Good evening, darlings, and thank you for reading. The other MonsterGrrls and I would like very much to welcome you to our 31 Days Of Halloween, in which all of us will log in each day through the month of October to bring you various news, reviews and other items connected with this most wonderful time of the year. We're kicking off today with a review of a movie from 2006, An American Haunting, which, ostensibly enough, was released on our Mad Doctor's birthday that year.
An American Haunting is not so much a retelling as a reimagining of an old American 
folktale, the Bell Witch of Tennessee. In 1817, the family home of John Bell in Robertson County, Tennessee, was haunted by inexplicable noises and poltergeist-like manifestations which were thought to be the work of a ghost, the spirit of a woman named Kate Batts. The spirit took particular delight in tormenting the Bells' youngest daughter Betsy (shown at right), and it is from this tale that Haunting takes its meat.
In the movie, John Bell (Donald Sutherland) is taken to Church court for the theft of Kate Batts' land, and let off lightly by the judges. Known in the village for claims of witchery, the offended Batts (Gaye Brown) tells him to enjoy his good health and the health of his family while he can, an admonition that takes a dark turn when strange manifestations begin to pop up around his home (including the by-now customary Frighteningly Symbolic Evil-Looking Child, played here by Madalina Stan). Many of the spooky occurrences seem to be focused around the Bells' teenage daughter Betsy (Rachel Hurd-Wood, who also plays the disembodied voice of the Bell Witch), who bears the brunt of the haunting at the beginning. When the manifestations escalate into Betsy levitating from her bed, it becomes apparent that the Bells have a ghost on their hands. As John Bell slowly loses his mind and the family desperately tries to hold together during the gathering darkness, it becomes very apparent that the ghost may not be in fact a manifestation of the restless dead, but a different manifestation entirely--an entity created by Betsy Bell in order for her and her mother Lucy (Sissy Spacek) to remember an evil secret.
The movie is well-made but flawed, mostly due to its predilection that there was actually no ghost. Insteand of truly exploring the legend of the Bell Witch, the story is made into a rather spooky psychodrama by attempting to explain the "haunting" as a psychological manifestation of child abuse. While the actors all perform their parts well and the movie spins a decent yarn (including some very atmospheric and frightening scenes), once the spooks are explained away by the filmmakers' additions to the tale, it degenerates from a scarefest into some rather standard ruminations on The Evil That Families Do that sort of becomes an Early American version of Flowers In The Attic. An opening thread set in modern times concerning a troubled mother and daughter's discovery of artifacts from the Bell Witch hauntings, which bookends the movie and tries to create a 'shock' ending, does not help much either. I would have much preferred to see the original story as written down, performed as a 'period' horror movie of sorts. Still, the movie looks good, so I would recommend this for an off-evening, but not as the main feature of a Halloween celebration. Save only the best films in your collection for that, and for heaven's sake do avoid those godawful Freddy and Jason slasher films. Not Halloweeny at all, I'm sure. As for this, better luck next time.
BETHANY'S RATING:
A well-made and fairly acted film that is heavy-handed in its execution and tries to explore modern evil by unsatisfactory means. Not for kids, but the slowness of the film will ensure that they won't want to watch anyway.
I extend special thanks to Mr. Bob Collins, a friend of our Mad Doctor's who suggested this film for review quite a while ago. Do enjoy, darling, and we do apologize for being so late with this.
Regards,
Bethany Ruthven
The Morlock Heights Harbinger proudly announces a seasonal onslaught of manic proportions--The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween!! All month long in October, the Grrls (and their Mad Doctor, natch) will be logging on to present all manner of Halloween hoofaraw, including essays, news, monster movie reviews, and all sorts of stuff! Join the frightful foursome for the ongoing BOO-HAW-HAW each day here at the Harbinger!
After reading a slew of reviews on the new animated film Igor, starring the voices of John Cusack, Steve Buscemi, Sean Hayes, John Cleese, Eddie Izzard, Jay Leno, Jennifer Coolidge and Molly Shannon, I can say this: almost none of them get it.This is not to say that my review is better than theirs, but they just don't get it. You have to have a certain frame of mind to watch this film, and you can't go in expecting anything. (For instance, the soundtrack contains monster-movie-esque music, the songs of Louis Prima, and "I Can See Clearly Now" as sung by blind orphans. Yes, blind orphans.) I was immediately stoked by this film when I first saw the animated trailer online, and quite frankly, I'm still stoked by it. (I have since learned there will be action figures--yes!!)
Anyway, on to our review. The kingdom of Malaria has been transformed into a barren wasteland by a mysterious and unexplained cloud cover, causing near-constant rain and eternal darkness. Since nothing can grow there, the bullying and overbearing King Malbert (Leno) comes up with a novel solution to keep Malaria's economy afloat: create evil inventions of mass destruction and blackmail the rest of the world into paying Malaria not to unleash them on other countries. (If this scenario sounds at all familiar to you, you are most likely going to vote Democrat and will probably end up not liking this rather un-PC movie anyway, so be quiet.) This instantly creates two classes within Malaria: the Evil Scientists, who are treated like celebrities and live rent-free in huge, luxurious laboratories, and the Igors, whose collective job consists mainly of indentured servitude, taking abuse, and switch-pulling. Get born with a hunch on your back, and guess where you'll end up. Because of these circumstances, no one in Malaria is kindhearted, friendly, or even nice.
One Igor (Cusack) who describes himself as "better-looking than the others" (and he's right), is unfortunately cursed with both creative abilities and common decency. Though Igor dreams of being an Evil Scientist, he is in thrall to the temperamental and incompetent Dr. Glickenstein (Cleese), and must invent in secret, creating existentialist Scamper (Buscemi) a sarcastic, suicidal and unfortunately immortal rabbit, and painfully stupid Brain (Hayes), a clumsy brain-in-a-jar who can't even spell his own name right. When Glickenstein is killed during field tests for the upcoming Evil Science Fair, Igor grabs his chance at fame and notoriety and begins working on an evil Frankenstein monster that will destroy all the other inventions at the Fair and be selected for Malbert's blackmail scam. Unfortunately, something goes awry and the resulting creation is a dainty behemoth-sized sweetheart named Eva (Shannon) who quickly decides her own calling: to be an actress. Igor misleads Eva into participating in the Fair, but his secret gets out and he is courted by Dr. Schauenfreude (Izzard), a stylish blowhard whose multiple winning streak at the Fair is maintained by stealing other scientists' inventions with the help of snobbish girlfiend Jaclyn (Coolidge). As Igor struggles with Schauenfreude's temptations and his growing affection for Eva, he discovers a fiendish plan that could change Malaria forever, and not for the better.
This movie is a witty and raucously skewered take on the Frankenstein tale that is a splendid early taste of Halloween dark chocolate. While reviews have been mixed on the film's level of humor (no one seems to understand the concept of gradually building whimsical comic anarchy anymore; it's possible that the Scary Movie And Others oveure killed this), it manages to be both kid- and adult-friendly in the same way that Rocky 
And Bullwinkle was, while at the same time raising a few important questions about celebrity, fame, beauty, prejudice, and the nature of good and evil (especially with its underplayed theme of smart good-guy nobodies versus evil maladroit somebodies). Yeah, most reviewers are ragging on the Nightmare Before Christmas-like design, but enough generations of spooky kids have seen that film and others by Tim Burton that he can now be considered an influence, and some of those same kids probably grew up to work on this film. Plus, the film's designers have also seen enough of Metropolis and The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari to properly get their German Expressionism going on, so it's all good.
The voice cast also kicks it live and knocks it out, with standout performances coming from Hayes and Buscemi, who steal the show with their team of Brain and Scamper. Izzard and Coolidge mug and posture their way through, with Coolidge stealing some of Izzard's villainous thunder through her Paris-Hilton-meets-Natasha-Fatale portrayal of Jaclyn. Leno is solid but strangely not particularly memorable as Malbert, and Cleese invokes some of his demons from Fawlty Towers in his briefly seen but totally clueless Glickenstein. And Cusack and Shannon, who may seem on paper to be odd choices for Igor and Eva, maintain a constantly high energy level and own their characters for the whole of the film, making them totally believable.
Screw the reviewers. Screw the fact that there's been almost no press for this film, and screw the grumblings about Burtonesque character design and the film's atypical nature as compared to other CGI animated offerings. Go see this film. See it twice so you can catch all the jokes; it's not a typical kiddie film, but a movie about Evil Scientists and Igors ain't gonna be anyway. And there's gonna be action figures.
PULL THE SWITCH!!!
POST-MORTEM: We've just learned from dreadcentral.com that the action figure line has been canned by the Weinstein Company, who made the film. Guess all the Evil Scientists moved to Hollywood.
Hello, everybody! Frankie Franken here, and we've just seen the trailer for the new film Igor, coming from MGM in September. Igor follows the adventures of a talented Mad-Scientist's-assistant (John Cusack) in the kingdom of Malaria, where Mad Scientists are celebrities who create evil weapons and monsters, and Igors are... just the
hunchbacked guys who pull the switch. In a way-cool take on Frankenstein, one Igor (who is much more talented than his master) must overcome prejudices and other Mad Scientists to achieve his dream of becoming a Mad Scientist himself. When he gets his chance, Igor's creation turns out to be a monster girl (wow!) named Eva, who has other things in mind than being someone's weapon.
Our own Mad Doctor John is hot to see this great movie, and we think it's going to be really cool too--a nice early treat for Halloween! Check out the trailer at http://www.igor-movie.com.
Note: The Mad Doctor is also providing information on this film at Notes From The Monster Shop, and his new animation blog The Powerhouse Files. Check them out.
Also, click the Igor poster to see a video exclusive from Dread Central with Igor director Anthony Leonidas!
Have seen the trailer for the new film Igor, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation to this film, coming from MGM in September. Igor follows the adventures of a talented Mad-Scientist's-assistant (John Cusack) in the kingdom of Malaria, where Mad Scientists are celebrities who create evil weapons and monsters, and Igors are... the hunchbacked guys who pull the switch. In a wild, wacky and very creative inversion on the Frankenstein story, one Igor (who is much more talented than his master) must overcome prejudices and other Mad Scientists to achieve his dream of becoming a Mad Scientist himself. Teaming up with sarcastic lab rabbit Scamper (Steve Buscemi) and the unfortunately stupid brain-in-a-jar Brain (Sean Hayes), Igor eventually gets his chance to create his own monster, Eva (Molly Shannon), who turns out to be exactly not what anyone expected.
Some wags on Youtube (which is where I saw the trailer) were blabbing on about how this seemed to be a monster-themed version of Ratatouille, but for my own part, I think there's much more at work here. It's arriving in theatres on September 19, just in time to open the Halloween season, so I'm throwing in with this cool-looking and inspired-sounding little movie. Further highjinks are sure to ensue, so I'll fill you in as it all becomes available. Check out the trailer for yourself at http://www.igor-movie.com.
Note: We will also be providing information on this film at The Morlock Heights Harbinger and The Powerhouse Files. Check them out.
Have seen the trailer for the new film Igor, and I'm looking forward with great anticipation to this film, coming from MGM in September. Igor follows the adventures of a talented Mad-Scientist's-assistant (John Cusack) in the kingdom of Malaria, where Mad Scientists are celebrities who create evil weapons and monsters, and Igors are... the hunchbacked guys who pull the switch. In a wild, wacky and very creative inversion on the Frankenstein story, one Igor (who is much more talented than his master) must overcome prejudices and other Mad Scientists to achieve his dream of becoming a Mad Scientist himself. Teaming up with sarcastic lab rabbit Scamper (Steve Buscemi) and the unfortunately stupid brain-in-a-jar Brain (Sean Hayes), Igor eventually gets his chance to create his own monster, Eva (Molly Shannon), who turns out to be exactly not what anyone expected.
Some wags on Youtube (which is where I saw the trailer) were blabbing on about how this seemed to be a monster-themed version of Ratatouille, but for my own part, I think there's much more at work here. It's arriving in theatres on September 19, just in time to open the Halloween season, so I'm throwing in with this cool-looking and inspired-sounding little movie. Further highjinks are sure to ensue, so I'll fill you in as it all becomes available. Check out the trailer for yourself at http://www.igor-movie.com.
Note: We will also be providing information on this film at The Morlock Heights Harbinger and Notes From The Monster Shop. Check them out.
For the first time anywhere, I present a self-portrait showing full Mad Doctor mode... and despite the grimly fiendish expression, don't worry; I really do like other people. It's just that I can't always eat a whole one...
We here in the Monster Shop are very stoked about the upcoming release of The Secret Saturdays, a new cartoon soon to debut on Cartoon Network. Created by Jay Stephens, this cool new show depicts the adventures of a family of cryptozoologists who strive to protect the world from ancient monsters and secrets, while simultaneously protecting said ancient monsters and secrets from greedy humans.
Cryptozoology, or the study of undiscovered animals, gets unjustly laughed at in scientific circles due to its concentration on what is known as "mega-fauna" cryptids. Mega-fauna cryptids are not things like undiscovered species of beetles or other insects, but big animals--in short, things like the Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot. The earliest evidence of cryptozoological aspects in 'toons is most likely Hanna-Barbera's Jonny Quest, which is one of The Secret Saturdays' inspirations. Created by Doug Wildey, 
Jonny Quest details the adventures of the title character, a resourceful lad who travels with his father Dr. Benton Quest, pilot/adventurer Roger "Race" Bannon, Indian pal Haji and bulldog-pup Bandit on missions and adventures that span the globe and sometimes have them running into lost civilizations and ancient legends. Predating JQ, in the comic book format,
was Jack Kirby's Challengers Of The Unknown, sometimes said to be a trial run for what would eventually become The Fantastic Four. The Challengers were a group of adventurers who, after miraculously surviving a plane crash unharmed, decide that they are living on borrowed time and band together for adventures that take them not only to battles with monsters and ancient beings, but to alternate universes and even across time and space. To be involved with a branch of what is known as "pseudo-science", the Saturdays have a hell of a cartoon pedigree.
Because there is no scientific proof that cryptids exist, and because most evidence for these creatures largely consists of unreliable eyewitness accounts, cryptoozoology is considered a pseudo-science. Yet at the same time, much of the Earth is still unexplored, especially its oceans and seas.
And one thing that is perennial about the human condition is that we have a need in our lives for monsters, myths, the supernatural, and the unexplained: things that cause us to suspect that there is another world beyond the one we know, things that fill the heart with wonder and the eyes with stars. Religion gets blamed, and often unfairly, for being the cause of unrest in the world, but even though every atheist I know would grind their teeth at this statement, we need a God. We need great big things like God, because sometimes we can hide under them from real evil. We need to know and believe there are forces for good in the world that work in our favor, and we need monsters to represent our worst fears and our greatest evils, or even to represent the evils in ourselves that we can't face.
And sometimes--many times, in fact, the monsters wind up being the good guys, or at least an indicator of our need and capacity for redemption. And never is this more present than in cartoons. Take the case of Hal Seeger's Milton The Monster, who showed up on Saturday morning screens back in 1965, but was actually in the production stages as far back as 1964, pre-dating both The Addams Family and The
Munsters. Created by goofball mad scientists Professor Weirdo and Count Kook, Milton was an amiable Frankenstein who got overloaded on "tincture of tenderness" during his creation, making him sweet and lovable--and usually the victim of his creators' schemes. Other monster toons have proliferated as well; master cartoonist Alex Toth's The Herculoids were a team of 
super-powered creatures who protected their home planet of Quasar from encroaching aliens and outer-space bad guys. The Addams Family, depicted on TV as a clan of macabre and monsterlike individuals who were also the ultimate loving and cordial family, got their own Hanna-Barbera animated series in '73, traveling the country in a Victorian-styled RV and helping out folks in trouble. Though dismissed as a Scooby-Doo clone, the aptly-named Fangface was an actual werewolf who was on the side of good, and he and his gang of pals often ran into real strange creatures--not just crooks in monster suits but actual supernatural occurrences. And during the '80's there was the Drak Pack, in which the teenage descendants of legendary monsters, led by a reformed Count Dracula, used their supernatural abilities to atone for the sins of their ancestors by defending the world from evil.
So I think there's a need, if not a scientific basis, for cryptozoology, for wonder, for anything that causes us to try to be better, braver, or smarter, or helps us deal with the unknown.
And cryptids are real. If you don't think so, then check this out.
(Note: click on any picture to see it full-size.)
So. I was hoping to get some more website stuff done that day, but the rain came and then behind it came a thunderstorm, which meant that the computer, the Internet and so forth all got shut down immediately to avoid getting fried by errant lightning. So I took advantage of this brown-out to spend some downtime putting together Dracula: A Toy Theatre By Edward Gorey, which I had hunted for and finally found, and then been unable to properly deal with because I'd gotten busy.
Toy theatres are pretty cool. Emerging with the rise of mass printing, these were originally sold at real performance or vaudeville theatres during the 18th and 19th centuries, and most of these were fairly elaborate works of art and illustration. People took them home, put them together and performed their own little plays. Dracula showcases Edward Gorey's costume and set designs for the 1977 Broadway production of Dracula, which starred Frank Langella. Those of you who watch Mystery! are familiar with Gorey's work; the animated opening sequence is derived from his artwork.
The Gorey toy theatre includes three scenes, fifteen figures and props that you put together, plus a four-page booklet (more a pamphlet, actually) that outlines the basic action of the play and gives some background on Edward Gorey, all in a nice bookshelf-quality box. My familiarity with Dracula is not from the play, but mostly from Stoker's original novel and myriad movies, so I was kind of irritated that the female lead was Lucy Westenra, or rather Seward, as the play combines hers and Mina Harker's characters.** However, Mina writes a diary that composes half the novel, and if anyone has ever seen the beautiful if overwrought and somewhat ham-handed movie Bram Stoker's Dracula featuring Gary Oldman as Drac, then it's easy to call Lucy (played by Sadie Frost) the most obnoxious character, as she spends most of her onscreen time behaving like a total horndog and driving her suitors into various extended expressions of masculinity. Quincey Morris (Bill Campbell), presented in this movie as an Old West American, shows plenty of Ah-Luvs-Ya-Miz-Scawlet love, while Dr. Seward (Richard E. Grant) gets obsessive and shows Weird Geeky Intellectual Love, expressed by the scene where he shoots up with opium while giggling insanely and listening to hot classical music on his recording phonograph. Lord Godalming, played by Cary Elwes, is a stiff-upper-lip sort, so he doesn't do much besides be really British at her.
But I digress. The photo below shows the play props, all exquisitely and simply done, consisting of Lucy's Bed, The Doctor's Couch, The Dank And Noisome Tomb,* and two Carpets For The Library And Boudoir. The Dank And Noisome Tomb was actually the easiest thing to put together, while The Doctor's Couch had me scratching my head and fumbling for a few minutes before I finally grokked how it was supposed to be folded.
The fifteen figures include the main characters: Jonathan Harker, Dr. Seward, Lucy Seward (who is Dr. Seward's daughter in the play), Professor Van Helsing, and Drac in various poses and costumes for the three acts that make up the play, plus Miss Wells the maid, the tortured and maddened mental patient and vampire stooge Renfield, and Butterworth, who is Renfield's keeper and generally looks like he'd like to beat the crap out of Renfield. As per the booklet, at the beginning of the first act, Mina has already been a light supper for Dracula, with plasma for afters.
All the costumes have a definite 1920's-30's Agatha Christie feel, which stands to reason since the 1931 Dracula with Bela Lugosi is pretty much in that time period. Still, the most curious of these were the figures for Act III, which (as per instructions) takes place in A Vault. I cannot see anyone going vampire hunting in evening dress.
There are three figures of Drac in different poses, which I dubbed Normal Drac (for when he's misleading people into thinking he's just an eccentric rich dude who lives in an old church and really likes his opera cape), Sleeping Drac (for those daytime naps after a night on the town), and Working Drac (pretty obvious). Sleeping Drac was a bit strange to me; I felt that instead of being in a stand like the others, there should be a tab-and-slot arrangement so it could fit on The Dank And Noisome Tomb for that added touch of realism.
A shot of the secondary characters: Miss Wells the maid, Renfield and Butterworth. I think Butterworth is a bit put out with Renfield.
After the props and figures were done, I did the scenery. This part was easy: you stand up the set pieces, fold down the floor and tape it together, then tape the three scenes together so that it forms a model that can be turned back and forth for each scene. I opted to leave the scenes separated, as I did not want Yet Another Dust-Catcher in my house, and wanted to store most of the stuff in the box. (I guess that Dank And Noisome Tomb will be a display piece.) I also reconfigured the floor taping so that a small crack was left in the floor seam, then taped both the top and underside of the floor, creating a hinge that made for easy refolding and storing in the box. A burnishing with the handle of my X-Acto knife made the invisible tape substantially more invisible.
Here is a shot of Act One, Dr. Seward's Library. As you can see, there is a repeated bat motif throughout the scenery, suggesting the unseen presence of Dracula and Encroaching Evil.
Act Two, Lucy's Boudoir.
The bat motif gets really heavy in Act Three, A Vault. It would be hard to walk into this sort of place without having a "we're as doomed as doomed can be" feel, even if you're dressed in a snappy evening suit.
So there you go. At this point some imagination was bound to take over, so our last picture above is a scene from my own production of Dracula with set designs and costumes by Edward Gorey, in which an itinerant dragon, unimpressed with the cardboard performances of the actors and distressed by the liberties taken with Stoker's original work, seeks to dismantle the production in the middle of the third act. Further highjinks are sure to ensue.
*No, it really is called that on the back of the box.
**This same type of compression also happens in the theatrical version of Frankenstein, which I have read, and which has no monster creation scene and confines the lab to a single door on the stage. Sorry, but if I was directing it we'd have that laboratory set and that creation scene, and the audience would just have to hunker down. Some things are sacred.
Special thanks to Claudia and Charlie White, who let me use their digital camera and helped with this photo essay.
Hello, everybody! Frankie Franken reporting here with news on an awesome new cartoon coming out this fall on Cartoon Network--The Secret Saturdays!
The Secret Saturdays details the adventures of a cryptozoological team who travel the
world to protect ancient secrets and monsters (called "cryptids") from humans who would otherwise destroy or exploit them. Consisting of Doc, Drew and Zak Saturday, and accompanied by loyal cryptids Fiskerton and Komodo, the Saturdays team tries to stay one step ahead of madman cryptid hunter V.V. Argost in their exploits. The cartoon was created by Jay Stephens, who also is drawing and writing comic stories featuring the Saturdays that will appear in every other issue of DC Comics' Cartoon Network Action Pack until the show's premiere in the fall. The latest issue, #26, features the first of these stories, showcasing Stephens' excellent character designs and artwork.
We're excited about this cool new show, and we hope you will be too! Stay tuned here for more news on the upcoming Secret Saturdays!
I miss Cartoon Network.
You may think that's a silly thing to say as the channel still exists, but the Cartoon Network I was turned on to is not around anymore. That honor now goes to Boomerang, which is where most of the cartoons I grew up with now appear, and which is beginning to fall by the wayside too. There was not as much good stuff on there the last time I was at my parents' home, which is where I see Boomerang because the cable company in my hometown is run by Philistines, who see fit to have two feeds for BET and two religious networks featuring People With Big Hair and Joel Osteen, but cannot bring themselves to add BBC America and Boomerang to compensate.
But I digress. CN once had shows like Teen Titans, Justice League Unlimited, Megas XLR and so on; now they show anime almost exclusively as part of their adventure lineup (though they are doing Spider-Man and Transformers). Their "cartoons" consist of horribly drawn, eye-wateringly stylistic characters with no heart or soul that aren't funny. (Don't get me started on the rehash of George Of The Jungle. That rumbling you hear is Jay Ward doing doughnuts in his grave.) It almost makes me want to go to Youtube and watch old 1930's animation, which is so frenetic that it usually drives me nuts, just to see a character that someone has built out of an actual shape, as opposed to some effed-up-looking abstract idea thing.
Some hope may be at hand this fall, though, with the release of The Secret Saturdays. Created by Jay Stephens, this cool-looking cartoon depicts the adventures of a family of cryptozoologists who travel the globe on various missions tracking down ancient mysteries and fighting monsters. Unlike its predecessors such as Jonny Quest and Challengers Of the Unknown (which both cast a long shadow over this series), TSS takes more of a quasi-environmentalist stance, concerned with not only protecting the world from Things Man Was Not Meant To Know, but also protecting those very same Things from those who would exploit them for nefarious purposes. The Saturdays team consists of eminent scientist and adventurer/cryptozoologist Doc Saturday, his true-believer wife Drew (who serves as a Mulder figure to Doc's Scully-like "hard facts" stance) and their son Zak, who comes across as Jonny Quest with an X-Games attitude, throwing himself into missions with gusto. The mascot of the team is Fiskerton, a strange-looking but intelligent "gorilla-cat" creature who is comic relief and pet/protector/older brother to Zak.
The Secret Saturdays has so far gotten good word-of-mouth from those in the know, and was once the subject of a clumsy name change from Cartoon Network (who wanted the generic-sounding title The Secret Adventures Of Zak Saturday; fortunately, common sense and coolness prevailed). For my own part, I am looking forward to TSS. The characters are very likable and personable, the style is pleasingly retro (atomic science is always more fun than nuclear science), and we haven't had a good Jonny Quest-style adventure series on TV since, well, Jonny Quest. Plus there are monsters, and if you've seen my own stuff you know I likes me some monsters, so hopefully this will hang around for quite a while.
A preview of the treats this series has to offer may be seen not only at Cartoon Network's website but also in the DC comic Cartoon Network Action Pack. The latest issue, #26, features the Saturdays as its cover story, and according to Stephens' blog Monsterama, Saturdays tales will appear in every other issue until its premiere in the fall. Personally, my money's on this one as my new fave for this fall season. I have already caught a bit of The Marvelous Misadventures Of Flapjack, and I just wanna say this... Jesus H. Roosevelt Christ with pliers, Cartoon Network needs help! Viva Saturdays!
It is the sad duty of The Morlock Heights Harbinger to report the death of Stan Winston. Winston, the Oscar-winning special-effects master who created the creatures in many of our favorite movies at the Monster Shop, has died at 62 following a long battle with multiple myeloma.
Notable among Winston's works are creatures and characters for The Terminator, Aliens and Jurassic Park series of films. Winston, who worked with such fantasy stalwarts as James Cameron, Steven Spielberg and Tim Burton, for whom he created makeups for Edward Scissorhands and Batman Returns, leaves behind a legacy of over four decades' worth of special effects work. He won four Oscars under those directors for 
1986's Aliens, 1992's Terminator 2: Judgment Day and Batman Returns, and 1993's Jurassic Park. Most fondly remembered here at the Monster Shop are his splendid makeups for the genre favorite The Monster Squad and the title creature of Pumpkinhead, which is considered by us to be a masterwork. His last work was with director Jon Faverau for the recent hit movie Iron Man, based on the Marvel Comics character. Winston is survived by his wife Karen; a son, daughter, brother and four grandchildren.
In pace requiescat, Mr. Winston. Thank you for everything.
At long last, the original animated incarnation of Sabrina The Teenage Witch finally makes her very auspicious DVD debut. Genius Products, in tandem with its other Archies releases, brings you a 3-DVD set of the original Filmation animated series featuring all 31 episodes.
Sabrina made her first appearance in the Archie's Madhouse comic series and gained a fair amount of popularity, eventually spawning her own comic book. Filmation brought Sabrina to animation in the prime-time special Archie And His New Pals, and eventually spun off her own series after showcasing her as part of The Archie Comedy Hour. The resulting cartoons depict Sabrina as a resident of Riverdale and a student at Riverdale High, accompanied in her adventures by her boyfriend Harvey and her friends Spencer and Ophelia (who respectively serve Jughead and Betty functions to Harvey's Archie).
However, as our title says, Sabrina is a witch, and therefore must keep her magical abilities a secret from the Riverdale denizens. Though witches are expected to hex people, the good-natured Sabrina often uses her powers in attempts to help others or solve problems, usually with disastrous results. Most of the plots revolve around Sabrina's attempts to juggle her witchly studies and her teenage life, featuring her magical cat Salem and her two aunts, the cantankerous Hilda and the kindhearted Zelda. There is also Cousin Ambrose, a sophisticated, somewhat bon-vivant warlock who is more sympathetic to Sabrina's teenhood and occasionally aids her in her adventures, serving as a mixture of the Dr. Bombay and Uncle Arthur characters from Bewitched. The Archies crew makes regular appearances, with Reggie continuously (and unsuccessfully) trying to out Sabrina as a witch to the rest of the gang.
And of course, there are the Groovie Goolies. Yep, this set not only has all of the Sabrina episodes from her own series, but also the episodes in which everyone's favorite gang of maladroit monsters made their first appearances. Mixing the Goolies, the Archies and Sabrina together creates a special blend of comic chaos, and these episodes do not disappoint. As a special feature, the set includes the first episode of The Archie And Sabrina Surprise Package, in which Archie, Sabrina and the gang work together to solve a mystery at Riverdale. (Will this series be a future DVD release? Only time will tell.)
The set is colorfully packaged, though not in a clear slipcase like the other Archies releases, and the artwork is of the usual excellent standard. The episodes appear to be sourced from the best materials, showing clear pictures and few signs of aging. The DVD holder is a bit difficult to operate at first (the first two discs are overlapped, placing the click-tabs on the sides rather than in the middle), so examine carefully rather than tear into it.
Pick up this set if you're an Archies or Sabrina fan, and pair it with the Groovie Goolies set for the right mix of supernatural Saturday-Morning silliness. You'll see her tug her ear... and you'll see your blues disappear. Count on it.
Good evening, darlings, and thank you for reading. The other MonsterGrrls and I would like very much to welcome you to our 31 Days Of Halloween, in which all of us will log in each day through the month of October to bring you various news, reviews and other items connected with this most wonderful time of the year. We're kicking off today with a review of a movie from 2006, An American Haunting, which, ostensibly enough, was released on our Mad Doctor's birthday that year.
folktale, the Bell Witch of Tennessee. In 1817, the family home of John Bell in Robertson County, Tennessee, was haunted by inexplicable noises and poltergeist-like manifestations which were thought to be the work of a ghost, the spirit of a woman named Kate Batts. The spirit took particular delight in tormenting the Bells' youngest daughter Betsy (shown at right), and it is from this tale that Haunting takes its meat.
