Monster Scholar

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...

Today’s February 28 and you know what that means. It’s the end of Women in Horror Month. We had a great time, had a few laughs and I’m looking forward to it again next year. In honor of this last day of women in horror, the monster of the month for February is none other than my favorite woman in horror, the Countess Marya Zaleska played by the bombshell Gloria Holden. Read more about Gloria’s exploits at Day of the Woman and more about Dracula’s Daughter at the Tomb of the Headless Werewolf . Now prepare feast your eyes on Countess Marya Zaleska, the terrifying offspring of Dracula.

I’m on a serious J- Horror trip, so for this month’s monsters I’ve chosen Kayako and Toshio from the Ju-On films and the Grudge series of American remakes. This mother and son team of spirits haunts the house where they were murdered and cause the disappearance or death of anyone who enters the abode. Though the particulars of Kayako and Toshio’s deaths change from film to film, the foundation of their narrative is essentially the same. Kayako falls in love with another man and writes about her romantic obsession with him in her diary. Upon discovering this diary, her husband Takeo flies into a fury. He murders his wife, stowing her body away in the attic and drowns his son Toshio along with the child’s cat, Mar. Takeo dies after committing these horrible acts and his death is often ruled a suicide. As far as the curse goes, from then on anyone entering their house is doomed to fall victim to the powerful grudge born of Kayako and Toshio’s vengeful rage. Kayako is easily distinguishe...

“Can a full grown woman really love a midget?” The answer to that question is at the core of Feathered Hen’s monstrosity. Once the beautiful and talented trapeze artist Cleopatra, Henny got her due when she tried to poison her midget husband Hans. Hans was already married when he met Cleopatra, but that didn’t stop this greedy gal from luring him away from his wife in the hopes that she’d benefit from his recent windfall. All is well for the happy couple until the wedding feast, as all the freaks gather round to rejoice in Hans’ new bride "We accept her! One of us! One of us! Gooble gobble, gooble gobble!" they all sing, but Cleopatra recoils in horror at the thought of being one of the “filthy, slimy freaks.” It’s then that she resolves to poison her husband, but she doesn’t bargain on the wrath of the freaks once they find out about her devious scheme. On a dark and stormy night the freaks put their plan into motion and ambush Cleopatra as she hides beneath a circus cart. ...

Allison Hayes starred as the original fifty foot woman in the 1958 science fiction film Attack of the Fifty Foot Woman directed by Nathan Hertz for Allied Artists Pictures. Hayes plays Nancy Archer, an ex-alcoholic heiress, whose husband Harry is hungry for the fortune she just inherited from her father so he can go on permanent vacation with his mistress Honey Parker. But things don’t go according to plan, and Nancy catches Harry flirting with Honey at a local nightspot. She hits the road and encounters a being from out of this world that needs diamonds to fuel his spaceship, and it just so happens that Nancy is wearing one. Nancy is left unharmed during this first encounter, but when she tells her story everyone including her husband thinks she’s a prime candidate for a padded room in an upscale asylum. Nancy is determined to prove she’s not crazy and has Harry drive her through the desert in search of the spacecraft. They find the alien craft, but when the alien shows up Harry aban...

JFK and Elvis versus a Mummy. “Old age hath yet his honor and his toil” –Alfred, Lord Tennyson Ulysses The film Bubba Ho-tep opens with an aging Elvis stuck at the Shady Rest retirement community in Mud Creek, Texas. Elvis is bedridden with a cancerous lump at the end of his penis, and to make things worse no one believes he’s Elvis. Instead, they think he’s Sebastian Haff, an Elvis impersonator. But it turns out that Elvis, tired of fame and fortune switched places with Sebastian to regain the simple life. The arrangement was peachy until the real Elvis threw out his hip at a concert and caught an infection that put him in a coma, and then into a rest home. Elvis is moldering away in bed where the only thing he looks forward to is his next meal, when strange things start happening around Shady Rest. Bubba Ho-tep, a long dead mummy and the “brother” of King Tut, is accosting residents and sucking out their souls through their arse-holes. The mummy’s attacks give Elvis a purpose in l...

The King Tutankhamun exhibit at the Dallas Museum of Art inspired this three part piece on the mummy in horror. I have been obsessed with ancient Egypt and mummies ever since I was a kid. I remember shaving the head of a Barbie doll, wrapping the entire body it in ace bandages, and putting it in a hand painted sarcophagus I made out of cardboard for an elementary school project. Those were the days =). After its success with Boris Karloff the Uncanny in Universal's The Mummy in 1932, the mummy has yet to achieve the blockbuster of another true horror feature. The mummy’s status in film stands in stark contrast to the commercial success of its other monster brethren including werewolves ( The Howling, An American Werewolf in London ), vampires ( Interview with Vampire, Twilight ) and even zombies ( Day of the Dead, Shaun of the Dead ). The reason for the mummy’s lack of success in horror is unclear, but it could be that after Universal released A bbott and Costello Meet the Mum...