Monster of the Day #44

Ah, an old friend here at Jabootu, and none other than the instigator of the fabled B-Masters Cabal, who first joined forces to mock him.  I blathered on about ‘brain’ movies in my review, but Gor also represents another ’50s sci-fi trope, the fear that aliens would take over your very consciousness.  In films ranging from the heights of Invasion of the Body Snatchers on down to Invaders from Mars and, further down, It Conquered the World, aliens often didn’t kill you so much as take away from you everything that defined who you were as an individual.

On the other hand, it also provided for films like this, where we got to see an irate, axe-wielding John Agar chasing around a giant space brain with malicious intent.  I love the ’50s.

  • I can’t see the image at my work (stupid firewall), but wasn’t he the Monster of the Day #35?

  • TongoRad

    psst- see Monster of the Day #35.

    I guess this confirms that these posts are more spur of the moment than planned out in advance (not that I’m complaining, I actually prefer it that way)…

    If it’s any consolation I prefer what you’ve written in this post.

  • Jeeze Ken, you REALLY like Gor.

  • Oops, my bad. Well, I can live with it. I’m been meaning to assemble a list of the MODs so far, so this will act as a reminder to do so this weekend. Typical of me, though, that this brain fart accompanied a repeat of Gor.

  • Bad news, folks. It turns out the reason Gor repeated is that we are all out of monsters. It turns out there are only 43 of them. Who knew? It kind of sucks, really. Anyway, it was a good ride while it lasted.

  • My theory: Ken is not human – at least his mind isn’t. He is clearly from Arous, inhabited by Something Awful, and loves it. This explains his preference in movies as well as his weird culinary tastes. You’d think he’d be more interested in women, though …

  • BeckoningChasm

    I saw this on TV when a mere pratt, and I must admit that Gor scared the daylights out of me when he first appeared.

  • Yeah, it’s only a matter of time until Brain from Planet Arous appears at T-Fest. It’s a natural, really.

  • Marsden

    And now I will leave for no raisin!

  • Ericb

    Well, who can concentrate on monsters when the BP Cup is at stake?!

  • Gamera

    Well there are two lobes to Gor’s brain: one lobe is MotD #35 and the other is MotD #44.

    Or maybe this one is the space brain cop Vol?

    Hey I can justify anything…

  • First game of the BP Cup series…3rd inning…all tied up at two…it’s a nailbiter, folks!

  • Its the monster so nice, you post it twice!

  • Rock Baker

    Seems right, somehow. Its just like stock footage, a tool used so often in B pictures!

  • BeckoningChasm

    This is actually a still from “Brain From Planet Arous II: Even Brainier” and the brain in this still is Gor’s sister, Gwar. She’s here for revenge or, as the tagline had it, “This time, it’s personal!”

  • sandra

    I can’t believe you’ve gone through every monstr there is. Did you do the title chracter from ATTACK OF THE CRAB MONSTER ?

  • Pssst– the whole “taking over your consciousness” idea was subtly explored in Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, which also takes place in 1957 and features lots of fun 50’s paranoia (much like the classic Indy films play up the weirdness of the 30’s). Personally I thought IJ4 was an entirely worthy entry to the Indy saga, and loved it, but if you hang out on the internet like I do, or watch stupid South Park, you have to put up with the inevitable “it raped my childhood” morons.

  • Rock Baker

    For what its worth, I also enjoyed Indiana Jones 4. It was lots of fun, had nice color, plenty of humor and action, it was just…weird. (The bit with the ice-box was a bit over the top, but I simply loved the scene where Indy is asked for his defiant last words and he replies with “I like Ike!”)

  • ken has indeed gone through every monster. If you look back through the listings you will see a crab monster. So even that is covered.

  • Reed

    Sandy Peterson said, “My theory: Ken is not human – at least his mind isn’t. He is clearly from Arous, inhabited by Something Awful, and loves it.”

    I first thought you were referring to Something Weird films here and I thought, “Yeah, that makes a certain amount of sense.”

    In an economy where Lloyd Kaufman can somehow make money I think that there’s a market for Something Awful Films.