So we here at Grizzly Bomb have a mammoth Countdown to Halloween going on, focusing on some of the greatest Halloween icons to ever terrify humanity. However, here I just want to give a thumbs up to some of the more obscure creatures of the night who have terrified me over the years.
So welcome to our Countdown to Halloween Special – Top 10 B-Movie Monsters. Click on through our new handy Tabber below and prepare yourself for some B-Movie greatness.
Halloween is almost here, and you know what that means. It’s movie season. There is something special about watching horror films in October. Cinefiles such as myself can’t get enough of the genre year around, but it seems even more fitting this time of year. One of my essential picks for the season is 1980’s The Shining staring Jack Nicholson and Olive Oil herself, Shelley Duvall. That brings me to #11 on the Grizzly Bomb Countdown to Halloween, Jack Torrance and The Shining.
Halloween season is a great excuse to check out a witch-centric comic, Megg, Mogg & Owl. Not that Megg’s witchiness has much to do with the events of the comics, which creator Simon Hanselmann describes as “usually straight auto-bio” (and adds “I am usually dressed as a witch when I am around the house”).
The one creature in the universe that could discourage me from being an astronaut is strangely enough one of my favorite horror creatures. The Xenomorph or Alien was first introduced in the 1979 film of the same name, and although the film came out before my time, it stills bring in the scares. The concept of Alien was brought forward by Dan O’Bannon and Ronald Shusett, who wrote the script for the 1979 film. However the Xenomorphs design was the brain child of H. R. Giger. The creature is truly alien in the way it looks, sounds and even evolves (I’ll discuss that later on). The Xenomorph has been in a grand total of seven films over its impressive lifetime, and although not all the films were perfect, the majority were some of the best Sci-Fi/Horror films ever made.
Can’t wait until Hitchcock with Anthony Hopkins is released? If you have access to HBO and are free tomorrow, you can watch another interpretation of the Master of Suspense’s life.
The Girl premieres as a HBO Films exclusive on October 20 at 9PM/8Central and focuses on the relationship between Alfred Hitchcock and The Birds actress Tippi Hedren. Starring Toby Jones as Alfred Hitchcock, Sienna Miller as Tippi Hedren, and Imelda Staunton as Alma Hitchcock, this film dares to entertain the rumors that Hitchcock became infatuated with his leading ladies in one way or another.
If you compare the acting talent from Hitchcock to the acting talent in The Girl, it’s nearly impossible to say which ensemble will do better. Hopkins and Jones are probably the best choices we could think of to ever depict this great director on-screen. Pitting Mirren against Staunton as Hitchcock’s wife just seems mean, as both women have had long, successful acting careers. And we don’t doubt both Johansson and Miller will be stupendous as the leading ladies of the films being made within the films.
The most stark contrast between the two trailers, though, is how different in tone these two movies appear to be. The big-budget version with Anthony Hopkins has a comedic aspect to its drama, where Hitchcock’s snarky British humor is revealed with lines such as “try the finger sandwiches – they’re made of real fingers.” This HBO interpretation, however, does not indicate anything more than tension between the three main characters, focusing instead on Hitchcock’s questionable fidelty to his wife and the consequences thereof. Both facts about Hitchcock are historically accurate (his humor and his alleged infatuation with his female stars).
Ultimately, we think it will come down to the quality of the script and each story, as well as the production quality of both versions. Will they both stand strong in their interpretations of Hitchcock, or will one shines out as the more professional, well-made of the two?
Bram Stoker gave us a gift in 1897. The gift was Dracula, a character very loosely based on the exploits of Vlad the Impaler, who was a dab hand at impaling people on spikes (yeah, he never got invited to many parties I’m guessing). From this one novel an industry was born, with films still being made today about ‘Count Alucard’ and actors such as Christopher Lee, Bela Lugosi and Gary Oldman all having a crack at the role of the world’s most famous vampire.
Grizzly Bomb 