AtoZ2018 - Z is for ... #MovieMonsters #AtoZChallenge

Z is for ... Zombies

And we have reached the end! Well done everyone who had made it to the finish line. Today I have chosen zombies because what is creepier than a walking, rotting dead thing? The last entry if for Pride and Prejudice with zombies, which has a huge spoiler in it - so don't read it if you don't want to be spoiled.

Scariness Rating

The little skulls by their name are my scariness rating as to how monstrous and scary I think the creatures are when seen in their films.

•  1 skull (not scary at all) - 5 skulls (very scary)
•  and there is a special rating for a few - 5 red skulls (utterly terrifying)

Standartenführer Herzog (Dead Snow)

Dead Snow is a Norwegian zombie offering, which lost of blood and gore and some humour on the side too.

Herzog is the commander of a force of Einsatzgruppe who occupied the region of Norway during the second world war. In life he and his men terrified the local people, abusing them, and when it became clear the war was lost they looted the town. However, the people rose up and chased them into the mountains to be frozen to death.

Unfortunately, they didn't die. They remain with their loot in the cold mountains, killing those stupid enough to enter their territory.

Herzog was a monster when he was a man, as a zombie he is worse.

Big Ben (House)

House is a film about ... you guessed it, a house, only this house is a gateway to another world, one made of nightmares and evil things.

When Roger Cobb, horror author extrodinaire, moves in to his aunts old house, he expects to have a quiet place to write his new book, but instead he gets nightmares and monsters.

His nightmares include Big Ben, one of his comrades from his tour of Vietnam. The problem comes later after Cobb finds out about the other world, because then Ben is much more solid than a dream, he is a zombie.

Ben was captured and tortured before he was killed and he blames Cobb for not saving him. He's no mindless creature after brains, but a terrible monster out to exact revenge.

Henrietta (Evil Dead 2)

Evil Dead 2 was the first real horror movie I ever saw (not including the Hammer films from the 60s, which are pretty tame). It scared me silly then, and I still watch bits of it from behind a cushion - it's awesome.

Henrietta (Ted Rami) is the wife of Raymond Knowby, an archaeologist who previously lived in a cabin where Ash Williams and his girlfriend decide to take a romantic vacation. Knowby read from the Necronomicon, the book of the dead, and released evil things into the world.

Henrietta was possessed by one of these, making her a deadite, an undead zombie with evil in mind. Kowby thought he killed her and buried her in the cellar, but it's really hard to kill a deadite and Henrietta comes right back.

Sheep (Black Sheep)

You really have to see this film to believe it - it's brilliant. It has mutant zombie style sheep, who can infect humans into becoming half human, half sheep mutant creatures. It's not quite a zombie film, but the sheep crave blood and flesh and go after humans just the way zombies do, hence the inclusion :).

Of course this film is from New Zealand, where else would have a mutant sheep film?

It actually had a decently thought out plot, great effects and it's a comedy as well, so there are plenty of laughs. If you like silly horror movies, this is the one for you.

Matthew Cordell (Maniac Cop 2)

So in Maniac Cop, Matthew Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) is a rogue police officer who supposedly died in Sing Sing after being imprisoned for police brutality. However, he wasn't quite as dead as everyone hoped and in number 2 he is definitely undead.

He likes killing. Where once he might have been after criminals, now he just kills anyone he feels like, police, innocent bystanders and criminals alike. If they get in his way, they die.

Those who wronged him when he was alive need to watch out even more, because them he likes to kill painfully. This is one nasty monster no one wants to meet in a dark alley.

Q: What is your favourite zombie film? Which is worse, zombies or ghost?

Scroll past the spoiler space for the last entry.

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George Wickham (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies)

 

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies had exactly the same setting as the Austin novel, except in this 19th century England, they have a zombie problem. All the Bennet sisters have been trained in weaponry and defence in Japan.

There are, however, some zombies who have managed to maintain something of their humanity by consuming pig brains. George Wickham is taking advantage of these to create a zombie army to take over London.

What no one realises is that Wickham is also one of these civilised zombies, having been infected months earlier. His aim is for zombie supremacy. He was a cad and a monster of a man before he was infected, having likely killed Darcy's father, as a zombie he can only be worse.

AtoZ2018 - Y is for ... #MovieMonsters #AtoZChallenge

Y is for ...

And we reach the penultimate day for the AtoZChallenge. I have three monsters for you today, but, please be warned, the last one is a huge, huge spoiler for the film Identity. So if you haven't seen it and don't want to be spoiled, don't read the last entry :). I've done the old fashioned thing of putting in spoiler space so scroll down carefully to read the rest and head to the bottom to read the spoiler filled last monster.

Scariness Rating

The little skulls by their name are my scariness rating as to how monstrous and scary I think the creatures are when seen in their films.

•  1 skull (not scary at all) - 5 skulls (very scary)
•  and there is a special rating for a few - 5 red skulls (utterly terrifying)

Ymir (20 Million Miles to Earth)

So this is a little bit of a cheat because in the final release of 20 Million Miles to Earth, the beast is never named, but the original title of film was The Giant Ymir, so I think he counts.

This is another example of humans doing something stupid and wondering why destruction ensues - just like King Kong.

Ymir comes from Venus. He was brought back as unborn embryo in a tank on a human space craft, but it crashed and his pod was found by a young boy. A scientist then put him in a cage and expected everything to be okay.

Of course it wasn't as he grew and grew very quickly to a huge size.

He wasn't even very monstrous unless provoked, but of course, the humans in the film insist on provoking him and electrocuting him to knock him out. When the power fails he was bound to go on a rampage.

This is another Ray Harryhausen classic with a wonderful stop motion monster.

Yeti (Yeti: Curse of the Snow Demon)

So for this one, think 'Alive' but in the Himalayas instead of the Andes and add in Yeti to make things even more dicey.

A plane carrying a college football team and their entourage crashes in the Himalayas, leaving the survivors with very little food and not a lot of shelter. Then comes the big white monster of a Yeti, who is a scavenger, but doesn't mind fresh meat either.

When the survivors disturb the Yeti in its cave it attacks them. Of course things only go downhill from there.

As you can see from the piccie, this is not a film with an immensely high budget, and it's not going to win any Oscars, but you have to give them points for trying :).

I'm going to add in my question and participants link here before my last entry at the bottom of the page, in case you don't want to scroll down.

Q: Have you seen Identity - did you enjoy it? If faced with a monster from Venus, what would you do?

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Timmy York (Identity)

So on to my huge spoiler :). If you haven't seen Identity, it is a fabulous film staring John Cusack.

Eleven strangers end up stuck in a motel in the middle of nowhere thanks to a storm and one of them is a killer. One by one they start to die, and with each body is a room key, counting down from 10 to 1.

Since I am already spoiling the most important point of the film, I shall spoil the rest as well. All eleven are actually personalities of a convicted murderer, Malcolm Rivers (Pruitt Taylor Vince) and the motel is a mental reconstruction of where one of his personalities killed several people.

The killing off of the personalities is part of the process of stabilising Rivers and convincing a judge that the murderous personality is dead.

Unfortunately, while one of the personalities is that of a convicted felon, he's not the rage filled murderer. What is so brilliant about this monster is that Timmy is the one child personality, and he is the one with the murderous edge. It makes perfect sense as well, because Malcolm's mind fractured when he was a child so it's quite possible Timmy hold all the trauma from the event that caused it.

He never says a word through the whole film, not until the very end, and Bret Loehr does the most amazing job of conveying emotions with virtually no lines at all. Timmy hates with an unrivalled passion and it makes him the perfect monster which spills over into the real world.

AtoZ2018 - X is for ... #MovieMonsters #AtoZChallenge

X is for ...

Okay, so X is always a tricky letter and I may have had to cheat a little for one of my monsters today, but the other definitely counts. I can't believe April is almost over - where did all the time go? Thanks to everyone who has visited so far.

Scariness Rating

The little skulls by their name are my scariness rating as to how monstrous and scary I think the creatures are when seen in their films.

•  1 skull (not scary at all) - 5 skulls (very scary)
•  and there is a special rating for a few - 5 red skulls (utterly terrifying)

Xenomorph (Alien)

Is there any alien scarier than the Xenomorph from the Alien franchise? I think not. This is one scary, scary monster - mostly because it doesn't actually kill you if it gets you, it uses you as a host for its young. Which leads to a painful, messy death.

I actually saw many a take off of alien (think the Spaceballs diner scene) before I saw the movie, so I can only imagine what it must have been like to watch John Hurt's scene without knowing what was going to happen. It was shocking enough when I knew.

Alien is a classic. It's more sci-fi than horror, although it does have horror elements, and it is so good. Such amazing design by H.R.Giger and wonderful content directed by Ridley Scott.

Xtro

So this movie has lots of monsters and, again. it's all to do with aliens.

In this movie Sam and his son Tony are on their farm together when Sam is abducted by a strong light. Three years later the light comes back and plants a seed that becomes a creature, half alien, half human.

After killing several people, this monster impregnates a woman, who very rapidly gestates and produces someone who looks just like Sam.

Things only get more monstrous from there, with alien eggs, monstrous powers, killer toy soldiers and kill clowns.

This is not the greatest film, it's not one of my favourites, but I needed another X :).

Q: Do you know and Xs I missed? What movie monster for you has the X-factor (i.e. which is you favourite monster of all time :))?

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AtoZ2018 - W is for ... #MovieMonsters #AtoZChallenge

W is for ... Witch/Warlock/Wizard

There seem to be a lot of theme within a theme posts near the end of the month, and today I have lots of magical people for you - all of them bad to the bone, which is what makes them monsters :).

Scariness Rating

The little skulls by their name are my scariness rating as to how monstrous and scary I think the creatures are when seen in their films.

•  1 skull (not scary at all) - 5 skulls (very scary)
•  and there is a special rating for a few - 5 red skulls (utterly terrifying)

The Witch Queen (The Last Witch Hunter)

The Witch Queen is the most powerful witch in the world, and 800 years ago she unleashed the Black Plague to wipe out humanity. She has very powerful magic, but like all witches has a weakness when it comes to fire. Her body was burned, but her heart survived and was hidden.

In the present her followers plan to resurrect her using the heart. Her main aim is to use her power and a coven of dark hearted witches to unleash another plague, this one unstoppable.

The Witch Queen is evil to her core, twisted by dark magic and her hatred of humanity. A true monster.

I really enjoyed The Last Witch Hunter, although many didn't agree. I love the characters and plot and wish there had been a sequel.

Maax (Beastmaster)

Beastmaster is a classic 80s sword and sorcery movie, complete with a buff chap running around in not many clothes and an evil wizard. Maax (Rip Torn) is the evil wizard.

He is the high priest of the god Ar and at the beginning of the film is given a prophecy that he will be killed by the first born son of King Zed. As ever it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, because he tries to have the son killed by removing him from his mother's womb with magic and sacrificed to Ar, but manages to set Dar on the path to defeating him instead.

He is exiled and becomes the high priest of the Juns - a barbarian horde, who help him spread his evil. He uses his magic for his own gain, and enjoys sacrificing children to Ar to increase his own power. He is a monster of the worst kind.

Muriel (Hansel & Gretel Witch Hunters)

Muriel (Famke Janssen) is the leader of all the witches in the world, the Grand Witch, and she is incredibly powerful. Her magic is very strong and she hides in plain sight, but when in her natural form the decay caused by the dark magic shows clearly on her body.

Her greatest weakness, just like all witches is fire, and in Hansel & Gretel, she has gathered her fellows and they are kidnapping children in a bid to make themselves immune to the flames.

She is evil to the core, willing to kill even the innocent to suit her own purposes. Sometimes she looks human, sometimes she looks like the monster she is.

This movie is an unrepentant action adventure with witches and witch hunters - it does not require great thought, but what it does it does well. I thoroughly recommend it.

Bavmorda (Willow)

Willow is another sword and sorcery adventure film and it is brilliant. This one is more PG than Hansel and Gretel, but the evil sorceress is just as bad to the bone.

Queen Bavmorda (Jean Marsh) is once again the subject of prophecy, that a female child with a special birthmark will be her downfall. To prevent this she wishes to sacrifice the child.

Bavmorda has great magic, but Elora Danan, the girl child, has Willow (Warwick Davis), a Nelwyn farmer who would like to be a sorcerer himself, but who's crowning achievement is his disappearing pig trick. Of course evil magic is no match for the good guys.

Warlock

Now Warlock is definitely a film for adults and star Julian Sands as the Warlock and Richard E. Grant as the witch-hunter, Giles Redferne, who chases him through time.

This Warlock is the true servant of Satan and he is evil incarnate. He cares not about who he kills or hurts in his quest to assemble The Grand Grimoire, a book that will reveal the true name of God and give the Warlock the ultimate power to unmake all of creation.

The only thing that stands between him and total victory is Giles and Kassandra (Lori Singer) who he meets in his future. With his powerful magic, the Warlock has them at a great disadvantage, but they will not give up.

There are 3 movies in the Warlock franchise, the first 2 which are both great and star Julian Sands, and the 3rd, which I haven't seen staring Bruce Payne.

Wendol Mother (The 13th Warrior)

If you haven't seen The 13th Warrior, I must recommend it very highly, it is a fantastic movie. It didn't do well in the cinema, but that must have been bad marketing, because it's brilliant.

Antonio Banderas plays Ahmad ibn Fadlan, a court poet to the Caliph of Bagdad, who is exiled as an Ambassador to the North because of an affair with another man's wife. He ends up in the company of the Norsemen and becomes the 13th Warrior to accompany a band of them on a quest.

The enemy are the Wendol, a tribe of people who think they are bears and who raid the villages of the Norsemen, slaughtering all, taking heads and eating the flesh of those they slaughter. The seems as mosters, with no fallen ever left behind, and looking more like beasts than men. The ultimate power rest with the Wendol Mother, a woman and a witch, who lives underground, from whom they believe comes their strength, and her will is carried out by their Warlord.

She is a monster who controls a hoard.

Queen Gedren (Red Sonja)

I have definitely mentioned Queen Gedren before - she is the big bad from Red Sonja, another classic 80s sword and sorcery movie. She is power hungry and so greedy for magical dominance that she steals the Talisman, an orb of great power that only women may touch.

The thing is, when exposed to light the Talisman becomes more and more powerful, until it is capable of not just sacking cities, but destroying the world.

Gedren is so intent on her own ends that she's completely oblivious to the danger and, really, she has something of a screw loose. She wanted Sonja for her very own, which is how she ended up with the pretty mask, because Sonja scared her face to get away.

This is one monster in a very sexy package.

Scarabis (Waxwork II - Lost in Time)

Scarabis is a very evil warlock who has his eye on the English throne in an alternative timeline in Cartagra, or as Sir Wilfred puts it, God's Nintendo game. In Cartagra good and evil battle forever and if Satan ever tips the delicate balance in his favour, things do not go well in the real world.

Scarabis uses dark magic in a complex ceremony where he transmutes a young woman into a half human, half cat like creature, to give himself the ability to shapeshift. He is a decadent, self-centred man, who is all monster wrapped up in a civilising shell.

Waxwork and Waxwork II are both really good examples of 80s horror, with an edge of humour amid all the darkness. I love them both.

Fenella (Chorlton and the Wheelies)

I'm betting most have never heard of Fenella or Chorlton. This classic style witch is from a stop-motion children's TV show from the 70s. She is the enemy of the Wheelies.

She hates anything happy and has caused the Wheelie World to come to a virtual standstill so she does not have to put up with the usually cheerful Wheelies. Then along comes Chorlton who is a happiness dragon. He brings Wheelie World back to life, causing Fenella to go apoplectic with fury.

She, of course makes it her life's work to make the Wheelies unhappy so she can have quiet back, but Chorlton always stands in her way.

Honourable Mentions

The Red Queen (Sarah Douglas) from Witchville,
Profion (Jeremy Irons) from Dungeons and Dragons,
Dark Willow (Alyson Hannigan) from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Saruman the White (Sir Christopher Lee) from The Lord of the Rings

Q: Do you have any favourite bad witches, warlocks or wizards who should be mentioned?

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