pasados en el que los vampiros desprendían elegancia, erotismo y horror por partes iguales. Tiempos en el que el color de la sangre era de un rojo más intenso y que el simple chirrido de una puerta cerrándose nos hacía estremecer de miedo. Tiempos en el que los efectos digitales  no eran siquiera un sueño de futuro. Tiempos en los que la oscuridad y la poesía iban cogidas de la mano y la imagen de un lúgubre y tenebroso castillo nos evocaba a un terror tan mágico como perturbador, donde el  lejano eco de una malévola risa nos provocaba verdaderos escalofríos y hacía aflorar nuestros miedos más ocultos.

Una época dorada del cine fantástico y de terror que tiene un nombre en mayúsculas :

 HAMMER FILM PRODUCTIONS

 Nos encontramos en el año 1934, cuando un hombre llamado William Hinds, comerciante de joyas y miembro de una pareja cómica llamada Hammer y Smith, reuniría el valor y capital suficiente para crear una pequeña productora de cine, a la que bautizaría bajo el nombre de Hammer Productions Ltd. Poco se podía imaginar Hinds que dicha empresa  se convertiría en un sello legendario y de culto que para muchos ( incluido un servidor ) es la mejor y más prolífera productora de cine terror y ciencia-ficción de la historia del séptimo arte.

En 1935 la Hammer vio nacer su primera obra : The public life of Henry VIII ,una comedia dirigida por Bernard Mainwaring que paso sin demasiada pena ni gloria. Pero fue en  1936 cuando  empezaron a poner sus ojos en el cine fantástico produciendo el film : The mistery of the Mary Celeste protagonizada por Bela Lugosi y dirigida por Denison Clift.

En 1937 el empresario y propietario de una cadena de salas de cine Enrique Carreras se asociaría a William Hinds, dándole a la productora un  soporte mediático y financiero que sería crucial para aguantar el evidente bajón comercial que produciría la llegada de la segunda guerra mundial.

 A finales de los años 40 los hijos de Enrique Carreras se hicieron con las riendas de la productora y decidieron cambiar el nombre anterior por el de Hammer Fim Productions Ltd. Gracias a la labor de los dos hermanos adquiriría  el impulso y el aire necesario para afrontar la crisis económica ( producida por la guerra ), en la que se encontraban la mayoría de los países del viejo continente.

Pero fue en la década de los 50 cuando la Hammer  llegaría a su época dorada con el incipiente apogeo del cine de terror y ciencia-ficción. La productora deseosa por cruzar el charco e intentar conquistar el irresistible mercado de  Hollywood se asoció con el empresario norteamericano Robert Lipper. Un productor que gozaba de ciertas influencias en la meca del cine.  Muchas de las estrellas ya en horas bajas de Hollywood volverían a tener interesantes propuestas gracias a Lipper  y a la Hammer,  que se aseguraba así un notable filón mediatico.

Esta sociedad de la productora Británica con Robert Lipper fue decisiva para el desarrollo de las primeras obras de la Hammer, con dos títulos importantísimos. El experimento del Dr. Quatermass ( 1955 ) y La maldición de Frankenstein ( 1957 ). Las cuales marcarían con paso firme el camino que debía seguir el sello.  Uno enfocado con gran acierto al cine de terror y ciencia-ficción. Dos obras que producirían  grandes beneficios de taquilla y muy buena aceptación por parte de la crítica, mostrando una personalidad y unos elementos que acabarían siendo patentes en todas sus producciones. Hablar de la Hammer es hablar de terror gótico, con un manejo del color muy personal y verdaderamente innovador. Una fotografía  más que talentosa, conjugando con tenebrosa armonía las sombras  con un vistoso colorido suavemente administrado (el rojo de la sangre es uno de sus elementos más característicos ), un más que sublime y sutil manejo del erotismo y la violencia,  que llega a ser angustiosa sin necesidad de ser explícita  y un excelente trato de los guiones.

Todas estas virtudes combinadas con la fructífera fórmula de contratar a “estrellas“ en horas bajas y jóvenes actores desconocidos proporcionarían a la Hammer unos resultados económicos más que suficientes para seguir siendo fieles a su original estilo. Eso sí sin perder ni un ápice de personalidad (aún en nuestros tiempos patente) y regalándonos verdaderas obras maestras que con el tiempo no han hecho más que acrecentar su leyenda, convirtiéndose en clásicos de imprescindible visionado.

Hammer  Film Productions  ha dejado una huella imborrable en la historia del cine. Es la prueba fehaciente y más incontestable de que el género de terror no está reñido con la calidad y  “el saber hacer”. Con una filmografía repleta de grandes logros, excepcional en  el aspecto  visual  y con un  predominio de contrastes  lumínicos aterradores. Siendo  sombríos y sobrios cuando el momento lo requería. Con  sugestivos e inquietantes coloridos siempre magistralmente dosificados para no perder  su personal tenebrosidad. Y contrastando un erotismo tan sutil como evidente, con manifiesta elegancia, sacando el máximo provecho a los actores y a los guiones. En definitiva:  CINE DE CALIDAD con todas las letras.

En un próximo pos indagaremos en las obras más significativas de la Hammer.

Sayonara!

Fdo: Harry Powell  

Det er efterhånden et år siden at vampyrtrenden i contentbranchen indgik en en trend rapport, jeg præsenterede for en gruppe direktører for et større teleselskab. Man må sige at den trend har bidt sig fast!

Den anden film i serien “Twiglight” (New moon) er på gaden, og hvis der er noget der kan få teenagepiger helt op at ringe, så er det blege, kloge, følsomme, unge mænd som sulter efter at bide dem lidenskabeligt i halsen.

Af andre sylespidser eksempler på vampyrtrenden har vi den svenske film “Lad en rette komme ind” , HBO tvserien “Trueblood” og bøgerne fra “Tusmørke-sagaen”.

Hvis man som indholdsproducent vil nå at hoppe på trenden, så er det med at tale til de unge og huske at vampyrhistoriers succeskriterier er:Smukke unge (udødelige) mennesker (husk SPF 15)

• Umulig kærlighed (en aldersforskel på 300 år betyder vel lidt?)
• Slet skjulte erotiske referencer
• Blod (på den appetittelige måde)
• Tænder (på den frække måde)
• Intellektualitet (vampyrer er jo kloge, i modsætningen til f.eks. zoombier som alle ved er idioter)

Det kommer lidt i bølger. Buffy som en all time favourite vampire slayer og den klassiske film “En vampyrs bekendelser” med Tom Cruise og en ung Kirsten Dunst som mini vampyr.

Den allerførste indspilning af Bram Stokers roman “Dracula” var stumfilmen “Nosferatu” fra 1922.

Knap 10 år senere kom talefilmen “Dracula i 1931 med den legendariske Bela Lugosi. “Horror of Dracula” var den første vampyrfarvefilm (1958) og knap 10 år efter den prøvede selveste Roman Polanski kræfter med det mørke i filmen “The fearless Vampire killers”. I 1992 skabte Francis Ford Coppola “Dracula” med Winona Ryder og Keanu Reeves. Og nu ser vi så en reel bølge af både film og tvserier med “Twighligt” som den ultimative internationale hypede success.

    I recently purchased the just released Bela Lugosi Collection and the 1935 feature, “The Raven” was my first selection. Having previously seen the dark erotically charged and best of the lot, “The Black Cat”, I decided to start with the films I have yet to view.

    With a short running time of 61 minutes, the film waste no time quickly establishing its storyline. There is a car accident in which our beautiful leading lady Jean Thatcher ((Irene Ware) is severely hurt and in need of a precise and detailed operation. Jean’s father, Judge Thatcher (Samuel S Hinds) pleads with retired doctor Richard Vollin (Bela Lugosi) to perform the operation. Vollin is an egotistical madman with an obsession for Edgar Allan Poe. He refuses to perform the operation until the pleading Judge mentions that the other doctors have admitted they cannot perform the delicate procedure and he is the only one capable of guaranteeing a successful outcome., they all admit, he is the best. After hearing this admission, Vollin and his oversized ego agree to perform the operation.

    The surgery is a success and Jean is ever grateful to the Doctor who has developed more than just doctor/patient feelings toward the attractive and engaged young woman. When Judge Thatcher notices the Doctor’s fondness for Jean he confronts him only to have Vollin admit his love. Vollin refuses to stay away from her, infuriated by the Judge’s response,  he comes up with a plan to seek revenge.

    When escaped murderer Edmond Bateman (Boris Karloff) seeks Vollin’s help in transforming his face so he can live anonymously, Vollin only promises to give him a new face if he will agree to help in seeking his murderous revenge. When Bateman refuses, Vollin goes along with the facial operation but turns Bateman into a hideously disfigured ogre. He now promises Bateman that he will fix his face only if he helps him with his torturous vengeance driven plan.

    Inspired by Poe’s classic poem, screenwriter David Boehm created a story filled with Poe touches. The poem itself is used twice, early in the film we see Vollin recite it and later on, Jean performs an interpretive dance as the poem is read on stage, a performance she dedicated to the Doctor. Vollin’s Poe fetish is also seen in various torturous devices that he will use before the film ends such as a pendulum swinging  and  a shrinking room.

Though Karloff is given top billing, and supposely a higher paycheck, he does not appear until approximately 15 minutes or so into the short feature, subsequently this is really Lugosi’s film. His character dominates the proceedings, with mad insane delusions that he is a Godlike figure. Lugosi’s tendency to overact works well here considering that he see himself as superior to all.

    The film turned out to be too strong in its horror for the audiences of its day. The combination of disfigurement, torture, strong desires, and glee, to inflict pain apparently turned off the moviegoers.  Today, these elements are partially responsible for what holds the film’s interest to modern day audience. Karloff as the disfigured murderer Bateman comes off again as the most sympathetic figure in the film. A killer who does not want commit another crime, tragically left at the mercy of the revenge seeking mad doctor.

        While not in the same class as Edgar Ulmer’s “The Black Cat”, and none of the other entries in this collection are, “The Raven” is a nice minor piece of 1930’s horror that is well worth watching despite some obvious problems like the awfully quick operation and recovery of Bateman and some dated dialogue that is unintentionally humorous. The film contains many of the atmospheric standards of the horror film of its day, including  a strange eerie house, and stormy nights along with a nice Franz Waxman score. The ending is a bit too abrupt and does not contain the tense dramatic build up that it would have made it more satisfying. Still, this is a  decent  and entertaining film.

então, ontem (finalmente) decidi perder meu “precioso” tempo e assistir a nova sensação dos blockbusters mundo a fora, o famoso “crepúsculo”. adoro esse tema e não é de hj meu fetiche por vampiros e afins, mas tenho um tesão quase morbido aos clássicos do terror da década de 50, 60, época que Bela Lugosi e Boris Karloff imortalizaram drácula e frankenstein. Hoje os tempos são outros e infelizmente os “velhinhos” de outrora não teriam vez com a chegada dessa turma do crepúsculo, principalmente com as meninas na faixa dos 13, 14 e 15 anos.  ontem fiquei impressionado com a beleza do casting principal do filme, o ator Robert Pattinson (Edward) é absurdamente lindo e com a impecável direção de fotografia o cara fica impossivel (coitado do maninho com baixa auto estima que assistir esse filme). Tambem gostei da garota que faz a Bella (Kristen Stewart), linda e competente no personagem, ela tambem é um colirio para os olhos. mas nem tudo é fetiche e beleza fisica, achei o roteiro fraco, bobo e mal costurado, e pra piorar meu humor o filme não tem final,  me “obrigando”(hehehe) a assistir a continuação (vide o lua nova que estreia essa sexta).

Bella, Edward e a direção de fotografia, receita de sucesso do filme.

PS- mas e o Taylor lautner? corta o cabelo e vem falar comigo, ok? hehehehe

Seated Nude

Still Life With Carnations And Apples

Portrait Of Bela Lugosi

Pearl

Models In The Studio

Sleep (Nude And Still Life)

Nude

Nudes In A Forest Clearing

title unknown

George S. Buck

Portrait Of A Man

Happy November my favorite bloggy folk! Now that the din of Halloween is over I am free to type and muse at will, and hope that you can all forgive my previous hiatus and the lie that was this post was supposed to be ready yesterday.

So with the recent success of the film “Zombieland”, the soon to be released “New Moon” flick based on the Twilight Saga and the upcoming “Wolfman” movie expected to hit theaters in December….

Today my lovely ladies (and few gents) I want to discuss the Monster Mash movie phenomenon that has hit our generation. In the 70s and 80s it was the masked killer. Freddy, Michael and Jason shimmered and scared the crap out of women, yet every year we were drawn back to the theaters for Friday the 13th parts two, three four, etc etc. (Fun Fact: Women are the predominant horror movie viewers, not men, whom it is thought that most horror movies are geared towards due to the excessive nudity and violence). We women folk have always been drawn to these supernatural beings of terror because theres something about them that is very exciting. The basic survivor girl who flirts with danger but is able to be reborn from teenage girl to woman through the experience has been the subject of many a book, article and subconscious themes of awesome to women all over.

So today we no longer fight masked killers on the screen. Now we look to the internalized monsters that come to us in the form of creatures. Monsters of sex, monsters of animalistic behavior and monsters of indestructible death. Rather than making our terror entities faceless but human, we have taken our fears back to actual creatures of the night, right out of the pages of European Lore and more recently, the pages of post apocalyptic terror. But what is it we see in these creatures that draws us so readily to them? These monsters are not feared the way they once were, but are rather put on pedestals and considered awesome, cool, or something we want to model our mates after. Lets take a look at why we love these terrifying monsters the way we do.

So lets start with the basic all around favorite: Zombies

Despite scads of recent films in release, video games themes and recent popular costume ideas, Zombie mania actually hit the film world running in 1968 with George A. Romero’s infamous black and white classic, “Night of the Living Dead”. This movie terrified people due to the idea that the dead rose with no real cause and could not be stopped. Death was imminent, knocking at your door and there was nothing you could do about it. But now-a-days the Zombie movie has become about something quite different. Survival. We have come up with reasons for our zombie infestations that are based within real world fears, specifically based within the medical community. As the world is assaulted with more and more medical fears, the constant need for vaccinations, cancers, Alzheimers, and now the pressure on health care, the idea of a medically based apocalypse isn’t completely out of the picture. (Did I mention Swine Flu?) Mix that in with the distrust of major corporations (Umbrella Corporation, that place with the monkeys from 28 Days Later) and you’ve got yourself a pretty terrifying villain. This is the shift from zombie terror to zombie fascination. The zombies are the sad tools of these corporations, not the villains anymore. They become a symbol of modern death that follows us, trying to keep us from basic survival in the world. They are the nameless entity we hack, shoot through and avoid in order to maintain the survival of the human race, even though most of these films portray a sense of no hope for human survival. Safe houses are filled with military rapists or don’t even exist. People because monsters themselves as they are forced to make the hard decisions that weigh the needs of the many verses the needs of the few. A modern-day “Lord of the Flies” situation, if you will. Zombies are a way of us embracing death and dealing with it hands on. When we see that guy shooting the zombie in the head with a shotgun, it is our way of saying the proverbial “fuck you” to death. We are the ones in control. We don’t survive because we have to. We survive because we want to.

Next we have the ever popular: Vampires

The intent behind the fear of the vampire has morphed dramatically since its original entrance to popular culture, predominantly due to the fact that they are a creature that terrify us because we are in love with them. The original Dracula film is no longer considered scary compared to todays splatter tactics, however for its time, it screamed of Homophobia and foreign invasion. The vampire is a being who can seduce any woman or man with just the power of a gaze (don’t believe me, go back and rewatch those earlier Dracula and Renfeild scenes). The idea of foreign (accented) sexualized men swooping in during the night and seducing these perfect white women is something that truly terrified the heterosexual audience. These feminized men were tearing down the idea that brash heterosexuality will win you the girl. But these creatures have lasted through the ages because of more than “othered” fear. The very nature of the vampire is sexual and poetic. The poetry is based in the idea of the handsome creature that offers eternal life and beauty, but at a dark price. The sexuality is based in the idea that the vampire bite itself sexually satisfies both an oral fixation and penetration all at once. The vampire is the sexually stimulating bad boy of the monster world. But they are still monsters, which is why by the end of the films, they must die. Films like “Interview with a Vampire” showed that softer side of the beast is in fact, an abnormally. Women have looked to the vampire for a sense of emotional connection and resist when they realize there is a monster underneath. The modern vampire was truly perfected in the 90s with Joss Whedon’s iconic show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with the two male vampires Angel (aka Angelus) and Spike (aka William the Bloody). Angel was a vampire who was cursed with a soul and therefore the monstrous part of the vampire lies dormant within him. However the curse is broken when he experiences true happiness as the hands of the woman he loves, and as a result the true non-nutered vampire comes out. We forget to be scared of Angel, until his soul is taken away. Spike on the other hand was a vampire who when he begins to experience feelings of love and human kindness drives himself mad as a result, showing off the monstrous part of what it is to be human. There is no way for the human side and the monster side to co-exist. With the over saturation of Vampire love stories in recent days we have defanged the vampire, which is why we no longer fear him. Vampires are broken up into two categories, which for the sake of argument I shall call the “Sparkly Kind” and the “Savage Kind”. These sparkly vampires are the sensitive feminized creatures who share secrets and feelings. This is the one side of the Bela Lugosi that worked so well. The side that loves Mina, that craves only Mina that he would do anything for her. These are the Edward Cullens (haha get it… sparkly?) and the Bill Comptons of the vampire media. They are good guys who we want to be bad boys because they are “dangerous”. Not in the real danger kind of way though. In the “I drive a motorcycle and stay up past my bed time” kind of way. We love them because we as the object of affection actually hold the most power over them. It is alluded that they are dangerous and they certainly think they are, but they are never the dangerous beings themselves, because the lovers control their actions fully. These creatures drop everything they are doing to save their women. The savage kind are their villains. Plain and simple. In the first installation of the Twilight Saga, the Cullens are confronted by “bad vampires” who are the ones who try to kill Bella. In the first season of “True Blood”, Bill Compton has to fight against savage vampires who come into town and start killing citizens of Bon Temps. Vampires are no longer creatures in our eyes. They are sexual fantasies of femininity featured men. The over saturation of this divided imagery is why we no longer fear them.

And last but not least, the oncoming storm: The Werewolf

Now I know what you’re all thinking. The Del Toro “The Wolfman” movie has yet to come out! How can I state social commentary on a phenomenon that has yet to be unleashed on the public? Well keep your shorts on dear readers, for a new age is coming, I guarantee you. In fact it has already begun, in a minor manner of speaking. With vampires, there must always be werewolves. They are counter balance creatures, which is why they seem to always fight in literature and on the screen. Look at the Underworld series, or the Team Edward vs. Team Jacob pop culture spat (you see? I told you this was already goin’ on). While vampires are the feminine men who feel, werewolves are the masculine men who act. It’s like comparing a painter to a football player. But this new wolfman film on the horizon has something different in store than all the other monster films that we have been experiencing/has been discussed in this post. Our fear of the werewolf has already been jaded because due to the vampire oversaturation, we have come to understand that they can never win. This new film wants to scare you. Scare you like the old monster films used to by putting the creature back into the human and making us all deal with it. The wolfman represents the modern relationship. You get to know a person and you want them to mean something in their life, but of course they have “this thing” they have to deal with from their past. It’s the dark secret you don’t want someone to know about you. It’s the baggage brought into a relationship that comes out unexpectedly that one night you’re sitting on the couch drinking wine with your partner and the moon is full. Where the zombie is the death we try to control and the vampire is the sexual fantasy we want to control, the wolfman is the actual monster within us all. He’s the secret we can’t control. He’s putting the masculinity and the danger back into what we crave about the vampire and are becoming jaded to. The sexualized vampire has become the tender lover while the wolfman is slowly coming to represent the rough sex. It is that unabashed, uncontrolled animalistic side that we want to see now.

So there you have it ladies. These creatures features are here to stay because lets face it, we all find something we need in them. We enjoy the controlled nature of these creatures, but lets look forward to the lack of control too, for that is truly most human and truly the most terrifying,

]]> http://bmj2k.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/untitled-update/ Tue, 10 Nov 2009 03:38:49 +0000 bmj2k http://bmj2k.wordpress.com/2009/11/09/untitled-update/

from November 29, 2006, based on a blog from November 28, 2006

Since I posted the last blog, I’ve done a lot of soul searching. I didn’t find one, but I did come to a conclusion. Remember the situation with a colleague, where I felt bad about something I did?

Well, wait for it…………… He’s a dick. Screw him.

Hey- as I posted a category for this blog, I saw for the first time that there is a category for “Dreams and the Supernatural.” If you read my profile, you know that I’m a paranormal investigator. (Did you read my profile? Bet you did not.) So I will soon start to post the bone-chilling details of my investigations into the Lovecraftian horrors (Literary reference alert!) that I contend with on a daily basis. However, I realize that this is a very serious situation, so to avoid any suspense that may interfere with the digestion of your dinner, (macaroni and cheese?), I will tell you beforehand that I am safe and unharmed. (OK, so that was not really suspenseful. What can I say? I’m not a mystery writer, you know.)

I had a good time today. During one of my classes, the kids were doing a vocabulary assignment when they started throwing words out of the dictionary at me. (Have you ever been hit by a word thrown out of the dictionary? Sounds like something from Roald Dahl’s The Phantom Tollbooth. Ever read that book? No? Then stop reading this drek and go out and get it. It’s a kids book but I love it. (Then again, I also love Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, so what do I know? Duke Mitchell and Sammy Petrillo never worked again, and deservedly so. (How do I know all of this esoteric crap? ‘Cause I am full of this nonsense. Go ahead- ask me what Lionell Atwill’s greatest film performance of the 1930’s was? (It was in 1933’s The Vampire Bat where he masterfully portrayed Dr. Otto von Niemann.) On second thought, don’t ask.) Wait- I have another parenthesis to close. Go back and check. Here it is- )

Where was I? Hmmmm……. Screw him…….. paranormal investigator………. drek…….. oh, dictionaries. (See how these things go? And if Faulkner wrote this he’d be a genius.) So they started throwing words at me (have you ever been hit by- oh no, not again.) to see if I knew the meanings. I KNEW EVERY SINGLE WORD. I am the smartest teacher in the world! How can I parlay this into money? I can’t.

In my last blog, I may have been a bit silly and said some nice things about some of my friends. Oh that wicked alcohol! I was so wasted! Well, I’m going to wrap this up with a quote by Mr. Know-It-All (how come we never see Mr. Blog and Mr. Know-It-All in the same place at the same time? Quiet you. (“Yes Mr. Peabody.”) (This Superman line was last quoted in my blog of Saturday November 4th. Go back and see!) Oop- another darn parenthesis to close- ) This is quick becoming my most disjointed blog ever. I’ll have to work on that. Making it more disjointed, I mean. Look, if I have to work to write this, then it is only fair that you should work to read this. While you get to read all of my golden drippings and reap the benefits therein (huh?) what do I get? Bloody fingers. (I’m a poor typist) And you should see how all that blood ruins my keyboards. (I’ve gone through two since I started this page. )

Authors plugged in this blog: HP Lovecraft, Roald Dahl, Faulkner, me.

Books plugged in this blog: The Phantom Tollboth

Movies plugged in this blog: Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla,

Cartoons plugged in this blog: Mr. Peabody and Sherman

Celebrity big-league bloggers plugged in this blog: Mr. Know-It-All

Bad comedians plugged in this blog: Mitchell and Petrillo

Words that may possibly be Yiddish in this blog: Drek

Sharp-eyed readers may have noticed that I have not yet quoted Mr. Know-It-All, as I threatened to awhile back. Sharp-eyed readers are a pain in the ass. I have no intention of quoting Mr. Know-It-All. It was just a MacGuffin (chalk up another literary reference!) to get you to read until the end. And why would I want you to read until the end? Well, because I am a writer, I believe that every word on this page is vital to your mental health. Just think what would have happened if you went to bed after only the second paragraph. How could you sleep? (“What did he mean by ‘Lovecraftian’? What would he say if he knew that I didn’t read until the end?”) I’d say “Good for you.”

Many fans know that Night of the Living Dead was originally titled Night of the Flesh Eaters. The name was changed at the last minute, at the behest of the distributor, and the rushed adjustment had unfortunate consequences. Since the new title frames lacked a copyright notice, the movie passed into the public domain immediately—and the filmmakers lost out on a lot of money. But what if the movie had retained its original title? For one thing, the title frames would probably have looked something like this:

Also, as long as we’re in this alternate reality, it’s fun to speculate on possible names for the sequels. Would Romero have followed a similar tack to what actually happened, giving us Dawn of the Flesh Eaters, Day of the Flesh Eaters, Land of the Flash Eaters, Diary of the Flesh Eaters and Survival of the Flesh Eaters? Unlikely. I think he would have taken a more varied approach. After all, “Flesh Eaters” has a slightly goofy ring to it, despite the bald-faced, cannibalistic meaning. Imagine George Zucco or Bela Lugosi, circa 1950, surrounded by cardboard sets and cheesy flesh eaters. Easy, right? “Living Dead,” on the other hand, is like a snatch of grim poetry. The word combination is impossible, intriguing, and wrong in the best kind of way. The complete title, Night of the Living Dead, has rhythm and balance, almost like a line from a haiku. It rolls right off the tongue, while that first title is jerky and more difficult to enunciate.

Seems like Night of the Living Dead got its title because that’s how it was meant to be. With any other moniker, despite the unmistakable quality of the movie itself, it might have sunk without a trace, and the Zombie Godfather of Pittsburgh would have gone back to making commercials and industrial shorts. Sometimes, bad luck is good luck in disguise.