Cryptid Claus

Here's a nasty little holiday treat for you, with a warning from the film itself: "What you are about to see may traumatize you for life", especially if you still want to believe in Santa as a benevolent magical elf. Finnish filmmaker Jalmari Helander's short films Rare Exports Vol. 1 and 2 pose the awesomely bizarre question: 'what if Father Christmas was a rare species of cryptozoological wildman that had to be hunted, captured, and trained by specialists?' The resulting faux documentaries are sublimely disturbing, and, I'm happy to say, are soon to be reworked into a feature film! Be careful next time you sit on Santa's lap...

Top Ten Tinglers

For your holiday viewing pleasure, The Horror Blog has asked various horror-related people to compile a top ten list of their favorite horror movies (me included). Check out the link above for all the lists, and compare against your own...

Scared Silly

Monsterama pal Paul Castiglia is launching the Scared Silly blog on Halloween as a lead-in to his forthcoming book (of the same name) about classic Hollywood horror-comedies. Scared Silly examines the popularity of mixing humor and horror-- which is precisely our purview here on Monsterama, so you know I'm excited! Castiglia’s blog and book will offer readers a fun overview of horror-comedy films spanning the 1920s through the 1960's, including films with Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd on through The Little Rascals and Bowery Boys, to Bob Hope, Abbott & Costello and Don Knotts. It's going to be great.

I am a Wild Thing

Saw the film adaptation of Where The Wild Things Are on Friday, and thought it was a gorgeous little art film. Not for everyone, but I certainly loved it, despite the fractured family content feeling very close to home. It was, in fact, emotionally rough going for me, which is why it's taken a couple of days to post about it. As a single Dad mucking about in the aftermath of a failed family, I all too strongly identified with the Wild Things-- particularly Carol. Kind of poignant that the original Sendak book meant so much to me as a child, given to me by my Father after he and my Mum split up, and now the film resonates so clearly with me as an adult on the other side of the divide. Heart-achingly lovely. Thanks to all involved.

Hollywood Hallowe'en!

Seeing as I'm in Burbank during the Hallowe'en season, it's only fitting to dedicate a post to the legendary Bob Burns. Bob is responsible for inspiring and directly mentoring some of the greatest horror FX guys in the business via his annual Hallowe'en 'shows', and he's got a gorgeous site featuring a documentary in four parts, with a new segment added each week leading up to All Hallow's Eve. Prepare to be blown away by some of the best private hallowe'en props and FX ever built. The film is riveting, and HIGHLY recommended Monsterama material. Jan Alan Henderson has an interview with the amazing Mr. Burns here. Thanks to Scott J. for the links!

FanExpo 2009

Heads' up-- I'll be appearing at the Toronto FanExpo this coming weekend, August 28th-30th 2009. Come on by if you're in the neighborhood and chat me up. Other cool, creepy guests include legendary horror film stars Barbera Steele and Bruce Campbell, the King of B-Movies, Roger Corman, and Master of Horror Mags, Rue Morgue, with whom I've just talked to for a piece on creepy cartoons that will appear in the October ish. (above: cover rough for Cartoon Network Action Pack #44)

Spook House Dave!

Once in a while something creeps on on me and blows my monster-lovin' mind. Spook House Dave! snuck up from Atlanta, a cute, creepy cross between Mad Monster Party and the Muppets, created by delightfully deranged puppet master Lucky Yates and Dragonfruit geniuses Melissa Honabach and Michael Koziol. I love it!

Cute and Really Creepy

Monsterama is all about cute creeps. I'm a big fan of scary stuff aimed at children. But I'm noticing a cultural trend towards exposing kids to the genuinely terrifying that puzzles and interests me. I mean, as a parent, I'm not sure I get the idea of gross-out kiddie cars, or making kids believe they are being attacked by a zombie. Not that I don't find it fascinating to look at. The awesome band MGMT really captures this vibe in their new video for Kids. What's going on, here? I'm interested in your opinions...

Secret Saturdays DVD

Volume One of the Secret Saturdays DVD collection is coming this summer, featuring the first 5 episodes, and tons of bonus features, including early development artwork and rough animatics.

De Monsters

These short films featuring cute monsters interacting with real people in real settings are pretty awesome. The animators at Volstock Telefunken work on all sorts of other cool commercial animations in a variety of styles, too. Enjoy!

Frankensteinia

New addition to the links... lets welcome the wonderful Frankensteinia!

Happy 2009

Some updated *official* news on the Secret Saturdays toy line coming from Mattel next year. And speaking of Mattel, this might just be the coolest Barbie ever! Hitchcock is one of my favorite directors of all time... just watched Spellbound again last night, in fact, thrilling all over the Salvidore Dali dream sequence. I think I'll watch Rebecca tonight. My kind of Christmas movies!

I Heart Coo

Just got back from Kitchener after catching one of the last of this years' flicks in the Waterloo Festival For Animated Cinema, and, wow, Keiichi Hara's Summer Days With Coo was just what I was looking for! A great 'boy and his monster' story with plenty of funny, scary, and tearful moments... like E.T. with traditional legend replacing Science Fiction. It's no secret how much I love yokai (and Kappa in particular) so I went in fairly excited. I'm very happy to say that the film exceeded my expectations. It's impossible to avoid comparisons to Miyazaki considering the subject matter and ecological/ anti-development undertones, but the fact that this film holds up well under that comparison is saying something. From MAP, director Hara says, "Summer Days with Coo is very special to me. It was more than 20 years ago that I first read the original story and a great many things have happened between then and the realization of this film. Throughout my career, the concept has always been in my mind and I am very happy that I have finally had the opportunity to direct it as a film..." Official movie website here with loads of artwork. I sure hope this becomes available on the North American marketplace soon so I can share it with my kids.

It Slayed Me!

I finally saw Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer last night and was utterly thrilled with the funny, gory, old-school monster movie (Rated R, kids). It successfully combines monsters, humour, and psychotherapy... the three things that followers of this blog know have dominated the last year of my life. Watching the film was like closure for me! Kudos to Canadian writer/director Jon Knautz, and the wonderful creature effects by Form and Dynamics. And it was great to see Robert (Freddy) Englund in a campy, yet nuanced, Vincent Price-style role as the Professor/Demon Host! One reviewer described it as Hellboy meets The Evil Dead, which is pretty apt. So if you dig those, and you only plan on seeing one horror flick this Halloween season, Jack Brooks should be it.

Three For Thrills

Here are three things that I'm dying to get my mitts on this fall...Drawn & Quarterly's Complete Melvin Monster, part of their exhaustive John Stanley reprint effort (thanks to all those who wrote in about this one). Even though I have all of these comics, I'm looking forward to a well-designed, one-stop collection of the best kid monster comic ever created. Are you experienced? If not, Pappy's got what you need. My favourite Tezuka creation returns in English via Vertical's complete Blackjack collection. This genre-defying manga features a scarred gothic surgeon in eerily bizarre tales of adventures in extreme surgery. Weird and wonderful! And, lo and behold, Disney is finally releasing a definitive DVD of Dr. Syn, Alias The Scarecrow! If you're unfamiliar with these spooky adventures in Romney Marsh, this is a great chance to blow your mind. To be fair, though, Hammer Films version of the same tale, Night Creatures, is just as awesome.

Spooky Encounters

I finally got my eyes on the film that revolutionized the Hong Kong horror genre. Spooky Encounters, or, Close Encounters of the Spooky Kind, deals with Taoist magic, ghosts, and vampires from Chinese superstition in a tale about a cuckolded husband, stuck in a series of terrifying situations when his wife's wealthy lover tries to do away with him with the help of a Taoist monk's black magic. Sammo Hung, the director/star, blends fantastic kung fu action, comedy, and mild horror in one of Monsterama's new favourite films! It's a clear inspiration for my beloved Mr. Vampire series. The final duel in Spooky Encounters is considered to be the great Samo Hung's second best fight scene ever, next to his historically famous encounter with Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon.

Good Phibes

This is me lovingly inking and coloring a 1970's Jack Kirby pencil drawing of Vincent Price as Dr. Phibes. My god if this had ever been made it would've very likely been my favorite comic book ever. The Phantom of the Opera meets Yellow Submarine as drawn by the King of comics... the mind boggles! I recently re-watched both 1971's The Abominable Dr. Phibes and the 1972 sequel, Dr. Phibes Rises Again, and they totally held up to my warped childhood memories. Really bizarre, beautiful stuff. England in the '30's, a lovable fiend with a monstrous deformity, blackly comedic murders, a Clockwork Jazz Band, Art Deco stylings, a silent and mysterious girl assistant named Vulnavia, and Vincent Price at his best singing 'Somewhere Over The Rainbow' through a microphone in his neck. Ahhh...
I wish I had more background on Jack Kirby's wonderful Phibes art (below). Was he involved in the pre-production of the film in some way (as the loverly and talented Clay Croker suggests in the above link), or was some comic book publisher seriously considering an adaptation or series? Anyone out there with the scoop? And now for a bonus... here's a gorgeously gruesome piece of Dr. Phibes art by another great J. Kirby... English illustrator Josh Kirby, best known for his Discworld art, to be precise. Currently up on Ebay for a couple of grand.

Duck And Cover!

Oh, dear. I find myself in the unusual position of being very excited about an upcoming Dreamworks CGI animated feature. But what can I do? It's called Monsters Vs. Aliens... and there's a 50-ft. woman in it.

A Kid And His Cryptid

I really don't care what all the cynical critics are saying, I think the Water Horse is a wonderful film. Simple, classic story with sumptuous visuals and nice performances. Of course, I am a cryptid-obsessed father of two, so I might be the bullseye of the target market, but so what. It's full of crypto-nods to 'authentic' Nessie lore, and the monster is just wonderful (aren't they all, though?). At least I'm not the only one who likes it...

Dear Santa...

... I want North American Region Code DVD's with English subtitles of last years' Nekome Kozo (Cat-Eyed Boy) based on the maga by Umezz, and the live action Kitaro movie, please. And all of these Shigeru Mizuki toys. Thank you.