Monster Scholar

I'm a fountain of blood. In the shape of a girl--Bjork The Last Exorcism The Exorcist Ginger Snaps Inside Jennifer's Body Vampire Circus

Ever since his film debut in 1933, The Invisible Man has been an important though under appreciated member of the Universal monster pantheon. While his fellow monsters have gone on to have blockbuster careers, the Invisible Man has eked out a living on the small screen with two TV series in addition to his Universal sequels. The Invisible Man’s journey to the big screen begins nearly four decades before in 1897 with the publication of H.G. Well’s science fiction novella. Griffin, an albino physicist obsessed with the properties of light, finds a way to reduce the refractive properties of human tissue. The process renders him invisible and Griffin is intoxicated by his newfound power. But invisibility proves to have more pitfalls that he imagined, and Griffin finds himself hunted by his fellow men as he slowly loses touch with reality. The lure of invisibility for Griffin is matched only by our horror at his actions. Under the cloak of invisibility he breaks into houses, steals mon

This post was inspired by Jenn over at Calvacade of Perversions and her commentary on Kanye West's freaky cool music video for the song Monster featuring Jay-Z and Nicki Minaj. The vid makes gratuitous use of horror elements like the Day of the Dead hands and Vampirella dominatrix wear. This video sent me on my own search for music videos that likewise pay homage to horror. Here's what I found. This video features the classic final girl pursuit by the slasher with an explosively bloody ending.  The music adds a really surreal edge to the whole scene. It's mostly electronica screeches with a haunting refrain. The whole look reminds me of House of A Thousand Corpses. Lots of running, snow and gore. I remember a time when everyone at my high school was into Slipknot and now I'm glad that time is past. This song has screaming lyrics and features iconic imagery from the Shinning under all those masks, including the famous "Here's Johnny!" moment and t

Next to Disturbing Behavior, The Faculty has been one of my favorite movies on the horrors of high school conformity. Set in rural Ohio, a band of teenage misfits must fight the invasion of their school by parasitic aliens from outer space. At its core The Faculty is about the individual versus the collective and the pressure to conform and fit in that is the war cry of every teen angst film since The Breakfast Club. The soundtrack reinforces this theme with songs like David Bowie’s Changes, Soul Asylum’s School's Out and Class of '99’s grungy cover of Another Brick in the Wall. It’s been done before and done better, so what makes The Faculty different? For a late 90’s horror flick The Faculty has a surprising all star cast. Selma Hayek is the drugged up school nurse in a faculty ensemble that includes Famke Jansen as the geek turned gorg Mrs. Burke, John Stewart as the science teacher, Bebe Neuwirth of Frasier fame as the principal and T-1000 Robert Patrick as the creepy