The History of Movie Monsters:
I love a lot of things…..I love the way milk tastes when it’s paired with French toast. I love a cold beer on a hot day. I love Peanut butter, miracle whip and bologna sandwiches, and don’t fuckin’ judge me until you try one. They are tasty. But one thing that I absolutely love is a good Monster movie. The world is full of them and you would be surprised on just how long we have had Monster movies, and probably a bit surprised on what some of the first few actually were. Some are famous and if you don’t know who say, Frankenstein is, then you were born under a fuckin’ rock. Other Monsters are not so famous, and some of the newer Movie monsters are ones that, even as recent as ten years ago, you would not even have thought them to exist, let alone make it to the big screen. So we here at Strange Uncles wanted to share our love for the Movie Monster. No matter what your favorite type of movie is, we feel that almost everybody has a soft spot for a monster character on the silver screen. So sit back, grab some popcorn, and join us as we venture down the rabbit hole of the “History of Movie Monsters”…
Open the Gates…
It’s amazing that we are in the year 2019, and the idea of what we know now as a movie, is a fuckin’ far cry from how Cinematography started. The 1st technical “film” that was ever made was by two French Brothers in 1888, when they put out the infamous “Round hay Garden scene”. Even though it was only two seconds long, it was the first example of what we would eventually adapt into a movie of sorts. Film continued to adapt and change, and soon we were filming full length silent films, like the “A trip to the moon” that came out in 1902. So just to put things into reference when it comes to the idea of introducing a Monster onto the silver screen, it happened as early as 1915, with the release of the “The Golem”. Directed by Paul Wegener, the Golem was a German silent film that spun a story based on an ancient Jewish legend, where a creature was created to defend the Jewish people from Anti-Semites. Kind of weird that this would be one of the first Monster movies, but I watched it, and it really isn’t that bad. Not good…but not bad. The Germans continued to lead the race on what the Monster movie monster would become, with the release of the Infamous “Nosferatu” in 1922. Most of you more than likely believe this to be the first monster movie, and I guess, depending on how you feel, whether Golem truly is a monster movie, it can be argued that Nosferatu is truly the first original horror story put on film. Officially known as “Nosferatu: A symphony of horror”, it was based off a novel called “Dracula” by Bram Stoker, written in 1897. The story follows Count Orlock, played by Max Schreck. This would become our first story about Dracula, and the love that would continue to this day on the whole idea of a Vampire.
Fun Fact: The heirs of Stoker sued the creators of Nosferatu, obviously saying it was a knock off of Bram’s novel. Although the names like Dracula were changed to Count Orlock, and the word Vampire taken out and changed to Nosferatu, the courts ruled in favor of Bram Stoker’s estate and ordered all copies of the film to be destroyed. However, there were a few prints that were saved, and it would be seven years later, when Nosferatu was released in the United States.
Soon after, America started to get in the Monster Movie game. While the Germans, the French, and other cultures of the world were making movies and developing better ways to film, better equipment to film with, America was behind the race when it came to the silent film but not that far behind. As early as 1902, one of the first successful theatres was built in Pittsburg. These would lead to thousands of these theatres, otherwise known as Nickelodeons...(A penny to the first dummy who can guess why the theatres were called Nickelodeon’s). Fast forward to the same timeframe roughly that Nosferatu was released to US audiences, America started to get on the bandwagon in regard to the monster movie mayhem. In 1925, the infamous man of many faces Lon Chaney Sr. Gave us “The Phantom of the Opera”, and just before that, “The Hunchback of Norte Dame”. Lon Chaney Sr. Would continue to drive the early Monster Movie characters, as well as his son Lon Chaney Jr. after. In 1931, “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” were released. Both of these movies still had some underlying German influence for how they were filmed and introduced a new kind of monster…a man made one. Frankenstein, based off of the novel written by Mary Shelley in 1818, grew its own legs, much like the tale of Dracula. Many movies would come out throughout the years featuring this iconic monster, originally played by Boris Karloff, such as “The Bride of Frankenstein”, “The son of Frankenstein”, and we shit you not, “The ghost of Frankenstein”. Famous actors such as Lon Chaney Jr., all the way up to Robert d’niro, would play the role of Frankenstein throughout the years.
Fun Fact: Universal studios as recently as 2017, decided that they would “revive” the whole classic Monster thing by coming up with “Dark Universe”. This would be a side project to make new movies using classic Monsters, such as the above-named Frankenstein, Dracula, invisible man, etc. The first movie to be released under this title was the remake of the Mummy with Tom cruise, and it…. well, fuckin’ sucked balls. They should have left it in the tomb with the original Mummy. Despite their efforts, the “Dark Universe” idea got put back up on the shelf, and who knows when it will continue to be unwrapped…or brought back from the grave…or recharged…Get? All monster jokes. What the fuck ever.
The U.S. continued its stride in releasing the classic horror icons like “The Mummy” in 1932, and “The Invisible Man” in 1933, which was based off of an H.G. Wells story. King Kong was also a big release (get it?) in 1933. King Kong would turn out to actually help redefine what a Movie Monster truly was, and just like the movies talked about previously, would be remade time and time again, as well as spin-offs. My personal fav. King Kong movie would be the one with Jeff Bridges that came out in 1976. A few other notables that surprisingly hasn’t been remade as much as the others mentioned, is the “Wolf man” in 1941, starring the one and only Lon Chaney jr., and “The Creature from the Black Lagoon, which was released in 1954. So a quick note in regards to Monster movies and certain era’s. Not only Monster Movies, but movies in general, have long been known to somewhat “match” the feeling or issues that the country, or even the world at the time, was going through. Soon we stepped into the late 40’s/early 50’s and we find ourselves in what was known as the “Atomic” age. Our fascination for UFO’s was all the rave, as was the whole idea of Nuclear energy. And of course, the films of that time would mimic exactly the thought of the nation. “The Beast from 20,000 Fathom’s”, released in 1953, was a story about a beast that was awakened by an Atomic bomb test. And a slew of Atomic based monster movies were released throughout the 50’s like “Them!’, “It came from beneath the sea”, “The Blob” in 1958, (although it never was figured out where that shit came from), “The Thing”…and the list goes on. An interesting turn of events happened in Japan around this same timeframe that would quickly set a cornerstone in the whole Monster mayhem world, and that would be “Godzilla”, that was showed to the world in 1954. Godzilla would become one of the most iconic running Monsters that we know of. There even is a new Godzilla being released this year, not to mention the one that was released four years ago, which might I add, was pretty fuckin’ good.
Fun Fact: Godzilla has an amazing history of releasing 33 movies based of the character. The original Godzilla shared a storyline in regards what happened to Hiroshima during WW2. The original producer “Tomoyuki Tanaka” stated this about the original film. “The theme of the film, from the beginning, was the terror of the bomb. Mankind had created the bomb, and now nature was going to take revenge on mankind”
In the mid-sixties, a new genre of scary movies would take on Hollywood, but ultimately fail. This would be the introduction of the “Z-Movie”. Low budget movies that were cranked out one shitty story after another. A lot of people like this era of movies… Me, personally no. Half of them weren’t even worth the material they were filmed on. But, as it became cheaper to actually produce and publish a movie, this gave everyone and their dog a reason to get behind the camera. There were some notable studios that survived for quite a while during this time frame, namely “Hammer Studios”. Hammer studios kept the flame alive and even is being brought back to life in a weird way. Other movies would begin to introduce the idea of a person actually becoming the monster. A good example would be Psycho released in 1960. The whole idea of a person becoming the monster would not stop here. It would continue, and as decades changed, would become scarier than the idea of a walking Mummy or a Vampire. Just ask Hannibal Lector. It should be noted here that the “other” scary thing that a human can turn into is a “Zombie”. Thanks to George Romero for opening the Zombie floodgates in 1968 with “Night of the Living Dead”. Zombie’s seemed to be the fad nowadays, so the last thing were going to do is waste your time covering them here. As we roll out of the 50’s and 60’s time where most of the movies had something either to do with radiated giant bugs, or space aliens that were coming to destroy earth, we shifted gears yet again in our culture, and moved into the 70’s, where movies such as “Jaws”, directed by Steven Spielberg in 1975, would come out of the ocean to bite us in the ass. Not really a Monster movie when we talk about the more traditional Hollywood Monsters, but a movie that should be mentioned none the less.
Finally, special effects would catch up to Hollywood ideas. Special effects started making considerable leaps and bounds in the late 7-0’s/early 80’s and would help yet again “reinvent” the Hollywood Monster. 1979 became the year that “alien” was released. Finally, a monster that was made up from scratch, a Xenomorphic Alien that scared the piss out of me was invented and was based of the design of Swiss born H.R. Giger, that originated from a lithograph entitled “Necronom IV”. Italian born special effects master “Carlo Rambaldi” would be the one to breathe life into the creature we saw in the movies. The monster would instantly become a classic, and spawn (get it)?) Eleven sequels, some involving the Alien specifically, and a few that would blend in the “Predator” monster that would be introduced in 1987. And then there was the eighties. Fuckin weird, amazing time in our history, so why wouldn’t the new monsters be part of that? The Vampire myth was reinvented yet again in 1985’s “Fright Night”, along with adding new terrifying creatures to the mix like “Tremors” that came out in 1989. Well, maybe giant carnivorous Earthworms isn’t all that terrifying, but Kevin bacon’s acting might have been more fuckin’ terrifying than anything else, to be honest. We also saw old fashioned Monsters get a comedy reboot of sorts during this time. Mel Brook’s “Young Frankenstein”, and Chevy Chase’s “memoirs of an invisible man” are classic spin-offs of old scary to somewhat new funny. Other movies like the “Jurassic Park” franchise brought giant beast back to life, in a little bit different way than “King Kong” or Godzilla”. Let’s not forget the plethora of 80’movies that were B budget but brought some awesome new creations to the screen. “Critters”, “Ghoulies”, “C.H.U.D”, “Toxic Avenger”, “Pumpkinhead”, “Gremlins”, “Graboids”, “The thing in the crate of “Creepshow, And that’s just the tip…the tip. This era also brought the idea of US being the Monster and stretched it even further. “Jason Voorhees” from the “Friday the 13th franchise is a perfect example. Even though the first one really is about the fucked-up Mom, this franchise would continue. And still does to this day. Other “newly” introduced Monsters would come out of the eighties. “Freddy Krueger” from “Nightmare on Elm Street”, “Chucky” from Childs Play”, “Michael Myers” from “Halloween, “Candyman”, “Puppet Master”, and “Pinhead” from “Hell-raiser, “Leather face” from “Texas chainsaw massacre”….Just to name a few add-one to the Monster genre. Of course, we continued to rehash all the old classics in one form or another every decade, right up until the present. Or how about us starting no as a human only to become the monster we fear? Again, Zombies are a good start, but let’s not forget a staple for the 80’s…..”The Fly”, released in 1986, starring Jeff Goldblum, or even the previous one released in 1958 starring the one and only Vincent Price. Even though it really doesn’t “Classify” as an actual monster movie per say, us here at Strange Uncles need to mention the Evil Dead series. The character of “Ash” and what followed with the demonic cabin in the woods and the book of the “Necrominon”….fucking amazing. Holy, but amazing.
We step into the 90’s and 2000’s, that continued to either carry the flame of the old remakes, although arguably some of those reboots were very well done and had a nice spin to them. Take “Vampires”, directed by John Carpenter. A good example of a nice spin, or say “Dracula Untold” …. nice “Prequel” if you will, to the back story of the infamous Dracula. The discovery of “found footage” became, and I guess still is the new kid on the block. Great examples include “clover field”, “Blair Witch Project”, ya da ya da…let’s not forget about “The Creeper” in “Jeepers and Creepers that debuted in 2001….and scared the living shit out of me. Let’s add the “Humanoid Crawlers” in 2005’s “The Decent” …again, scared the shit out of me. We continue to either bring back the old and try and put a spin on an old story, or, if the stars are aligned, there is a new monster reinvented. Reimagined and recultivated…and we continue to find the tingles and chills that keep us going to the movies time and time again. Well done Hollywood Monsters…. well done…
Let’s take this time now, to give thanks and recognition to the Actors and directors who gave us these infamous Monsters throughout the years. The Podcast would literally be 3 hr long if we included everyone, so were going mainstream and cover the biggies and the basics. I think in the future of Strange Uncles, we will cover the not so famous names, as well as the directors, writers, special effects people, and other notables that contributed to the bigger picture of what we all know and love. Fuckin fantastic horror. But for now, here we go…Bella Lugosi for Dracula, Boris Karloff for Frankenstein and the Mummy, Lon Chaney Sr. For hunchback of Norte dame and Phantom of the Opera among others, Lon Chaney Jr, for Wolf man and others, Claude Rains for staying quit and invisible, Peter Cushing for all the Hammer films and Dracula as well as Christopher Lee, Vincent Price for just fuckin being Vincent Price, John Landis for his creativity,Wes Craven for reinventing dreams, John Carpenter for casting Alice Cooper in Prince of darkness, Sam Raimi for the flying eye, Rob Zombie for his fucking crazy brain, Toby Hooper for his reinvention of true human horror, David Cronenberg for his shifting of the macabre, Robert England because…well fuck, Clive Barker….see previous, Guillermo Del Toro for his work in inventing amazing creatures in cinema, Rich Baker for his work on American werewolf in London, and last but not least, for actors who scared me into believing that they were more than actors, but truly connected to something supernatural: Jack Nicholson, Anthony Hopkins, Sam Nielsen, Bruce Campbell, Linda Blair, and folks, write in to Strangeuncles@gmail.com for to add to our list….
Close the gates…