#dr. jekyll vs. the werewolf

[weirdlookindog]

Dr. Jekyll y el Hombre Lobo (1972) - Spanish poster

AKA Dr. Jekyll vs. the Werewolf, Dr. Jekyll vs. the Wolfman, Dr Jekyll and the Wolfman, Doctor Jekyll and the Werewolf

[frankendykes-monster]

Countdown to Halloween 2024 ranked

54. The Willies (1990)

53. Hell High (1987)

52. Face of The Screaming Werewolf (1964)

51. Terrifier (2016)

50. The Last Halloween (1991)

49. Cathy's Curse (1977)

48. The Last Shark (1981)

47. Godzilla × Kong: The New Empire (2024)

46. Creepozoids (1987)

45. The Horror of Frankenstein (1970)

44. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks (1974)

43. Man Beast (1956)

42. Tourist Trap (1979)

41. Daughter of Dr. Jekyll (1957)

40. Fiend (1980)

39. Vampyros Lesbos (1971)

38. Devil Girl From Mars (1954)

37. Halloween Hall o' Fame (1977)

36. Nightmare (1981)

35. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001)

34. Peeping Tom (1960)

33. Violent Shit (1989)

32. Invaders From Mars (1986)

31. Eggshells (1969)

30. Night of The Ghouls (1959)

29. Scream, Blacula, Scream (1973)

28. The Strange World of Planet X (1958)

27. The Colossus of New York (1958)

26. The Scooby-Doo Project (1999)

25. Night of The Living Doo (2001)

24. Scooby-Doo! and The Reluctant Werewolf (1988)

23. The Great Bear Scare (1983)

22. The Wasp Woman (1995)

21. The Cyclops (1957)

20. Frankenstein and The Monster from Hell (1974)

19. The Tingler (1959)

18. The Boogey Man (1980)

17. The Dragon Lives Again (1977)

16. Quatermass and The Pit (1967)

15. The Brain That Wouldn't Die (1962)

14. Mad Love (1935)

13. The Alien Factor (1978)

12. The Walking Dead (1935)

11. Dr. Caligari (1989)

10. The Deadly Spawn (1983)

9. Invaders From Mars (1953)

8. Alucarda (1977)

7. Uzumaki (2024)

6. Sole Survivor (1984)

5. Nosferatu the Vampyre (1979)

4. Shock Waves (1977)

3. Frankenhooker (1990)

2. Invasion of The Body Snatchers (1978)

1. Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla (1974)

What a productive year. October lasts all of 30 seconds which is why I have to start watching these in July if I want to make any decent headway (31 films is not enough). I desperately tried to make this a year of "have not seens" after last year's top spots being flooded with films I already loved; we mostly did it, mostly. Another top heavy year with relatively few abysmal entries, let's get started.

The Willies is the grand shitshow for this year. It feels like it's an evolutionary precursor to something like Goosebumps or Are You Afraid of The Dark?, but it mostly plays to gross out rather than scares. I don't normally care for anthology horror films to begin so to start off a film with brief segments like a woman eating a deep fried rat or a little white dog being microwave exploded and then doing extended stories on monsters hiding in the school bathroom does not do it for me. The most minimal points possible for some decent lighting and special effects but they are not enough by any means to make this worth watching. Stay away.

Onto the 1980's horror: Hell High is what happens when a film crew asks "what if we put a woman into a situation and didn't stop". I want to call it misogynistic torture porn, but I don't want to devalue that phrase for when I use it for a film later on here, but suffice to say a woman is tortured. Emotionally. For very little reason. Universal was right to block The Last Shark from US theatrical distribution. Not because it's a very blatant Jaws ripoff and they wanted to protect their copyright, but because it's abysmal and nobody should have to pay money to see this. I think the stock footage of sharks juxtaposed with the unmoving props between shots is funny, and some of the soundtrack elevates the experience, like the high shrill drones when the shark attacks a helicopter. Creepozoids is an odd one because 1987 was a bit late for a Mad Max/Escape from New York/Alien knockoff but also too early for some Full Moon tier/softcore porn adjacent 1990's production, so it loses out on both fronts. Fiend I'm struggling to even recall, I feel like Don Dohler had one movie in him (see: his plethora of alien invasion films) and him trying to branch out did him no favors. Nightmare is one I want to enjoy because it's beautifully shot but I feel like I've seen one too many slasher adjacent films at this point that include plot points like the killer having a troubled relationship with his mother or him moonlighting as a regular guy (still better than Pieces mind you). Same with Violent Shit. I feel like my tastes are pretty attuned to films that are just gore effects showcases but this one doesn't have any zany concepts to justify or compliment it, so it just falls flat.

The Boogey Man belongs to that tirade of Halloween knockoffs that flooded theaters up till about 1984 or so, but it puts in some extra effort like having a ghost be the main antagonist and a symbolic interest in mirrors, which is much more than could be asked of films like Terror Train which came out the same year. Dr. Caligari is the obligatory "this is what Tim Burton thinks he's doing" film of this year; its sets and its performances are perfectly otherworldly to a humorous degree. It's something of a quasi-sequel to the 1920 film but its relationship with logic is attuned to such a frequency that it's not a hindrance. Very hard to objectively quantify, you're either in the target audience or you aren't, so of all films here take its tier placement the least seriously. The Deadly Spawn is such a gloriously gross film. The house it's shot in isn't supposed to be disgusting on purpose, it's just one of those century's old buildings where I feel like I'd revulse if I had to touch any surface, and that's before fleshy alien monsters break in and start shredding people to bits. Sole Survivor is one of those magical "missing link" horror films, we've finally found what comes between Carnival of Souls and Final Destination. The actual scares in this film are incredibly minimal as it prioritizes atmosphere that balances between comfort and unease, something incredibly rare for films of virtually any genre. Don't go in expecting ghosts and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

Taking a brief-ish detour to the 1960's, Face of The Screaming Werewolf is one of those films I'm more angry at than anything because it's one of those films that's just the combined stray footage of multiple previous films. Rare for these to be produced in the western market (most of the examples I think of are from (south)east Asia) but it's infuriating nonetheless to see something only to discover it's a worse version of multiple better things you could be seeing. Peeping Tom is our "most overrated" entry winner, I don't know why so many people applaud this one, I feel like barely anything of substance happens to such a degree that any ounce of suspense you could draw from this just disappears, and what a shame with the concept at play here that feels as if it would take another decade for everyone else to catch up. Eggshells is the directorial debut of Tobe Hooper and while cohesive narrative is virtually nonexistent here, the amount of experimental editing keeps this going throughout the entire runtime, you can definitely see where The Texas Chainsaw Massacre came from down the line. I feel like I'm somewhat disappointed with Quatermass and The Pit (not sure what "The Pit" refers to now that I think of it) mostly becasue the first two Quatermass films are among the best 1950's science fiction films. All three are theatrical remakes of television mini-series and that's most felt here with how so much of the film takes place in the single location of an unearthed Martian ship in the heart of London. I do love that we have a science fiction film positing that humans are partly the genetic ancestors of aliens prior to people taking that seriously with books like Chariot of The Gods. The Brain That Wouldn't Die is magical, sometimes those oft hated 1950's/1960's science fiction films have something to give back to the rest of us. Here it's a man so obsessed with his own work that he sees his wife's death as an opportunity to try and kill other women so that he can use their bodies as grounds to bring her back. Which sounds like something else I watched...

...said film being Frankenhooker, which has largely the same plot but now functions as a dark comedy. God. I hate so much that the capitalist enclosure on the production and distribution of film prevented us from getting so much more from Frank Henenlotter. The man is one of the best to ever direct horror, and anyone who thinks this film or any of his other work are "bad movies" just flat out do not know what they're talking about. I think compared to Basket Case and Brain Damage however, Frankenhooker is the one that "keeps giving". You think you've seen everything the film has to offer and then something like a hotel room full of women combusts as they succumb to the effects of exploding crack or Elizabeth (the titular character) has her head punched back and starts spewing smoke and electricity everywhere. Film is a magical medium of art.

Terrifier is what I held onto "misogynistic torture porn" for. No narrative, no character work, just opportunities to show Art the Clown dismember and murder women in revolting ways. It's one of those films that vindicates everyone that doesn't like this genre and makes me wonder what I'm doing sitting side by side with people that like this shit. I think Art cutting off a woman's breasts and scalp and attaching them to his nude body to disguise himself as another prior female victim of his is when my mouth went agape and audibly asked what the fuck am I watching, cannot stress enough how much it takes to get that reaction out of me. There's an upfront showcase that Terrifier knows that it's trash and revels in it, I mean there's an early scene where we see Art has spelled out his name in his own shit, and I'm not sure how to interpret that other than I feel like I might be landing in a Duchamp's Urinal trap. For reasons that allude even me I am still eyeing the prospect of watching both sequels.

I think my overall reaction to Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is one of "whatever". A passably bad film is a definite improvement from the abomination that was Godzilla vs. Kong but it's admittedly easy to rise up when you start from the bottom. Adam Wingard more or less sucked all the joy I could muster out of the Monsterverse, I truly do not care anymore. If anything can be gleaned from this film it's that this is a film made to reconfirm people's existing biases of "I hate the boring human scenes, I'm only watching this for the monsters." Kong is the best actor in this film because the special effects team have to have him actually emote in response to a given situation, which is more than could be asked of anyone actually on the set, apparently. It's a miracle that this came out in the shadow of Godzilla Minus One than on its own terms.

The glut of 1950's science fiction films are a perennial staple of the Halloween countdown but they don't have a huge showing this year. Man Beast is one I'm going to confuse with all the other yeti movies of the decade though having a main antagonist that's actually a human hybrid gets it some points for originality. Daughter of Dr. Jekyll infuriates me because women who become monsters in film never get to be "hideous" and "scary" like their male counterparts, I'm throwing tomatoes at this one. Devil Girl From Mars is mostly memorable for having a giant clunky robot a la Gort, but the actual titular antagonist doesn't "serve cunt" enough to warrant interest, she should have taken notes from The Astounding She-Monster. The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra is an honorable mention because it's a feature-length pastiche of the z-grade films of this era. I don't think it's particularly funny and I kind of wish they lampooned a "good" film of this type rather than make something that fits in line with the middling genre efforts. Night of The Ghouls is the last horror film directed by Ed Wood and I feel like I enjoy it slightly more than Plan 9 From Outer Space. It's far more competent in producing that lulling insomniac reaction than Wood's prior efforts but I still don't "get" the attention his work consistently gets. The Strange World of Planet X gets a special pass from me just because the finale has a bunch of giant bugs attacking stuff. Moving on.

The Colossus of New York is an oddball modern Frankenstein of sorts with a guy being transformed into a giant robot and struggling to maintain some attachment to his former life. It doesn't always work but once again giant clunky robots are giant clunky robots. I'm something of a Bert I. Gordon apologist so something like The Cyclops is going to hit harder for me than it does for most people. I just like people wandering around Bronson Cave and poor matte shots of giant animals moving in and out of frame, okay? The Tingler was the oddest revisit I've had in a while. I don't think I fully "get" William Castle's approach to film but what stuck out to me is how this one takes place in largely two locations and how Vincent Price's character is kind of the antagonist, experimenting on animals, himself, and other people (resulting in a murder) to get at the Tingler. Much like in House on Haunted Hill I'm not wholly sure how some of the spooky things in this film actually work and I don't think I'm meant to, adding to the bizarre nature of the entire series of affairs here.

Invaders From Mars...oh yes. One of the absolute best 1950's science fiction films is also the most lyrical and dreamlike. It reads at times like a Soviet parody of an American child's story would be like; a boy sees every institution designed to protect him as a child and as an American turn against him on account of some nefarious foreign invader, so his only course of action is to get the US military involved. It plays out so well because it's a POV piece from a young boy, which eases over any leaps in logic both in terms of form and content of this film. Which is more than can be said of the remake, part of the diminishing returns of Tobe Hooper's then contract with Cannon. The film largely follows the same plot structure but decenters the frame through which we see it unfold giving it a "the military is legit" vibe. It also is just a bit more mean-spirited in ways that are designed to taunt the audience versus the original film's more hardened edge to it. I think a great summation of the difference between the two is that the 1953 film had Martian bodyguards that are clearly guys in fuzzy green pajama suits, but they're more threatening than the ones in the 1986 film which are giant quadruped Stan Winston monsters. I digress. Had this come out 20 years later it would be classified as part of the wave of "why are they remaking everything?"

Speaking of remakes, briefly want to mention the 1995 Wasp Woman. It's The Wasp Woman for the 1990's, now with explosions and softcore sex scenes. I can't wholly defend the original 1959 film despite my affinity for it, so let's just say this one is of comparable quality.

The 1930's are a delightful treasure trove for horror but sadly we only have two up for offer. Mad Love makes me curious as to how other adaptations of The Hands of Orlac handle the material; I was convinced a guy got his head surgically reattached and with artificial hands to boot. Always good to see Colin Clive and Peter Lorre. The Walking Dead feels like a dry run for what Boris Karloff would do later that decade in the much better The Man They Could Not Hang, just with him as the victim here and not the mastermind. Truly some of his best work as an actor as he has to float through the world not being allowed to live or die, that shit sticks with you.

We watched a scant few Halloween specials proper, I always feel like I want to watch every Halloween special possible but sometimes the enthusiasm leaves me. The Last Halloween is trash, but that's on me for thinking something made for very small children would appeal to me as an adult. It crams far too much into its brief 22 minute runtime, so the only thing that manages to escape into the zone of interest is that the CGI aliens are actually very well done for a 1991 television production, had this been all about them (voiced by Hanna Barbara stalwarts such as Frank Welker and Don Messick, along with Paul Williams), this would have been far more tolerable. Halloween Hall o' Fame is the first of apparently several Disney television specials that repackaged their theatrical shorts inside a live-action framing device. It's quaint but this format would live and die by the quality of the shorts included; I'm not intimately familiar with Disney's back catalogue solely because they've barely released anything on home media but I absolutely adore the one where Pluto goes to Hell and is put in a kangaroo court with cats on the jury. I feel like the novelty of The Scooby-Doo Project and Night of The Living Doo have carried them along further than their actual quality have, stray artifacts from when Warner Bros was briefly testing to see if Scooby could be an adult property now, doomed to the same fate as Harvey Birdman: Attorney at Law. The latter of these two specials made me come to terms with the fact that David Cross was "a big deal" at some point. The Great Bear Scare is the winner here. How could you not like an animated special where bears have to stand up and be brave against an oncoming horde of Halloween monsters? What makes this an oddity (sort of an obligation for me and Halloween specials) is that this is animated 100% without in-betweens, so every character in every scene cross-dissolves in real time between their keyframes. Depending on who you are it could be ridiculously distracting or make you step back and appreciate how hard animation is.

Clearing out our remaining animated showings, I felt like I would really get back into Scooby-Doo and The Reluctant Werewolf. In the mid-late 2000's when Cartoon Network was desperately trying to excise showing anything from their backlogs, this is one of those films that was on repeat constantly as midday viewings especially over summer. It's just so far removed from what Scooby-Doo "proper" is that it's an enigma, I go to bat to defend each of the "red shirt Shaggy" movies but this is brain melting at times, there is no mystery to solve, monsters are real, Fred/Daphne/Velma are completely absent, half the film is dedicated to a drag race, it goes on and on and on that I feel numb after a bit. Uzumaki...it's good. I feel like the fact that this was in production hell for five years following the first trailer release made me stop caring so all the shenanigans regarding the reaction to the animation dropping off (the production team got screwed over, how the fuck do studios not have the money for FOUR EPISODES, David Zlasv strikes again) brushed off of me. Regardless of that I think the actual pacing would have restricted this given how much sequential material from the manga now has to occur concurrently. It gets by solely because it's Uzumaki and as such it channels such a foreboding sense of dread and despair that is unreal. This more than anything is the true epitome of cosmic horror because there is no "source" or "identity" behind the threat that is warping reality around you, there is nothing to oppose and be defiant against, which was true of the manga and it remains true here. Bravo.

The 1970's prove to be another sporadic decade for horror. Cathy's Curse proves that no matter how good technical effects are, do not watch any Carrie knockoffs. Blah. Frankenstein's Castle of Freaks...you took a movie where a Frankenstein monster fights a caveman and made it boring, congratulations. In the interim between 2021's viewing of Curse of Frankenstein and now, I've made the effort to watch the entirety of the Hammer Frankenstein series. They make for a brilliant reinterpretation of the source material with Frankenstein effectively being antagonist: he kills consistently for his experiments, which often time warp and alter people's identities along with their bodies. The "holy triumvirate" of the series as referred to by me would be The Revenge of Frankenstein, Frankenstein Created Woman, and Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, all for showcasing new stuff that can be done with the character and any prior influences such as the Universal films being absent. Then comes The Horror of Frankenstein, a soft remake of Curse of Frankenstein, with Terence Fischer and Peter Cushing both absent. It's a dry and tedious affair that just rehashes what Curse already did, just now with a black comedic angle and no real consequences for Frankenstein himself. It's easily the worst of the series and why I'm glad Hammer backtracked for Frankenstein and The Monster From Hell. This is probably the first instance in film history where a sequel has consciously ignored a preceding remake, and while it's not wholly original either, it's comfort food for fans of this series, and now employs a darker more claustrophobic setting in an ~insane asylum~. Not the best ending for the series, but Hammer, along with Toho and Ray Harryhausen's efforts with Columbia, sort of represented the "old" styles of horror that were pretty quickly being replaced as the decade went on. This film specifically came out the same year as the likes of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it was a transitional period where what horror once was was cast away. Still not sure why the monster in this film looks like a Neanderthal man but that's just me.

Tourist Trap desperately tries to be one part Psycho and one part Texas Chainsaw, and it admittedly starts off with a nice hook of animatronic puppets being the main focus of the film, but it falls through the cracks and just becomes another random 1970's horror film. Vampyros Lesbos makes me realize that my infatuation with Zombi 3 last year did not mean I'm suddenly infatuated with Lucio Fulci's overall filmography, exceptions are not the rule. Come to think I don't think I've seen a single lesbian vampire film that I'm smitten with, how do you make this boring and not sexy at all, fuck you. Scream, Blacula, Scream is the obligatory Blacula cash-in sequel, nothing worthwhile to see here and none of the charm and significance of the first film is carried forward here, sigh. "DEDICATED TO THE MILLIONS THAT LOVE BRUCE LEE," The Dragon Lives Again is one of the plethora of films featuring Lee impersonators following his death, showing Lee in Hell as he has to find a way back to Earth while also fighting off The Godfather, Dracula, The Man with No Name, Emanuele, Zatoichi, and James Bond while allying himself with Popeye and Dr. Who. No I am not making any of this up, yes, this film was made with very little money so it sounds far more interesting than it actually ends up being, but it's a cute film, I can't be mad at a film made for me, nor can a movie showing Popeye eat spinach to fight mummies or Bruce Lee knocking out Dracula with his "third leg" be something you don't go out of your way to watch.

The Alien Factor is Don Dohler's first and best film. I love the fact that a dozen people made a small scale alien invasion/slasher film in their backyards with actually solid special effects for something that was probably made on the weekends. You can't hate this film, it's made from pure love for what was already decades old genre material. Had some of the script and acting been tightened up this could have become one of the more widely recognized independent films of the decade. Oh...Alucarda. I hate when they make a lesbian devil worshiper film between girls coming to terms with theirs sexual orientation and then they aren't the heroes of the story. We've come a long way since then.

Given that the Eggers film is still a few months out, I'd say Nosferatu the Vampyre is my preferred interpretation of the story (not my favorite Dracula adaptation overall mind you). Let me say that I think remaking Nosferatu is ridiculous solely because you're just doing Dracula, again, just with some stylistic details brought on from a specific prior Dracula. But this film goes all out. It's one of those times where I'm reminded of why slowly paced films with shots that last minutes at a time are so great. It relies very little on narrative (the extent/nature of Dracula's power of the geographic barriers between Wismar and Transylvania go unexplained) but you get so thoroughly sucked into the setting and the characters that you can't complain. This has undeniably the best portrayal of Mina in any Dracula film, she's effectively the protagonist by the second half and each of her encounters with Dracula are on her terms, he's effectively powerless against her even if she ensures they both die in the end. Also, rats. So many rats. Everywhere. The plague is in town.

Shock Waves is just great 1970's horror. Shoot on location, hold the camera in hand the entire time, do it cheap, have a dreamy distant narrator, and make it grisly. I do find the concept of Nazis engineering platoons of super soldiers and we only seeing just the one in this film is probably the scariest thing about it, it invites you to think about what else is happening out of sight. My favorite first watch of the year.

1978's Invasion of The Body Snatchers is also a phenomenal remake. This one is difficult for me to talk about because it just pushes all my buttons, I felt like I wanted to cry throughout the duration of this viewing, it is an incredibly mean film. Someone you know just one day turns on you, and then everyone else follows suit. You think you know your surroundings and your city but everything is flipped upside down and you can't even describe why. From the very start when you see the premature pods land on Earth it's made immediately clear that no one is making it out of here, it was too late as soon as it started.

But there can only be one #1, and this year it's Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla. Another instance of "nothing is going to beat this" as soon as I rewatched it. I feel like I'm alone in considering this one of the absolute best in the series, I feel like between the espionage and exploration and blood and laser fights that this is just one of the films that reminds you of why we make and why we watch movies, you get to have some semblance of every possible human emotion watching this. There's not much more you can ask for.

[bloodsuckingviolet]

🎃Ultimate October Reading List👻

I compiled a list of 20+ of my favorite spooky reads, the creepiest, darkest paranormal stories and novels that are perfect to read when October comes around. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments or reblogs!

-Gwen🦇

The Banshee's Warning by Charlotte Riddell (haunting banshee)

The Black Cat by Edgar Allen Poe (black cats, supernatural)

The Case of the Leannabh Sidhe by Margery Lawrence (changelings, evil fairies)

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (classic ghost tropes; considered to be the very first gothic novel)

Carmilla by Sheridan le Fanu (lesbian vampyres...need I say more?)

A Chapter in the History of a Tyrone Family by Sheridan le Fanu (haunted, eroding castle, jilted wife)

A Dead Man of Varley Grange by Anonymous (cursed cottage)

The Dead Sexton by Sheridan le Fanu (mysterious corpse thief)

Dracula by Bram Stoker (THEE vampyre, superstitions)

Dobrev (young clairvoyants, succubus, written by yours truly!)

The Family of a Vourdalak by Aleksey Tolstoy (vampyre, recently adapted into a fantastically weird French film)

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley (creation, horrors of life)

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen (supernatural, erotic)

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (paranormal, curses)

Hugues, the Wer-wolf by Sutherland Menzies (OG werewolf story)

In the Closed Room by Frances Hodgson Burnett (ghosts, mysterious closed door)

Laura Silver Bell by Sheridan le Fanu (evil fairies, witchcraft)

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving (ghosts, autumn vibes)

The Monk by Matthew Gregory Lewis (cruel and dark, such an insane read!)

The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs (supernatural, death)

The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe (gothic romance, castles, supernatural)

The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux (ghost, romance)

The Sandman by E.T.A. Hoffmann (dark fairy tale elements, obsession)

The Shadow of a Shade by Tom Hood (haunted portrait)

The Story of Medhans Lea by E. and H. Heron (haunted house, men getting scared, lol)

Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (murder, good vs. evil)

Tales of Terror from the Black Ship by Chris Priestley (underrated horror author!)

Tales of Terror from the Tunnel's Mouth by Christ Priestley (eerie and disturbing short stories)

The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe (guilt, murder)

The Tomb of Sarah by Frederick Loring (cursed tomb)

The Trod by Algernon Blackwood (evil fairies)

The Turn of the Screw by Henry James (ghosts)

Uncle Montague's Tales of Terror by Chris Priestley (first of a great ghostly, gruesome trilogy)

The Vampyre by John Polidori (one of the OG vamp tales; seductive, evil vampyre torments a young man and his sister)

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill (even creepier than the movie)

[bradsmindbrain]

Jack and Ted running into Dracula and a fight ensues? (Jack did mention fighting him once or twice in wwbn before Ulysses apparently killed him and I'm pretty sure they've had run ins in the comics). Good old vampire vs werewolf fight, pls.

Monstrum

Summary: Jack and Ted encounter an old rival of Jack’s.

TW: Violence, knife, mild body horror

Jack smelt him before he saw him. Him and Ted were currently attending a Halloween costume party at a local club, and while the smell of alcohol and cheap costumes clouded his sensitive nose, there was one distinct smell he zeroed in on immediately, the smell of blood and filth. During his long career of hunting, he’d come to associate that smell with one of the most dangerous kinds of monsters there were, Vampires. He turned to face where he assumed the smell was coming from, spotting a blonde woman in a rather revealing angel costume talking to a sharp dressed man. 

The man was bald, with a stubble-dusted face and striking blue eyes, and Jack all but snarled. Carpathian. He expected better of the Vampire, truly he did. Attacking someone on Halloween? That was just tasteless and tacky. He watched as the woman laughed at the Vampire’s jokes, unaware of the beast that lurked beneath but a few inches of latex-like false skin.

He needed to find his boyfriend. Tonight wasn’t a night of the full moon, so there was no way he stood a chance against Carpathian by himself, but with a little help… 

Finding Ted wasn’t an issue, as he was currently surrounded by people trying to take selfies and photos with him. He waited until Ted was done with his current photo before standing next to him. “Ted, we have an issue,” he whispered, trying to make sure no one heard him.

His boyfriend moved away from the crowd surrounding him, giving a grumble. 

He pointed to where Corinthian stood, watching as the Vampire prepared to lead the woman out the side door into the connecting alley. “You see him? That’s Carpathian.”

Ted’s eyes widened, he had told his boyfriend about Carpathian before, but he had never met the Vampire in person. Ted had jokingly asked if Carpathian was his ex at one point, to which he merely rolled his eyes. Sure he respected Carpathian, but that was only because Carpathian had the dubious distinction of being the only monster to survive more than one hunt against him. Even if his human guise was moderately attractive.

“We need to stop him before he sucks that poor woman dry,” he said as the Vampire exited the building.

Ted nodded, giving a grumble.

He and Ted made their way after Carpathian, pushing through a few other partygoers on the way. It was funny, despite all the costumes and makeup of monsters and beasts, three very real monsters were among them, and one of them wanted nothing more than to bring harm to each and every one of them.

They exited the building, and Jack turned to the side and spotted Carpathian leaning in towards the woman, her eyes closed. “Hey, Carlos! Long time no see!” he shouted, trying to get the Vampire’s attention and make the woman leave.

To his luck, it worked. “Oh, am I interrupting something?” she asked, looking back at him and Ted. She seemed to take their silence as a yes, awkwardly walking back inside as Carpathian scowled, something large visibly shifting beneath his false skin.

“Jack,” Carpathian said, Eastern European accent oozing with venom, “Long time no see.”

“I hoped it would be a good long while before I saw you again,” he responded, unimpressed, sliding a hand into the pocket of Dr. Jekyll outfit, wrapping it around the pocket knife inside. He usually didn’t like confrontation when it wasn’t a full moon, but he kept the knife on his person at all times, just in case push came to shove.

The vampire turned to look at Ted, “Who’s your friend here? I don’t think you’ve ever spoken to me about him before.”

Henarrowed his eyes, “Yeah, because I was too busy trying to kill you. And his name is Ted by the way, my boyfriend.”

Carpathian laughed, “I didn’t take you for the type, Jacky, being in a relationship I mean.”

Ted gave an angry grumble.

He growled, “It’s fine Ted. Why are you even here?”

“Well,” Carpathian grinned, “a man has to eat, doesn’t he?”

“Sure, that doesn’t explain everyone else you kill after you’re done.”

Carpathian shrugged, “Nobody’s perfect.”

He scowled, “Just leave, Carpathian.”

Carpathian grinned, his blue eyes giving a predatory gleam, “No, I don’t think I will. You interrupted my meal, so it’s only fair that you join me for it.” 

In an instant, the Vampire bounded towards him, and he removed the knife from his pocket, slicing the Carpathian’s face with it. The wound didn’t bleed, only exposing the pale flesh underneath it. Carpathian laughed as he tore at his false skin and suit, tearing it off like cheap latex to expose the pale, hairless flesh of his true, bat-like form. A pair of huge, leathery wings extended from his back as he ripped the face of his human guise off.

Ted gave a shocked groan.

He turned to quickly nod at his partner, “Yeah, not too nice to look at, huh?”

Carpathian glared at him with his beady, oversized black eyes, “Your boyfriend isn’t winning any prizes either.”

He prepared to slam the knife into Carpathian’s eye, but the Vampire responded like a bolt of lightning, grabbing Jack’s arm with his spindly, taloned fingers. Carpathian laughed, leaning his head back to prepare to rip into his throat, “Don’t worry Jacky, it won’t hurt, I’ll make it quick.”

Jack braced for the fangs, but in an instant Ted punched the Vampire clean in the face from over his shoulder, sending Carpathian flying backwards down the alley. Carpathian got back to his feet with a hiss, “You’re a lucky man Jack, that boyfriend of yours is pretty rough.”

“Just shut up,” Jack scowled.

“Fine, I’ll be taking my leave, I’d rather live to fight another day anyway,” Carpathian’s bat-like face shifted into a grin before he flapped his wings, taking off and soaring out of the alley.

Ted gave a concerned grumble, looking at where Carpathian grabbed him.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded. He gave a tired smile, “I think we should head home though.”

Ted gave a grumble, pulling him in close for warmth.

“Yeah, Carpathian certainly is a character,” he smiled. As awful as Carpathian was, the two of them had a sense of mutual respect for eachother. He honestly deserved better than being killed in a shoddy back alley next to a club in Florida. Carpathian was one of the few monsters the wolf wasn’t able to immediately kill, and in his mind, he deserved a far more dignified death.

Ted gave a teasing grumble.  Jack gave an unimpressed look, “I told you, he is not into me!”

[multitudecontainer420]

spanish dracula kongo most dangerous game murders zoo murders rue morgue mummy wolf man invisible man vampyr unheimliche geschichten 1919 1932 la llorona 1933 phantom of the monastery the ghoul supernatural cat & the canary monkeys paw night of terror vampire bat black moon maniac 1934 black room the cat creeps crime of doctor crespi ouanga student of prague house of usher werewolf of london black lagoon son of dracula frankenstein meets the wolf man invisible man returns king kong vs godzilla king kong escapes the fly invisible man 1954 invisible man vs human fly ten little indians tod browning ferryman maria le golem invisible ray man who changed his mind things to come lost horizon death takes a holiday i married a witch portrait of jennie the uninvited the innocents demon barber of fleet street lewton tourneur dark eyes of london face at the window man they could not hang the bat whispers the mad genius murder by the clock hunchback of notre dame 1939 secret of the blue room 9th guest ghost goes west james whale dr cyclops devil commands night has eyes undying monster la main du diable return of the vampire the lodger dorian gray ulmer la torre de los siete jorobados house of fear spiral staircase strangler of the swamp queen of spades yotsuya kaidan the rainbow man mysterious doctor gaslight song at midnight warning shadows phantom chariot orlacs hande waxworks the last warning dantes inferno 1911 1924 maciste all'inferno secrets of a soul the lost world the bat 1926 seven footprints to satan alraune genuine the bells the monster 1925 the magician destiny dr mabuse the haunted castle keaton fleischer mccay the penalty feuillade jekyll & hyde 1920 der golem the avenging conscience the sealed room telltale heart 1928 noidan kirot the stone rider a fool there was he who gets slapped the last performance frankenstein 1910 melies de chomon danse macabre 1922 prelude 1927 joseph cornell dreams money can buy rene clair aelita queen of mars salome lev kuleshov

[goth-desires]

￬ watchlist/watched ￬

#Alive

28 Days Later

3 from Hell

A Cure for Wellness

Another

A Nightmare on Elm Street

Alien

Alive

American Psycho

A Quiet Place

Ajin: Demi-Human

Annihilation

An American Werewolf in London

As Above, So Below

Bad Moon

Bad Moon Rising

Before I Wake

Beetlejuice

Bhediya ✓

Bird Box

Black Death

Black Swan ✓

Blood For Dracula

Blood Quantum

Boarding School

Bram Stoker's Dracula

Brotherhood of the Wolf

Cadaver

Candyman

Carrie

Carnival of Souls

Circle

Cloverfield

Constantine

Corpse Bride ✓

Crimson Peak

Cronos

Cursed

Dachra

Dark Shadows ✓

Dawn of the Dead

Daughters of Darkness

Devil

Devour ✓

Dogma ✓

Dog Soldiers

Don't Grow Up

Dracula

Dracula Untold ✓

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Dylan Dog

Edward Scissorhands

Elvira, Mistress of the Dark

Evil Dead

Evil Feed

Eyes Without A Face

Final Destination

Firestarter

Frankenstein

Freaks of Nature

Freaky

Fright Night ✓

From Dusk Till Dawn

Get Out

Ghost Rider ✓

Ginger Snaps

Godzilla ✓

Good Manners

Goosebumps

Glass ✓

Hagazussa

Halloween ✓

Halloweentown ✓

Handling the Undead

Hansel & Gretel: Witch Hunters ✓

Hellboy

Here Alone

Hounds of Love

House of 1000 Corpses

House of Wax

Howl

Hubie Halloween

Hellraiser ✓

Hellraiser II

He Never Died ✓

Hereditary

Hocus Pocus

Homunculus

Horns

Hotel Transylvania ✓

Hour of the Wolf

I Am Legend ✓

Insidious ✓

Insidious 2 ✓

Interview With The Vampire

Jennifer's Body ✓

Kill Baby Kill

Killer Legends

Krabat ✓

Krampus

La Loba

Late Phases

Let the Right One In

Love Bite

Mandy

Marrowbone

Metropolis ✓

Midsommar

Monster High Movies ✓

My Babysitter's A Vampire ✓

My Bloody Valentine 3D ✓

Nature of the Beast

Near Dark

Never Cry Werewolf ✓

Night of the Living Deb

Nightsiren

I Had A Bloody Good Time At House Harker

In Fabric

In The Tall Grass

Paranorman

Parasite

Pari

Pet Sematary

Perfect Blue

Perfume

Psycho

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies

Rabid

Ravenous

Raw/Grave ✓

Re-Animator

Renfield

Replace

Ringu

Rubber

Sabrina The Teenage Witch

Saw ✓

Saw II ✓

Saw III ✓

Scream

Shaun of the Dead

Sicilian Ghost Story

Silver Bullet

Skinner

Snowpiercer ✓

Split ✓

Stardust ✓

Stoker

Stree

Suspiria

Teddy

The Addams Family ✓

The Autopsy of Jane Doe

The Beast Must Die

The Black Cat

The Boy

The Boy Who Cried Werewolf

The Butterfly Effect ✓

The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ✓

The Changeling

The Conjuring

The Craft

The Crow

The Cured

The Cursed

The Curse of the Werewolf

The Dead Don't Die

The Descent ✓

The Endless

The Faculty

The Fall of the House of Usher

The Fearless Vampire Killers

The Fly

The Haunting

The Haunted Mansion

The Howling

The Last Days On Mars

The Last Exit

The Lesson

The Lighthouse

The Little Vampire ✓

The Lost Boys

The Masque of the Red Death

The Matrix

The Mist

The Monster Squad

The Munsters

The Night of the Virgin

The Night of the Wolf

The Old Guard

The Picture of Dorian Gray ✓

The Pit and the Pendulum

The Purge

The Raven

The Return of the Living Dead

The Ring

The Rocky Horror Picture Show ✓

The Shallows

The Shining

The Skin I Live In

The Substance

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

The Thing

The Turning

The Uninvited

The Vampire's Assistant ✓

The Wailing

The Witch

The Whip and the Body

The Wolfman ✓

The Wolf of Snow Hollow

The Woman in Black

Thirst

Teen Wolf ✓

Titane

Train to Busan ✓

Trick 'r Treat

Tucker and Dale vs Evil

Twillight Saga ✓

Underworld

Us

Valley Of Shadows

Vampire Hunter D

Vampires

Vampire Sisters I-II ✓

Vampyr

Van Helsing ✓

Victor Frankenstein

Warm Bodies ✓

We Are The Flesh

We Are What We Are

Wer

Werewolf

Werewolf: The Beast Among Us

Werewolves Within

West of Hell

Westworld

What Keeps You Alive

When Animals Dream

Wildling

Winchester

Wolf ✓

Wolfen

Wolf Guy

World War Z

Wounds

Zombieland

[mexcine]

Swipe File No. 9 -- Silent Swipes

"Zara la Vampire" #56 (Elvifrance, 1975 series) was a mashup of John Barrymore from Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Countess Wandesa from La noche de Walpurgis ('71 aka The Werewolf vs. the Vampire Woman), and a naked blonde from parts unknown.

The Danish silent film Häxan (1922, aka Häxan: Witchcraft Through the Ages) provided the central demon character for the cover of "Jacula" #41 (Elvifrance, although this was reprinted from the Italian "Jacula" #42, Ediperiodici) and the Australian "The Devil's Triangle" #5 (Gredown, 1976-78?).

[wukodork]

Okay so like, out of the original 8 dolls half of them have ties to one of the Universal Classic Monsters (Werewolf, Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy) and the ones that don't have stories that are a big part of pop culture (Dr. Jekyll, Zombies, Medusa) or are Lagoona (who I keep forgetting isn't actually related to the Creature from the Black Lagoon). They go away from this pretty quickly because there aren't really a lot of Universal Monsters.

Ever After High's whole Thing is when the main characters in fairy tales grow up and have kids, each kid is supposed to perform the same role in the same tale that their famous parent did. I.e., Apple White is expected to be cursed by Raven Queen because their moms are Snow White and The Evil Queen respectfully. It's unclear what happens to characters that are supposed to die in a story - Mr. Badwolf is one of the teachers for example- but it's also implied Sleeping Beauty's story happens in real time. While they were running with this as the main conflict of the series it had a big destiny vs agency thing going on. They eventually dropped it because that is a very messy concept to use with A) Grimm's Fairy Tales and B) a fashion doll line, but the show was poorer for it.

So Monster High AU (probably of G1, the current active version doesn't have as many ties to external horror and is very much its own thing) where instead of it just being a high school for monsters, it's a specialized school that prepares monsters for the role they have to play in their Story. But unlike EAH, monsters in stories almost always have bad endings so.....dark au.

[tazzmanian-devil]

Lost, Star VS, MP100, MHA(up to s7), Owl House, LMK, Dragon Prince, Infinity Train, Tangled, Breaking Bad, FMA:B, The Twilight Zone, House MD, The Good Doctor, Grey's Anatomy, Arcane, Fiona and Cake, Adventure Time, Dungeon Meishi, Dorohedoro, Chainsaw Man, Scrubs, SpyxFamily, Letterkenny, It's Always Sunny in Philidelphia, Serial Experiments Lain, Russian Doll, The Great Canadian Pottery Show, lucky star, nichijou, Mysteries of Mental Illness, Gurren Lagann, star trek, one punch man, scavengers reign, the cyberpunk anime, the good place,

Moulin Rouge, FNAF the Movie, 57 Seconds, the Hulu Fyre Festival documentary, The Colourful Mr. Eggleson, The Blair Witch Project, Uncle Buck, The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes, The Day After Tomorrow, bill and ted, last night in soho, Green Room(2015), sinbad, the Oceans movies, world war z, speed, speed 2, the big short, too big to fail, the florida project, kung fu panda 4, jerry maguire, dnd movie, challengers(2024), the bad guys, shark tale, the descent, the descent part 2, mothers' instinct, sting, burn after reading, michael clayton, being john malkovich, oppenheimer, die hard(SERIES), cocaine crabs, Mutant Mayhem, the shining/doctor sleep, abigail, baghead, tarot, the first omen, my oni girl, jaws, 28 days later, missing, fall, ready or not, 10 cloverfield lane, pearl(2022), raw(2016), the autopsy of jane doe, the cabin in the woods(2011), The Wolf Man, an american werewolf in london, rabid, thelma the unicorn, RUBY GILLMAN, boeing documentary, i saw the tv glow, we grown now, if, bedtime stories, everest, goodnight mommy, the caller, the invisible man, PERFECT BLUE, tcm 1 and 2, bambi II, gremlins, how to lose a guy in 10 days, the wedding planner, the boy and the heron, in the heights 2021, despicable me 4, inside out 2, the boy,monica and david(2009), BYE BYE TIBERIAS, Dude, Where's My Car, skinamarink, The Rocky Horror Show, Kinky Boots, Spiderverse 1 and 2, The Celluloid Closet, Vivian Meyer, Jeff Wall, The Fruit Machine, The Third Care Bears Movie, baby garfield, need for speed, payback, fast and furious, tomorrowland, gravity, the ides of march, one cut of the dead2017, king kong1933, halloween1978, shaun of the dead2004, Diabolique, the invisible man2020, nosferatu1922, invasion of the bodysnatchers1956, rosemary's baby, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, Eyes Without a Face, Train to Busan, the ring, night of the living dead, his house, talk to me, repulsion, frankenstein, vampyr, freaks1932, night of the hunter, dawn of the dead, scream(SERIES), peeping tom, godzilla1954, a girl walks home at night, the fly, suspiria, zombieland, the birds, the innocents, whatever happened to baby jane, x(2022), the amusement park(1973), it follows(2014), dead of night1945, dracula1931, carrie 1976, the host2006, kwaidan1964, dont look now1973, thelma2017, barbarian2022, evil dead, evil dead 2, eraserhead, hereditary, return of the living dead, TCM, phantom of the opera1925, the conjuring, cat people, the thing, house of wax, dr jekyll and mr hyde, mandy, the cat and the canary, let me in, tenacious d the pick of destiny, village of the damned, duel, the wicker man, dead alive, you wont be alone, beast, poltergeist, the evil dead(SERIES), fear street(1,2,3), theater of blood, the haunting, the witch, annihilation, the dead zone, the others, rare exports: a christmas tale, santa sangre, the night house, the black phone, the endless, the exorcist, the mummy, dead ringers, day of the dead, the omen, predator, fright night, crawl, fresh, better watch out, the abominable dr phibes, candyman, carnival of souls, halloween, warm bodies, sisters, house of usher, the house of the devil, smile, 1408, innerstellar, failure to launch, jason x, existenz, scanners, the brood, fast company, mission impossible, ella enchanted, the princess diaries, brokeback mountain, charlies angels(SERIES), oceans 8, cocaine shark, the bourne ultimatum, mad max, citizen kane, gone with the wind, the shawshank redemption, lord of the rings, its a wonderful life, cassablanca, blade runner, rocky, saving private ryan, edward scissorhands, better watch out, cam(2018), extremely goofy movie, planet of the apes, scream 2022, your monster 2024, bed rest 2022, southbound, v/h/s, devil's due, 1993 mario movie, Immaculate, labrynth, the dark crystal, the neverending story, narnia, ma, shorts, jennifer's body, the boy

(annabelle, saw 2, The Scott Tibbs Documentary, saw 3, saw 4, the rest of the saws, mlp g5, ex machina, fraggle rock, defunctland fraggle rock, onward, lightyear, m3gan, the orphanage2017, childs play, upgrade, hatching, videodrome, frailty)

Welcome to Night Vale, The Magnus Archives, Red Valley, Creepy Podska, qanon anonymous, Stuff You Missed in History Class, wayne radio tv,

Under the Dome, Gideon the Ninth, Dungeon Meishi, The Celluloid Closet, Harrow the Ninth, Nightmare at 20,000 Feet, The Fox and the Hound, House of Leaves, Stone Butch Blues, Wool, The Slow Regard of Silent Things, that photo book, For Folk's Sake, the ROTTMNT Comic Book, The Prince, Discourses, The Art of War, Five Rings, this is how you die, The Rescuers, asops fables, the raven cycle, reanimator, watership down, the wizard of oz, beastars, the most dangerous game, how Europe underdeveloped Africa, sappho

[mossterious]

Halloween Movies Week 2:

The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)

The Abominable Snowman (1957)

Hocus Pocus (1993)

Vampires vs The Bronx (2020)

Wendell & Wild (2022)

Quatermass 2 (1957)

The Revenge of Frankenstein (1958)

The Hound of the Baskervilles (1959)

The Mummy (1959)

The Man Who Could Cheat Death (1959)

The Two Faces of Dr Jekyll (1960)

The Curse of the Werewolf (1961)

The Addams Family (1991)

Addams Family Values (1993)

Goosebumps (2015)

The Shadow of the Cat (1961)

Captain Clegg (1962)

Labyrinth (1986)

Halloweentown II: Kalabar’s Revemge (2001)

Twitches Too (2007)

The Damned (1962)

The Kiss of the Vampire (1963)

The Old Dark House (1963)

The Evil of Frankenstein (1964)

Thanksgiving (2023)

Halloweentown High (2004)

Monster House (2006)

Day Shift (2022)

The Gorgon (1964)

Okay screw it I’ve decided I’m gonna make a post for all the spooky movies I’m watching in October because it’s Halloween season. However. Making that post at the end of October would be SO LONG. So I’m gonna do weekly spooky movie updates instead!

Halloween Movies Week 1:

The Raven (1935)

Mom’s Got A Date with a Vampire (2000)

Don’t Look Under The Bed (1999)

Can of Worms (1999)

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Tower of London (1939)

The Mummy’s Hand (1940)

Girl vs Monster (2012)

Phantom of the Megaplex (2000)

Twitches (2005)

Scream Team (2002)

Man-Made Monster (1941)

The Ghost of Frankenstein (1942)

The Mummy’s Tomb (1942)

Mr. Boogedy (1986)

Bride of Boogedy (1987)

The Mad Ghoul (1943)

The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944)

The Mummy’s Ghost (1944)

The Mummy’s Curse (1944)

Invisible Sister (2005)

Halloweentown (1998)

She-Wolf of London (1946)

Abbot and Costello Meet The Mummy (1955)

The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)

Muppets Haunted Mansion (2021)

The Haunted Mansion (2003)

Scars of Dracula (1970)

Countess Dracula (1971)

Shaun of the Dead (2004)

Dracula AD 1972 (1972)

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1973)

The Curse of Bridge Hollow (2022)

Casper (1995)

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)

The Quatermass Experiment (1955)

X The Unknown (1956)

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

[painiac]

[mh-midnight-wanderer]

I'm compel to tell things that I like, dislike and mixed about Monster High live action movie *also spoilers ahead*

Things that I like:

Frankie being non-binary and played by actor Ceci Balagot

Monster High setting looks kinda nice

Friendship between Frankie and Clawdeen. Its makes sense both being new students. Clawdeen never been in monster world before and Frankie being literally 15 days old. Everything is new for them.

Draculaura practices witchcraft (odd decision but its kinda cool)

Its small insignificant detail but I like that Dracula's painted nails. We need more boys with painted nails

Oh They did great job in the music and songs.

Things that I dislike:

Aside Clawdeen new look. I didn't like the whole half-human half-werewolf plot. I get it that in previous MH generations were creatures doesn't have fully human or beast mode (except MH G2). Even Garret thinks they took Cerise (from EAH) and Jackson (MH) backstory and put it on Clawdeen

They never properly explain what exactly Clawdeen's mother deal is. Is fearleader captain?, top A student? Prom Queen? What?

I don't like Deuce clothing. Everytime that I seen him its reminders me Jughead (Riverdale) with glasses

The fact that Cleo doesn't have her mummy bandages. Is so easy to mistake her for human

Lagoona, Abbey, Heath and Ghoulia didn't contribute too much in the movie.

Scenes with Deuce and Clawdeen alone

Even Mr. Komos doesn't get much screentime. Despite he's main villain. What exactly is his plan anyway: Wait until Clawdeen and her friends figure out how to open his dad's lair. He thought Clawdeen is the choosen one considering she going to make report of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

Guess its budget thing that we don't get to see Lagoona (waterbending) , Abbey (ice bending) and Heath (fire bending) fight against Komos.

Speaking budget: Komos final form is ridiculous. I guess animate bull head is expensive

I wish Clawdeen used Cleo's mirror pocket instead cellphone

I'm little annoyed how quickly that Dracula's accepting that his daughter is practicing witchcraft. What the whole vampires vs witches thing (Well you have to watch MH sequel to answer your questions)

Things that I mixed:

Deuce telling Clawdeen about Cleo's mummy issues. Its BIG oof for G1 fans knows Cleo's backstory

Cleo and Deuce breakup. I didn't understand why they break up? Its because Deuce wants to be different? I don't get it

Its just me but is weird that Dracula, Mr Hyde and Clawdeen's mom went High School together.

Either Monster World has different passage of time from Human World or Probably Dracula and Hyde are descendants from real Dracula and Mr Hyde

And that's pretty much it. Overall in my opinion the movie is not bad but could be 10x better with right cast, good writing, special effects and costumes

[nrrrdgrrrl2002]

How I’d Rewrite The Monsters Arc

I think someone’s already doing, like, an actual rewrite for this (that I am defs reading for spooky month), but as a gothic horror fan, I wanted to do my own take

1. The vampires aren’t controlled by dracula

Basically, anyone infected still retains their mind and isn’t controlled. The issue comes from the bloodlust vampirism causes.

2. Casey and april would come along for the adventure, but Casey’s still a vampire

Since the main issue from vampirism is bloodlust, there’d be no reason to leave april and Casey behind. So why don’t I also still have april infected? Simple. She’s already really op with her psychic powers, she doesn’t need vampire powers on top of it. Casey can still be a vampire cause

1. Vamp Casey is fun

2. Him trying to fight his bloodlust would be a good little arc for him about learning to keep his mind and soul stable so as to not hurt others.

3. To replace Crypt of Dracula, the team would instead meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Hot take: I find their Dracula boring. You can keep his hate romance with savanti, but I don’t see the point in giving him a whole episode about how savanti recruited him.

I would stick to the original book take of Dr Jekyll, where mr Hyde is Jekyll minus his inhibitions. I wouldn’t blame the animators for making mr Hyde look completely different from Dr Jekyll, since making him look like Jekyll but acting so differently from the doctor he’s unrecognizable would be difficult to portray.

This would be a good ep for Leo. Leo is a very extreme person. He tries incredibly hard to be the most morally good person possible and when he can’t, he goes the other extreme. Him hanging out with Dr Jekyll and trying to help him could teach Leo how to find balance between how he wants to be seen and whatever part of himself he doesn’t like.

I’d also probably have a B plot where Casey gets captured by vampire frightened townsfolk and april tries to help him, but ends up accidentally using her powers in public and being accused of being a witch. It’d be a good “shoes on the other foot” for them to see what it’s like for the turtles.

I’d also have renet save them with her diplomatic skills she was taught to have to be a time mistress, because renet is awesome.

4. The Frankenstein episode would be closer to Mary Shelley’s original book

Basically. Just like the book, Victor is a college dropout who abandoned the monster. Mikey and Donnie would go find the creature cause Mikeys actually read the original book (why would Mikey read classic literature? He read the comic and got curious about the original source material).

Donnie would develop a bond with the monster and would try to keep the monster from getting revenge on Victor as a sort of sequel to heart of evil. (The monster would also be a bit more intelligent like in the book) Now Donnie has to stop someone else he cares about from seeking vengeance before they get themselves hurt.

I’d also have raph get captured by savanti and his monster crew, but instead of a vampire, he’d be turned into a werewolf, making him feral and easier for the pharaoh to control. (Listen. If the headless horseman can show up outta nowhere, so can wolf man)

Raph wouldn’t be on the enemies side for long, since Aprils psychic powers would probably be stronger than werewolf feralness or pharaoh magic, but she’d have to stay near raph until they can cure him to keep him from losing it

5. Donnie would take the monster with them in the present and Leo would use the Jekyll/Hyde serum Dr. Jekyll gave him to even the playing field

Basically. Last episode. Monsters vs monsters. Donnie wouldn’t be turned into a vampire. They’d still go through time and Mikey would still kill Dracula in the past cause that was awesome. The Hyde serum Leo took would wear off, raph and Casey would be cured, yada yada. Happily ever after, here we are.

Bonus!

6. Make it a gothic musical

Yeah. This one’s just me being self indulgent.

I know this isn’t explained that well, but what y’all think? How would y’all rewrite the monsters arc, if you would?

[frankendykes-monster]

Halloween 2022 Countdown Ranked

59. Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2022)

58. Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1995)

57. Curse of The Swamp Creature (1968)

56. Monster From The Ocean Floor (1954)

55. Billy the Kid versus Dracula (1966)

54. Teenage Cave Man (1958)

53. Lost Continent (1951)

52. Attack of The Killer B-Movies (1995)

51. Texas Chainsaw 3D (2013)

50. Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter (1966)

49. Full Moon High (1981)

48. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning (2006)

47. The Werewolf of Washington (1973)

46. The Invisible Man’s Revenge (1944)

45. The Invisible Woman (1940)

44. Anthropophagous (1980)

43. The Slime People (1963)

42. Casper’s Halloween Special (1979)

41. The Crawling Hand (1963)

40. Scream (2022)

39. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003)

38. Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III (1990)

37. Invisible Agent (1942)

36. The Descent (2005)

35. Eegah (1962)

34. Dracula vs. Frankenstein (1971)

33. The Midnight Hour (1985)

32. Ringu (1998)

31. Halloween is Grinch Night (1977)

30. Attack of The Giant Leeches (1959)

29. Monster Mash (2000)

28. Bloodz vs. Wolvez (2006)

27. The Man From Planet X (1951)

26. Child’s Play 3 (1991)

25. Hansel and Gretel (1983)

24. Cat-Women of The Moon (1953)

23. Let’s Scare Jessica to Death (1971)

22. The She-Creature (1956)

21. The Terror (1963)

20. The Exorcist (1973)

19. The Navy vs. The Night Monsters (1966)

18. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

17. The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t (1979)

16. Hobgoblins (1988)

15. Die, Monster, Die! (1965)

14. The Abomination (1986)

13. The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

12. Lake Mungo (2008)

11. Day of The Animals (1977)

10. Atom Age Vampire (1960)

9. The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters (1972)

8. Night of The Blood Beast (1958)

7. Child’s Play 2 (1990)

6. The Crawling Eye (1958)

5. The Blair Witch Project (1999)

4. The Old Dark House (1932)

3. Child’s Play (1988)

2. Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1989)

1. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

God this was such a bottom-heavy marathon compared to last year, alright let’s get this shitshow started.  I can’t believe I willingly put myself through some of this.

The 1950′s-1960′s science fiction extravaganza: Curse of The Swamp Creature is, I think, one of those TV remakes of 1950′s films starring monsters designed by Paul Blaisdell.  This is one where I thought “okay should I give it credit for making me laugh in the first 30 seconds and then not once for the entire rest of the runtime?”  The answer was no.  Monster From The Ocean Floor is a dreary slog of a film, one of those cheap shits that only features the titular monster for all of 30 seconds while people just aimlessly do nothing for the entire runtime.  Teenage Cave Man I only watched because the monster suit from this film was reused in Night of The Blood Beast, and otherwise it’s Ayn Rand wet dream of the freethinking teenager being magically smarter than everyone else on top of the offense of being a caveman movie with no dinosaurs.  God, speaking of which, Lost Continent is another Lost World ripoff that’s decades behind the curve and who’s only saving grace is stop motion dinosaurs which magically improve any movie they star in.  The Slime People is an oddity because the monster suits and concept are star studded but it just, I guess, doesn’t have the money to see through actually showing us slime people emerge from underground and completely take over Los Angeles.  Weird and disappointing.  The Crawling Hand has one of the best trailers for any monster movie I’ve seen complete with a slowed down version of “Surfin’ Bird” but aside from some humorous spouts of bad acting and the 100% out-of-nowhere gag ending, it’s nothing remarkable.  Admittedly there has been a couple films about disembodied hands killing people and I can’t find the concept scary no matter what, sue me.  Attack of The Giant Leeches is in decent/mid-tier territory, boosted by reusing music from Night of The Blood Beast (Roger Corman lives up to his cheap reputation) and genuinely gruesome scenes of the leeches’ human victims still being alive after progressively blood feedings, it mostly loses me for just not doing anything remarkable with its finale.  The Man From Planet X is working with a pretty stock script but is boosted by how atmospheric its directing is, every shot is just littered with shadows or fog.  Cat-Women of The Moon is definitely one of the more humorous genre outings I’ve seen of this type, living up to its title 100% other than I guess having long nails and sharp eyeliner making you a “cat” woman I guess.  The She-Creature isn’t the best Paul Blaisdell monster movie I’ve seen but that’s expected given his work crops up in some really interesting ones, this one being a murder mystery involving both hypnosis and prehistoric evolutionary links somehow.  The Navy vs. The Night Monsters is like a better version of The Thing From Another World what with an indeterminate number of US army guys having to deal with a monster(s) at their fort and their progressively more extreme methods of having to deal with it.  Atom Age Vampire is one of the funniest films I’ve seen in a *while*, an Italian knockoff of Eyes Without A Face that hits all the same plot points just far more crudely and with a manster (man-monster) thrown in to boot.  Watch the English edit for full effect.  Night of The Blood Beast is one I was excited to revisit and it did not disappoint, being one of the definitive genre precursors to Alien (1979) and just an all-around shock to the senses in general with how isolated the cast can be and what they have to be put up against.  The star of the show is The Crawling Eye however, a genuinely insane film that actually got under my skin with this viewing with the sound design, effects work, and some really gorey moments like flesh being desolved or multiple decapitations.  As far as alien invasion films of the 1950′s go, this is definitely up there.

We have a pair of oddity western-horror mashups between, uh, actual people and fictional characters with Billy the Kid versus Dracula and Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter.  Only thing of note with the former is that John Carradine reprises the role of Dracula after playing the character in House of Frankenstein (1944) and House of Dracula (1945).  Carradine was one of the most prolific actors in the history of the medium so it’s not surprising to see him crop up here and there without expecting him, but suffice to say he brings nothing to the role and just blends in with the rest of the drab film.  Jesse James meets Frankenstein’s Daughter gets extra points solely for featuring the creation of an awkward and haphazard Frankenstein monster, which is generally the only reason to seek out random odds-and-ends Frankenstein movies.

Full Moon High is another Larry Cohen film that looks good on paper but I don’t really find myself enjoying at all.  As a comedy there are a decent number of funny lines (”I’m not one of those types to believe in vampires and werewolves and virgins, I’ve never seen any of those.“) but it almost forgets it’s a werewolf movie for a lot of the runtime as the main plot involves how being a werewolf prevents you from aging and blah blah blah I can’t be bothered to care when you present something I didn’t come here to see (1950′s football player returns to his school in the 1980′s to find it littered with violence and drug use).  The Werewolf of Washington is similarly dreary experience that only exists to present lackluster post-Watergate political satire.

Oh how the mighty have fallen; I made an attempt at finishing out The Invisible Man series but couldn’t even bring myself to watch the dedicated Abbott/Costello film.  Truly the worst Universal sequels barring whatever happened with The Mummy.  The Invisible Woman and Invisible Agent are a full-on comedy and action-adventure film respectively, so in some way I feel cheated for how they’re consistently lumped in with the rest of the series as a whole, which are to say, horror (beyond not doing anything that hadn’t been shown to us in the first two installments).  The Invisible Man’s Revenge makes an attempt at trying to get the series back on track but all it does is make me realize I could just be watching the first two films.

Anthropophagous has been one I’ve been curious about for years, mostly because the poster is a really gristly shot of a guy eating human entrails, and while I *guess* that does feature in this film it’s just another slog to get through with no interesting characters, locations, or plot beats to string you along.  Avoid.

Scream 5 exists for no reason other than to drop the entire series’ GPA.  It’s the entry wherein the genre commentary overshadows everything else to the detriment of this being the first Scream film where I can’t be bothered to care about any of the returning characters.  I wrote extensively about this one in my Letterboxd review so I’m only going to touch on some finer points here.  Scream (1996) is allowed to reference I Spit On Your Grave (1978) because the former is better, this one is not allowed to make snide remarks about The Witch (2015), I’m not having it.  If you’re desperate for a creative shot to the arm that is a grand return after an 11 year absence, just watch Scream 4 (2011).

The Descent was borderline funny to me in the sense that my reaction to so much of what the characters are put through is “shit I would just die, what else is there to do?”  I mentally tuned out when the film switched from “being trapped in a claustrophobic cave system with no sense of direction” to “being hunted by underground monsters.”  I usually scoff and roll my eyes at “oh my god it’s scarier because it could actually happen” but this is rare case where, yeah, being trapped underground with no way out is more terrifying before you add monsters to the mix.

Alright, brief “worst of the worst” roundup: Eegah, in spite of being one of the most notable MST3K punching bags, is not *that* bad.  It peters out by the finale but there are enough funny moments and actually good stuff (Eegah talking to the corpses of family members in a proto Texas Chainsaw scene) to string you along for the better part of an hour.  The Terror is a fascinating film for me, made solely because Roger Corman finished The Raven (1963) two days early and still had access to Boris Karloff.  What we get is a bizarre and haphazard jumbling of horror cliches in a story that is almost bursting at the seams over how overwritten it is, but the making of this one is so interesting to me personally that I can’t bring myself to dislike it, even if Jack Nicholson never was good at “charismatic leading man” type thing before he settled on crazy motherfuckers.  Hobgoblins was one I was surprised over how hilarious it was, another convoluted mess you can’t help but laugh at.  The hobgoblins hypnotize people to let them live out their greatest fantasies albeit with some horrific twist, giving us some golden scene like a guy going to makeout point with an imaginary woman so the hobgoblins can push the car over the edge.  Lordy lordy lordy.

1970′s role call: Dracula vs. Frankenstein continues the trend of awkward and frustrating messes, this one originally being an unrelated horror film that later had the two characters thrown in mid-production.  What ensues is an unusually violent at times boring at others movie that I can’t help but derive at least some ironic enjoyment from.  The untimely tragedy of this film is that this was the last role for Lon Chaney Jr.  Bela Lugosi got stuck with Ed Wood, Karloff with Corman, and Chaney Jr. with Al Adamson.  Chaney Jr. could have been a great actor if it wasn’t for the horror typecasting and seeing play just another bumbling grunt in this is almost painful.  See also: somehow this film is also the final role for J. Carrol Naish, who played Daniel in House of Frankenstein (1944).  Odd.  Let’s Scare Jessica to Death just blends in to the larger genre trends of leaning more towards provocative material what with explicit concerns of mental illness in our protagonist and questions of reality around her, but aside from the soundtrack this one has already completely left my memory.  The Exorcist isn’t *quite* the most overrated horror film out there, but it does surprise me that is one of the ones that escaped into the mainstream; it’s mostly middling for the first hour of its runtime before becoming a decent enough demon story.  I will say I can’t for the life of me find the devil scary in this, “your mother sucks cocks in hell!” will always be funny to me, they’re like a Freddy/Chucky joke dispensing precursor.  The Town That Dreaded Sundown, hoo boy, had this one had a more consistent tone dodging the comedy relief, it could have been an all-time great from this decade with an entire town plunged into despair over unsuccessful efforts to apprehend an anonymous serial killer.  This one goes all out when it comes to the more suspenseful moments, making the gags all the more frustrating.  Day of The Animals narrowly edges out being just another part of the glut of killer animal films in the wake of Jaws (1975), by just having everything out to kill people.  In spite of its inherent ridiculousness I can’t not say it’s better produced and more oppressively intimidating than it has any right to be, almost reminds me of a version of the environment itself is trying to kill you a la backrooms.

Ringu kind of sets in that the late-1990′s-early-2000′s period of J-horror just isn’t for me compared to the likes of films we saw in the 1960′s and 1970′s.  They tend to bleed together in my mind and Ringu is disappointing in that way.  I will say I was surprised that we get a satisfactory explanation for the origin of the tape and that only the final scene exhibits the famous “crawling out of the television” moment, which somehow became the most memorable thing from this one.

Bloodz vs. Wolvez I’m going to defend on the basis that this could have been a genuinely solid effort, what with the concept of bougie black vampires trying to integrate into human (read: white) society but working class black werewolves are stuck in poverty and this class disparity is the driver of the conflict between the two groups.  What holds this back, and of all the films I watched for this season, this one pains me the most to say it’s only average, is the fact that this may be one of the lowest budget films I have ever seen.  Everything is restrained by the fact that this must have been over consecutive weekends on $100.  Holding out for a remake that does this one justice.

Brief 1930′s aside: I’ve never seen any adaptation of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde prior to this year so any amount of expectation or set ideas on what should be done with the story escape me.  Suffice to say this is an impressive one overall, with a lot of POV shots and split screen effects that I don’t think I’ve ever seen in a prior film.  The 1931 film is another slow to start but when it gets going it unfolds into one of the most explosive finales to any 1930′s horror film (though admittedly I’m not sure what separates Mr. Hyde in this from your average London man but what have you).  Oh yes, The Old Dark House.  This is the ultimate “minimalist” horror film, using the absolute bare essentials it can to craft an uneasy atmosphere that dominates everything else.  No supernatural phenomena, no body count, just extreme thunderstorms trapping everyone inside one dark house and them being forced to make it out with their minds intact.  “This is an unlucky house, two of my children, died when they were 20, eh-he-he...” “Laughter and sin!  Laughter and sin!  This too will rot!”

Die, Monster, Die! is the rare pre-1980′s Lovecraft adaptation, very loosely taking from The Colour From Outer Space, and comes together thanks to starring roles by Karloff and Nick Adams along with going into some unusual territory concerning mutations that befit the subject matter.  Slow to start but strong finish.

The Abomination is another one of those pushing-for-the-edge 1980′s obscurities that mostly exists to up the gore to previously unseen levels, and I can’t say it wasn’t successful, with practically an entire house being converted into an eldritch monstrosity that eats people piece by piece.  It’s frankly disgusting at times but if you’re on the search for more of these have at it.

Out of all the bizarre mishmash that is the group of films that I decided to watch this year, Lake Mungo is the biggest outlier to the group.  I’m not sure if I’d classify it as horror, it’s a piece of weird fiction that seems to escape genre.  Unlike, it seems, pretty much everyone else, this one doesn’t really scare me at all, but I can’t help but be fascinated as the narrative ebbs back and forth in an emotional cacophony that leads to gut punches.  I’m not entirely sure what to make of it, it could have gone anywhere in the ranking and I wouldn’t be wholly satisfied with its position, but I guess that’s why you can’t truly assign a number value to art.

I made an effort to try and make it through as many actual Halloween specials as I could this year in between the feature lengths.  Attack of The Killer B-Movies sees Elvira and a bunch of teenage schmucks watch several low-tier 1950′s science fiction films that have been colorized, cut for time, and with new soundtracks, with MST3K gags strewn in between.  It somehow makes these films worse, which is a monumental accomplishment in cases like with Monster From Green Hell (1957).  Avoid unless you and some pals have to see everything Elvira.  I’m not familiar with anything related to Casper prior to the 1995 film and the seemingly deluge of material featuring the character for the following decade, and Casper’s Halloween Special didn’t do anything to convince me to rectify that, blah.  The Midnight Hour is one I was disappointed to return to, not nearly as insane as I recall it being.  Functionally a proto-Hocus Pocus (1993) wherein a witch returns from the dead to curse an entire town, The Midnight Hour wants to be a zombie film, a party film, a romance, and about two other things but doesn’t meet the manic energy required to pull it off.  An absolute must see is the musical number riffing on “Thriller” in the middle of this one, “Get Dead.”  “I’m dead, you’re dying, everyone should try and get dead!”  Halloween is Grinch Night is a fascinating watch just being an unyielding onslaught of color and sound that doesn’t know what a quiet moment is, the oft mentioned “weird” Grinch scene makes perfect sense in context however, not sure what everyone was on about with that.  Monster Mash is an adorable enough fist-shaking, involving Dracula, Frankenstein’s Monster, and The Wolf Man being forced to assert that they’re still scary in spite of being sell-outs in a world of slashers.  Best part is one of the monsters they’re up against is Freddy D. Spaghetti, who wears a pasta strainer in place of a hockey mask, love that dude.  Hansel and Gretel is a retelling of the story by Tim Burton, and it makes for perfect background material at a party for its ambiance coming from the fact there are only like five characters existing on solid monochrome sets that have virtually no decorations.  I’ve never cared for the story itself but the presentation here is hypnotizing.  The Halloween That Almost Wasn’t is another cute and inoffensive one, with Dracula forced to call all the world’s monsters together to have a witch doing her scaring duties lest the holiday be cancelled all together.  Ends on a disco party because it’s the 1970′s, fuck you.  Nothing however can beat The Mad, Mad, Mad Monsters, a reprise/semi-sequel to Mad Monster Party? (1967), which I watched for last year’s countdown, and one that perfectly rights the wrongs of that misfire.  The light plot concerns Dr. Frankenstein making a bride for the Monster and calling in the rest of the major terrors to come to the wedding, and it’s almost entirely a springboard for gags.  The difference between this and Mad Monster Party? is that this is actually funny, whether it be the reining-in of some obvious Halloween gags (ha-ha the monsters want to eat roast black widows) or there being two human characters to counterbalance the monsters, one absolutely terrified of them and one who’s a major Universal fanboy.  Just when you think the film is ending it turns 90 degrees into another direction with 10 more jokes on the way.  “Oh I’ve made a terrible mistake, the bride is alternating current, and the groom is direct current!”

There isn't much going on in The Blair Witch Project so I can't comment on much, suffice to say this one has still got it, marketing campaign or no marketing campaign. Slowly becomes more and more claustrophobic until you get to that final shot of standing in the corner. It having been spoiled for me years prior doesn't at all change how effective it is in context.

Time constraints prohibited me from watching every Child’s Play film but I enjoyed my time with the first three entries.  If anything surprised me about the first film it’s that it is a genuinely scary experience, the only one where Chucky is intimidating.  The people saying that they could just drop kick him?  Yeah, Chucky will fucking kill you.  This is what A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) wishes it was.  Child’s Play 2 does its services as a not-quite-as-good horror sequel but it’s strong continuity with the first and upping the stakes and scope make it a worthwhile watch.  Child’s Play 3 is decent enough but can grow tiring over how much it forgets it’s a Child’s Play sequel and not a Full Metal Jacket (1987) parody.  Too much of the run time is eaten up by shit that is inconsequential and yeah, not too bad compared to a LOT of slasher sequels but I can see where people are coming from when they say this is the weakest entry in the series.

If your body horror film doesn’t make me feel like the person having their flesh twisted, you failed.  Industrial music.  Stop motion editing.  Semi-undead mechanical sex.  Tetsuo: The Iron Man commands it all.  If you turn your head for five seconds while watching this you will have missed the equivalency of a Lord of The Rings prequel’s volume of information and even then a lot of this indecipherable on every level.  The beauty of practical effects is a lot of the time I genuinely couldn’t tell you how the effect is done, and Tetsuo does that seemingly every 10 minutes.  I’ve come and gone with this film but make no mistake, everyone needs to see this.  It will change you.

Alright, final stretch.  There is no series in the history of film that has a wider gap in quality between entries as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Watching the majority of the series this year also ran the gamut of how good or how bad a movie in general can be.  I did not rewatch 2 because I figured it would get better on a rewatch (I don’t care for it) and I didn’t bother with Leatherface (2017) because come on just look at it.  Let’s begin: Leatherface: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre III is relatively inoffensive, I’d say I prefer it to 2.  It’s ostensibly a mainstream studio remake of the first film and while there are great scenes found within, it’s major drawback is that I can’t “buy” any of it.  At no point do I believe these people are a group of mass murderers, they’re actors playing mass murderers.  This is an issue plaguing the majority of the series but more money doesn’t mean you can effectively capture that feel.  The Next Generation is the first of several abominations I had to sit through, featuring what might be the worst set of performances I’ve seen in any film.  This is the one that reveals that the Sawyers are secretly working for the Illuminati as part of a massive fear spreading campaign and has an ending that resembles a Nirvana music video more than anything and makes me question everything that led up to committing to watching this, the less said the better.  The 2003 remake is Leatherface, again, though it benefits from being the second entry in the series aside from the first to have some consistent aesthetic going.  Can still be easily skipped.  The Beginning is the first entry that devolves into pure torture porn, and doesn’t take any advantage of the fact that these characters can’t survive at the end, opting for just repeating bare slasher essentials except for killing off the final girl.  Texas Chainsaw 3D opens with a montage of footage from the first film then hard pivots into a plot about the Swayers being murdered in mass by a vigilante mob and “the Sawyers didn’t deserve this!”  No mention of the killing and cannibalism I guess as Leatherface, despite collecting a body count in this film alone, is turned into the good guy.  “Do your thing cuz!”  Just when you think things can’t get any worse, we are presented with Texas Chainsaw Massacre, no “The,” the new low bar for the series, if not the genre and maybe film as a whole.  Make no mistake that this is easily one of the worst films I have ever seen, involving gen-Z gentrifiers trying to buy up a small town to make into an upscale getaway, but Leatherface is there and blah blah blah you could have called this film anything else and you know what would have happened?  It would still be as bad but I wouldn’t have had to watch it, no one would have noticed it, no one would have to be as angry or anything because the only thing this has going for it is the connection to the first film.  It’s like if the Star Wars prequels weren’t called “Star Wars” they’d be as easily forgotten as Jupiter Ascending (2015) or Valerian and The City of a Thousand Planets (2017), where no one would have batted an eye, called them shit in a single breath and then easily forgotten about them without a second thought.  Fuck this movie, fuck it for being another stain on the legacy of the original, fuck everyone that says “I just want to see stupid teenagers get killed,” fuck any defense of this.

Only thing that came of having to sit through these was another opportunity to rewatch the 1974 film.  As soon as I had settled on this being up for viewing, the #1 spot was sealed.  If someone were to say that this is the greatest horror film ever made, I don’t think I’d agree but at the same time I wouldn’t be able to put up a counter argument.  I said a few days ago that I define horror as a genre by its presentation of violence, and this is a perfect example.  The opening text crawl lets us know that even if this was a singular event, the resulting trauma and open wounds will be carried forever.  The soundtrack itself is oppressive, camera shutters and industrial machinery in the place of actual music at times, the opening credits burned by footage of solar flares, the entire environment taking place in the blazing Texas sun with dried up water beds and radiators and dilapidated buildings.  It’s one of the ultimate descents into hell that have ever been presented by any film, horror or not.  Innocent people unknowingly walking to their doom, the discovery of seemingly endless amounts of human and animal remains and never putting the pieces together until it’s too late, the final survivor being forced to see how the meat we eat is made.  “I just don’t take no pleasure in killing.”  It’s been nearly 10 years since I first saw The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, this is one of the rare films that absolutely changed me, and while no subsequent viewing will have that same impact, I can’t not love it to the upmost extent that I can love any movie.

[princeescaluswords]

One of your last replies touched the Lovecraftian corner of my heart -- how/who/what/where/when/why is Teen Wolf Cosmic Horror?*

*Even as I wonder that, I also realise that there is perhaps one recurrent theme in Teen Wolf which is Lovecraftian in form, but that it is not unique to his work, and not really the 'Cosmic ' side of his stories: the danger that comes from the unknown and from not knowing. Everyone seems to know far more about the supernatural than the main characters. There is a moment when Scott, referring to The Dread Doctors paperback, says "we shouldn't have read that book" [paraphrasing], which is a Lovecraftian theme at heart, but this is a trope of teenage supernatural shows to add oomph, plot and mystery. The main characters cannot know everything because then they would know better than getting involved in supernatural stuff. There's Scott and his pack in the dark, but there's Deaton, Gerard, Peter, et al 'in the know'. But there's Buffy and the Scooby gang vs Giles, Angel, Spike, etc.

To summarize my opinion, Teen Wolf is not Cosmic Horror. It's Personal Horror. Attempts to paint it as Cosmic Horror seem to me to be yet another attempt to decenter the protagonist by making Scott McCall's decisions and actions irrelevant to the story in itself.

I've been flippant in the past while dismissing that particular argument because it seems obvious to the casual observer that the tone and plot of Teen Wolf doesn't presume to render judgment (and one could argue it purposefully refuses to do it) on the nature of the universe. The questions and consequences on which it focuses are fundamentally specific and individual.

To start, I think it's important for me to define what I mean by the different genres.

Cosmic Horror is a story where the actions and beliefs of the protagonist are irrelevant to the ultimate outcome of the story. No matter how they struggle or what motivates them, the protagonist is at the mercy of an indifferent universe. No matter what Henry Armitage has learned, Dread Cthulhu still waits dreaming. No matter how much a man struggles to save his family, in the end they will join the apocalyptic zombie horde as either meat or more walkers. The destiny for the protagonists in the Cabin of the Woods are either entertainment/sacrifice or witnesses to the end of all things. Ultimately, resistance to the darkness is a delaying tactic at best and pointless self-mutilation at worst.

Personal Horror can be just as dark, but the actions and beliefs of the protagonist are fundamental and specific to the story. Even the victims are victims because of decisions -- no matter innocent -- they made. Those poor campers made the decisions to go to Crystal Lake while ignoring the stories surrounding it. Dr. Jekyll's decision to test a potion designed to unleash his darker emotions on himself was his alone. Louis made the decision to accept an offer of immortality by a dandy-fied Lestat.

I would propose that there is a third type, Social Horror, where the actions and motivations of individuals are robbed of their value not by some unknowable and unbeatable force beyond their experience, but by the actions and motivation of a group of individuals whose aggregate power overwhelms the individual with intent. I think Squid Game is a good example of that.

That being said, I think it's quite clear that for all the death and mayhem in Teen Wolf, it's a story of Personal Horror. The universe does not step in to reward the good and punish the bad -- and it most certainly doesn't -- but the universe is not indifferent to the actions and motivations of the characters, either. The supernatural rules create clear consequences, most specifically embodied in "The Shape You Take Reflects the Person That You Are." For example, a werewolf's eyes turn blue when they take the life of an innocent (or the werewolf believes they took a life unjustly -- which is in a way saying the same thing). A true alpha's power come from their convictions and strength of will, not from acts of murder or inheritance. Demon wolves grow stronger and more twisted the more acts of atrocity they commit. The most potent form of evil comes from corruption of good, not from banal, everyday evil. Etc.

In that story, things can be changed and the horror exists in when people choose not to try. In stories of Cosmic Horror, the outcome cannot be changed. In The Call of Cthulhu, even though the Alert rams Cthulhu, it doesn't stop the threat -- the Great Old One retreats to his sunken tomb to sleep until next time. The Walking Dead had ten seasons (I've lost count) and the dead are still walking. The source of horror doesn't end, regardless of the protagonist's condition or survival.

But the source of horror changes constantly in Teen Wolf. Derek found another way. Deucalion renounced violence. Meredith truly helps. Mason won't be possessed by Sebastien Valet again. There's still death and physical violation and injustice, but it's never, ever, ever seen as inevitable. It's individuals hurting other individuals; it's not a function of how things have to be.

The attempt to label Teen Wolf as Cosmic Horror is an attempt to repudiate the central protagonist's actions and philosophies. To them, Scott McCall believing he can somehow change the nature of a cruel and violent universe through his belief in compassion, mercy, hope, and second chances must be defined as an evil arising from delusion. People still die after all, and people are still unhappy.

Their interpretation requires the application of the Nirvana fallacy, something that happens quite often with minorities, where one or two failings are seen to negate the entire premise. To be valid for them, Scott's way must flawlessly lead to perfect and complete victory, otherwise it is nothing but self-indulgence. (The show itself busted that fallacy in Season 5, which was sort of the point of the season.)

To these people, the walk-off in The Wolves of War was a comforting phantasm concealing an uncomfortable truth -- that Scott and his pack (except for the ones they liked) were White Knights, childishly and stubbornly clinging to a foolish belief system that perpetuated injustice in the face of the true nature of reality: the rule of claw and fang.

But I say that while Scott and his pack didn't know everything, but the show made it clear that they didn't have to know everything. Scott and his pack couldn't beat everything, but the show made it clear that they didn't have to beat everything. Their stories were personal; the horror was personal; and the triumph was personal.