So, starting with the shameless plug… We did an episode of The Assignment: Horror Podcast focusing on 1977’s The Haunting of Julia. As we were going over the films many attributes, another film came up as we were discussing films that had a very well executed aspect of intentional ambiguity about them. When done right, it’s something I love to see in a film.
(This was originally written as a part of the Needless Things 31 Days of Halloween series for October 2015. The article was removed from the site along with various other contributions and is now being republished here.)
In this hyper-political age, we’ve seen what seems to be an almost unending debate among the political class of this land over the highly charged topic of immigration reform. Countless hours are spent arguing whether this person or that person should be allowed citizenship for this country, whether still others should even be allowed into the country at all, and of course whether or not we’re giving some “a free pass” to citizenship. But what we have not seen, my friends, is the much more important question addressed. Should these people be able to bring their monsters with them?
Because, let’s face it, until this is addressed they will continue to come and eventually you will be faced with a kill or be killed situation with a creature that doesn’t follow the rules as you know them. Since we can’t count on legislation, we’ll have to turn to education. To that end, this series will give you the basics on the monsters that you only think you know but in fact play by other cultural rules. Today we look at the Blemmyes.
Where do you even start with a film like this? I’ll start with the man who was the film’s director, co-writer, and co-producer. This was one of a long line of low budget films by infamous schlockmeister Larry Buchanan. Buchanan, perhaps best known for 1967’s Mars Needs Women, made films that transcended bad and entered into a realm almost all their own. This is actually a shame as some of his films would have been pretty damned good if they’d only had better actors, better budgets, better script doctors, better FX, and a better director at the helm. Basically, they would have all benefited greatly by not being Larry Buchanan films. The Loch Ness Horror is a prime example of one of these films.
When people do something in a monumentally stupid way, I usually have no issue pointing out that they just did something in a monumentally stupid way. When people do something in a monumentally stupid way and then follow that up by doubling down in perhaps an even more monumentally stupid way, I usually have no issue with pointing that out. Occasionally, when someone doesn’t end up doubling down in ways that makes them come off as a bit of an ass, I’ll even try to be fairly polite about it. Blunt honesty about how someone is behaving might not come across as “polite” in a way Miss Manners would endorse, but, hey, she occasionally over the years came across as less than polite and sometimes even more than a tad condescending.
However, one thing I do hate to do is to punch down. A few days ago, a statement- perhaps in the eyes of some even a borderline challenge -was directed at me where I just rolled my eyes, joked with a few friends about it, and more or less decided to leave it alone and move on. At the time, as the person seemed to be desperately trying to sink himself and a project he wanted to launch, it seemed like responding in the way he suggested I do so would be a little bit like me punching down- in this case punching down on a guy barely holding onto a life preserver in shark-infested waters while simultaneously dumping chum all over himself.
It’s a few days later. I’ve thought about it. Not all that much, mind you, but enough. Just enough to realize that something I said to this fellow was fairly accurate and worth following up on. His actions and his reactions to the fallout from his actions are worth noting and discussing if for no other reason than they are a “How To” guide for everyone else out there. However, in his case, he is and seems to be intent on becoming even more so a “How To” guide on everything you want to not do if you’re hoping to do a project along the lines of his proposed project.
I’m going to work very hard to rein in my natural tendencies towards sarcasm here. There are three reasons for this. First, this is the kind of mistake many fans or fan/pros out there could easily make in this day and age. Second, while the man is acting in a damned fool way, he hasn’t exactly (yet) struck me as someone trying to be a jackass. That could change based on things he’s already expressed on the matter, but I’m going to give him some benefit of the doubt for now. Third… Well, I’ll touch on that reason towards the end of this.
Actually, I’ll add a fourth reason why I’ll rein in my natural tendencies towards sarcasm here. He may very well be a nice guy who doesn’t act like this very often. I don’t know. I have no real way of knowing that. He may normally be a nice, fairly on top of it guy who is just acting in an extremely poor manner here.
Oh, also… If the individual in question sees all of this and feels it puts him in a poor light or that my using him as an example for others of what not to do casts his recent actions in a negative light… Well, there’s a part of me that’s at least a little sorry for that. However, keep in mind; he basically suggested I do this.
“From the far reaches of outer space comes a threat to planet Earth. Mankind faces its most powerful enemy, the mastermind Rodak.”
It was the 1970s, and at least for a while, a staple of the Superstation WTBS after-school television block was a Japanese import from the 1960s. It was 52 episodes of men in rubber suits playing the roles of robots and monsters while beating the snot out of each other every Monday through Friday afternoon to the delight of many a young child. The series was based on a manga called Ambassador Magma, which was also the TV show’s name in Japan. Beating Ultraman to TV screens in Japan by a handful of days, it was the first show of its kind broadcast in full color on their TV stations. The Ambassador Magma TV show also featured one of the earliest examples of the Japanese transforming robot. In America, it was known as The Space Giants.
“Blasting off on a desperate mission to save Earth from the evil plottings of the tyrannical space lord Ming the Merciless, Dr. Hans Zarkov and Dale Arden have joined me, Flash Gordon, on a fantastic journey into worlds where peril and adventure await us.”
A lot of people have recently been doing nostalgic looks back at American animation through the ages or just at the cartoons and kids shows of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Annoyingly, while hitting a lot of the better-known highlights, everyone seems to give either little or no mention to what was, for me, one of the truly great science fiction Saturday morning cartoons. The Adventures of Flash Gordon, at least the first season, should be more widely recognized as a true classic. Yet, other than a few childhood friends and my childhood-in-spirit friend Sean Scullion, I meet very few people who seem remember it. That really needs to change, as the show’s first season stands up amazingly well all these years after it first aired.
Stan Lee at Dragon Con
Early in the day on November 12, 2018, the horrible news we all sadly knew was coming finally came. Stan Lee had passed away.
I’m in my late-forties. Among the various other things that this statement of age can represent, it means I’m from the generation who was born into one of the biggest monster and paranormal mania explosions into the pop culture of the last four or five decades.
I love the Mandela Effect. It’s essentially been around for longer than I’ve been alive, but it only got the name we now more commonly know it by in the last few decades. For those of you unfamiliar with it, it’s the belief by some that a false memory they and others share is, in fact, a real memory and proof that the timeline has changed or people have unknowingly slipped over into a parallel dimension with only small differences when compared to theirs. Oh, and in the case of the timeline thing, only they remember the other timeline.
Chandler's Bar & Grill 