The first was a
1954 “creature feature” appropriately called Creature from the Black Lagoon.
The movie is a classic among monster movie fans and ranks up there with Dracula, Frankenstein and The Mummy.
The movie’s plot involves a scientific expedition in the Amazon looking to
capture the mysterious Gill Man.
The other movie was
called Bloodrayne: The Third Reich; a
confusing and tasteless movie from 2012.
The plot included good and bad vampires and evil Germans trying to
create a Nazi vampire army that would be unstoppable (at least after 5 p.m.).
You may have missed this one in the theaters.
My conclusion is
that monster movies aren’t what they used to be. The Creature isn’t really a bad guy or
fish. He’s just misunderstood and
hopelessly in love with the expedition leader’s fiancé. On the other hand, no one in is likable in
the Nazi vampire movie. There will be no action figures or Burger King cups spinning
off from this gem.
There was a time
when monsters ruled the movies and collectible market. Kids in the fifties watched monster movies in
drive-ins while kids in the sixties enjoyed monster movie reruns on late
night television. In the days before video rentals, they also
bought monster books, comic books and action figures. My friends and I traded monster cards like
baseball cards and built plastic models of our favorite monsters.
Lunchroom debates in
my fifth grade might question the strength of Frankenstein versus the psychic
power of Dracula. The only thing we all
agreed on was that The Mummy was the lamest monster because he didn’t have any
cool powers.
There was no such
thing as on-demand or DVR’s in the 1960’s so monster fans had to just wait for
the classics to pop up on TV. Shows such
as Chiller Theater and Creature Feature featured the best and the worst monster
and sci-fi movies each week. The show’s
popular hosts like Zacherley (NYC), Svengoolie (Chicago) and Vampira (LA) were
sometimes more entertaining than the old black and white movies.
Television
programmers embraced the monster craze in the mid 60’s with the Addam’s Family
and its network competitor, The Munsters.
Both shows celebrated their 50th birthday last year and
reignited the debate of which show was better.
In the day, kids showed their loyalty with their tin Herman Munster or
Lurch thermoses and lunchboxes.
Halloween, of
course, was the peak of monster mania each year. In the days before Freddy Krueger and that
psychopath with the hockey mask, Dracula and Frankenstein costumes ruled the
five and dime store racks.
While the black and
white classics haven’t made a comeback, monster and horror movies are big
business. Zombies and vampires are as
popular as Wolfman and The Creature ever were.
I guess folks still enjoy a good scare.
As for the Nazi
vampire army, there was a time when the forces of vampires and Nazis came
together to fight the U.S. Army. It was
1964 in my friend’s basement . We had
staged a major battle with WWII army men but came up short for the bad guys. The
Nazis recruited both Dracula and Wolfman and some cowboys and Indians to take
on Patton’s Seventh Army. The results
were predictable but Dracula lived to fight another day.
