Monster Scholar

Pax's month of gay pride in horror ends on a high note with my examination of homosexuality and vampires in True Blood . As a companion post, I present the hunks of True Blood in all their shirtless glory. Did it suddenly get warm in here?

Both Freddy in Space and my best friend in horror turned me on to these little clothing gems. Made of high quality fabric, they are made by fans for fans. Below is a selection of my favorite rags from classic horror fandom. See if you can name all the films from their mondo cool artwork. Also check the Coming Soon section for a rundown of what’s coming up for Monster Land.

I recently got a chance to watch the sequel to the remake of Wes Craven’s the Hills Have Eyes. Though I have not seen the original or the remake, you don’t need any backstory to appreciate this barrel full of gore. The Hills Have Eyes 2 is good for what it is, a sequel to the remake that gives the audience more gore and another look at those oh-so-scary mutants living in the desert hills. Even so, the film surprises with the parallels it draws between the mutants lurking in the hills and Iraqi terrorists, and the creative way it racks up a body count. The film draws a direct parallel between the war in Iraq and the war against the mutants in the New Mexico hills. At the beginning of the film, the military trainees who face off with the radioactive freaks are shown in the heat of battle in what looks like Iraq. They gun down insurgents and accidentally bomb civilians in what turns out to be a training exercise. Their battle against the mutants also evokes the guerilla warfare of Iraq

If you’re anything like me, religion is not the first thing you think of when mention is made of the flesh-eating undead. Instead, what springs to mind are endless hordes of ghouls hungry for your brains that can only be stopped by a bullet to the head. But beyond the rotting veneer of your everyday reanimated corpse, there lies a host of archaic religious meanings stretching from Christianity to mythology of Ancient Sumer. The zombie, like the vampire, has strong ties to the symbolism that drives the Christian religion. Jesus did die and rise again on the third day after all, and this resurrection finds a monstrous parallel in the zombie that crawls from its moldering grave to attack the living. So too does the zombie’s hunger for human flesh. Christian ceremony places special importance on receiving the blood and body of Christ in a metaphorical if not physical way. Once again the zombies’ flesh eating desire, like the vampire who sexualizes of the taking of Christ’s blood, is a

I stumbled upon this gorgeous collection of zombie pinups and here are some of my fav shots from the 2010 calendar. I really appreciate how these photos meld traditional standards of female beauty with the horrors of flesh eating. Any girl can look good in a rockabilly hairdo and short shorts, but these chicks do that and sell the gore cherry on top. Take that Betty Page! The full calendar is available for $9.99 at My Zombie Pinup Annie Get Your Gun! Say Aaaaaaahhhh! Pretty as a Peacock Smooth Sailin' Eat Your Heart Out!