Category Archives: Monstrous Monday

Even Used Monsters Can Help

I so need a Monstrous Monday today.  I’m having the damnedest time writing anything, I’m feeling down and out of it, a few pictures of monsters and some silly remarks will hook me up.  Only I can’t find any new (to me) monster pics.  I was just on Facebook, looking at all my monster pages — oh, wait, I think I missed a couple.

No, it’s no use.  I’ll have to resort to my Media Library and hope I don’t repeat anything too recently used, but no promises.

You can’t really see the monster for the words. There’s a metaphor for writing in there somewhere.

The Blob (1958), how appropriate, because that is just about what I feel like today.  Just a blob. Not even a capitalized one.  In fact, here’s how blobby I am today: I’m writing in sentence fragments, an affectation I rarely use.

THIS is the picture I was looking for on Severed Head Sunday!

I guess these two fellows are more ghouls than monsters, but Peter Lorre and Vincent Price — there could be no possible objection.

With the obligatory sexy, frightened female.

I have never seen this movie but I must look for it.  How I miss video stores!  Perhaps I could find the DVD on interlibrary loan. I don’t have one of them there streaming services.

I gotta get me a nightgown like that.

I close with some zombies.  When I am done sitting on my couch like the Blob, I will lumber to bed like a zombie.  An old fashioned zombie. I’ve never seen any of the more recent zombie flick with the fast moving flesh eaters.

I was right; the monsters did make me feel better.  Happy Monday, everyone.

 

A Few Monsters to Cheer Us Up

Hello, and welcome to another edition of Monstrous Monday.  I am dead tired and quite frankly inclined to give the blog a miss for tonight.  However, I will feel sad if I do that, and I’m already kind of blue.  Maybe a few monsters will cheer me up.  I was looking on my monster pages on Facebook for something new and discovered this.

What a stylish poster! It doesn’t remind me of the movie at all.

I have Night Tide on a DVD collection, along with The Brain that Wouldn’t Die, The Atomic Brain, and Carnival of Souls.  I must confess, Night Tide is my least favored of the collection.  But maybe I need to give it another watch.  I haven’t done a move write-up blog post in a long time.

Alas, this discovery did not lead me into a theme for this post.  Instead, I found a picture I liked of horror icon Christopher Lee.

I think he looks hurt and confused. I often feel that way on a Monday.

I did not notice which Mummy movie this was from (perhaps The Mummy?), but I know it was a Hammer Production.  I like Hammer horror films almost as much as I like the older ones.

“Isn’t this where the party is?”

Speaking of older monster movies, why don’t we close with my favorite guy, Nosferatu from 1922.  And I see I am over 200 words.  I find that quite sufficient for a foolish post such as this. Happy Monsters — I mean, Happy Monday, everyone!

 

Severed Heads on Melting Monday

I promised myself a Monstrous Monday post, and I felt it would be better to get new (to this blog) monster pictures.  After quite some time of puttering around Facebook looking for them, I found not a monster, exactly, but what one might see as monstrous.

Some people just don’t like to sleep alone.

This is a shot from one of my favorite movies to watch on a Severed Head Sunday, which alas, I did not have yesterday: Straitjacket with Joan Crawford.  I sure do like movies that feature severed heads.  I looked for more pictures.

She’s giving him the side eye.

Another big favorite of mine: The Brain that Wouldn’t Die.  The sad thing about the movie is that the head wanted to die, but the obsessed boyfriend would not allow it.  These mad scientists always think they know best.  It took me a while to find a third photograph.  I tried to think of movies that featured severed heads and thought of Sleepy Hollow, or, as I like to call it, The Headless Everybody.  But all I could find was pictures of Johnny Depp looking sultry.  So I tried Hush… Hush, Sweet Charlotte, with another of my favorites, Bette Davis.  Charlotte is more contemporary with the pictures I’ve shared thus far.

Very atmospheric, isn’t it?

I could not find a picture of the severed head, but I’m not really surprised, because in the movie the head is more often talked about than seen.

So this is my Monstrous Monday post.  Foolish, you say?  In my defense, it has been meltingly hot all day, and I have been at work for the first time in two weeks.  And if you’re going to ding me for whining, just go away.  I will too.  Perhaps we can meet again tomorrow on Tired Tuesday.

 

No Monster Monday? SAY IT AIN’T SO!!!

It is a monstrously hot Monday.  I don’t think I can write a really good blog post, but sometimes people are amused by my nonsensical posts, so I will see what I can do.  Of course I would like to include some monster pictures, so I thought I ought to look for some new ones and not rely on my Media Library (but I just love mentioning that I have a Media Library).

That did not work out well.  I just went to the various monster pages on my Facebook and found nothing.  Of course there were a lot of nice pictures, but nothing inspired me to share it, which an apropos remark.  Well, we cant have a Monstrous Monday post without monsters, can we?

“Hey, cutie, wanna go for a swim?” “No, thanks, I’m working on my tan.”

I thought Creature of the Black Lagoon would be appropriate, because right now, I would jump into the water where a monster might be.  I looked for a picture I hadn’t used but did not see anything I liked any better than what I already had.

I think this owes something to the original JAWS poster, don’t you?

Here’s another movie where it was not safe to go back in the water (to steal the tag line from JAWS 2).  We just watched Lake Placid yesterday.  Fun flick.

Full disclosure: I have never seen this movie, and I don’t know anything about it.

When I was looking for the Lake Placid picture, I sat this one from Hell Night and thought, “How appropriate.”  To be completely accurate, I always picture Hell with more of a dry heat than the soggy stuff we are currently dealing with.  Still, I imagine many are saying, ‘”It’s hot as hell around here!”  I’ll sign off before I complain any more myself.  Happy Monday everyone.

 

Moving Slow on Monstrous Monday

Nobody does! Oh, I suppose YOU do (you know who you are).

I haven’t used this charming gentleman in a while, but he seemed appropriate.  It was a grisly hot day in the Mohawk Valley today.  Really, there were all kinds of warnings on the news about how we should stay hydrated and get our exercising done early in the morning.  I worked too early to run, so I just didn’t bother; judge me if you must.  The sad thing about that is that, quite abruptly, running has gotten fun again.  As I watched the afternoon drag by, I was sorry I was not going to run.  I looked forward to running on Tuesday, when temperatures are supposed to moderate somewhat.

Safety first! Walk, don’t run!

As I was looking through my Media Library for a picture of a monster running (which I don’t think I have anyways), I saw the above, which I believe I have not used recently. It is, of course, from Night of the Living Dead (1968), back in the days when zombies did not run but lumbered threateningly and people for some reason were often unable to get away.  I understand zombies move faster these days.  I have not see a recent zombie movie.  I don’t much like horror movies after the late ’60s.  They got too slashy for me.  There are, of course, exceptions.  Some newer movies are more atmospheric and psychological, and there are a few I like even if they did go through a tanker truck of fake blood.

“Who were you expecting, the Avon Lady?”

Thinking of blood, I close with my favorite blood-sucker, Nosferatu.  I’m calling this a Monstrous Monday post, or did you figure that out already?  Longtime readers may recall that I wilt and become quite useless in the heat.  I am brain dead.  Perhaps I am a zombie.  Today I am the lumbering kind, but tomorrow I hope to run.

 

Monsters on Monday, What’s Not to Like?

I had a couple of authentic Mohawk Valley adventures I was going to write about,  but I’m tired.  Sorry, folks, I’ve had a rough weekend and a tough Monday — oh, I KNOW other people work much harder than I do and have a much harder time.  I’ll stop whining, I really will.  My point is, as I was idly scrolling down Facebook, trying to work up some ambition, I came across an awesome still from The Invisible Man, and, well, you know me and monster movies.  We are having another Monstrous Monday.

“But, Darling, I never loved you for your looks!”

Claude Rains and Gloria Stuart, what’s not to like?  Naturally I kept scrolling to see if I could get lucky and find a couple of more pictures.

They don’t do newspaper ads like this any more!

I LOOOOVE The Raven!  I only recently saw it for the first time, having DVR’d it from TCM.  I feel certain my husband will give me the DVD for my birthday or Christmas sometime.  Maybe on a boxed set of Roger Corman movies.  I like Roger Corman almost as much as I like William Castle.

I think this also works as a depiction of the popular conception of Monday.

This is one out of my Media Library.  Since I mentioned William Castle, I just had to include a picture of House on Haunted Hill (the 1959 original, of course), one of our go-to movies.  So entertaining!

Alas, one cannot enjoy Percepto while watching this on DVD!

Oh, how silly of me.  I went looking in my Library for William Castle, completely forgetting that I had just downloaded a movie poster from one of his flicks!  It just goes to show how truly tired I am.  I’m leaving the other picture in, though, because who couldn’t like to see a scary ghost and a screaming woman on Monstrous Monday?  No promises, but I’ll try not to be so tired on Tuesday.

 

George Zucco on Monstrous Monday

I had vague hopes (not high hopes, as you see) of making a real post, perhaps writing it while on break at work.  I also had what I thought were firm plans to exercise after work.  I should have known better.  Now here I am, in a monstrous mood, typing off the top of my head and hoping for a Monstrous Monday post.  I do like monsters.

“Y’see, dock, it hurts right about here…”

Here is George Zucco and… a friend (I bet you thought I was going to say his mummy) (you know who you are).  I had seen a picture of George Zucco and a gorilla in one of my movie groups earlier and thought I might download it.  I went back to Facebook and searched “Geroge Zucco.”  There it was!  At the last minute I thought, what if it belongs to somebody and I was supposed to get permission?  So I changed my search to “George Zucco public photos.”  I kind of like the mummy better anyways.  It is more monstrous.

I was introduced to George Zucco (it just feels right to use his entire name every time) in our 50 Horror Classics DVD collection.  He is described as “marvelously theatrical.”  I’m sure I’ve written blog posts about some of his movies.  I really must start doing movie write-ups again.  They are such fun.  For me, at least.

Spoiler alert: they do more than just walk in this flick.

I think this is one of the movies I wrote about.   If I was better about tagging, I could probably find it and link back to it.  And here we come to the ugly truth about me.

I still don’t know why the monster was so mad.

I actually do not remember if I saw this one or not, but I thought it would be nice to include another picture with George Zucco.  My new ambition for the week:  to watch a movie featuring George Zucco and write about it.  It is good to make a big plan on a Monday.

 

Various Movies on Monstrous Monday

I’m sure nobody expected me to get my act together overnight.  If you did, well, you realize you were setting yourself up for disappointment, do you not?  No matter.  We all have foolish expectations from time to time.

All this by way of introduction to another Monstrous Monday.  My only decision now is whether to use repeat monsters or search for new pictures to share.  I think I’ll look for old and try to think of new things to say about them.

Here’s a double bill I never thought of.

I do not remember why I downloaded this shot or when I used it.  Trog, for the uninitiated, is Joan Crawford’s last movie.  It is not my favorite cheesy horror movie featuring Crawford.  And before anybody hazards a guess, neither is Whatever Happened to Baby Jane.  I don’t think I have ever seen Taste the Blood of Dracula, although I have seen a few Hammer Dracula movies starring Christopher Lee.  I understand he kept saying each one was his last, but the studio would talk him into the next, often by pointing out how many people would get work thereby.  If that is true, it gives me quite a good opinion of Lee, even outside of his acting prowess.

“Did you think I would not pop in?”

What’s a Monstrous Monday without my favorite guy, Nosferatu?

He only looks harmless.

I end with a monster of the human variety, Robert Walker as Bruno in Strangers on a Train, on the right.  The other guy, looking a little apprehensive (and no idea yet how right he is to be so!) is Farley Granger as Guy Haines.  Good movie.  I’ll have to give it another watch soon.  But not on a double bill with Trog.

 

Monday Movie Meditation?

So there I was, sitting on the couch with my laptop and telling myself I could NOT again post the picture of Frankenstein’s monster saying, “No like Monday!”  I looked through my monster groups on Facebook for a new picture. Do you suppose I could find anything?  Then I saw this movie poster, which has nothing to do with Mondays and is actually a kind of a disappointing monster, but I downloaded it anyways, and here it is.

He is rather intimidating on the poster, I suppose.

I’ve seen Curse of the Demon a couple of times, DVR’d from TCM.  According to pre-movie commentary by Ben Mankiewicz, producer Val Lewton did not want to show the monster right away but was overruled by the studio.  I agree that it would have been much scarier to see the first victim looking utterly horrified by… what?  But these were pre-Jaws days.

For the uninitiated, in the first Jaws movie, we don’t see the shark until well into the movie.  This was actually making a virtue of necessity, because they had a lot of trouble with that mechanical shark, but it turned out to be SO effective.  Who knew?  Val Lewton, apparently, but nobody believed him.  Come to think of it, some post-Jaws movies could be a little more circumspect, too, but that’s a whole other blog post.

What a messy eater!

And here is the Jaws shark.  I feel he is a monster worth waiting for.  I’m afraid this was not a blog post worth waiting for, but what do you want from me on a Monday?