Monster of the Day

Mmm, could use more skellingtons. Certainly calls to mind the awesome ending of Ator the Fighting Eagle. Here's the original art. Neat!

Man, that's the stuff right there. Give AI a few more years and somebody's going to animate these stories and make themselves a billion dollars. Is the belt to suggest how the Skellington carries his knife? That's some attention to detail right there.

"DUDE! Yes, some women like hairless pits. BUT YOU'RE TAKING IT TOO FAR!" REAL MEN DON'T FISH. Norman Mailer's next movie.

They put Swastikas on the leopards, just so we get it. Happy (?) Monday, everyone. Just as a head's up, I'll be leaving for Richmond / Pittsburg for a week starting a week from Wednesday. So there won't be any posting during that period. However, Watch Party this Friday. We'll watch an actual genre…

Happy Independence Day, everyone! Serious question: Do kids today--I mean, say, people under 20--even know it's Independence Day, or is it just July 4th to them? Do they understand why it's a holiday? I wonder. Written by Larry Cohen and directed by William "Maniac Cop" Lustig. That's a pretty solid pedigree.

First, I found Waldo. Second, never bring a knife to a crocodile fight. Third...that chick is into it, man. She's clearly one of those women who likes guys fighting over her. In case I don't show up tomorrow, Happy 4th of July, everyone!

Well, that hadn't been on my list of sexual fears, but now that it's been raised, I guess? That particular one I may leave unmastered, though. Seems more trouble than it's worth.

As we can see from this, AIP's posters were getting a lot more sophisticated. Several films that year that had monsters of sorts--The Terror, The Haunted Palace--forwent them on the poster art to push more the Vincent Price or Boris Karloff angles. This one also is a bit of a cheat for us, but…

If YouTube had existed back in the day there definitely would have been a channel dedicated to comparing what the poster promised and what the movie delivered. Even so, again, at least with Corman's films you got surprisingly decent film making and generally a witty script and decent to very good acting.

I'd like to point out that this is not only a poster for an AIP film, and a Roger Corman film, but the cheapest AIP / Roger Corman film either entity ever made. The fact that AIP was counting on a hipster crowd for this film is pretty amazing. Although certainly the film warrants…