forcesofgeek.com

All new! All grue! It’s the long-awaited sequel to RetroFan and Cryptology contributor Mark Voger’s Rondo Award-winning book Monster Mash: The Creepy, Kooky Monster Craze in America 1957-1972, which redefined Monster Kid fandom with a visually immersive graphic approach. This companion book revisits the period, while examining the literary and cinematic roots of its fictional precedents (Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Bram Stoker’s Dracula); early silent films (Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Nosferatu); the golden age of monster movies (with such stars as Lon Chaney Sr., Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff and Chaney Jr.); the 3-D and teenage monster movie trends; the Edgar Allan Poe adaptations and Hammer Studios releases of the period; the monsters of Sixties TV; the eye-popping toys, memorabilia and comics; and the aftermath of the influential Monster Craze. It features interviews with filmmakers such as Ray Harryhausen (20 Million Miles to Earth), Roger Corman (The Pit and the Pendulum), and stars like Gloria Stuart (The Invisible Man), Ricou Browning (Creature From the Black Lagoon), Haruo Nakajima (Godzilla), Jonathan Haze (Little Shop of Horrors), Hazel Court (Curse of Frankenstein), Kathryn Leigh Scott (House of Dark Shadows), Robert Quarry (Count Yorga, Vampire) and many others. No monster fan should be without this treasure trove of terror!

Fangoria magazine has it in its top one hundred forgotten horror films. Arnold Schwarzenegger hand-picked its director for his next movie Predator based on his love of this film. It was also the first leading film role for a pre-Bond Pierce Brosnan….so why have most of you never heard of Nomads?

We have long suffered at the hands of studio executives who think nostalgia bait is the best thing since sliced bread, but the use of the formula for reimagining intellectual properties with bankable actors, throwaway cameos and not-so-subtle references is well beyond saturation by now.

In 1972, Charles Bronson wasn’t quite the worldwide superstar he would become after 1974’s Death Wish but he was pretty close. Close enough that he could be top-billed in medium-budgeted thrillers like The Mechanic.

“Who can tell the difference between a horse and a donkey?” A harmless enough question if this were some kind of barnyard-based TV quiz show, but one with grave consequences if you are ageing hitman Tommy (Josh Duhamel), whose failing eyesight causes him to shoot the wrong guy in the wrong mask…

What makes Shin Godzilla more than a great Godzilla movie is how it doesn’t simply return to the iconography and tone of Ishirō Honda’s 1954 original, but it expands and embellishes upon it.