Monster of the Day #767

The ‘environmentally friendly’ solution to those big New Mexico desert ants proved less than optimal.

Don’t know what I’ll do for the rest of the week (although this would be a terrific ’50s style sci-fi film if you played it entirely straight). And next week I’ll be off on family vacation. What will you guys do without all the content?!

  • Ericb

    Fingal couldn’t understand why anteaters had such a bad rap as doppling material. He found the experience quite gratifying.

  • Gamera977

    No MotD!?! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

    If it’s of any interest I’d be willing to post a monster a day over on the forum. Should be able to find five Ken hasn’t done yet.

  • Flangepart

    Hummm…how about an ‘All Australia week?’ Japan’s been done to death (Ask Godzilla) but the aussies and Kiwis? Could be cool.

  • Rock Baker

    I was thinking a week could be done with Jim Varney material: Dr. Otto, The Dump, Trantor, Trantor’s offspring, and either the boogeyman from the TV show….. or Auntie Nelda…..

  • Man, that game has to be close. Not a single one of those people is looking at the monsters.

  • Gamera977

    I can’t think of any Aussie monsters but two good Kiwi ones. The only ‘Ernest’ ones I can think of are Dr. Otto and the Troll, otherwise I only remember John Vernon and Evil Ernest.

    Dividing up the week and everyone doing one monster works for me though.

  • Rock Baker

    Ah, yes, John Vernon. One of the unsung heroes of the movies!

    It makes me wonder, is ERNEST GOES TO CAMP a really sly spoof of BILLY JACK? A denim-clad hero surrounded by misfit kids and Indians, going up against cartoonishly evil capitalists and working-class Joes, being clobbered when said baddies surround him….

    It’s also kinda strange to see Ernest actually take damage in this first entry. The next few films in the series were a LOT better.

  • bgbear_rnh

    just like ants I suppose . . .

  • Gamera977

    Thankfully none of the anteaters have a magnifying glass…

  • Rock Baker

    I do like the idea of everyone posting a MOTD. How would that be handled?

  • Gamera977

    Interesting, I never thought of ‘Ernest Goes to Camp’ being a take-off of ‘Billy Jack’- probably since my only knowledge of the latter is though Ken’s reviews. He is a far stronger man than me- I doubt I could sit though five minutes of this hippie BS. Last time I read one of Ken’s reviews I wanted so bad to see Chuck Norris show up at the end and punch Jack into next week…

  • Gamera977

    I guess everyone could just volunteer a day?

  • The Rev.

    Maybe it’s the same crowd that was at SeaWorld in Megashark vs. Crocosaurus.

  • The Rev.

    I can only think of two Australian monsters off-hand: the crocodile from Rogue and the titular critter from Razorback.

    There’s also Undead, but zombies are zombies; I haven’t seen it so I can’t comment on whether any of them are unique enough to show.

  • Luke Blanchard

    There were apparently a few on PHOENIX FIVE, which was effectively a local children’s version of STAR TREK.

  • Ken_Begg

    I’ve looked for a good, properly sized pic of a drop bear. No go. Again, how is it possible no one’s done a drop bear movies?!

  • Gamera977

    I’ve heard various descriptions of it ranging from bearlike to more apelike. I picture it as a koala with giant claws and fangs.

  • Ken_Begg

    That’s the general conception, yes. Which would make for a terrific movie.

  • Ericb

    And if SyFy get’s a hold of it we can look forward to Drop Bear vs. Funnel Web Spider or even Dropspibear.

  • Ericb

    or Drop Bear vs. Tree Octopus or Droberpus

  • Ken_Begg

    There was already a tree octopus in Brides of Blood!

  • Luke Blanchard

    A well-known local monster is the Bunyip, a beast which lives in waterholes and like places. They’re very varyingly depicted.
    I thought the story of the Hobyahs was Australian, but Joseph Jacobs sourced the version in his MORE ENGLISH FAIRY TALES to an American journal to which it was contributed “as current in a family deriving from Perth” (meaning, presumably, Perth in Scotland). A creepy version of the story appeared in a long-used Victorian school reader and made a big impression on some of those who used them. They appear in sequences depicting the fantasies of a little girl in the 1989 film CELIA, but I haven’t seen that.
    Google “The Giant Devil-Dingo” for images of a children’s book by Dick Roughsey that retells an Aboriginal legend.

  • Rock Baker

    We’ll have to figure out who gets what day, but I’m game.

  • Flangepart

    Be glad Drop Bears can’t skydive…or CAN they?…

  • Eric Hinkle

    If you want an Aussie monster, there’s always the Yowie (basically an Australian Bigfoot with immense fangs), the Keeng-Keeng (a race of man-eating bat-people), and there are recurring stories about people sighting economy-sized Komodo dragons/monitor lizards in the Outback.

  • Gamera977

    Well, I ‘ll take Monday and we can go from there.