Happy, Happy Hall-o-ween.
Hall-o-ween, Hall-o-ween.
Happy, Happy Hall-o-ween.
Sil-ver Sham-rock.

I challenge you to watch the above YouTube clip from Halloween III and NOT get that tune stuck in your head the rest of the day.  You’re welcome.

So, I know you are all waiting with baited breath.  What did I dress up as for Halloween this year? Glad you asked, I was Capt Kirk from the new JJ Abrams Star Trek movie.

And here’s an action shot.

Pretty awesome, I know.  Thanks to Debi for taking the pics of me.

Check out my latest obsession (click the image to make bigger):

It’s a zombie pic of me I created using the iPhone app iMut8r. You can take any pic of yourself (or someone else) and change it into a zombie, witch, vampire, werewolf or Frankenstein monster.  Frankenstein monster or zombie seems to work the best with the images I’ve used.  I swear, I’m totally obsessed with it.  The other day, Steph was sending me photos of people she works with and I was transforming them into zombies and sending the picture back.  It’s addicting.

Here’s me as the Frankenstein Monster.

If you have an iPhone, I suggest you grab this app.  iMut8r.  It’s so damn fun.  However, the novelty may wear off now that Halloween is over, but it was definitely fun while it lasted.  And there’s always next year!

Anyway, this crazy roller coaster we call Halloween is finally here.  Steph and I will be hanging out with our friends the Lehmans (hello, Dr Mike) on Saturday.  Hope everyone gets nothing but Tootsie Pops and Peanut Butter Cups in their bags.  See you guys next week.

Happy Halloween from the Cavalcade of Awesome.

Right now, though, I want to talk about Star Wars…and zombies.

Star Wars and zombies go together like Lennon and McCartney. Magic Johnson and Larry Bird.  Peanut Butter and laaaadies.  One thing makes the other better.  And for this Halloween season, there are a couple projects that bring Star Wars and zombies together like some awesome Halloween version of the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup commercial (where someone gets their chocolate in someone else’s peanut butter).

The first cool, Star Wars zombie item is the book Death Troopers

The book takes place just before Episode IV (A New Hope) and involves a derelict Star Destroyer and an unknown virus. I got the book from my friend, Dr Mike, and I am currently reading it. It’s pretty much as bad ass as you think it is.  I’m not sure why Star Wars and horror (and more specifically, zombies) hasn’t been done before, but count me in.  EXCEPT, Star Wars really needs to tread lightly here.  A virus that makes characters zombie-like is awesome, but I’m not sure I want vampires or werewolves popping up.  Actually, I KNOW I don’t want vampires popping up.  I love this idea, but it has the potential to get very bad, very quickly.

Unlike every other Star Wars book that is published, this book is a one-shot.  It’s not part of some multi-arc storyline in which you have to read 6 other books and 2 other comic books to fully get the story.  It’s completely self-contained, like all Star Wars books USED to be in the ’90s.  And I love it because of that.  These ridiculous 19 book series with in a series are why I stopped reading Star Wars fiction to begin with.

Another cool zombie item?  Star Wars zombie posters.  There is some really cool zombie artwork on the Official Star Wars Blog Flickr Photostream.  There are several zombie versions of the Star Wars posters, like Zombie Wars and Episode III: Revenge of the Zombies (click images to see them BIGGER).

There are also some cool mashup posters like Knights of the Living Dead and Obi-Wan of the Dead (click to see them bigger).

There’s also non-poster art. One of my favorites is Vader’s Dream which features Vader tormented by all the people he has helped kill (on the left). Or the cleverly named “It’s a Trap II” (on the right).  Again, click the images to make them bigger. These particular images are done in a style similar to the Star Wars Galaxy trading card set. I really like how these are done.

You can click any of those images to go to the Official Star Wars Blog’s Flickr set (or click here) and see all 19 zombie Star Wars artwork images. They are pretty awesome.

Well, tomorrow is Halloween. Two months of planning and execution and AWESOME-tober-fest 2009 is almost done. Hope you guys have enjoyed it as much as I have. This has definitely been the most fun Halloween Countdown I have been a part of since I started doing it in 2007. Before this year, I couldn’t say that I really appreciated Frankenstein’s monster as a character, but now, he might be my favorite (next to Wolf Man, of course).

Have a safe, and happy Halloween everyone.

There are literally dozens of Frankenstein movies to choose from.  I chose three.  I was really close to picking the Andy Warhol one because I heard it’s really weird, but I instead opted for three fairly mainstream choices.  One a direct adaptation of the novel, one a classic horror film and, to change things up a bit, a parody version of Frankenstein.

Let’s see how I did.

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1994) — Directed by Kenneth Branagh, this movie takes its story solely from Shelley’s original novel. It is very faithful to the book, however, there are some changes Branagh made, one of which was to add a mentor character for Victor. The movie is packed with stars including Branagh, Helena Bonham-Carter, Ian Holm, John Cleese (playing the aforementioned mentor) and Robert DeNiro playing the titular creature. However, despite the pedigree, and the faithfulness to the book, the movie was a tad boring. Except for the creation sequence, I had trouble staying focused on the action. Also, I had trouble accepting Bonham-Carter as Elizabeth as I imagined her character differently while reading the book and DeNiro was somewhat wasted as the creature. The movie wasn’t bad, it just didn’t come together for me as a whole. So, I say check it out if you are interested, but don’t expect too much.  I guess I was also disappointed because I thought a straight adaptation of Shelley’s novel would somehow be better.  I guess not.

Curse of Frankenstein (1957) – Hammer Films’ classic monster movie starring Peter Cushing as Victor Frankenstein and Christopher Lee as The Monster.  It was originally to star Boris Karloff but Universal threatened a lawsuit if any element came near their Frankenstein movie so Hammer rewrote the script and changed up the makeup for the Creature.  Also, this was the first Frankenstein movie to be filmed in color.  It would launch Hammer Films as a horror powerhouse and garner six sequels.  It would also launch Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing into the just as popular Hammer Dracula series. The story in this doesn’t follow the novel, it actually is a variation on the Universal movie, almost a remake or reboot of the Universal movie. And thinking of it that way, it really works.
I see why so many people like these Hammer Horror films. They are good. The atmosphere is creepy and the horror is actually horrific, despite the effects being less than top shelf. Peter Cushing is great as the obsessed Dr Victor Frankenstein. He really brings across Victor’s obsession with creating life. Christopher Lee brings something different to the monster. Different, but just as good. I really enjoyed the pacing of the plot and the acting in this movie. I would definitely watch the next few Hammer Frankenstein movies as well as start the Hammer Dracula series.

Young Frankenstein (1974) — This Mel Brooks comedy was not only a parody of horror films, but, more specifically, a parody of the first three Universal Frankenstein movies (Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein). For me, this movie is Mel Brooks’ funniest movie and I’m including Blazing Saddles in that statement (Blazing Saddles is overrated, however Wilder and Kahn are brilliant in it). After watching the original Universal Frankenstein movies I am now, for the first time, completely on the same level with everything Brooks was trying to do.  Before, I just thought the movie was generally hilarious, but now I see what a clever parody of the Univeral movies it really is.  Gene Wilder’s character is a shadow of Basil Rathbone’s Wolf von Frankenstein in Son of Frankenstein.  Cloris Leachman’s character is a parody of the super screamer Minnie the housekeeper in Bride of Frankenstein.  There is even a 1 armed police inspector in Son of Frankenstein that is parodied to the hilt by Kenneth Mars in Brooks’ movie.  It’s utterly amazing how brilliant this movie is.  If it’s possible, I love it even more now that I’m “in” on the joke.
Like I said Gene Wilder kills in this movie, as does Madeline Khan, Terri Garr and Peter Boyle. The aforementioned Kenneth Mars is brilliant as the one-armed Inspector Kemp.  Many of the sets for this movie were from the Universal Frankenstein movies, especially the lab set. How cool is that? I can’t recommend this movie enough. It was even made into a Broadway play.

This movie was a horror comedy (Horr-edy?!) staring the comedy team of Abbott & Costello. It is notable because it features three of the Universal monsters, two of which are played by their original actor. Lon Chaney reprises his role of The Wolf Man and Bela Lugosi returns as Dracula (this is the only time Lugosi played Dracula apart from the original 1931 classic). Karloff, however, had stopped playing “The Monster” after Son of Frankenstein in 1939, so Glenn Strange played the titular monster in this movie (as he had for The Ghost of Frankenstein a few years earlier). Karloff would actually appear with Abbott and Costello in another movie, Abbot and Costello Meet The Killer, Boris Karloff, one year later. This movie is considered the “swan song” of the original Universal Monsters as the popularity of the Universal Horror movies had waned towards the end of the ’40s. As a matter of fact, Bud Abbott did not even want to do the movie, but Universal offered him so much money he couldn’t turn it down.  Also, Universal was set to cast another actor as Dracula because it believed that Bela Lugosi had died!  However, Lugosi’s agent had informed Universal otherwise (his movie career was almost non-existent at this point) and convinced the executives that they owe Lugosi the role he originated.  As for the Wolf Man, it is the only character to be portrayed by the same actor (Lon Chaney) throughout the original Universal monster movies (including this one).  Despite the pedigree, this movie was a cash grab for Universal.  And it kinda shows.

I can see why Abbott didn’t want to do the movie. It’s dumb. Apart from the novelty of having the original Universal Monsters all together, this movie is silly and hard to watch (even boring at times). Having Dracula try to reanimate The Monster and being opposed by Abbot, Costello and Larry Talbot (The Wolf Man) is a good idea on paper, but the execution is lacking. I’ve watched this movie twice and I barely made it through each time.  The idea is definitely better than the result.  Abbott and Costello are funny, but I prefer the Universal Monsters in a horror setting where they are taken seriously, not in this comedy setting where they seem more ludicrous and out of place than scary.

Universal would make several Frankenstein movies, but the first three would be the most iconic.  Let’s look at the first three movies staring the legendary Boris Karloff as The Monster.

Frankenstein (1931) –Since I read all those books last week about Frankenstein, I had to go back and watch Universal’s original 1931 Frankenstein movie directed by James Whale and staring Boris Karloff. I vaguely remember the movie, and while reading the book I was constantly surprised about how different the novel and the movie are. Several of the main characters are pretty much all the two have in common. While watching this movie I realized the events in this movie encompass most of what people associate with the tale of the creation of the Frankenstein monster. The movie character of Dr Frankenstein (Victor in the novel but renamed Henry for the movie) is more a “mad scientist” than the “curious genius” portrayed in the book.
My thoughts after watching are that this movie is pretty good.  I was surprised that a movie in the ’30s began with two guys digging for corpses in a graveyard.  It was a nice, macabre beginning to the movie. The monster looks good and so do a lot of the sets. The story drags a bit here and there but when it gets going the action is surprisingly good. And, obviously, the end leaves you hanging (as there are, not surprisingly, like 6 sequels to this movie). It’s exactly what one thinks of when you remember Frankenstein and his monster. I see why this is a classic monster movie.  The Frankenstein makeup in this movie (by Jack Pierce) is iconic.  I didn’t remember how emaciated the monster looked.  Apparently Karloff took out some temporary bridge work to give the monster this sunken cheek look.  That along with the lighting created a very dramatic effect.  I was very much looking forward to Bride of Frankenstein when this movie was over.

Bride of Frankenstein (1935) — Like I said, I was looking forward to this first sequel to Frankenstein because it was made using the same actors as well as the same director, James Whale. It was a serious sequel that many believe is as good (if not better) than the original.  I’m torn, I like both…A LOT.  Overall, this movie’s script seems a bit tighter.  Karloff’s Frankenstein is wonderful as always.  The sunken cheeks are gone because Karloff was asked not to remove the bridge work this time out.  The sets are even grander this time around.  It’s definitely more of the same, but in a really good way.  My only beef, and I didn’t know this going in, the title monster, The Bride, only appears in the final 5-8 minutes of the movie.  I kept waiting for her to show up, but she doesn’t until the end.  Very disappointing, which is probably why I can’t put this movie above the original Frankenstein, even though it’s a fantastic horror movie.
Oh, another thing, the character of Minnie, the housekeeper, was BEYOND annoying. Every little thing, scary or not, would cause her to scream this Banshee-like wail throughout the scene. I wanted to tear her vocal cords out and stomp them into the ground. SO. F’N. IRRITATING. I believe this is where Cloris Leachman’s character came from in Young Frankenstein.

Son of Frankenstein (1939) — This was the third and final Universal Frankenstein movie to feature Boris Karloff as the Monster (although not the last Universal Frankenstein movie to star Boris Karloff).  In a way, I almost enjoyed this movie more than the original or Bride.  Henry Frankenstein’s son (Basil Rathbone) has the greatest name EVER; Baron Wolf von Frankenstein.  How  BAD ASS is that? Am I right?  Anyway, so Wolf (awesome!) returns to his father’s castle (in a town now called Frankenstein for some reason) to collect his father’s belongings and deal with his estate.  The town’s people however are worried he’ll continue his infamous father’s work.  After arriving, Wolf meets the outcast blacksmith, Ygor (Dracula’s Bela Lugosi)  who shows Wolf that the monster is alive, but sick and dying.  Ygor sees the monster as a friend and wants the Baron to fix him.  The Baron reluctantly agrees and all types of shenanigans ensue.  That’s the gist of the story. It’s simple and it works.  But what really makes it work are the actors.
Karloff is his usual awesome Monster self (even in a weirdly ’70s furry vest).  I also really enjoyed Basil Rathbone as Baron Wolf von Frankenstein (that name is still awesome).  Basil really amps it up every scene he is in.  I can see that Gene Wilder really took a lot from Basil for his role in Young Frankenstein.  Very entertaining every time he’s on screen. Also good is Bela Lugosi as the swarthy blacksmith Ygor. He looks like Quasimodo and acts like a shady car dealer. Taking over the super irritating character role from Minnie the housekeeper (in Bride of Frankenstein) is Wolf’s little boy, Peter. That kid was like an even more annoying version of Spanky from the Little Rascals. Drove me up the f’n WALL. I fully expected him to start and end every sentence with “Aw shucks”.  Maddening.
Story-wise, this was much more entertaining than the previous movies.  The performances really made the movie for me.  Definitely worth a viewing.  All three of these Karloff Frankenstein movies can be found on the Universal Frankenstein Legacy Collection DVDs. Or from Netflix which is where I got them.

After these three Karloff Frankenstein movies, Universal would release three more Frankenstein-centric movies; Ghost of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Meets The Wolf Man and House of Frankenstein.  Glenn Strange would star as The Monster in Ghost and House, Bela Lugosi would play The Monster in Meets The Wolf Man.

Boris Karloff did star in one more Universal Frankenstein movie, House of Frankenstein. However, I’m saving that one for next month’s Boris Karloff birthday celebration.

Check back tomorrow for more Frankenstein movie reviews!!