In my last post I mentioned one of the treasures included in my anniversary gifts from my wife. With this post I share a few reflections on the second gift, The Legacy Collection of Frankenstein by Universal Pictures.
When I grew up I had an appreciation for various schools of horror films. I know that for some there is a division between the camps of Universal Pictures film fans and those who prefer the Hammer Films reinterpretation of many of the Universal classics, but I appreciated both expressions of these horror icons. Even so, as a child of the 1970s I probably leaned more toward Hammer Films with their bold color and blood, not to mention the Hammer horror women with their ample cleavage. As I’ve gotten older I’ve “rediscovered” the Universal films and have given them rewewed focus for analysis.
The Legacy Collection is a great way for fans of the Universal films to add these gems to their library. Not only do they include several films in a series in their collection, whether Dracula, Frankenstein, The Wolf Man, or The Creature of the Black Lagoon, but they also include interesting commentary by film historians, as well as documentaries. Of course, this is the case with the Frankenstein collection which includes not only Frankenstein, but also Bride of Frankenstein, Son of Frankenstein, Ghost of Frankenstein, and House of Frankenstein. There are a couple of documentaries included in this collection, including She’s Alive! Creating the Bride of Frankenstein that was particularly interesting to me at several points.
One highlight is a discussion on how the film was a lightning rod for controversy with the censors. Apparently numerous cuts had to be made, totaling some fifteen minutes, in a film considered perverse for its time. One of the issues that raised concern was the film’s references that touched on religion, that in the minds of the censors at least, bordered on the blasphemous. This includes not only Henry Frankenstein’s statements about being part of the divine plan in his understanding of the secrets of God through the creation of life (something his young bride considers “blasphemous and wicked”), Frankenstein’s “monster” portrayed as undergoing “Christlike” misunderstanding and betrayal, the creature’s toppling of a religious figure in a cemetery seemingly symbolizing an attack against Christianity or organized religion (a change to the original script which conceived of the scene with the creature gazing upon a statue of Christ on the cross, apparently identifying with the sufferings of the figure before him), to a reference to biblical stories in a discussion between Drs. Frankenstein and Pretorius seemingly uttered with disdain in the mind of one of the film historians in the documentary.
Horror films continue to provoke and disturb us, forcing us to consider aspects of ourselves and the world we live in that we’d rather leave pushed aside to the margins and darkness of our inner selves. The Bride of Frankenstein is part of this long tradition, and it is worthy of repeated viewings and reflection that will reward audiences in 2009 as much as those who gasped at its images and story in 1935.
Remember that science fiction film franchise from a few decades ago that captured the imagination of young and old alike, and which opened the door for merchandising that is now the industry standard? While it is tempting to think of the adventures of those “a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” as the beginnings of what is now commonplace in Hollywood, before the Harry Potter series, The Matrix series, and even the Star Wars franchise, the success of the The Planet of the Apes in 1968 motivated Twentieth Century Fox to launch a sequel, and later what would become a series of films as part of a franchise that included a wealth of merchandise, a cartoon series, and a live action series on television. The Planet of the Apes created the template for later fantasy, science fiction, and horror films to follow.
I was a huge fan of ThePlanet of the Apes growing up in the 1970s, and my appreciation for the apes saga continues to this day. It represented an intelligent and thought provoking form of science fiction that involves rewards for adults not discerned in childhood. I recently celebrated my eighteenth wedding anniversary with my beautiful wife and for the first time in many years this involved a gift exchange. I had my Amazon.com wish list of fantastic items at the ready, and among the gifts given to me by my wife was Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. This is my second favorite film in the series, right behind the original, which I enjoy because it explicitly addresses the issue of racism in ways only touched on more superficially in the other films. This is explored very admirably by Eric Greene in Planet of the Apes as American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture (Wesleyan University Press, 1998), a book highly recommended for those who want to probe this mythos in more depth.
The film’s exploration of racism reaches its crescendo at its climax. Fans of Conquest are aware that the film includes two very different endings. The one released in theaters, and usually replayed on television, includes a fiery oratory by the leader of the ape revolt against humanity, Caesar, who proclaims his plan for the overthrow of human oppressors through violent revolution that he intends to spread throughout the globe. In response his ape army raise their weapons to bludgeon the abusive Governor Brech of the humans who had long oppressed them. Yet at the merciful urging of a fellow chimpanzee, Caesar tells his fellow apes to put away their weapons. The original ending of the film involves the ape army killing Brech as the natural climax to Caesar’s speech and retribution for oppression. It was feared that this ending was too violent, a fear that already threatened the interpretation of the rest of the film, arguably the most violent of all the Apes series. It is difficult to find the film with the original ending, although the Fox Movie Channel has (surprisingly) been playing this version recently. Although perhaps too violent for the 1970s when considered against the backdrop of its metaphorical exploration of racism, the original ending makes far more sense given the narrative flow as a more natural climax to Caesar’s speech (representing Roddy McDowall’s finest acting in the series). It also seems to lend itself more naturally to the final film in the franchise, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, where the apes have all but conquered humanity with the exception of a smal band of humans.
For those looking for entertaining, imaginative, and thought provoking science fiction that explores significant social issues, The Planet of the Apes series of films reward time and again. In addition to Greene’s analysis, Joe Russo and Larry Landsman with Edward Gross penned Planet of the Apes Revisited: The Behind-the-Scences Story of the Classic Science Fiction Saga (Thomas Dunne Books, 2001), which provides a good history and overview of the films.
The remainder of 2009, and the first part of 2010, holds out promise for fans of fantastic cinema, and that’s not including the legions of fans awaiting the next Harry Potter and Twilight installments. Three fantastic cinema attractions are of especially interest and on the radar for front row movie tickets over the next few months with the arrival of fall and winter.
The first film is Zombieland, a comedy set for release in the U.S. on October 9. The plot summary is found at IMDB:
“In the horror comedy Zombieland focuses on two men who have found a way to survive a world overrun by zombies. Columbus is a big wuss — but when you’re afraid of being eaten by zombies, fear can keep you alive. Tallahassee is an AK-toting, zombie-slaying’ bad ass whose single determination is to get the last Twinkie on earth. As they join forces with Wichita and Little Rock, who have also found unique ways to survive the zombie mayhem, they will have to determine which is worse: relying on each other or succumbing to the zombies.”
The film includes Woody Harrelson and Bill Murray which is promising in terms of acting and comedic talent, but it remains to be seen whether Zombieland will become another zombie comedy classic alongside Shaun of the Dead and Fido providing both good laughs as well as social commentary, or whether it merely provides a forum for diverse expressions of zombie mayhem intended as the lone fodder for laughs.
The second film of interest is The Wolf Man, a contemporary retelling of the classic 1941 film starring Lon Chaney. This film includes a number of exciting elements, not only an iconic monster, but also acting talent including Benicio Del Toro as Lawrence Talbot, Anthony Hopkins, and Hugo Weaving. Add to this the makeup special effects of Rick Baker who helped set the bar high for werewolf transformation makeup with An American Werewolf in London (as did Rob Bottin in another 1980s werewolf classic, The Howling), and the pieces are in place for a solid piece of horror filmmaking. Even so, while fans of classic horror are likely to greatly appreciate this film it remains to be seen how younger audiences, the main audience segment for which horror films are produced these days, receive a classic monster icon in a film that moves beyond gore, psychotic slashers, and torture. The Wolf Man originally scheduled for release on November 6, now rescheduled for February 2010.
The third film that TheoFantastique holds out great promise for in 2009 is Avatar. Set for release just prior to Christmas on December 19, this project will be the first science fiction work for director James Cameron in a long time, and his first Hollywood film since Titanic. IMDB provides a bare bones plot summary for the film:
“In the future, Jake, a paraplegic war veteran, is brought to another planet, Pandora, which is inhabited by the Na’vi, a humanoid race with their own language and culture. Those from Earth find themselves at odds with each other and the local culture.”
It is difficult from the plot summary or the teaser trailer to tell much about Avatar, but Cameron has been hyping the film for a while now, especially talking up the 3D aspects of it as revolutionary, even going so far as to state that he will never again direct a film that is not in 3D. For those interested in sneak peeks at further aspects related to this film a videogame is being released in connection with it and an interview with Cameron is available at YouTube as he discusses it. It is hoped that this film lives up to the hype, and Cameron certainly has the ability, experience with sci fi, and passion to do it, but we will see whether this is a year-end sci fi blockbuster that gives the release of Star Trek earlier this year a run for its box office money.
Readers of TheoFantastique are encouraged to browse through the links included here. They are listed under two categories, the first being Enjoying the Fantastic that includes a number of websites that fans will enjoy. The second category is Exploring the Fantastic. This category is for those who want to go more deeply in understanding why various facets of the fantastic are so enjoyable for many people, and what such things tell us about ourselves. One of the resources in this latter category is GOLEM: Journal of Religion and Monsters. This is a fine, peer-reviewed Internet publication that is highly recommended by TheoFantastique. Its Founding Editor is Frances Flannery-Dailey of James Madison University who took some time over the Fourth of July holiday to talk about GOLEM.
TheoFantastique: Dr. Flannery, thank you for your willingness to discuss GOLEM journal. What was the inspiration behind the beginning of the journal?
Frances Flannery: My research specialty is in ancient Jewish and Christian apocalyptic literature, such as Daniel and the Book of Revelation. Monsters are everywhere in this literature, and I was really intrigued to discover their function and meaning. When I examined anthropological sources across an extremely broad band of cultures, both ancient and modern, I found monsters in every single culture I ran across, whether ancient Greece or modern Polynesia and Canada! I literally could not find a culture that did not have some being that was identified by the culture as a monster. Since I didn’t believe that all of these monsters actually existed, (although some probably did or do), it was obvious that societies have a great need to create monsters.
As I continued to research what Big Foot, Dracula, Frankenstein, Nessie, and the Dragon of Revelation have in common, I came across definitions of monsters by scholars from numerous fields, including anthropology, religion, aesthetics, and psychology. I finally settled on this definition: monsters are those socially constructed entities that either blur existing categories or that must exist between categories, where nothing else fits. For instance, Frankenstein is both living and dead, and Big Foot is only scary if he is both human-like and ape-like. A giant lowland gorilla species would not gather the attention that Sasquatch has attracted! In turn, this definition implies that the function of monsters is exactly, then, to allow a given society to express 1) the category formations that are important to it, 2) the boundaries that are being challenged in that culture, and 3) the very potent societal fears that exist about these boundary crossings. Monsters thus show us what a culture both cares about and fears, and the expression of those fears is usually a catharsis. Godzilla is an ancient creature awakened by atomic energy, which expressed the fears of Post WWII Japan and America in the nuclear age. Monsters are thus vital to the mental health of a culture, and they tell others what a culture values. I’d encourage readers to think hard about what monsters their culture currently finds fascinating, and why.
I started GOLEM out of a desire to create a forum for other scholars from a variety of disciplines to share their thoughts about monsters and religion. The remarkable diversity of approaches, topics and fields of interests of our contributors has affirmed my hunch that monsters are significant in a broad array of interdisciplinary areas, including religious studies, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, theology, and sociology. I would hasten to add that there is also a section for student publications in the journal, entitled “GREMLIN”.
TheoFantastique: I am pleased to see the focus of the journal as indicated in the subtitle with its look at “religion and monsters,” an interest that dovetails with part of the exploration of TheoFantastique. How did you arrive at this focus, and in what ways has the journal explored this topic?
Frances Flannery: Following sociologist Clifford Geertz, I consider religion to entail much more than just “beliefs,” but rather a whole cultural system: beliefs, symbols, ethics, worldview, rituals, and an entire construction of reality. Monsters are vital to the cracks and overlaps in the categories of cultural constructions of reality. Thus, they appear in the sacred literature or mythology of every traditional religion, whether Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, or indigenous religions, as well as of new religions, such as Scientology.
As I mentioned, from the outset GOLEM journal has been committed to interdisciplinary methodologies that result in a broad range of topics for investigation, and this is clearly reflected in the journal’s contents. So far GOLEM has generated articles, to name a few, on monsters and otherness, disability, the construction of normalcy, horror films, posthumanism, ecological devastation, class, ethnicity, the Ancient Near East, and Christian Evangelicalism and intelligent design. I find this variety so exciting!
I would like to add that beginning with Issue Three, Rubina Ramji of Cape Breton University has replaced me as Senior Editor. I cannot say enough to support her excellent work and the direction in which she has steered GOLEM, which is evident in the fine quality of that Issue. Currently, the journal is seeking to explore the connection between monsters and violence, and monsters and terrorism, and I can hardly think of anything more timely.
TheoFantastique: How does the academic study of monsters in popular culture help us to “shed light on the particular societies and cultures that imagine them” as your website states?
Frances Flannery: Monsters appear in “popular” culture as well as in “elite” culture, in the art, literature, film, histories and religion of a vast array of societies. As I mentioned, monsters show us what a society values, what cultural categories it creates, and what chaos and fear feel like to its members. But perhaps most of all, monsters are simply uncanny . . . and that makes them innately interesting. Thus, the phenomenon of monsters speaks to the universal human societal condition. No culture seems to be able to make every experience or person fit neatly into its categories. Something will always blur or bleed over. That’s a monster.
TheoFantastique: Frances, thanks again for your fine publication, and for talking about it with my readers.
Joseph D’Lacy posted a link to some interesting video on his Facebook profile that is reportedly some kind of life form living in a sewer. The video is found below. When I watched it my amazement at life’s ability to thrive in the most unlikely of places (such as the deep ocean thermal vents), and my interests in cryptozoology (I am a fan of the History Channel’s program MonsterQuest) came together and collided with my sense of the grotesque. I also had a flashback to The X Files television program (“The Host,” Season 2) with one of its best episodes that featured a giant tapeworm creature called Flukeman, a genetic mutation spawned by contact with nuclear waste that lived in the sewers. There’s another horror story and creature for the big screen or television in here somewhere.
I am pleased and humbled that my essay contribution to Butcher Knives & Body Counts: Essays on the Formula, Frights, and Fun of the Slasher Film (Dark Scribe Press, forthcoming) was recently accepted. The essay is titled “Slasher Films As Modern Chaos Monster Myths.” The piece touches on the ancient chaos monster which was conceived of as a threat to the established order in Near Eastern cultures, and suggests that the unstoppable slasher may represent the chaos monster myth in the late modern cultural context. This project includes a number of contributors including Veteran Bram Stoker Award-winning novelist Jack Ketchum, Stoker and Lambda Literary Award-winner Lee Thomas, and Demon Theory scribe and pop culture essayist Stephen Graham Jones. See the Butcher Knives & Body Counts blog for further information on this project.
Yesterday the news quickly circulated around the Internet, television and other forms of media that Michael Jackson, talented musician and tortured personal figure, had passed away. The final chapter has yet to be written on his life as the complete autopsy results will not be known for several weeks while toxicology tests are performed, but while the debate has only just begun on how to view this curious pop star and icon, some mention must be made of his unique contribution to horror in popular culture.
Jackson’s record breaking album Thriller was propelled to the top of the charts not only through the music it included which touched struck the right chord in the culture of the 1980s, but also through the music video he produced in connection with the album’s title song. As the story goes, the pop star was an avid fan of An American Werewolf in London (1981), and he contacted John Landis, the film’s director, about the possibility of directing a music video for his song. Landis was not interested in being involved in standard music video’s, but once Jackson described his vision for a mini-horror movie, Landis signed onto the project. The result revolutionized music videos as the Jackson-Landis Thriller (1983) collaboration combined a hit song with dance choreography, all within the framework of a combined werewolf and zombie horror story. When the makeup effects of Rick Baker, and the “rap” of Vincent Price were added to the mix, the result became a pop culture phenomenon.
This was not the only time Jackson brought his love for horror to music video/short films. In 1997 he worked with special effects wizard Stan Winston who served as director of another horror musical in the form of Ghosts. This second project has not received nearly the attention of Thriller apparently due to controversy surrounding Jackson’s personal life which dovetails with the short film. As Winston describes the topic through writer Jody Duncan in The Winston Effect: The Art and History of Stan Winston Studio (Titan Books, 2006):
While making Ghosts, Winston never imagined the darker meaning the film’s storyline would take on later, after rumors arose regarding Jackson’s alleged inappropriate relationships with young boys. “In Ghosts, kids love to visit this very strange character who lives in a haunted house because they get to play with the ghosts there. But the parents think the guy is a creep, and don’t want him playing with their kids anymore. So, of course, when people saw this, they said: ‘Aha, there it is! You see? There’s Michael Jackson, the creepy guy in the house on the hill!’ But this story was written before any accusations against Michael ever came out. And I know that none of that double-meaning stuff was intended, because I wrote a lot of it!
Intended or not, the sobering parallels between the film’s storyline and the allegations about Jackson’s private life contribute to Ghosts getting only a very limited release. “The Winston Curse strikes again – and this time, I brought down Michael Jackson! So that’s my glorious directing career. I’ve destroyed three production companies and an entire human being.
“I’m still proud of the way Ghosts turned out, tough. And I really enjoyed making the film with Michael. He was a complete professional throughout the process – the consummate performer.”
Jackson had an evident love for horror, so much so that he felt compelled to not only produce two horror musicals, but also to do so at the risk of misperception by those who felt it might be incompatible with his religious faith at the time as indicated by the disclaimer included at the beginning of Thriller. Whatever the verdict of history on this compex and conflicted performer and human being, there is no doubt that he also made an important contribution to horror in popular culture, combining horror with music in ways that may have opened the door for similar expressions of horror musicals in adaptations of Young Frankenstein and Evil Dead.
The Religion and Popular Culture email group is circulating the following call for papers.
Since at least the late 18th Century, the symbolism, practices, and personnel of the Roman Catholic religion have been elements of the fantastic, the supernatural and the horrific in Western literature and art. Mad monks and evil nuns, abandoned monasteries, and the so called “mumbo jumbo” of the Latin Mass were staples of 18th and 19th Century Gothic fiction, while late 19th Century poets and artists like the Pre-Raphaelites used images of female saints and the Virgin Mary to create a more beneficent supernatural atmosphere in their work. As film became central to European and North American culture, Catholicism and Catholic spirituality was a frequent subject, or at least an element, of many movies, especially in “fantastic” genres such as horror, supernatural or fantasy. Roman Catholic belief, practice and imagery is central not only in genre films like The Exorcist, The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, and later Constantine and Hellboy but provides the fantastic element in historical mysteries like The Da Vinci Code. Even films like Mystic River, which are presented as realistic non-supernatural mysteries, retain a sense of the fantastic by including Catholic symbols, scenes taking place in old churches, or the appearance of nuns and priests. More often than not these Catholic elements retain their sense of the fantastic and foreign, even the horrific, because they recall a pre-1960’s Catholicism less often practiced today but which still retains a kind of mystique and sense of the foreign. Moreover, recent scandals in the Roman Catholic Church have reintroduced the theme of Catholic clergy and nuns as Gothic monsters, even in films with no other supernatural or horror elements.
This collection will explore the practices and symbolism of Roman Catholicism as depicted in films of the fantastic, including fantasy, horror, science fiction and the supernatural, or as a fantastic element in overtly realist films.
Proposals not longer than one page (double-spaced), and in Word format, should be submitted electronically to the attention of Regina Hansen at rhansen@bu.edu by September 15, 2009, but a brief note by email of intent to submit would be helpful at any time. Proposals should include title, author(s), institutional association (if any), mailing address, email address, and the text of proposal. Acceptances will be sent out Oct 15, 2009.
Vampires have had a long connection to sexuality and romance as they have been expressed through literary history. Dracula, the most famous, or infamous, of all vampires is well known for playing off a sense of eroticism, both in his encounters with women, and also at times forms of homoeroticism as well. This connection has followed vampires in their migration from the printed page to the silver screen and to television as well. But in more recent times they vampire seems to have moved beyond being a figure of fear and dread, coupled with morbid fascination, to a place where the emphasis is on this iconic horror creature as a figure of romance while the horrific aspects of vampirism hover in the background as an element of romantic taboo.
Vampire romance is now a subgenre of the romance genre in literature, a contemporary expression of the stories of maidens and their embrace of Death from 14th century France and 15th century Germany. In our time maidens now dance with Death in bestselling books like the Twilight series which was produced as a feature film. Even now thousands of young girls and women across the Western world eagerly await the next cinematic installment in New Moon. Television is also a forum for the romantic vampire as HBO’s cable program True Blood shifts female soap opera viewers from daytime to nocturnal romantic flickerings satisfaction. Before True Blood it was Moonlight on network television which combined the genres of police, detective, and romance with the story of the activities of a vampire detective who combines forces with a female police officer.
Horror icons evolve over time to meet the changing needs of individuals and their cultures. In times past emphasis was placed on the horrific aspects of the vampire icon as a figure of death, destruction, evil, and parasitic activity. As mentioned previously, these earlier expressions of the vampire also included aspects of eroticism and romance, but these supplemented the more monstrous aspects of the vampire. In our time, perhaps given the shifts in our culture in relation to women’s roles and freedoms in society, and with this greater power in the marketplace of popular culture, vampires have taken on an increasingly romantic emphasis. Even the “action-horror” films in the Underworld trilogy involved heavy doses of romance, although not nearly as much as Twilight and True Blood.
This shift in the vampire icon toward romanticism is interesting when it is contrasted with the other modern horror icon with continuing appeal, that of the zombie. Zombies have been expressed in a great many ways in popular culture, including a few comedies, but with the exception of the film Fido, no romantic connection has been made to the zombie. In Fido the partial depiction of the zombie as a romantic figure worked in that film’s context as it offered a variety of social critiques, including the institution of marriage and distant husbands. In this regard a domesticated zombie could be portrayed as a figure more able to offer love and romance than an aloof husband. It remains to be seen whether any filmmakers will take up where the producers of Fido left off in using the zombie as a means of social exploration and critique of marriage and romance, but for the most part the zombie seems to be better suited as a late modern icon of decay and self-destruction.
Monsters in culture come in cycles and the romantic vampire seems to be riding the wave of current popularity through a primary audience of female consumers. Time will tell whether the horrific vampire will rise again to meet a cultural need in the future, but for now those of us who prefer our vampires with a little more teeth will have to be patient as the vampire seduces a current generation of women.
Laycock discusses the hit HBO series True Blood, “a soap opera featuring psychics, vampires, and shape-shifters based on The Southern Vampire Mysteries series by Charlaine Harris.” As a part of the marketing for the program the CampFire NYC agency created websites which advertised TruBlood, presented as a real blood beverage for purchase and consumption by apparently real vampires. The drink was also promoted through vampire profiles on various social networking sites as well as YouTube clips. Later HBO ramped up their marketing through such techniques with the creation of the BloodCopy blog, through which various products are promoted for sale to vampires.
Laycock reports that the public response to this marketing campaign was not always positive. In fact, many reacted negatively, expressing the sentiment that “the viral marketing campaign had ‘crossed a line.'”
Readers are directed to Laycock’s article for his brief consideration of some of the issues and ethics involved in this marketing campaign. Attention will also be profitably drawn to consideration of the reality of subcultures such as the vampire community which have been described by scholars such as Christopher Partridge as being part of a “popular occulture,” which “includes those often hidden, rejected and oppositional beliefs and practices associated with esotericism, theosophy, mysticism, New Age, Paganism, and a range of other subcultural beliefs and practices.” Popular occulture often draws upon aspects of popular culture in the form of literature, film, and television as a source of inspiration for its worldview. In addition, Michael Barkun has referred to what he has called “fact-fiction reversals,” wherein an “artifact intended as fiction, has, within a particular occultural milieu, been decoded as fact.”
Apparently in our media saturated and filtered age, fact-fiction reversals take place in more “mainstream” culture and not simply within the occultural milieu. This, and other factors, likely contributed to the scenario which gave rise to concerns over HBO’s marketing strategy in regards to True Blood.
In my last post I mentioned one of the treasures included in my anniversary gifts from my wife. With this post I share a few reflections on the second gift, The Legacy Collection of Frankenstein by Universal Pictures.
Readers of TheoFantastique are encouraged to browse through the links included here. They are listed under two categories, the first being Enjoying the Fantastic that includes a number of websites that fans will enjoy. The second category is Exploring the Fantastic. This category is for those who want to go more deeply in understanding why various facets of the fantastic are so enjoyable for many people, and what such things tell us about ourselves. One of the resources in this latter category is 
I am pleased and humbled that my essay contribution to Butcher Knives & Body Counts: Essays on the Formula, Frights, and Fun of the Slasher Film (
The Religion and Popular Culture email group is circulating the following call for papers.
