Aurora over at Once Upon a Screen… offers a wonderful & witty tribute to James Whale’s campy Old Dark House themed film The Old Dark House that set the trend for Old Dark House movies!
Last night Aurora, myself and my girl Wendy had the thrilling pleasure of sitting side by side, popcorn in hand and funny & intelligent yet respectfully quiet commentary in the darkness of a traditional cathedral of film (one of the 5 original movie palaces in the NYC area). A truly great theatre –The Landmark Jersey City Loews for a James Whale/Boris Karloff dynamic double feature. They showcased the 35mm prints of the sublimely brilliant Kenneth Strickfaden-filled laboratory designs, and Composer Franz Waxman’s exhilarating score for TheBride of Frankenstein 1935 and The Old Dark House 1932. Both with outstanding cast members and characters alike! Including the live pipe organist who is there for all of these wonderful events! So without any further hold up…
Head over to the most informative, funny and heartfelt blog and get yourself a Halloween slice of joy, and while you’re at it… “Have a potato!” haha Ernest Thesiger gets me every time he says those three little words as only he can deliver…
Your EverLovin MonsterGirl sayin’ if you live in the Tri-State area please help keep this historic movie palace alive, they offer a wonderful night’s entertainment and thank you Aurora of Once Upon a Screen… for being the best movie pal!
Indie filmmaker Charles B. Pierce based his stories from his home state of Arkansas, not only using locals as actors but his films cast some fantastic popular stars like Jessica Harper, Michael Parks, Andrew Prine, and Vic Morrow!
Charles B. Pierce’s film fascinate & titillate primarily because they are based on actual events! His films for years now, have an enormous cult following…
Half-man, half-beast … a mysterious creature has been stalking the woods and waterways near Fouke, Arkansas since the 1940s
From IMBd Charles B. Pierce bio-In 1971 there were local headlines about a Sasquatch-like creature sighted in the vicinity around the nearby town of Fouke, in Miller County. The “Fouke Monster” was reportedly seen in the Boggy Creek area and was suspected of attacking dogs and livestock as well as a local family. In mid-’72, while still working in advertising, Pierce created a semi-documentary film originally titled “Tracking the Fouke Monster”–later renamed ‘The Legend of Boggy Creek’. Pierce shot the movie with a 16mm camera he assembled himself at home. Much of the movie was filmed in Fouke and Texarkana with local residents and students as actors and/or crew. Estimates place the cost of making the film at about $165,000. Becoming popular as a drive-in horror feature around the country, it became one of the top ten highest-grossing movies of the year, earning over $20 million.
It was a small Louisiana town where people live and love and die and no one ever thought of locking their doors… except in the Monroe house.
The Evictors is a chilling and moody tale about newlyweds Ben and Ruth Watkins (Michael Parks and Jessica Harper) who rent an old farmhouse from Jake Rudd (Vic Morrow) in a small Shreveport Louisiana town. They are suddenly set upon by a mysterious assailant, and are looked at with mistrust by the rest of the town. Their farmhouse holds an old secret and an oath by the former owners that no one else would ever live on their property. They were slaughtered while fending off the police and the bank who came to foreclose on their land. Do the Watkins discover the truth about the brutal murders and the violent history surrounding their quaint little farmhouse too late?– and is that why they have become targeted for revenge…
Not Everyone Who Comes to This Lover’s Lane Has the Same Thing on Their Mind.
Stars Andrew Prine, Ben Johnson and Dawn Wells (Maryann Gilligan’s Island)
“This movie is a semi-documentary based on the real-life string of mysterious killings that terrorized the people of Texarkana, Texas, in 1946. The murder spree became known as the “Texarkana Moonlight Murders” and ultimately would claim five lives and injure many others. The only description of the killer ever obtained was that of a “hooded man”. To this day, no one has been convicted and these murders remain unsolved.”
“Texarkana today still looks pretty much the same. And if you should ask people on the street what they believe happened to the Phantom Killer, most would say that he is still living here… and is walking free.”
Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl sayin’ the truth is out there!
No girl was safe as long as this head-hunting thing roamed the land!
Produced by exploitation filmmaker Roger Corman and his brother Gene Corman, Night of the Blood Beast was one of the first films directed by Bernard L. Kowalski(Attack of the Giant Leeches 1959, tv movies, Terror in the Sky 1971, Black Noon 1971, Women in Chains 1972, Sssssss 1973, tv shows , Mission Impossible, Gunsmoke, The Streets of San Francisco, Columbo, Baretta, The Rockford Files), and was written by first-time screenwriter Martin Varno, who was 21 years old. The script is unexpectedly impressive for a B science fiction film from the late 50s. It stars several actors who had regularly worked with Roger Corman, including Michael Emmet, Steve Dunlap, Georgianna Carter and Tyler McVey and of course my favorite Ed Nelson.
Roger and brother Gene Corman decided to save money and use the costume from Teenage Caveman(1958) the film that boasts a young Robert Vaughn as The Symbol Maker’s rebellious teenage son who goes in search of the legendary God That Gives Death with a Touch. Which looked like a 5 year olds’ version of a mutant parrot using paper mache and schmutz.
The original working title was called Creature from Galaxy 27. The gist of the story is that an astronaut brings back an alien life form that impregnates him in order to propagate their race and take over our planet. Shades & foreshadowing of H.R Giger’s creation in Ridley Scott’s Alien (1980) Major John Corcoran (Michael Emmet) pilots the X-100 rocket, just above the Earth’s atmosphere, the ship suddenly loses altitude. John tries to open his chute but the rocket is speeding toward the Earth with increasing velocity, then the hull of the ship is blown open and John blacks out. Ed Nelson who plays communications expert Dave Randall and photographer Donna Bixby (Georgiana Carter) head over to the crash site. Dave manages to extinguish the fiery capsule and checks John’s pulse to see if there are any signs of life. Donna finds some strange mud samples on the surface of the capsule and gives it to Dave, while more of the mud unseen, slides away into the brush. Dave calls in the team of scientists, Dr. Alex Wyman (Tyler McVey) Dr. Steve Dunlap (John Baer) and John’s Fiancee Dr.Julie Benson (Angela Greene).
Once Wyman, Dunlap and Julie arrive at the scene of the crash, they examine John who they presume has been dead for several hours, yet he shows no sign of decomposition. They take John’s body to the closest place, an abandoned radar station where all the equipment isn’t working. Dave tries to radio Cape Canaveral but all communications are dead like John. They notice a strange puncture mark on John’s arm, and while his heart has stopped beating, his blood pressure is registering 120/80. Dave goes outside to stand watch and check out the tower. Inside Steve tries to get the radio working. Suddenly all goes dark and Steve is brutally attacked, managing to get a few shots off, the shattered glass in the lab arouses Dave’s attention, where he finds a strange piece of material attached to the broken window.
When Julie and Wyman study John’s blood they find amorphous alien organisms devouring his cells again (shades of It!,The Terror From Beyond Space (1958) which was the inspiration for Alien 1980) Plus the gang is stranded at the radar base because the jeep won’t run and neither the radio or wrist watches work, they figure that it is magnetic related interference from the crashed ship. Then to their shock and horror Dave and Steve find Dr. Wyman’s body hanging upside down much like blood letting with part of his head missing and John’s body is gone, then reappears behind the window in the surgical room, alive!
John can’t remember anything but assumes that he was in a state of suspended animation when the change in pressure occurred during the crash landing. He also has another strange puncture wound on the back of his neck. One other strange aspect of John’s miraculous recovery doesn’t go unnoticed by the gang. John seems to be using vocabulary that sounds more like Dr. Wyman as if what ever part of the brain was devoured has now been assimilated in John’s mind. John, also defends Wyman’s killer saying that it didn’t come to Earth to destroy it, though it’s already eaten part of a man’s brain…
John submits to a series of tests, which show that there are now a bunch of sea horse type beings incubating in his chest cavity. The giant alien parrot creature breaks into the lab and when they throw a kerosene lamp at it, they discover that it’s got a fear of fire. John gets hysterical (nice that it’s a man getting hysterical for a change) and they have to sedate him, the alien only wanted to come and nourish it’s young. Obviously John is tapping into his sense of mothering and feels a symbiotic bond with the creature now.
I’ll leave it here for now, and hope that you’ll track down a copy of Night of The Blood Beast and see it as it is at least a more unusual contribution to the 1950s science fiction tropes of the genre. And who doesn’t love a parrot monster made of paper mache and schmutz…!
Angela Greene and Ross Sturlin as the alien parrot creature in Night of the Blood Beast (1958)
Night of the Blood Beast (1958) was lampooned by the gang at Mystery Science Theater 3000
IMDb trivia–
This was released in one of American International’s prepackaged double features. It was paired with Roger Corman‘s She Gods of Shark Reef (1958), which had been sitting on the shelf for a year and a half.
The alien costume featured in Night of the Blood Beast was the same as the one used in another Roger Corman film, Teenage Caveman (1958). This was done to save money, as the Cormans often tried to incorporate existing sets, costumes and other elements from previous films into new ones for financial savings.
The monster costume scenes in Teenage Caveman and Night of the Blood Beast were shot within about two weeks of each other. The costume was modified slightly for Blood Beast. Ross Sturlin wore the costume for the scenes in both Teenage Caveman and Night of the Blood Beast.
Daniel Haller, who went on to become a film director himself, worked as art director on Night of the Blood Beast. Haller did much of the manual construction work on the set himself
Among the props he built was the rocket-ship, the frame of which was made of plywood that had been cut into circles, then covered with a plastic sheet and spray-painted to look metallic. Haller also created blood cells that the characters looked at under a microscope, and the baby aliens (which resembled seahorses) they looked at under a fluoroscope.
Alexander Laszlo composed the music for the film.Almost the entire crew went on to work on Attack of the Giant Leeches with the Corman brothers and Kowalski
Jerome Bixby, the science fiction screenwriter who wrote It! The Terror from Beyond Space (1958), was originally approached for the job, but Bixby was working on another project and recommended his close friend Martin Varno for the job. Varno, the son of veteran actor Roland Varno
Varno said he received uncredited assistance from his friends and fellow screenwriters Jerome Bixby and Harold Jacob Smith, the latter of whom won an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for the film The Defiant Ones (1958).
Smith in particular inspired lines for the speech made by the monster at the end of the film, in which the creature discusses how the human characters consider him the embodiment of evil simply because he is different from them. Varno said much of that dialogue from Smith, however, ended up getting cut from the final film.
One of the primary themes of the film, as embodied in John Corcoran’s attempts to defend the alien creature, was that simply because someone or something is ugly or different does not necessarily make it evil.
Where can I get a model of Night of the Blood Beast????!!!!
However, the script also followed a common trait of most horror films of the 1950s that even somewhat understandable monsters are not entirely sympathetic, and the Blood Beast creature proves itself evil by impregnating Corcoran against his will and pursuing world domination.
Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl saying Polly doesn’t want a cracker, it want’s a piece of your brains!
It begins where DR. JEKYLL & MR HYDE left off! A weird, fantastic adventure with a mad doctor who discovers how to turn animals into humans-but not how to control them! On a lonely tropical island he practices his black art! Changes wild beasts into creatures whose strangely human appearance and action hide raging animal passions! Something brand new in picture plots, with a specially selected cast, that will bring thrills to audiences and joy to exhibitors. Showmanship Plus!
HE DEFIED NATURE … creating men and women from animals … only to find that he could not control them!
Adapted from H.G.Wells 1895 novel The Island of Doctor Moreau, Island of Lost Souls was directed by Erle C. Kenton (The Ghost of Frankenstein 1942, House of Dracula 1945, The Cat Creeps 1946) Wells was not content with the film version of his story, though it’s a stunning adaptation of his novel.Karl Struss’ (Murnau’s Sunrise 1921,Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde 1931, The Sign of the Cross 1932, The Great Dictator 1940, Journey into Fear 1943, Rocketship X-M 1950, Limelight 1952, Kronos 1957 and yeah no laughing please… The Alligator People 1959) extraordinary cinematography constructs a perfectly smothering atmosphere though the story’s milieu is the openness of a savage jungle. With fantastical make-up effects by Wally Westmore(Sunset Boulevard 1950, The War of the Worlds 1953, Rear Window 1954, Lady in a Cage 1964, Village of the Giants 1965)
The first adaption of Well’s novel was filmed in France in 1913 called L’Ile d’Epouvante, then it was revisited in 1959 as Terror Is a Man starring Francis Lederer, and finally remade once again in 1977 starring Burt Lancaster as Dr. Moreau in The Island of Dr. Moreau, also starring Barbara Carrera as Lota and Richard Basehart as the Sayer of the Law. The 1977 version lacks the stifling ambiance that Erle C. Kenton’s film possessed.
Charles Laughton with his devilishly cherubic smile is perhaps at his most deliciously wicked as an evil scientist with a god complex the cruel, fiendish and merciless Dr. Moreau, who brandishes his bullwhip like Ilsa the Wicked Warden or me– eating chocolates when I go on a classic horror movie bender!
Dr. Moreau: Mr. Parker, do you know what it means to feel like God?
Moreau performs profane experiments, learning how to accelerate evolution by experimenting on animals turning them into hairy men-beasts by surgically grafting the organs, flesh and genes together. In order to keep his creations under his thumb, he cracks his aforesaid whip while gathering them together like a bestial congregation where they all chant the ‘laws’ set down by the Mephistophelean Moreau.
Dr. Moreau: What is the law? Sayer of the Law: Not to eat meat, that is the law. Are we not men? Beasts (in unison): Are we not men? Dr. Moreau: What is the law? Sayer of the Law: Not to go on all fours, that is the law. Are we not men? Beasts (in unison): Are we not men? Dr. Moreau: What is the law? Sayer of the Law: Not to spill blood, that is the law. Are we not men? Beasts (in unison): Are we not men?
Moreau has been banished to his faraway Island by the scientific community for his bizarre experimentation with plants. Island of Lost Souls is a Darwinian nightmarish journey -from The Monster Show by David J. Skal-“There is an evocative social metaphor here as well: the animals have been given the promise of progress and social elevation. They have dutifully played by their master’s incantatory ‘laws.’ And yet it has all been an ugly trick; their elevation is simultaneously a degradation, and a bloody revolt ensues.”
Also Skal’s book points out a really interesting fact about Laughton’s casting of Dr. Moreau-“already acclaimed for his 1928 stage portrayal of another mad vivisectionist in the Grand Guignolesque A Man with Red Hair at London’s Little Theatre. It was in that production that he learned to crack a bullwhip, a skill also required for Island of Lost Souls…)… Laughton hated the part, though it remains one of his most memorable, an epicene gentleman-monster in a white tropical suit.”
Laughton’s portrayal of Dr. Moreau as an effeminate mad scientist is also noted by David J. Hogan in his terrific book Dark Fromance-Sexuality in the Horror Film- “As filmed, the story is a particularly unpleasant Frankenstein variant, remarkable for it’s oppressive ambience and unrelieved sadism. Charles Laughton played Moreau, a plump, primly bearded genius whose fussy manner and ice cream suit suggest a eunuch, or a malevolent child.”
Bela Lugosi is wonderful as the ‘Sayer of the Law’ —“Are we not men?” through his hairy make-up he conveys a pathos and ambivalence that must be credited to his fine acting skills, beyond wearing a cape, hovering over nubile maidens and climbing cobwebbed stone steps.
Dr. Moreau: Have you forgotten the house of pain? Sayer of the Law: You! You made us in the house of pain! You made us… things! Not men! Not beasts! Part man… part beast! Things!
Paramount conducted a nationwide search for the beauty who would play Lota The Panther Woman, which garnered a lot of publicity for the prerelease of the film. They chose a winner from each state, the prize being crowned the Panther Woman of America and the extra benefit of Charles Laughton getting to turn her into a beast!
Paramount’s objectification of Kathleen Burk and Dr. Moreau’s objectification of Lota The Panther Woman… either way she was transformed into a desirable piece of meat!
Island of Lost Souls possesses a perverse eroticism as Moreau’ cold scientific intellectualism seeing neither the animals nor men nor beast-men as anything more than ‘subjects’ of his experimentation into genetic freakery, in particular his most gratifying creation of The Panther Woman Lota, played by Kathleen Burke. Parker is drawn to Lota “You’re a strange child” but he is repulsed when he discovers her panther like claws.
Unfortunately not not only does Lota begin to revert back into her feral origins- Moreau exclaims- “It’s the stubborn beast flesh, creeping back! I may as well quit. Day by day it creeps back!” –But she is as smitten as a kitten with Edward Parker. And while Moreau’s curiosity pushes him to see what would happen if he mates the lusting Lota with pure speciman of an exquisite man, Edward, his jealousy can not be subverted by his systematic spirit of inquiry. Laughton conveys even through his enigmatic silences, this ambivalence as he sweats and broods about the compound watching like a voyeur their every move. Dr. Moreau: “Did you see that, Montgomery? She was tender like a woman. Oh, how that little scene spurs the scientific imagination onward.” and watching while Lota and Parker sit close together her raw sexuality spilling over into the shadows, Moreau whispers, ” I wonder how nearly perfect a woman Lota is. It is possible that I may find out with Parker.”
Ruth (Leila Hyams) and Captain Donahue (Paul Hurst) track Edward down on the island and also become prisoners of Dr. Moreau’s tropical nightmare. Eventually she is chased around the island by Ouran, the man-ape played by Hans Steinke.
Not only is Island of Lost Soulsinflammatory with its deviance put forward by the idea of bestiality and the sexual attraction between Parker and Lota as The Panther Woman, one of the most provocative aspects of Island of Lost Soulsis it’s dealings with the vicious desecration of the body when Moreau explores his scientific delights in “The House of Pain” the operating theatre where he performs vivisectionist orgies on these poor beasts, their screams remain in my head as something I cannot un-hear or un-see. When the ‘natives’ realize that Moreau has himself broken these laws by killing Donahue (Paul Hurst) who tries to rescue Edward Parker–their prime rule not to kill or spill blood, in the epic fatalistic climax they drag him off to his own ‘House of Pain’.
from The Overlook Film Encyclopedia-Horror: edited by Phil Hardy-“Interestingly, though, Island of Lost Souls anticipates King Kong (1933) in its embodiment of the underground spirit of revolt, a spirit extremely timely in its appeal to victims of the Depression years, who not only resented their material deprivations but were all too willing to blame a system which appeared to thrive on an arbitrary suspension of the individuals’s inalienable right to the pursuit of happiness. The delirious final revolt here, with the master dragged away to the ‘house of pain’ in which he created his subservient brutes, echoes the wilder excesses of the French Revolution…)…Presumably because of its vivisectionist aspects, the film was banned in Britain until 1958. Lost somewhere among the beast-men are Randolph Scott and Alan Ladd. Also appearing as one of the ensemble of beast-men-billed as a furry Manimal is Schlitze from Tod Browning’s Freaks 1932.
From David J. Hogan-“The atmosphere of the island is heavy and foreboding. Vegetation is obscene in its lushness and fertility. Humidity hangs like a curtain. It is in this unforgiving milieu that Moreau, the loveless father, passes his undesirable traits on to his children, and ultimately suffers for it. The manimals are merely extensions of Moreau’s own unchecked cruelty.”
Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl saying “they’re restless tonight” and so am I-hope I won’t see any of ya in the house of pain- Yikes…!!! Are we not film lovers!
Screaming young girls sucked into a labyrinth of horror by a blood-starved ghoul from Hell.
“A group of gold thieves pull off a heist and flee into the snowy wilderness, only to be pursued by a horrible, spider-like monster.”
Frank Wolf plays a cutthroat gangster Alexander Ward who’s used to getting what he wants. Along for the ride are his two gunmen Marty and Byron and his main girl Gypsy Boulet (Sheila Noonan. Noonan is actually fabulous as a “jaded woman regretting a misspent life”. Natalie the bar girl is played by Linne Ahlstrand. The gang winds up hiding out at a local ski resort instructor’s remote cabin in Deadwood South Dakota, after the heist of some gold. They try to muscle in on a local ski instructor Gil Jackson (Michael Forest) (The Saga of the Viking Women… 1957, One Step Beyond 1960, The Outer Limits ‘It Crawled out of the Woodwork 1963, The Twilight Zone ‘Black Leather Jackets” 1964 he’s 6′” and still acting!!!) who meets the gang at a Hotel Lobby, asking him to help guide them down the treacherous snowy mountains through the Black Hills to his remote cabin after they make a gold heist from a bank in town.-They need Gil as a guide until they can make their getaway. Gil warns them that there have been a series of deaths attributed to a cougar that has been seen in the area.
Later on, a sudden blizzard traps them at Gil’s cabin. Gypsy begins making a play for the wholesome hunk -Gil. She is supposed to be watched over by him at the ski lift until the bank robbery is done. Finally, a fourth partner will pilot a plane and pick up the gang flying them to Canada.
Alex Ward doesn’t mind if Gypsy spends some time with Gil since he plans on doing away with the big handsome lug once the heist is finished. The gangsters make a huge mistake in trying to create a diversion for their heist. Marty plants dynamite in the Broken Boot Mine and inadvertently sets off explosions in the nearby cave which unsettles the sleeping spider-like monster.
While Alex’s jealousy begins to boil watching Gypsy snuggle up to Gil, Marty puts business aside and sneaks off with the pretty barmaid Natalie. He takes her to the mine. Once he’s there, he wanders off just to set up the explosives and discovers a strange egg. While in the midst of a smooching session, Marty and Natalie are attacked by the strange Beast, but Marty manages to escape and returns all shaken, telling Alex that Natalie is dead. The next day, the gang pulls off the heist at the bank, and as Gil begins to lead them to his cabin, all the while he is sensing the presence of the Beast on their trail. At one point Marty hears a woman moaning and a strange wailing in the air. As he goes to investigate he finds Natalie, white as chalk all drained of blood and webbed into a tree wrapped up in a giant cocoon!
Once at Happiness Lounge (Gil’s remote cabin) Alex’s jealousy comes to a head and he fights with Gil over Gypsy who slaps Alex and the thug just slaps her right back to keep her in her place. The radio in the cabin reports about the robbery and the watchman who was killed. Gil wonders why she would even stay with such a sadist. Gypsy just feels like she’s been with him too long to leave him.
For comic relief, Gil’s housekeeper Small Dove, and Byron (Wally Campo) begin a sweet romance. They both hear the strange sound that Marty heard while on the trail toward Happiness Lounge. Marty runs out into the woods with his rifle and comes face with the webby Beast who smacks him down with one of its tentacle-like appendages.
The rest of the chaos unfolds as Alex plans to kill off any witnesses including his gal Gypsy who has now decided that Gil’s rustic life ain’t so bad! How will this all play out? I’ll leave that to you all because The Beast From Haunted Cave is a slice of campy pie with whipped cream. And the Hammond Organ adds a special 1950s cheesy ambiance!
The Beast itself could be considered something out of H.P. Lovecraft’s imagination, created by Chris Robinson. (who has a very impressive & prolific IMDb profile as an actor/director and writer if you care to look!)
Like many of Corman’s fantastic exploitation horror and adventure films, The Beast from Haunted Cave is as writer D. Earl Worth calls it a “tangential monster movie” with one foot in a heist/gangster film.
“Since Monte Hellman directed, the slowly-stirred low boil ingredients of Beast From Haunted Cave had the dry taste of studied existentialism found in his later films, notably The Shooting and Ride in the Whirlwind (1965)The plot was mostly Charles Griffith imagination working with Roger Corman…)…and the Leo Gordon script of Gene Corman’s Attack of the Giant Leeches in its focus on sleazy people and a type of monster that sucked blood at gruesome leisure.” –D.Earl Worth from Sleaze Creatures: An Illustrated Guide to Obscure Hollywood Horror Movies 1956-1959
Produced by Gene and Roger CormanThe Beast from Haunted Caveis directed by Monte Hellman (Two-Lane Blacktop 1971) Charles B Griffith wrote the original story.
Corman had by now gotten a handle on his economic innovation, being able to shoot several films using the same locations or with the same sets. Corman chose South Dakota as it was a right-to-work state and the town itself Deadwood had a lot of potential, as it is a testimony to a legendary past. Corman’s Ski Troop Attack utilizes most of the cast from The Beast from Haunted Cave.
Sheila Noonan plays Gypsy Boulet, Frank Wolf plays Alexander Ward, Wally Campo plays Byron Smith, Richard Sinatra Plays Marty Jones, Chris Robinson plays the Beast and the Bartender.
This film debuted as a double feature with The Wasp Woman (1959) upon its theatrical release.
According to Chris Robinson, the actor who portrayed the monster, he added aluminum stripping to a plywood base, then covered the frame with chicken wire before wrapping it in sheets and muslin in order to create the monster’s skeletal base. He then soaked the frame in vinyl paint in order to waterproof the design, since it had to be used in the snow. The creature’s head was fashioned out of quarter-inch aluminum wire, which was then encased in steel wire and wrapped in muslin. The creature’s fangs and teeth were also constructed with aluminum wire. Robinson then placed putty and patches of crepe hair onto the design before adding spun glass in order to give it a cobwebby appearance.
Stephen King created a brilliant story with IT, though many of us were disappointed in the crab/spider monster as the ultimate reveal. The Beauty of The Beast From Haunted Cave is that it never pretended to be anything but an ancient cheesy creature that drags it’s catch into the cave! Perhaps if Pennywise transformed into something closer to a humanoid spirit that can eat children’s souls it might have had a more powerful impact…. just a MonsterGirl machination…
Your EverLovin’ MonsterGirl sayin’ Avoid caves or Beasts that may dwell in them-but… Don’t cocoon yourself-it’s a big world out there!
