Saturday 7 April 2018

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


G is for ...

Hello and welcome to the first day of the AtoZChallenge. My theme this year is movie monsters and I will be introducing everyone to some of my favourites.

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)

    Glaeken (The Keep)

    From watching the film I have to admit I didn't even remember this chap's name, he's just the good guy. He's definitely a monster, but of the hero kind.

    The Keep is set during the second world war, where the Nazi's come to a small village in Romania to occupy the large fortifications there. This keep is strange because the smooth stone is on the inside not the outside, and there are nickle crosses all over the walls. It is to keep something in.

    Glaeken is the something's opposite number. He is the safeguard in case it gets out, and when the Nazi's release it and it starts killing them, he is called back to stop it. He's a calm, almost cold character, who, nevertheless craves human contact. He has formidable powers, but he is chained to his destiny.

    The Keep is a great movie, but the book it is based on is better. The movie had lots of production problems and the end result is not quite what was envisaged. It also has two possible endings, but only one has been released on DVD.

    Graboids (Tremors)

    If you haven't seen Tremors you really should, it is a great movie. It's funny in places, but still shock scary in others.

    A graboid is a worm-like creature, perfectly adapted for living underground. It has a huge mouth and, inside this mouth, are long tentacles with smaller grabbers on the end. Graboids are very sensitive to sound, hunting via vibration. They attack from below, sometimes leaving what looks like their whole victim sticking out of the ground, but everything below the surface will be gone.

    In later films and the series, graboids are shown to be the first stage development of the creature's life cycle. Check out wikipedia for more details.

    Grendel's Mother (Beowulf)

    In Beowulf is it Grendel's mother who is the root of all the problems, because she is the monster who seduced Hrothgar to produce Grendel and then Beowulf to produce a dragon. She is beautiful and seductive and exploits the fact that these men don't seem to be able to keep it in their pants.

    In the 2007 movie she is played by Angelina Jolie, and is all gold and incredibly beautiful. She is also incredibly dangerous. She uses feminine wiles, but it's quite obvious she just as deadly as her offspring. She is the one who slaughters Beowulf's men after Beowulf has killed her son.

    Beowulf was one of the first movies I saw where they CGI animated over people and it is stunning to watch. The tech isn't quite there in that their faces don't quite move naturally, but it is so visually spectacular that I can forgive that. Well worth a watch if you haven't seen it.

    Grendel (Beowulf)

    Grendel is the main monster in Beowulf, at least at the beginning. He is hideous and violent, but you have to feel sorry for him. He only attacks because the noise from the new feasting hall of King Hrothgar hurts his ears so much.

    To begin with Grendel is huge compared to the humans, but he shrinks when Beowulf ruptures his ear drum.

    He looks monstrous and he kills monstrously, but it's still heartbreaking when he dies. This is one monster that clearly feels all the emotions humans do.

    As I mentioned above, Beowulf is a great film, well worth taking a look.

    Gremlins

    I couldn't really do movie monsters without mentioning gremlins.

    Now these dangerous little critters start off as adorable mogwais, that a re cute and fluffy and sing beautiful songs. These adorably fluff balls cannot take bright light and there are two golden rules:

    • don't get them wet
    • don't feed them after midnight.
    If a mogwai or a gremlin gets wet, they spawn more of their own kind.

    If you feed a mogwai after midnight they become gremlins. Gremlins are still small, but they are reptilian with sharp teeth and long claws on their hands. They are also relatively intelligent and completely malevolent.

    Gremlins are agents of chaos. They love to cause it and can be down right vicious. They wreck machinery, break anything they can and enjoy death and destruction.

    Q: Would you rather face a Gremlin or a Graboid? Which G monsters have I left off that I should know about?


    AtoZ List of All Participants

    20 comments:

    1. I watched Tremors so long ago (only the first film) and I liked it, though I heard so many people making fun of the film. I also watched Gremlins when I was a kid and I berely rememebr anything of the plot, though i know it was very popular when it first came out.
      Why ony two skulls? You didn't say.

      I've never seen Beowulf, but I heard bad crits abotu it too. Mostly complaining abotu gratuituous violence. What's your take?

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    2. I'd definitely rather face Gremlins than a Graboid -- yeah, several creatures of destruction would be easier to handle than the creepy worm monster :-)

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    3. Hari OM
      Gremlins... I know the rules with them; no water, no bright light...lock the fridge. Grand. YAM xx

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    4. I love Gremlins! I still have a Gizmo Furby from when I was a kid. I think I mentioned Gmork in your theme reveal, but he always creeped me out as a kid. He's from The Never Ending Story.

      Gold Forever by The Wanted

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    5. I never did get the "don't feed them after midnight" thing. After all, it's ALWAYS after midnight - or before midnight. But it's fun. A friend of mine suggested that gremlins are very much like teenagers - they start off as small and cute, then become crazy.

      Did you ever read John Gardner's novel "Grendel" or see the animated film? Peter Ustinov played Grendel. His theme song was "Grendel! Your mother loves you, Grendel!"

      Parke Godwin did a novel about Beowulf. In it, Grendel's mother is the daughter of Loki, who seduces a local King while he is out hunting. So, strictly speaking, Grendel is the rightful king.

      Aussie children's writers: Gleitzman and Griffiths

      https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-2018-g-is-for.html

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    6. Gremlins is the film that used to give me nightmares as I watched in when I was too young. Tremors is a great film.
      https://iainkellywriting.com/2018/04/07/g-is-for-glasgow-great-britain/

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    7. I adore your theme. I did villains for the A to Z Challenge last year and had a great time with it. This post got me on Glaeken. I didn't know the movie or book and know I'm going to have to fix that.

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    8. I always thought it was kind of badass that Grendel's Mother was scarier than Grendel. As a kid, that made a lot of sense to me. :D
      The Multicolored Diary: Weird Things in Hungarian Folktales

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    9. Those graboids look nasty!

      Dena
      https://denapawling.blogspot.com

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    10. Great monsters! Tremors is a classic monster fighting movie and I'd no idea that they had a name.

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    11. I remember when that version of Beowulf came out. It was a big deal and everyone was blown away with how it looked.

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    12. Hi Tasha - well I've obviously missed something (or not) - not my kind of thing ... but I am being told briefly about films I'd never think to see ... cheers Hilary

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    13. Even though i avoid scary movies, this has become one of my favorite A to Z topics. Do I really have to choose one monster over the other? That underground grub thing looks horrible, but they all are!

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    14. Tremors has been on my list for a while, the idea of something tracking you underground just always creeped me out

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    15. Oh Graboids! But, Beowulf was a great fun film from a seminal poem that set my fantasy journey going in Middle Earth.

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    16. I admit; worst is graboids..its so creepy and weird

      Tongue Twister for G

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    17. Great G choices!

      I had to chuckle when I saw Gremlins here - just the other day my husband said, "You know, it's always 'after midnight' *some*where." :D

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    18. I don’t want to face either! Yikes!! I have to admit that Tremors is really fun and I never did see Gremlins. I have not seen Beowulf but I might now after your critique. I can’t help but think of the Gremlin from the famous Twilight Zone episode. I would say Godzilla who is a great monster as well as Gargantuan, another Japanese flick.

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    19. I love the Gremlins, it was one of my favourite movies as a kid
      Debbie

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    Thank you so much for reading. I love to hear from people. Please leave your comments below.