Monster of the Day

I have to admit, I don't remember much about this one. Were there (stock footage) dinosaurs in it, or is this a really out there interpretation of the Night of the Blood Beast suit used as the film's "monster." I do know I was never the world's biggest Robert Vaughn fan, and even as…

Warning: Poster may only be 92% accurate as to scale of film.

One thing I've noticed is that although movie posters for cheapie monster movies are notorious for exaggerating the monsters to make them look more amazing, AIP didn't bother with that for Paul Blaisdell monsters. They presented them more or less as they appeared in the films, because, you know, they were actually amazing already.

Man, posters used to be nice. At least when you got a Corman film there was payoff.

I couldn't find a foreign poster for this, but hey, the American poster was very nice. I'd say it's better than the film, but again, Corman films are deceptively good. Sure, if you compare it Forbidden Planet, it's not a great movie. However, if you compare it to other sci-fi cheapies from the '50s,…

Last night I checked off another Ghibli film, having seen The Secret World of Arrietty in a theater. Oddly, it's based on English author's Mary Norton's 1952 book The Borrowers, about very small people who live under humanity's noses and "borrow" things from them. Taking a thimble to use as a bucket, that sort…

Roger Corman left the director's chair after the WWI aerial warfare flick Von Richthofen and Brown in 1971. Starting New World Pictures, he segued into producing full time, figuring he could make more money that way. The cliche in Hollywood is that everyone wants to direct. Well, Corman directed 50 plus films, and apparently…

As Corman's Poe series started to wane (if not artistically), his use of monsters was nearly over. Most of the Poe films didn't feature monsters per se. The Masque of Red Death, generally considered the best of the bunch, featured the ultimate monster: Death. The series ended next with the still pretty great The…

1963. Roger Corman, despite working on (comparatively) bigger movies, still directed five films that year. Only one (The Young Racers) wasn't a horror film, The Raven, The Terror, The Man With the X-Ray Eyes and The Haunted Palace. None except the last really featured a monster per se. The Haunted Palace was sold as…