Monster Scholar

As most of you know, I was one of many people who were looking to Daybreakers as the cure for the common vampire. That is not the say that the film did not succeed on this score and I think it does. Honestly, I enjoyed Daybreakers. In a market dominated by touchy-feely vampires, it was refreshing to see vampires depicted as honest-to-goodness bloodsuckers who devolve into monstrous subsiders when they don’t get enough juice. That said, the only thing that might vex audiences is the fact that Daybreakers is really two movies in one. Daybreakers starts off as a moody, sci-fi noir thriller and the comparison of Daybreakers to films like Gattaca and The Island are spot on. Here is a world on the edge of extinction, vampirism is a virus that has spread the world over and the last vestiges of humanity are struggling to survive while evading capture by the undead elite. Enter Edward Dalton, a sympathetic, self-hating vampire scientist who joins with a band of human rebels to find the cure t

Monster Land has been nominated for a Horror Blogger Award over at Bloody-Disgusting.com along with some of my horror brethren from LOTTD. As always it's an honor to be nominated and recognized, especially by a site that I frequent as my go to source on all things horror. To vote please click the icon to your your right. Let the voting begin!   Here is the list of contending blogs. ALL THINGS HORROR ONLINE ANCHORWOMAN IN PERIL A NIGHTMARE ON SAMITYVILLE STREET ARBOGAST ON FILM BASEMENT SCREAMS BENEVOLENT STREET BILLY LOVES STU CAMP BLOOD CHUCK NORRIS ATE MY BABY CINEMA SUICIDE CYBERSCHIZOID DAY OF WOMAN DEADLY MOVIES DEADLY DOLLS HOUSE DINNER WITH MAX JENKE DOLLAR BIN HORROR EVIL ON TWO LEGS FASCINATION WITH FEAR FINAL GIRL FEAR OF THE DARK FRANKENSTEINIA FREDDY IN SPACE FROM MIDNIGHT WITH LOVE GHOUL BASEMENT GORE GORE DANCER MOVIE REVIEWS GRUESOME DETAILS MOVING PICTURES: HAIKU FILM REVIEWS HEART IN A JAR HEY LOOK BEHIND YOU HORROR DIGEST HORRO

A horror-savvy colleague of mine posted this entry on her Facebook notes last year and I think it's a fairly accurate take on the younger generation's tastes in horror, much to the detriment of the genre. It seems that kid's nowadays actually enjoy the remakes and torture porn fare Hollywood has been pumping out in spades, with no respect or even knowledge of the classics. Yesterday in my Composition I class I had my students read a sample cause and effect essay that was written by Stephen King. In it, King discusses why we watch horror films. Since we're nearing Halloween, my students started breaking off into side discussions about scary movies. After a failed effort to redirect the conversation, I asked each student to share their favorite scary movie so that we could have the conversation and move on. My surprising results: Three students chose "Saw" as their favorite. Really? A student voted for "The Strangers," despite its poor reviews.

Previously: Saw III: Jumping the Shark    With the success of Saw III (arguably the best film in the Saw series) hot on its heels, Saw IV tried to replicate the success of its predecessor with better traps and more interesting plot lines. It fails on several of these points, not the least being its mediocre casting. The man at the center of the action is Rigg, the SWAT leader from the previous films, but his character is not compelling enough to warrant interest. His relationship with his wife recycles that of Dr. Gordon, but without the emotional anguish and Peter, the FBI agent seems stuck in an angry cop drama. His passionate outbursts are at odds with the film’s attempt at quiet atmosphere. Speaking of horrible casting, Hoffman does not live up to the title of Jigsaw’s apprentice and is simply not a compelling replacement. Through there is some debate as to whether the traps of Saw IV are masterminded by Jigsaw (the film runs concurrently with Saw III which can give the viewer

With the blockbuster success of the vampire in text and film over the past few years, it seems only fitting that January’s Monster of the Month should be the vampire. But the quirky spelling of the “vampyre” here points to this article's focus on the very beginning of the vampire in John Polidori's "The Vampyre," a story that introduces the vampire as we know him today despite his many modern permutations. It was a dark and stormy night in June 1816 at the Villa Diodati in Geneva, Switzerland when a singular meeting of minds spawned the twin nightmares of Frankenstein and the literary vampire. Gathered around the villa’s hearth were the libertine George Gordon Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley the poet, and his wife Mary Godwin Shelly, the daughter of William Godwin and an accomplished author in her own right. Hanging back in the shadows were Claire Clairmont, Mary’s flighty stepsister and John Polidori, Byron’s physician who harbored literary aspirations of his ow

I’m proud to report that Monster Land has passed the 100 mark with 103 followers on Google Connect, 114 fans on Facebook and 102 followers on Twitter. It’s a new year for Monster Land, and when I began this blog in the summer of 2009 I had no idea it would grow to such lengths. Looking back it’s been an eventful year. I was invited to join the League of Tana Tea Drinkers and BJ-C’s Tea Party of the Dead, the PMLA and MLA respectively of horror blogging excellence. I also had the singular pleasure of interviewing Stewart Hendler , the director of Sorority Row and participating in the Boris Karloff Blogathon . Through the Miss Horror Blogosphere contest, I was able to connect with other female horror bloggers and I look forward to participating in the Women in Horror Appreciation Month this February. Blogging has opened doors and allowed me to connect with a diverse community of horror bloggers who have kindly embraced me and my unique perspective. But I could not have done any o

There has been a veritable outbreak of horror blogging awards across the web and I too have caught the bug! The way these awards work are that once you get it you pass on the love. As one blogger put it, it’s like chainmail but less annoying and these awards replicate faster than the viral videotape from the Ring. First up, I received the One Lovely Blog award from Al Bruno III, at The Wit and Werdness of Al Bruno III . Al Bruno III has the distinct honor of being the first person to follow my blog…ever! and I thank him for putting his faith in me from the start. But that’s not all, I’ve also been bestowed the Fantastically Frightening Blog Award from B-Sol of the Vault of Horror and BJ-C of Day of the Woman , the Ozzie and Harriet of the horror blogging community who I have looked up to since I first started blogging. Here’s what they had to say about Monster Land: The Most Impeccably Beautiful Blog: Monster Land has such a neat Wordpress layout that my job currently uses it

Now that we’ve entered 2010. it’s time to put together the list of horror-esque films I’m looking forward to in the New Year. Daybreakers (January 5) I’ve been jonesing for a vampire fix ever since the second season of True Blood ended. Set in a world where everyone is a vampire and the human race is dwindling, Ethan Hawke is a hematologist desperately trying to develop a blood substitute to keep legions of undead from turning into bat-like monsters. Willem Defoe plays the leader of an underground band of humans who have discovered the cure for vampirism and want to bring humanity back from the brink of extinction. Legion (January 22) God is fed up with mankind’s B.S. and instead of flood or fire, he sends a flock of angels to exterminate the human race. But the archangel Michael isn’t down with God’s plan and he falls to earth, trading in his wings for a couple of sub machine guns. He then heads to the Paradise Falls Diner and Truck Stop to protect Charlie, a pregnant waitress

I am totally digging these posters for various Asian horror films. You'll notice the repeat appearance of girls in flowing white night gowns and long black hair, a staple of the genre. Before you ask, I have no idea what films these posters correspond to, but if you do, give me a heads up so I can check them out. If the posters are any indication, they should be great fun.                        

If 2008 was the year of the zombie in the horror icon zodiac then 2009, looking toward 2010 is undoubtedly the year of the vampire. Films like 30 Days of Night paved the way for a new race of vampires in the form of HBO’s True Blood and the Twilight craze. But despite the hype, the question becomes inevitably why? Past trends in horror have drawn on the fears of the culture that produces them. The slasher flicks of the 80s spoke to the prevailing fear of AIDS as a consequence of drug use and premarital sex. Likewise, the science fiction horror films of the 20s featured aliens as a metaphor for fears of communism and the Red Scare. In an era of horror dominated by torture porn fare like Saw and the Americanization of foreign horror, (The Ring, The Grudge) what is it about the new millennia that summons the ghastly specter of the Nosferatu from its dusty coffin? The shadow of the millennial vampire cast its pall over the US at time when most of us where lying in the ruins of a virule