Godzilla vs. The Smog Monster

We'll end our #31daysofscares with these trailers for the second Godzilla movie I ever saw. I had no problem accepting this flying heroic Godzilla, even after seeing the delightfully villainous Godzilla of KING KONG VS GODZILLA maybe a year and a half before. I'd also seen the amazing US poster which is really scary at age seven.

Robot Monster

I love this movie. I don't know why, since it's one of the most ridiculous things ever committed to celluloid. It's not great science fiction, but it's accidentally hilarious and completely entertaining. It's short running time probably helps as well.

Curse of the Demon

I never saw this movie growing up, and sometimes I'm glad of that, since I know this would have scared the hell out of me as a kid. It would have made me laugh and hide all at the same time, it is that good and that terrifying.

Destroy All Monsters

Normally I do this one ON Hallowe'en, but since I'm watching the movie right now on an amazing looking blu ray DVD (it's the rare one commentary, yes, it's just a little bit superior) so of course I'm watching the AIP dub. I sure wish I had seen this as a kid in the theater, but this much awesome would have probably destroyed my mind at that time.

Earth vs. the Flying Saucers

Almost forgot to put a Harryhausen movie in here, and since I've never shown this trailer before, here it is! It's a good trailer, but the movie doesn't quite live up to the premise. To be fair, that is a daunting task and the movie is good enough to forgive the trailer's hyperbole.

It Came From Outer Space

I thought that was Rod Serling at the beginning of this trailer. It's such a great movie, and I've written about it in here before. It aired a lot in my area, and it took more than one viewing to figure the movie out. Count me as one of the fans of the xenomorphs. I would have been very disappointed if I had not see it.

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Every so often I think I want to see this movie in the theater again, because it can be a lot of fun with the whole audience participation thing that goes along with it. Then I remember the miserable crowd of attendees that I saw it with the last time and I'm happy I can see it on home video.

Frankenstein Conquers the World

This is easily in my top three favorite Frankenstein movies (his bloody terror notwithstanding). How could it not be with two giant creatures battling it out in Japan? It's as close to Frankenstein vs King Kong or Godzilla as we will ever get. This might be the first movie Frankie got to be the hero in!

FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE SPACE MONSTER

I've written about this almost fun movie before. I really want to like it, but it lacks the one thing that would have made it great- more of Frank vs the Space Monster. It builds up to it, but that final battle is too short and not fulfilling at all.

Frankenstein's Bloody Terror

I had no idea what kind of movie I was going to be watching when I woke up at 3 AM to watch this for the first time. I naturally figured it would be a movie about Frankenstein and one of his many creations. One of the most misleading titles ever!

Happy Boithday, Curly!

Time for another break from #31daysofscares and what better reason than to celebrate the birthday of man's favorite stooge, Jerome "Curly" Howard, he of the famous shuffle and laugh.  Truly one of a kind and a comedic genius, he along with his cohorts changed comedy forever.  They always made fun of the upper class, never having to "punch down" to be funny at all.

Jack the Giant Killer

See a movie at the right age and you will love it forever. I don't remember exactly how old I was when I saw this movie for the first time on the big screen, but it sure made an impression on me. Sure, it's got it's flaws, but it's so weird and bizarre that it's many charms overcome them. It's so much fun!

Forbidden Planet

Here's a movie who lives up to and surpasses it's trailer easily. This is the shorter trailer, which doesn't show everything it thinks you need to know, but it would have worked on me. I couldn't wait to see this movie the first time it aired on my local station at some ungodly hour and ever knowing the story from Movie Monsters #3 I still loved it.

Godzilla, King of the Monsters!

After watching this trailer a couple times I noticed it never once mentions Japan. Not that it's set in Tokyo, not that it has a mostly Japanese cast or that it was made in Japan. It sure sells the destruction Godzilla causes though!

Darby O'Gill and the Little People

Disney movies can be scary. Really scary. I have a friend who says Bambi was her first horror movie and I can believe that. See a film at the right age and no matter the story it can be terrifying. This movie scared me a lot when I saw it on a re-release in the 70s. This was in Keyser, WV (when they had a movie theater) and it was a full house.

The Last Dragon

I know, it's not great, but I have a soft spot for this movie, it's a lot of fun. I don't even remember seeing this trailer, though I certainly would have scoffed at Vanity being a "rock and roll" star. But anyone will surely admit that Sho 'Nuff, the Shogun of Harlem is a great villain.  I did see it in the theater which did help.

The Wolf Man

I have always been a fan of the Wolfman, far more than most of the other classic monsters. I think a lot of this has to do with Marvel Comic's fun series "Werewolf by Night" which ran for 41 issues. He was far more sympathetic than Dracula, since he didn't choose his lot, and ostensibly was a good guy in several of the Universal movies featuring Lawrence Talbot.

Spider-man the movie

I have finally finished watching the Japanese Spider-man series after having the set of subtitled episodes for over two years.  It is Spider-man as the hyphen is there in the credits, no matter how fans want to transliterate it.  I've had to come to the conclusion that it's just not that great a show, which the lifelong Spider-man fan in me really hates to say.  Had I seen it in 1978 at age 13, I think it's safe to say I would have loved it more than any show in the world.  Alas, that didn't happen.

King Kong vs Godzilla

King Kong! Godzilla! A giant octopus! This was my first exposure to all three of those monsters and I was hooked for life. Granted, I don't care for most ape movies that much, but I love Kong, so I love this movie and this version of the movie. Without it, there probably wouldn't be much of a US fanbase here now.

The Last Unicorn

Here's one of the best book to movie adaptions out there, which isn't surprising since Peter S. Beagle wrote both the book and the screenplay. I wish I had seen it when it was theatrically released in 1982, but I don't remember it coming to our area. It was one of the many Japanese/American co-productions that came out around that time period.

The Raven

This was probably my introduction to a lot of things- horror comedy, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre and Vincent Price all at once. As a kid seeing this I had no idea what it would be about. It's one of my favorite movies, and I'm still sure Doctor Stephen Strange's look was patterned after Vincent Price, though perhaps not from this movie, since the timing would have been amazing.

Invisible Invaders

Here's a movie I'd never seen until TNT showed it in the mid-90s. I enjoyed it for what it was, but I was also struck at how the invaders possessed the bodies of the recently dead, and how much they looked the the ghouls in Night of the Living Dead. Granted, that was probably because the budget of this feature didn't allow for any elaborate makeup, but it sure looks like it was an influence.

The Brain From Planet Arous

John Agar pretty much set the tone for the sci-fi heroes in the 50s and 60s. Either he was stopping the monster, being the monster or being possessed by the monster and then helping stop the monster. This is the third category, and he gets help from a good alien presence as well, who possesses his dog for good measure.

Godzilla vs. The Thing

Still not my favorite Godzilla movie, but dang this trailer is amazing for it's complete dishonesty in the title, and yet complete honesty about what you will be getting in the movie. AIP sure knew how to market a movie, no question there. It's too bad the US DVD presentation was not quite as good as the movie.

Seven Grandmasters (1978)

I thought I had reviewed this great martial arts epic (so great it "borrowed" music from Roots).  It's mostly one kung fu battle after another, with a slight retirement angle along with the young man wants to find his father's killer story line.  Maybe slightly complicated, but I've seen worse plotlines that don't make sense upon first viewing (I'm looking at you, TEN TIGERS OF KWANGTUNG).  All of the actors here are really good martial artists- great form and everything well executed.

Psycho (1960)

This trailer is six minutes long. Six minutes and the master gives us absolutely nothing to go on about the movie, and yet so much is inferred. He talks about murders and sinister houses. I tried watching this about a year ago and only saw the beginning and the end (it was during my hospital stay) and that is just as amazing as always.

When Dinosaurs Ruled The Earth

This is one of those movies I really wanted to see as a kid, but it never aired in my region. I think I would like it a lot more than I do now, since I find it pretty hard to get through at this point in my life. I did have the 10 minute 8mm compilation of it, which had a lot of the cool dinosaurs, though the ending was confusing even then.

Gammera the Invincible

In honor of August's post about a new Gamera movie being made, here's the US trailer for the first movie. I don't know that I would ever have called Gamera the most terrifying monster to grace the screen, but then what do I know? My professional writing career has revolved around Gamera in many ways, so I do like the titanic terrapin.

Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires

Wow, even the US trailer for this movie sucks. It's such an enjoyable flick it's amazing that some idiot editor over in the States re-cut it nonsensically and then gave it a terrible title. I am happy I saw the original cut of it on VHS instead of the US travesty.

Fiend Without a Face

I've written about this movie before, but I did check and this trailer has been pulled from the original post way back in time. I did make the Fiends a "monster of the week" as well, see this post for some cool pictures. But dang this movie is cool and so disturbing at some points.

Ghidrah! The Three Headed Monster!

I know I've written about this movie and trailer before, but like I said we are pretending those don't exist at the moment. This was the first Godzilla movie I ever owned, in 8mm form. It was also the first Rodan and Mothra movie I ever saw, so it has that going for it as well. It's one of my favorite Godzilla movies.

The Blob (1958)

I've never made a secret about it- movies about blobs and stuff scare me. Heck, even The Unknown Terror got me as a kid I know it's weird, but things like that could exist at the bottom of some lake or swamp. I read a story about years ago about a similar thing that came from the bottom of the ocean and it was just as scary.

Reptilicus - Trailer

One of my favorite monster movies, despite the overall silliness of the premise. Repticilus looks cool enough, even as a puppet, and does get to do a lot of damage to the country of Denmark. All the actors take it seriously (except the handyman, Dirch Passer as Mikkwlawn Peterson, and that was done on purpose) that it works for me. I don't expect other people to love it like me, you all can be wrong all you want.

It's The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown - Intro

I think it's only appropriate to start the month with the greatest Hallowe'en special of all, and the second best Peanuts special as well. Seeing this intro for the first couple times as a kid was actually a little scary, with witches, ghosts and bats all terrifying the gang- even Lucy is running away!