Let's Talk About Horror Fiction and Film

[Spaceman Spiff]

I'll post more on Return of the Wolf Man later (I'm enjoying it more than any of the Dark Horse Press books, I think), but in the meantime, I've noticed that Quint at Ain't It Cool News has been reviewing some of my recent mentions here as part of his "A Movie A Day" blog.

The Skull

and the four films on the Icons of Adventure set:

Terror of the Tongs

Pirates of Blood River

The Devil-Ship Pirates

The Stranglers of Bombay

He really likes that set, and I can't blame him. He's right about them bringing "A performances to B movies." This is the kind of thing I was talking about in this thread. I wish B films were still made like this.

[Spaceman Spiff]

I got the latest issue of Weird Tales today, and you'll never guess what I saw in there. I laughed aloud when I saw it; it was totally unexpected.

[RJDiogenes]

^^ Heh. I was thinking about whether or not to mention that in this thread. It's nice to know that it's noticeable.

I'm sorry it's a surprise, though; I thought I mentioned it to you in a PM a while back. I guess I forgot.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Return of the Wolf Man was a lot of fun. I think that it was, for the most part, a much more solid effort than the Dark Horse Press books. I didn't mind the move to modern times, because I don't really think that negates the possibility of other stories, except by this author. It doesn't look like it was a huge hit or anything, and the author doesn't appear to have written any other Universal Monsters tie-ins. It's disappointing on that part, because he's really good at capturing Larry Talbot, and there's a fun semi-cliffhanger ending that alludes to Werewolf of London.

My nitpicks are few and far between. The weirdest bit in the book was an almost off-hand comment in which Talbot states that he hasn't eaten anything but human flesh since he became a werewolf. That threw me a little, wondering where the author got that notion, but after thinking on it, I guess it's not really that weird. I don't recall ever seeing him eat in any of the movies, so it's not like it conflicts with anything on film. And he's clearly a supernatural creature--aside from the general werewolf affliction, he's seemingly immortal, etc. I guess it just surprised me because it's a disturbing thought. Still, it led to one of the better lines in the book:

"I never eat ... chicken."

Another minor nitpick was that even though the Dracula in the book is clearly the Lugosi version, the book confirms that he's Vlad Tepes. That's always a personal gripe of mine, though, and I can't really blame Rovin for going that route, as it's a popular one. I liked In Search of Dracula, but man, ever since that book, Drac and Vlad have been inseparable.

All that said, the "flashback" describing his origin had a neat tie to the Dracula ring as well as some nods to Stoker's book.

He also mentioned Drac's fangs a lot. He obviously had them in the films (that, or he sort of sucked the blood out psychically), but it still seems weird to imaging Lugosi flashing them like Christopher Lee.

But despite the nitpicks, it was a really fun read. He's got a few nods to other films, while not taking it quite as far as Elizabeth Hand did in her Bride book. There are ties to White Zombie, for example, since that takes place in Haiti, and Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein is set in Florida. Apparently, Murder Legendre got replaced by Dracula as the plantation master. I was half dreading that Drac would "confess" to masquerading as Legendre, but fortunately, that didn't happen.

When someone asks what happened to Chick Young and Wilbur Grey, they're told that after they told everyone about the monsters, they disappeared, and rumor had it that they changed aliases a few times and even joined the Foreign Legion. You have to love little bits like that.

I definitely recommend it, especially if you can get it on the (somewhat) cheap.

[RJDiogenes]

I love it, especially the bit about Chick and Wilbur. (It would have been funny if he had said Chick Young went on to create Blondie ).

The more I read about it, the more I want to own it. It just shows you what is possible with solid concepts when you have a writer who is creative, and is both respectful and enthusiastic about the source material. Not that the Dark Horse books were bad-- they just weren't as advertised.

The bit about not eating anything but human flesh is interesting-- it's tickling a memory about something Larry might have said in one of the sequels, but I'll have to rewatch them to see. But there might be some kind of a precedent for that....

[Spaceman Spiff]

I just tried Googling it, and when you search Larry Talbot human flesh, this thread is the second hit.

[RJDiogenes]

I guess that means few people Google "Larry Talbot human flesh," which is a good thing.

The third hit was an Amazon review by a guy that disputes the claim. I could be wrong. Or it could be something like him refusing food when he should be hungry or something (like the guy in American Werewolf).

[M'Sharak]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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Still, it led to one of the better lines in the book:

"I never eat ... chicken."

The line reminds me of an old one.

drink... wine, and I do not smoke... shit."

(Love at First Bite.)

That could just be me, though.

[Spaceman Spiff]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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The third hit was an Amazon review by a guy that disputes the claim. I could be wrong. Or it could be something like him refusing food when he should be hungry or something (like the guy in American Werewolf).

Could be. It's been a while since I've watched them all in a row, but I don't remember any reference to Talbot eating anything at all. So I guess it could go either way, really.

I just read that guy's post comment, and his reasoning seems to be that Talbot has to be eating more than once a month because of his size. That seems like goofy reasoning in light of the rest of the oddities of his anatomy where the curse is concerned. After all, he can be killed by a silver knife to the heart, but if you pull it out fifty years later, he comes back to life. I think plausibility is out the window.

I don't know, it sort of makes sense alongside the other two monsters. Drac feeds only on blood, and the Frankenstein monster is powered solely by electricity.

It struck me as odd initially, but it doesn't really bother me.

M'Sharak wrote:

---

The line reminds me of an old one.

drink... wine, and I do not smoke... shit."

(Love at First Bite.)

That could just be me, though.

I'm sure lots of writers have had fun with that line.

[Spaceman Spiff]

Dread Central has posted a great review of The Fly: the Opera.

Man, I'd like to see that, just for how bizarre it sounds.

[M'Sharak]

I've been hearing little blips about it on the classical station here. Apparently Howard Shore has expanded and adapted his original music from the movie and Cronenberg is directing?

[RJDiogenes]

Hmm. The email notification seems to be working spottily.

M'Sharak wrote:

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drink... wine, and I do not smoke... shit."

(Love at First Bite.)

That could just be me, though.

That movie always looked funny, but I just never liked that guy whose name I can't say without giving away the Spoiler.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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I don't know, it sort of makes sense alongside the other two monsters. Drac feeds only on blood, and the Frankenstein monster is powered solely by electricity.

And soup.

It struck me as odd initially, but it doesn't really bother me.

It doesn't bother me, either, but it interests me. Well, I'll be watching these for my Halloween Marathon, so I should catch any references.

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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Dread Central has posted a great review of The Fly: the Opera.

Man, I'd like to see that, just for how bizarre it sounds.

Magnifico! Actually, that video isn't working for me; I'll have to check YouTube later. That sounds almost as freaky as the Star Trek opera they were talking about a few years ago.

Well, I got the first volume of the Creepy archives yesterday, and it looks great. Incredible EC vibe in those early years, and not just because of the EC veterans. Also, some beautiful Frank Frazetta work.

I just read some news about the new season of Supernatural of interest to readers of this Thread. There will an episode in black-and -white that will be an homage to the old Universal movies-- you know how much I love that sort of thing --and also an episode delving into the pagan roots of Halloween. This is one of the better shows on TV, so I recommend it to anyone who hasn't been watching.

[Spaceman Spiff]

RJDiogenes wrote:

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Magnifico! Actually, that video isn't working for me; I'll have to check YouTube later.

You're running NoScript, right? If so, you'll have to temporarily approve theflytheopera.com and jeroenwijering.com in order to see the videos.

[M'Sharak]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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You're running NoScript, right? If so, you'll have to temporarily approve theflytheopera.com and jeroenwijering.com in order to see the videos.

Even with those allowed, the video isn't loading for me right now (just spins the little clock-thingy for eternity.) The site may be just getting heavy traffic or something.

Try this, though.

[RJDiogenes]

Spaceman Spiff wrote:

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You're running NoScript, right? If so, you'll have to temporarily approve theflytheopera.com and jeroenwijering.com in order to see the videos.

Actually, I uninstalled that pretty quickly. It was giving me all kinds of trouble.

M'Sharak wrote:

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Even with those allowed, the video isn't loading for me right now (just spins the little clock-thingy for eternity.) The site may be just getting heavy traffic or something.

Yeah, that's what I was getting.

Try this, though.

I figured it would be on there. That's completely insane. Good luck to them. It'll probably crash and burn, but you know what they say-- it's not over till the fat ladybug sings.