Hello, everybody! This is Frankie Franken with more of our 31 Days Of Halloween. Today I was thinking about Bethany's post on Dracula, and I considered that maybe I should write something about Frankenstein. Even though the Mad Scientists' Guild has largely labeled Mary Shelley's novel as an inaccurate and unscientific account of the First Experiment (which is, basically, making a Creature like me), the book is one of my favorites. Plus, I'm kind of wondering if the Guild understands that it's actually a novel, and not a scientific text. But that's neither here nor there.
Since Bethany listed a lot of films in her post, and since everybody likes to watch scary movies around Halloween, I thought I would list some of my favorite films about Frankenstein--some that I think are some of the best. So here we go!
Frankenstein (1931). This is the first widely popular Frankenstein film, and the one that's really set the tone for all other Frankenstein movies. Boris Karloff's portrayal of the Creature has been the defining and iconic performance for many others. Even though the movie isn't really close to Shelley's story, this film is still cool, and Jack Pierce's makeup (which is another icon in history) is fantastic for the time.
The Bride Of Frankenstein (1935). This was Frankenstein's sequel, and it does 
carry on a plot thread from the original novel, which is the monster's desire for a mate. For my part, while this film is cool, I think the ending is very sad, and I also think that the director (James Whale) missed a great opportunity to make a more tragic film than it was. However, I did get a groovy hairstyle out of it!
The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957). A studio in England called Hammer Film Productions made this film, which, along with the international hit Horror Of Dracula, returned the story of Frankenstein to prominence. However, the Creature doesn't get a lot of screen time in this film; instead, it concentrates on Dr. Frankenstein, who is played with great verve by a wonderful actor named Peter Cushing. This film, like Horror Of Dracula, was also a hit, and spawned a number of cool sequels with Cushing returning as the good doctor.
Dan Curtis' Frankenstein (1973). This is a made-for-TV film that is probably one of the closest adaptations of the original novel that's ever been done! Bo Svenson plays the Creature, who even looks like Shelley's description. No box head in this one!
Frankenstein--The True Story (also 1973). This British film came out the same year as Dan Curtis' Frankenstein, and ended up overshadowing it. Though it has great atmosphere, the film is only like Shelley's original novel at the end; for most of it, the Creature and Dr. Frankenstein are good friends until the Creature begins to deteriorate.
Young Frankenstein (1974). This film is one of the coolest and funniest Frankenstein movies out there, and it's also the movie by which all parodies of Frankenstein must be judged. Instead of parodying Shelley's novel, director Mel Brooks wisely went for the old cliches of the 1930's Universal Monsters films, making this a farce and a loving tribute. And in this one, the Creature gets to tap-dance!
The Bride (1985). People say that this is supposed to be a remake of The Bride Of Frankenstein, but in this one the pop singer Sting is playing Doctor Frankenstein, and the whole look of the movie reminds me of the Hammer Frankenstein films. This, in my opinion, is the movie that James Whale should have made, and I love the ending.
Frankenstein Unbound (1990). This was made by Roger Corman, and it's really cool, but it's also really weird. In it, a scientist's attempts to develop an energy beam open a rift in time and send him back to 1817 Switzerland, and right in the middle of the original Frankenstein story, which in this movie really happened. Amazing.
The Monster Squad (1987). Even though this really isn't a Frankenstein film, I included it because the Creature plays a very pivotal role. Bethany reviewed this film a while back, and she loved it. I did too, and it's a perfect film for Halloween.
Van Helsing (2004). Many people really hated this film when it came out, but I love it, and since it's another monster-mash movie like The Monster Squad, I included it here. Shuler Hensley, who played the Creature in this film, would go on to play the Creature in the musical stage adaptation of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein on Broadway! Talk about getting stuck in a part!
Incidentally, speaking of musicals, I'm going to end this post with a couple of neat websites for you to check out. Authors Mark Baron, Jeffrey Jackson, and Gary P. Cohen have written a musical adaptation of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein that was performed off-Broadway in New York, and drew a devoted fan following! See it here and hear the music at www.frankensteinthemusical.com. You can even buy the original cast recording, too!
And of course, there's my favorite Frankenstein website, the Bakken Library's Frankenstein Exhibit, which has an online virtual exhibit showing the original laboratory that Victor Frankenstein would have used, information on Mary Shelley herself, a view of an 1831 edition of the novel, and even a link to the complete 1818 text. The Bakken Library is located in Minneapolis, Minnesota; if you're a resident or happen to be in the area, visit the Library and see this cool installation. Visit it by clicking on the link above.
So that's my post on the Creature who may or may not have inspired my creation. After all, Dad says he's never really read the book Frankenstein, but there's a copy in the castle library so it must have made some impression. For some reason, he's started keeping it next to some books on raising a teenager, which could mean anything.
Anyway, be sure to check out all these groovy films and websites, and be back tomorrow for more 31 Days Of Halloween! See you soon!
Sincerely,
Frankie Franken
Tomorrow: The Countdown Begins--10 Days To Halloween!
Hi, you guys, this is Harriet Von Lupin doing The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween! Since I already did some stuff about cool music for Halloween, I decided I wanna do some more, and Mad Doc's given me the perfect band to talk about! So today we're going to Philadelphia, 'cause you know what's in Philadelphia? Werewolves!!
That's right, Philadelphia is the home city of a groovin' monster band called The Young Werewolves, who have
been rocking there since 2002. The band consists of guitar player Wolfman Nick Falcon, bass player Shewolf Dana Kain, and drummer Jonny Wolf (boy, gotta love these names!), and they all share howling duties! Their music is a cool and rippin' mixture of 1950's-style rockabilly and punk rock (which are also the musics of choice around the Mad Doctor's Monster Shop!) with a healthy dose of monster and B-movie references in their lyrics. Their musical influences range from the Ramones to the Misfits to the Stray Cats to the Monkees to Buddy Holly to the Cramps. (Gee, I'm beginning to wonder if this band actually knows Mad Doc.) They've been part of the Philly club circuit for a long time, but have also opened for national acts and gained great reviews from music critics and horror fans! Their latest album, Cheat The Devil, was produced by horror movie actor Sid Haig, who also does spooky narration on the album.
This band is definitely one of my favorites and makes me wanna howl! ARRROOOOOOO!!! Check them out at their website (just click the link on my title up there) and go to this link for their Myspace page to check out tracks from Cheat The Devil and place your order today for some rockin' Halloween party music!
See you tomorrow for more MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween, and that's all for that! OWW-WOOOOOOOO!!!
Harriet Von Lupin
MAD DOCTOR'S NOTE: In addition to being a great and talented band that did a lot to make me feel better about the state of modern music, they were kind enough to share a link with us at their website. Do yourself a favor and check out these cool Young Werewolves. --M.D.
Hey, y'all! This here is Punkin Nightshade, speakin to you through this computer blog for The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween, and today I am in a swivet cause I am doin a movin picture review about somethin I know a lot about. I have been doin postins about vampire slayers and swamp things and first one thing and then another, but this one is about witches. This here movin picture is called The Witches, and it was first a book by a 
feller name of Roald Dahl, who lived over in England and had writ another book about a young boy named Charlie and a chocolate factory, which was made into a movin picture twice. The picture was produced by a feller named Jim Henson, who was the feller who made up those Muppet folks, and had also made him up one of those special effectin departments called Jim Henson's Creature Shop, which I am mentionin here cause I just like that name. They done a bunch of stuff our Mad Doctor likes.
This picture starts out bein about a young one named Luke, whose granny is tellin him a story about witches and what they done to a young girl named Erica. He is stayin with his granny while his parents is off somewhere, and I don't know if she was tellin him the story to get him to behave or not, but anyhow the next day they find out that Luke's parents done been killed in an accident, so Luke is now stayin with his granny from here on. Both Luke and his granny are natural upset about the accident, so they decide they will take a vacation out to a hotel at the seashore. Luke is holdin up well, but he is the only young one at the hotel, which is uncommon filled with all these women meetin for some convention. Then Luke meets another young one named Bruno, who is a bit rambunctious cause his parents don't pay no attention to him. Everthing goes along for awhile until Luke is playin in one of the convention rooms with his pet mice, and then all them women that's conventionin at the hotel come rushin in and fill up the room, so Luke decides that he should hide himself. Then this other woman with long black hair comes struttin in and you can tell she is the grandie dame of all them other women, and they shut up the room and start pullin off wigs and masks, and Luke is seein that all them women is witches and the grandie dame is the leadin one, what's called the Grand High Witch, and they's the same kind of witches his granny was tellin him about.
Now, when I seen this part, I decided that Mr. Henson and Mr. Dahl had not ever met no real witches. There are elderly witches among us, right enough, and when it gets coven meetin time there ain't none of us that don't tart up, but these here witches in this movin picture was almost critters. Ain't no real witches look like that, which is how you can tell this is a movin picture and not the real world.
The Grand High Critter Witch tells all the other critter witches that she has got a plan to get rid of all the children in the world, cause it is part of the story in this movin picture that witches do not like children because children smell like nasty stuff to witches. Well sir, I say that this is twaddle, cause a real witch would have done with bad-smellin children what we did to little Timmy, who is a young one what lives down the road from me and is all the time runnin with the young ones of Miss Cecily, who also lives down the road and is a werewolf, and one time they was out playin and little Timmy fell in an old waterhole that had stagnant water and swamp slime in it. The werewolf cubs all set up howlin and we come to see what's the matter, and Timmy was right ripe-smellin when we got him out, so we just set him in a tub full of hot soapy water and scrubbed him till he hollered. I am thinkin from the look of them that all these critter witches is really smellin theirselves, but of course one should be polite and respectful to folks, even the mean ones.
So anyhow, the old Grand High Critter Witch wants to use a secret potion to turn all the children in the world into mice so cats will eat them, which ain't nohow practical. So Luke is hearin all this and knows he got to tell his granny so they can find out what to do, and then the Grand High Critter Witch brings in Bruno to test the secret potion on. Luke tries to save Bruno, but it don't work, and both him and Bruno get turnt into mice. So in the rest of the movie Bruno, who likes bein a mouse, and Luke, who don't, got to save the world.
Jasen Fisher plays Luke, Mai Zetterling plays his granny, and Charlie Potter plays Bruno. Angelica Huston plays 
the Grand High Critter Witch, and she has also played in some other movin pictures about the Addams Family, and got to look better in them than she does here. She does get to look all right at the start, but not for long. There is also another feller in this picture that our Mad Doctor likes, named Rowan Atkinson, and he is playin the hotel manager, who is natural upset when he finds Luke and Bruno runnin round the hotel after they been turnt to mice, cause he is worried about mice in his hotel and people not wantin to stay there. But those mice are savin the world, so that is all right. I am likin this picture fine and think it is a good picture to watch with little ones, but probly not very little ones since the critter witches look so awful. But I am also tellin you that it is not a factual picture about witches, and real witches would not hurt no young ones cause we got young ones too. So I am tellin you here as a witch that you should always look after your young ones and treat them right and keep them safe from bad folks like these critter witches in this picture, not just on Halloween, but any old time.
So I am done here, and blessings be to you and yours. We're comin back tomorrow with more Halloween postin, and I shall be doin another movin picture review soon cause I'm kind of likin it.
Sincerely,
Petronella Nightshade
POST-MORTEM: I am mentionin here that all of us and the Mad Doctor would like to say thank you and howdy to Mr. Greg West, his wife Kay, and his young ones Zephyr and Katie-Brooke. It was him what suggested that I should of writ this review, cause he showed this movin picture to his little boy Zephyr and they all liked it though it was scary. --P. N.
Hello, everybody! This is Frankie Franken with today's post for The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween, and after reading Punkin's post I thought I would tell you about some more websites around the web that are full of monsterrific fun and laughs for Halloween. So here we go with three of the coolest, which are some of our favorite places to visit!
Haunted Dimensions (www.haunteddimensions.raykeim.com) is a website run by Ray Keim, a CGI artist and graphic designer who seasonally works at Universal Studios Orlando, where he designs many props, facades, animations and other art for Universal's 
Halloween Horror Nights. Ray is a lifelong fan of Disney's Haunted Mansion and has created this website, which showcases not only his 3-D artwork but features downloadable paper models of the Haunted Mansions at Disneyland and Walt Disney World, Phantom Manor at Disneyland Paris, and other facades and props centered around the Mansion. The intricate detail on these cool models is stunning and has to be seen to be believed! And don't forget to check out his fantastic 3-D computer graphics of the various Mansions, many of which are available as neat wallpapers for your computer.
Ormon Grimsby's Monster Creature Feature (www.mcftv.com) is a late-night horror show out of Raleigh, North
Carolina, headed by Ormon Grimsby, an undertaker for the already dead. His show features not only classic horror films but news and notes on horror culture and happenings in and around Raleigh. It's a return to the old horror hosts of days gone by, and Ormon has even featured us in his web links! Be sure to check out this super-groovy spookshow!
Finally, Atomic Monsters (www.atomicmonsters.com) is one of the most hilarious and original sites we've seen. Atomic Monsters is full of reviews of old 1950's B-movie favorites, including such classics as The Angry Red Planet, The Brain That Wouldn't Die, and I Was A Teenage Frankenstein. (No, that last one isn't my life story, but it's still cool.) Packed with nifty graphics, video clips and even a Monster Jukebox, Atomic Monsters is a fantastic and loving tribute to those old Atom Age Cinema favorites!
You owe it to yourself to check out these nifty sites as part of your Halloween celebration. And remember, you heard it here first, so tell them the MonsterGrrls sent you!
Before I leave today, I want to tell you something. October is our favorite month of the year because of all our great Halloween celebrations, but it's also a special month called National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is responsible for the deaths of over 40,000 women and at least 500 men each year, and it is the second leading cause of cancer-related death in women. Each year in the United States, there are over 217,000 new cases of breast cancer diagnosed.On our posts this week, the other MonsterGrrls and I have been wearing special pink ribbons to show that we support research to find a cure for breast cancer, so that the lives of many people can be saved. If you would like to help, go to the American Cancer Society website at www.cancer.org to find out more about National Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and more information on this program can be found at nbcam.org. Information about early detection of signs and symptoms and where to make donations to this cause can be found at the website of the National Breast Cancer Foundation at www.nationalbreastcancer.org.We want to wish the best to all those survivors of breast cancer out there who are enjoying this year's Halloween season with us, and we'll see you tomorrow for more of our 31 Days Of Halloween, because the party isn't over yet! We're just getting started!Sincerely,Frankie Franken
Hey, y'all! This here is Punkin Nightshade, speakin to you through this computer blog, and wishin you well for our 31 Days Of Halloween. Today I am not doin a movin picture review but instead will tell you about a funny little website that our Mad Doctor and us think right highly of. It's called Ravensblight, and was made up by a feller name of Ray O'Bannon, and it can be found at www.ravensblight.com.
Mr. Ray O'Bannon is an interestin feller and a right smart. He started out puttin up some paintin pictures he did on the Internet, but after 
awhile he started wantin to do some more stuff, and Ravensblight has evolved into the website you can go to today. There is all kind of things there, showin that Mr. O'Bannon is a very creative feller and likes to make stuff. There is an Arcade from what you can download and play some actual little computer games that he has made up, featurin monsters and zombies and such, cause Mr. O'Bannon is like our Mad Doctor in that he likes monsters. There is also a Toy Shop, which has a bunch 
of little paper toys you can download and print out on your computer and make yourself, and has got everythin from book covers to board games to a set of playin dice to a little model of Ravensblight Manor, with a little history of it too. There's musical stuff in the Music Studio, featurin original pieces of music that Mr. O'Bannon has writ and performed, and short horror stories in the Library, some of which got audio files of him readin them, and of course his paintin pictures and photgraphs in the Art Gallery. And the Theatre even has some little short films that you can watch. All in all, Mr. O' Bannon is a very busy and crafty feller, so I wanted to tell you about his website so you can come round for a visit. To my mind, it's a right smart work, so go round and visit him.
Now I got somethin else to tell you before I go. October's our most favorite month of all cause Halloween's a-comin, but it's also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This breast cancer is somethin that should not be taken lightly, cause it is a disease that is the second leadin cause of death in women, exceeded only by lung cancer. It is also the most common cancer to show up amongst women, exceptin skin cancer, and just last year in 2007 there was 40,480 deaths from breast cancer. So I am thinkin that we got to do somethin about this.
In my picture up there, you can see I am wearin a pink ribbon. All the other MonsterGrrls and I are wearin these to show that we are supportin research for breast cancer so's we can find a cure. If y'all would like to help, you can find out more from these good folks at www.cancer.org, and there's more here on National Breast Cancer Awareness Month at nbcam.org. We're speakin to you about this cause we want everbody readin this to be round for the next Halloween and a whole bunch more of Halloweens a-comin, and we sure appreciate that all them what's survived to see this Halloween is still with us. Blessings be to them and their loved ones.
Y'all be sure to come back tomorrow, cause October ain't done with yet and Halloween's comin on! We'll be back with more of The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween, and blessings be on you and yours!
Sincerely,
Petronella Nightshade
Good evening, darlings, and thank you for reading. Today's subject for our 31 Days Of Halloween is most definitely a Halloween film: Lady In White, a curious and lovely independent work that was written, directed and scored by Frank LaLoggia.
In 1962, an imaginative young boy named Frankie Scarlatti (Lukas Haas) is locked in the cloakroom of his school by some bullies on Halloween night. As he waits to be let out, he 
bears witness to a ghostly murder, and is almost murdered himself by an unseen assailant. When Frankie wakes up, he discovers that the janitor of the school is being arrested for attempted murder, and has been accused of a previously unsolved ten-year series of child murders in the town of Willowpoint Falls, where Frankie lives. As time passes, Frankie is repeatedly visited by the ghost of the young girl he saw that night, and begins to see a link between the girl, the identity of the real killer, and the Lady In White (Katharine Helmond), who seems to be a reappearing ghostly figure and a reclusive local legend of his hometown. Something strange and decidedly evil is going on, and it seems that it is now focusing on Frankie himself.
This is not a "scary" ghost movie in the sense of such modern items as the new version of Thirteen Ghosts, Boo, or any sort of haunted-house movie where the main ghost appears as a manic, flickering CGI image meant to resemble old film stock. This is an old-fashioned ghost story, and many people who have watched this film expecting the rather stylistic terrors mentioned above have been disappointed. What they do not understand is that it is a ghost story told through the eyes of a child, which makes Lady In White very different from your average ghost movie. Haas, who was quite young at the time, reveals quiet acting talents and is believable as an unprepossessing child with an imaginative streak who suddenly must deal with real supernatural events, lingering loss, murder and death. While the special effects in this movie are reminiscent of amateurish Steven Spielberg (especially the slightly overwrought ending), the movie eschews the usual sturm und drang of such things and instead plays to its strengths, which are story, characterization and mood.
Lady In White is a moving film that should be seen at least once, even if you are not a fan of horror, and even if you are among its detractors. Do not judge this film without seeing it first; it is a document of innocence lost, told with an unlikely sense of hope.
Now before I go, I have one last bit of business. The month of October contains, of course, the worldwide holiday for all monsterkind everywhere (and humans as well), but it is also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The National Cancer Institute has reported that during this year, there were 182,460 documented cases of female breast cancer, and 1,990 documented cases of male breast cancer. The recorded deaths for females total 40,480; for males, 450. This loss of life, in my opinion, is far from acceptable.
As you can see from my portrait above, I am wearing a pink ribbon. The other MonsterGrrls and I are actively supporting national breast cancer awareness in the hopes that a cure will be found. If you would like to find out how you may also support this cause, please go to www.cancer.org. You shall find more information on National Breast Cancer Awareness Month at nbcam.org. We wish all our readers good health in this Halloween season and many more to come, and we wish the very best for those who are surviving breast cancer for the Halloween of 2008.
I extend special thanks to Mrs. Claudia White (also known as Auntie C. to our happy band of MonsterGrrls) for her assistance in writing this review. Do return tomorrow for more of our 31 Days Of Halloween.
Regards,
Bethany Ruthven
Hi, you guys, this is Harriet Von Lupin reporting for The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween! Today I thought I would write about something that I think everyone should do on Halloween, and that's taking care of your pet! After all, your pet is probably a big part of your life, and since Halloween is such a groovy time of year, you should make sure that your pet can enjoy it too. (I especially can relate to animals, since I've got a little animal in me myself!)
One thing you should definitely not do on Halloween is share your Halloween candy with your pet. Chocolate is delicious to humans, and because of the half-human thing, us werewolves can enjoy it too. But pets can't. Chocolate is poisonous to your dog or cat, and tinfoil wrappers or cellophane wrappers (you know, that clear plastic stuff) can harm a pet if they swallow it. So get your dog or cat special treats for the Halloween season for their own trick-or-treat!
Another thing you should do is bring your pet inside on Halloween, and prepare for them to stay through the night, even if they're normally an outside pet. (Now I'm really serious about this, so listen.) Halloween is a cool holiday for normal people like you and me (well, you, anyway), but for animals it can be really dangerous. Pets often get teased, frightened, or even stolen on Halloween, and there are always reports of animals who get hurt or killed on Halloween (usually by stupid mean people, but sometimes by some Very Bad People who think Halloween's an excuse to hurt animals--grrrrr). So do the right thing and bring your pet inside, because I can tell you right now that people who hurt animals are not good and will never be my best friend. (Grrrr.) Make sure your pet's got proper identification too, like a tag on its collar, so if it does get out it can be easily found and returned. I'm not big on collars (and you can understand why), but an ID tag could save your pet's life.
If your pet stays inside anyway, make sure that they're in a safe place (like another room) while you've got trick-or-treaters coming to your door. All but the most social animals will be scared of a bunch of strange people going in and out, especially if they're wearing some kind of weird costume. In that kind of situation, a dog or cat can get really stressed out and feel protective of its owner, and may bite or hurt someone. So put them someplace where they know they will be safe. (This will also keep them from running out the door when trick-or-treaters are coming in and out of your house!) And something else: keep your pets away from lit pumpkins, candles, and electrical decoration stuff, especially those little kitties, 'cause they will be curious and might get hurt, catch a lethal shock, or even start a fire. (Even if you got a lot of Halloween candy and could share it with all the firemen and the EMT guys and the veterinarian, house fires and electric shocks are something you and your pets should avoid.)
Speaking of costumes... I know a lot of people may think it's really cute to dress their pet up in a little outfit. (That weird Jessica chick at my school comes to mind for some reason... seems like the kind of thing she would do, if she had a pet.) But your pet may not feel that way, so if it's going to make your pet feel weird, don't dress it up. If the pet's okay with it, don't dress it in a costume that's uncomfortable, or that'll, um, what's that word... oh yeah, obstruct its vision, hearing or movement, because a pet that can't see, hear or move around is not a happy pet. (After all, think how you'd feel if someone put you in a weird mask and outfit. Yeah, I know you're dressing up, but that's different.) Check the costume for parts the pet could chew off and choke on, and dangly stuff they could trip on. (A leg cast isn't a cool look for Halloween. Hey, maybe I should do some fashion news stuff...)
And just so you know, I'm not making any of this up. The Humane Society, which protects all animals everywhere (except for werewolves, but hey, we can take care of ourselves in a pinch), has all this information and more at their website, so click on this link to find out more about making Halloween a cool time for your pet! And tell 'em the MonsterGrrls sent you!
And one more thing before I go. October's the month with the Ghost Wonderful Time Of The Year (as our Mad Doctor says), but it's also National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women in the United States. According to the guys from the American Cancer Society, it was estimated that about 178,480 women in the United States would be found to have invasive breast cancer in 2007. About 40,460 women will die from the disease this year. Right now there are slightly over 2 million women living in the United States who have been treated for breast cancer. That's an awful lot of people who are somebody's mom, or sister, or aunt, or wife, or maybe just a best friend.The other MonsterGrrls and I are all wearing this pink ribbon thing (as you can see in my picture above) to show our support for breast cancer research so that a cure can be found. We want all you guys reading this to have a lot of good Halloween memories to come, so show your support too. You can find more information on this at nbcam.org, and the American Cancer Society has more information here.See you next time, and Happy Halloween! ARRROOOOOOOO!!!Harriet Von Lupin
(MAD DOCTOR'S NOTE: Harriet really isn't kidding about protecting pets on Halloween. If you should be out pranking someone's dog on Halloween night and suddenly hear a deep growl behind you and find your formerly pleasant evening full of spectacular incident... don't say we didn't warn you. --M.D.)
Today for The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween we share the unique vision of a highly unique man--Eric Pigors. If you haven't heard of him, it's because his day job is as an animator at Disney Studios, which has not showcased one of its own animators except for Disney himself and the Nine Old Men, and that's mainly why you haven't heard of him. But that's all right, because his other job is creating Toxic Toons, a series of fantastic and generally crazed horror-themed artworks that include books, T-shirts, posters, prints, and many other things, including his own self-designed Ouija board.
Eric Pigors' Toxic Toons website features a bio that lists some of his favorite mediums as "droil and snot" and 
says that he began his creations with "a broken bone and some pig's blood." Most of 
his artwork is unique in the sense that it has a very creepy, unnerving, demented quality, yet somehow manages to remain appealing in a Looney Tunes/Mad Magazine sort of way. Neck braces, hooks, peg-legs, stitches, graveyards, funeral homes, Frankenstein and general Halloween-oriented fauna are common themes in his work. Hard to believe this dude has worked at Disney Studios for 15 years doing stuff like The Lion King and Beauty And The Beast (!!!).
Pigors has done artwork for various horror bands such as Psychocharger (and can even be heard on one track of their new CD, Curse of The Psycho) and he has also done character designs for the Cartoon Network Halloween special Ed, Edd And Eddy's Boo Haw Haw. He has published four books of his artwork, which demonstrate various collage and cut-and-paste techniques in addition to his cartoon drawings. His most recent book, Unkle Pigors' Cryptic Art, has been published by Baby 
Tattoo Books, and features a foreword by Norman "Baron Shivers" Cabrera of the Ghastly Ones (with whom Eric also filmed a goofy video of Sheldon Allman's "Children's Day At The Morgue" that showcases the Unkle Pigors alter-ego and some of his work for his own yearly Halloween spookhouses). All in all, Eric Pigors' art is spooky, ghastly, gross, disturbing, wacky and tremendous fun. Check him out at www.toxictoons.com, where he currently offers a "Spooky Activity Book" for free with purchase of two Toxictoons shirts, which will stand you in excellent stead if you have no costume this season.
I'm not sure if I should mention this one or not, but it's a personal favorite of mine for a lot of reasons. The reason I'm wondering if I should mention it is because it's not out on DVD yet, and I would like to avoid you having a headache trying to track it down, but you might be able to find it at your video store. It's Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree, a novel originally published in 1972 that was made into an animated film in 1993. For awhile it was available on video from Cartoon Network. It is still available from certain sellers on Amazon.com and can probably still be found on Ebay, but I would start at the video store first.
I first heard about this from an essay in a book called October Dreams: A Celebration Of Halloween. The essay was by Gary A. Braunbeck, "First Of All, It Was October: An Overview of Halloween Films." This essay was not only informative but launched a personal quest to make a collection of Halloween films. Note I said Halloween films, not horror films. One of Braunbeck's criteria of a "Halloween" film was that the story took place on or around Halloween, which makes a difference. Some horror films are Halloween films, but not many. Less than you'd think, actually.
In the film, four friends making joyous preparations for a Halloween night learn that their best friend Pippin is being taken away in an ambulance, and will not be able to make their Halloween celebration as planned. Shortly thereafter, a mysterious character known as Moundshroud shows up and informs them that Pippin has been taken by spirits of past Halloween, and that they must come with him to save him. Moundshroud leads them on a journey through time and space, showing the four children (who are all dressed as classic Halloween characters) the origins of the holiday and how mankind's fear of death has shaped how we look at Halloween. The story is narrated by Bradbury himself, and Leonard Nimoy provides the voice of Moundshroud, of all things. This film, produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions (when they still were Hanna-Barbera instead of Cartoon Network) moves along fairly quickly and gives not only a history lesson of Halloween but also some lessons about friendship and sacrifice. It is a wonderful film and would be acknowledged as a classic Halloween special by anyone who would view it.
And of course, the damn thing is not out on DVD, which I think should probably be regarded as a prime example
of corporate crime. (Yeah, I'm talking to you, Warner Brothers. You and Cartoon Network.) As I said, the avenues I listed are most likely your best bets for seeing this film, but a videocassette will probably not be much good if you have gone completely digital. A search I did on Youtube has turned up the film in parts, and here is the link to that. Though I should hate for you to go to such trouble, I can tell you this: the film is worth whatever trouble it might be to see it. If you have no luck, then read the original novel. There are substantial differences, but in either form, the story is perfect for this Ghost Wonderful Time Of The Year. Whichever you get, enjoy.
So here's an interesting thing. I got a Fang Club email yesterday from a guy named Simon McCorkindale, who is guitarist for a band called Mary Shelley Overdrive. He sent me a bio on his band and links for free music from MSO because he had seen The MonsterGrrls' 31 Days Of Halloween and thought we might be interested. So today's post for our 31 Days Of Halloween will be about this band, which I quite like. (Warning: not for young kids.)
Mary Shelley Overdrive is from the Rob Zombie school of horror-themed 
post-punk/metal, with heavily distorted guitars and vocals and samples inserted into the music. However, this band is going Rob Zombie one better on the aesthetic front: while I liked Rob Zombie's Hellbilly Deluxe, his roots are in grindhouse and 70's horror movies. MSO has more of a late-night-horror-TV vibe, which I vastly prefer. Listening to this music, I am reminded of the same things I love about the Ramones, the Cramps and the Misfits.
The band has three collections of tunes available at their website for free download: Hideous Sexy, Shock Theatre and Bride Of Shock Theatre. Hideous Sexy is a collection of cover tunes that were recorded during the making of their self-titled debut album, which is now on sale at their site. The covers range from the Batman theme to Blue Oyster Cult to Devo to Black Flag, but the showstopper is a cover of Bo Diddley's "Who Do You Love" that eschews the Diddley beat to create a voodoo-laced mood of an exceptionally dark twilight on the Mississippi Delta. Shock Theatre and Bride Of Shock Theatre are free EPs that revel in the band's horror aesthetic, featuring originals and cover songs such as "The Lament of Janos Skorzy," "Zombie Toolshed" (a fan favorite), Bauhaus' "Bela Lugosi's Dead" (kind of expected) and an exceptionally frightening cover of the Misfits' "Halloween" which exchanges Glenn Danzig's hyperdrive pagan ceremony for a walk down a lonely street past the old Myers place in Haddonfield, Illinois.
There is also a cover of Rob Zombie's "House Of 1000 Corpses" on Shock Theatre 
that I find especially satisfying. I view Zombie's House Of 1000 Corpses as one of the worst movies ever made, and though I like this song its connection to such a horrible movie has always bugged me. In the Overdrive's hands, with the dual vocals of singer Mark Wood and bass player Miss WyckedEvil Jones, the vision of ancient 1970's cult actors stumbling through neo-grindhouse sludge falls away and leaves me with the mental picture I've always wanted: a view of a dark house at the end of the street that the neighborhood kids refer to as "that house", where no one ever goes in... or comes out. (Occasionally my house has been referred to as "that house," but... oh, well.)
Anyway, MSO is a great new band and worth a listen, and their website also has a free zip file of downloadable artwork to create your own double album CD of Shock Theatre and Bride Of Shock Theatre. Check out their site at www.maryshelleyoverdrive.com and get their cool free stuff... perfect to get you in the Halloween spirit. If you like what you hear, then buy their new album and tell your friends!
Thanks to Simon McCorkindale for viewing my blog. It was much appreciated. --M.D.
Howdy! I am Petronella Nightshade, but everbody calls me Punkin, and I am speakin to you with this computer blog. I hope you are well and enjoyin our writin these 31 Days Of Halloween posts. Today I am doin another movin picture review, and this time I got somethin that made me feel right at home, cause it is set in a swamp and I was born and raised in a swamp. This picture is about a feller named Swamp Thing, who is a big green critter what's made from swamp plants.
My feller Stuart helped me a little on this one. Stuart is this boy I'm seein at school who is a right smart, and is keen on comic books and computer games and science fiction movies, and all kind of stuff. So when I told him I was reviewin Swamp Thing he knew right away what I was talkin about, and showed me that Swamp Thing was actually a character that's made by DC Comics, and has his own funnybook. When they made this picture, it had just become real popular in Hollywood to make movin pictures based on funnybook characters, so folks was scroungin around for somethin to do and turned up Swamp Thing. Swamp Thing even got him a TV show and a cartoon show out of the deal, so he didn't do too bad.
This picture starts out mostly bein about Dr. Alec Holland, who is a research scientist that is workin out in a swamp tryin to make a chemical that'll make plants grow anywhere. There is also a girl scientist there, who is also interested in the chemical and kind of got her eye on Doc Holland too. Anyway, as soon as Doc Holland gets his chemical made this evil rich feller named Anton Arcane who's tryin to do the same kind of thing as Doc Holland starts nosin around wantin to get his hands on it for nefarious purposes and such, and you can always tell them kind of fellers like that, so Doc Holland says no dice. Well, old Arcane allows as to how he'll take that chemical, and so he sends a bunch of fellers to beat up Doc Holland and capture the girl scientist, who becomes the damsel in distress for the rest of the picture and bounces around a lot when she runs cause she's big up top like I am. The bad fellers burn up the lab and leave poor Doc Holland for dead, but his chemical falls onto him and turns him into the Swamp Thing, and he starts goin round and beatin them up and chasin them through the swamp, tryin to save the girl, and there's a lot of action and chasin each other and such. It was a pretty good movin picture, to my mind, but it give me the impression that the director, what's Wes Craven, was tryin to be too serious about it and didn't know what kind of picture he was makin. Ray Wise plays Doc Holland, Adrienne Barbeau plays the girl scientist, and Louis Jourdan plays old Anton Arcane. A feller named Dick Durock plays the Swamp Thing, and went on playin it in the TV show, too.
There was another picture made, called The Return Of Swamp Thing. There was folks what thought the first Swamp Thing picture was silly, but after seein this one I am thinkin that they really must have not liked the new picture. This one was directed by Jim Wynorski, who I have read was wantin to be even more serious than old Wes 
Craven, but after a while he just kind of throwed his hands up and started makin a picture, and boy howdy, it is a wild picture. Old Arcane is still around, and still tryin to capture the Swamp Thing, but his daughter Abby Arcane comes up to visit him cause she wants to know what happened to her mother, and she is a girl who has had some bad experiences with fellers and likes plants a whole lot better than fellers. Well, she comes up and runs into Swamp Thing, and because Swamp Thing is a little bit feller but mostly plant, he is the perfect feller for her. But old Arcane wants to use Abby for his experiments and such, tryin to make monsters, and so Swamp Thing has to rescue her, and there's more runnin around and chasin and people turnin into monsters and everythin. Louis Jourdan and Dick Durock are back playin Arcane and Swamp Thing, and Heather Locklear is Abby Arcane, the girl who falls in love with Swamp Thing. There's more love goin round in this picture than the first one, cause there is a scene with a couple of mercenary types, and one is a girl and one is a boy, and they start showin each other their scars that they got on various adventures, and they get kind of excited and start likin each other. I am thinkin that this is what folks mean when they talk about bein kinky.
Anyway, I am done here, and I shall be back with another postin soon. I hope that you enjoy these movin pictures if you decide to watch them, and blessings be on you and yours. Happy Halloween!
Sincerely,
Petronella Nightshade
Hello, everybody! This is Frankie Franken with more of our 31 Days Of Halloween. Today I was thinking about Bethany's post on Dracula, and I considered that maybe I should write something about Frankenstein. Even though the Mad Scientists' Guild has largely labeled Mary Shelley's novel as an inaccurate and unscientific account of the First Experiment (which is, basically, making a Creature like me), the book is one of my favorites. Plus, I'm kind of wondering if the Guild understands that it's actually a novel, and not a scientific text. But that's neither here nor there.
Frankenstein (1931). This is the first widely popular Frankenstein film, and the one that's really set the tone for all other Frankenstein movies. Boris Karloff's portrayal of the Creature has been the defining and iconic performance for many others. Even though the movie isn't really close to Shelley's story, this film is still cool, and Jack Pierce's makeup (which is another icon in history) is fantastic for the time.
carry on a plot thread from the original novel, which is the monster's desire for a mate. For my part, while this film is cool, I think the ending is very sad, and I also think that the director (James Whale) missed a great opportunity to make a more tragic film than it was. However, I did get a groovy hairstyle out of it!
The Curse Of Frankenstein (1957). A studio in England called Hammer Film Productions made this film, which, along with the international hit Horror Of Dracula, returned the story of Frankenstein to prominence. However, the Creature doesn't get a lot of screen time in this film; instead, it concentrates on Dr. Frankenstein, who is played with great verve by a wonderful actor named Peter Cushing. This film, like Horror Of Dracula, was also a hit, and spawned a number of cool sequels with Cushing returning as the good doctor.
Dan Curtis' Frankenstein (1973). This is a made-for-TV film that is probably one of the closest adaptations of the original novel that's ever been done! Bo Svenson plays the Creature, who even looks like Shelley's description. No box head in this one!
Young Frankenstein (1974). This film is one of the coolest and funniest Frankenstein movies out there, and it's also the movie by which all parodies of Frankenstein must be judged. Instead of parodying Shelley's novel, director Mel Brooks wisely went for the old cliches of the 1930's Universal Monsters films, making this a farce and a loving tribute. And in this one, the Creature gets to tap-dance!
Frankenstein Unbound (1990). This was made by Roger Corman, and it's really cool, but it's also really weird. In it, a scientist's attempts to develop an energy beam open a rift in time and send him back to 1817 Switzerland, and right in the middle of the original Frankenstein story, which in this movie really happened. Amazing.
Van Helsing (2004). Many people really hated this film when it came out, but I love it, and since it's another monster-mash movie like The Monster Squad, I included it here. Shuler Hensley, who played the Creature in this film, would go on to play the Creature in the musical stage adaptation of Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein on Broadway! Talk about getting stuck in a part!
