It came from Wikipedia

Even Wikipedia isn't the most accurate source of information in the world, I still find myself browsing through when I'm bored and need to kill a little time online. I checked the information found in the links below using other resources and can guarantee that they're all true.

Even though I'm not a fan of the Saw franchise, I'm fascinated by the licensing decisions surrounding it. Not only does the soundtrack for the European version of Saw III has a Dethklok song in it, but there are also an amusement park ride and video game based on the series.

Speaking of odd choices for video games, it turns out that there was a Plan 9 from Outer Space computer game! What's even weirder is that the game is about recovering the film's reels (stolen by Bela Lugosi's double) rather than it being a playable adaptation of the game.

I find it odd that, despite J. J. Abrams' claim of coming up with the idea for Cloverfield out of a desire to create an American monster, there's a (currently) Japan-only manga prequel.

You might know John Agar from movies like The Brain from Planet Arous or Tarantula, but I bet you didn't know that he started a theme park called "Land of Kong" that featured a forty foot tall King Kong statue Sadly, the park (which had since changed its name to "Dinosaur World") closed in 2005. As noted on in these blogs, the massive King Kong statue's blinking red eyes and roaring sound effects (along with the now-outdated dinosaur statues) couldn't compete with the thrill-rides and realistic animatronic effects that can be found in modern theme parks.

It's a rare treat to get some insight the creation of the horror movie posters of yesteryear. The late Tom Chantrell, who designed the posters for Star Wars and many Hammer horror films, apparently only used a basic plot description and a few publicity stills (along with pictures of himself and others posing) in order to create his masterpieces.

Japan's first giant monster movie might have been a lost 1938 film called King Kong Appears in Edo. I say "might have" because there are some allegations that the film is a hoax and it's been theorized that the film was actually called King Kong and the "Appears in Edo" was merely the tagline. You can find an alleged publicity picture here.

When I first read that Viras (and other monsters from the Gamera franchise) had an animated cameo on the children's television series Franklin, I was convinced it was just a joke. Then I saw a screenshot...

Speaking of giant monsters, I was surprised to learn that the 1977 novelization of The Creature from the Black Lagoon changed the Gill-man into a thirty ton, hermaphroditic monster.

Finally, Poltergay. I honestly don't know what else to say about this.

Christmassacre in July

Despite my lack of understanding about the whole "Christmas in July" concept, I figured that I'd hop on the bandwagon anyway. Anyway, here are several hilarious (and NSFW) clips from Silent Night, Deadly Night II:

You're curiously attractive for a fish-man...

A discussion with a friend of mine regarding Monster Force led to us talking about Darkstalkers. Not to be confused with the Japanese OVA series Night Warriors: Darkstalkers' Revenge, (although both were based on the same Capcom fighting game) Darkstalkers was an American animated series infamous for its poor quality and unintentional comedy. To learn more about it, check out the Random Action Hour's episode reviews, complete with screenshots and humorous sound files.

If you're wondering about the title of this entry, watch this:



Come to think of it, the werewolf character in the show kind of ties into the the 40th anniversary of the Moon landing...

Happy 4th of July!

Since it's Independence Day, I thought I'd share an interesting fact I learned. It turns out that the movie Independence Dayhad an audio sidequel about Britain's response to the alien invasion called Independence Day UK (aka ID4UK). From what I can tell, the play starts off sounding like a real radio program about UFOs (complete with British celebrities playing themselves) and then segues into a standard audio drama after the aliens attack. You can read more about it here.

But while that ties into the holiday, it wouldn't feel right to do a 4th of July entry without something 100% American. Since the word "force" kinda sounds like "fourth, I thought now would be as good a time as any to share the following news:

The Abominable N. Oremac informed me that Monster Force is getting a DVD release on September 15, 2009. Not unlike Van Helsing, this 1994 animated series was an attempt to make the Universal Monsters appeal to the youth of the day. In it, the titular Monster Force (whose members included Frankenstein's Monster and a descendant of the Wolf Man) protected the world from Dracula and his team of evil monsters. Judging from the Wikipedia entry, the show made some rather bizarre choices for some of the monsters' powers, such as the Mummy having freeze breath or the Creature from the Black Lagoon having a sonic scream-type attack. Come to think of it, could the Creature really be considered evil? It's just an incredibly sexually frustrated animal (being the last of your kind tends to do that). In my opinion, the only reason he went after Julie Adams in the first movie was since he desperate enough to consider pursuing a (by his species' standards) ugly, scaleless freak. I'm not saying what he tried to do was right, but wild animals aren't exactly the best representatives of ethical or moral thinking.

Getting back on topic, the short-lived cartoon also resulted in a line of action figures. You can learn more about them at this Monster Force fansite. It should also be noted that the cartoon has no relation to the video game of the same name.

Finally, I'd like to wish a belated Happy Canada Day to all our readers up north. In celebration, here's a link to my favorite Canadian horror movie-related site: Canuxploitation.