Monster movies!

[baxtrom]

My parents snuck me into 'Alien' back when it was near the end of it's theatrical run in the summer of 79'.
Ridley Scott brought things to a WHOLE new level with 'Alien'

Agree. Strobe lights, confined space, isolation, monster. Add fifth column android and flamethrowers, shake.

 

[Lite_me]

Giving away my age here. At the time, 1959, I was 12. Few of you probably ever heard of it but, "The Tingler" starring Vincent Price, scared me half to death!

 

[chmsam]

For an all out cheese-filled wonderful night get a hold of these two gems:

Mars Attacks!

and for you Bruce Campbell fans, Bubba Hotep.

They were going to make Bubba Nosferatu but I don't think they ever did (for you poor unfortunates who don't know, Nosferatu is a classic vampire movie).

Having said that, make it a triple feature night and get a copy of Shadow of the Vampire (John Malkovich and Willem Dafoe)

 

[Lite_me]

^^ Thank you. I thought I killed the thread with that relic I submitted. :green:

 

[baxtrom]

^^ Thank you. I thought I killed the thread with that relic I submitted. :green:

The monster movie thread never dies! :sick2:

So, did you get "tingled"? I read they had buzzers installed in the seats in some theaters..

 

[Lite_me]

That sounds familiar. I may have read it too somewhere tho. I don't remember any being there. I doubt there would have been in our small town theater. I had intermittent nightmares for a long time after that. It really affected me. In that day, and at my age, I think I was too young to see that.

 

[baxtrom]

The zombie thread now has more posts than the monster movie thread! Where are all the monsters when you need them? :candle:

The Call of Chtulhu makes even the most hardened zombie shiver of dread!

 

[Vinniec5]

Anyone notice a pattern in the movies Them!, The Thing, Alien, Aliens? Wait for it........... Flamethrowers!!!! the great monster ***-kickin' equalizer. i love all those movies great writing and just fun to watch. Aliens had the robot Sentrys in the corridor, funny that's one of the best scenes in the movie but has been cut short in many of the versions out there. Alien was just plain scary and made Ripley " lets just blow it out of the ****** airlock" a star. besides the airvent scene with Dallas scared everyone wiether they admit it or not.

 

[blasterman]

I'm going to flip around a bit and nominate 'Kolchak - the Night Stalker' with the late Darren Mcgavin as one of the few monster series on Television that had more than a few moments of monster brilliance. While some of the later episodes suffered writers block (Eric Estrada - laugh), about half a dozen were solid nightmare material. What made this series effective was you rarely saw the advesary in the good episodes, nor really understood it. An invisible alien that only reveals itself briefly as a shadow on a wall, Jack the Ripper that takes out a squad of police without ever seeing his face, etc. The show must have employed half the stuntmen in Hollywood. No CGI, and no onscreen violence. Most of it was in your head.

 

[makapuu]

I'm going to flip around a bit and nominate 'Kolchak - the Night Stalker' with the late Darren Mcgavin as one of the few monster series on Television that had more than a few moments of monster brilliance. While some of the later episodes suffered writers block (Eric Estrada - laugh), about half a dozen were solid nightmare material. What made this series effective was you rarely saw the advesary in the good episodes, nor really understood it. An invisible alien that only reveals itself briefly as a shadow on a wall, Jack the Ripper that takes out a squad of police without ever seeing his face, etc. The show must have employed half the stuntmen in Hollywood. No CGI, and no onscreen violence. Most of it was in your head.

I remember that series, I loved it, bought the DVD's.
Since you mentioned that, here's another from that era, Night Gallery.
Hosted by Rod Serling.

 

[HighlanderNorth]

Nothing beats an old low-budget monster movie. Carpenter's The Thing is a great example: take a bunch of guys, isolate them on a research station in the arctics and add vicious monster! :devil: Obviously, the research station is equipped with flamethrowers so there is an even fight! (There are flashlights in the movie too, looks like mag-style torches)

Also The Thing is an example of great puppetering long before the days of computer aided monsters. Watched the documentary too, fun to listen to stories from the shooting. Apparantly, when making intestines and goo, they used thinners and stuff which caused a minor explosion on the set! Must have been fun to make an old school horror movie! :naughty:

And the soundtrack.. simplistic but great.

I grew up with Alien, The Thing, Predator and Terminator (perhaps not a monster movie but included for reference). Which are your favourite monster movies? And which are the biggest turkeys? Share your thoughts!

Are you talking about the remake of the Thing that came out in the 80's? That was good! I also liked some of the semi low budget HP Lovecraft based movies like "From Beyond" also from the 80's. "The Fog" was good too. But then there's "Evil Dead". Its not the absolute best horror movie, but its a must see. I think one of the worst horror movies was "Goblins", also from the 80's. The people in the movie were stuck in this town full of goblins, and the town's name was "Nilbog". Then the dumbest thing happened. Someone looked at the town sign in a rear view mirror, and read what the name of the town was when spelled backwards, which of course is "Goblin"! That was so cheezy!

 

[blasterman]

And which are the biggest turkeys?

Cough / Sy-Fy Channel / cough.

Most dissapointing flick I've seen lately was the Indy flick 'Monsters'. Might be the most underwhelming and flat our boring thing I've seen in years.