Monstrum on 'The Golden Age of Movie Monsters' for Halloween

Happy Halloween! I'm keeping my promise to blog about monsters today. I begin with Monstrum exploring The Golden Age of Movie Monsters.

Some monsters call to mind very specific images. Their iconic on-screen personas overshadow their earlier histories. I’m talking about: Frankenstein and his Creature, Dracula, the Invisible Man, the Wolf Man, the Mummy. Why is this? Universal Pictures. These famous Monster faces inspired decades of Halloween costumes, and make up a distinctive brand of horror that defined early Hollywood cinema.

I enjoyed Dr. Z's history of Universal Pictures horror films and learned a lot about how the Hayes Code and Universal's new ownership made for slightly more subdued and definitely more recycled horror films after the mid 1930s. Those did not make the studio's monsters any less iconic. Universal Studios' theme parks still use them, more than 90 years after Dracula and Frankenstein first appeared on the silver screen.

On the other hand, the attempt to revive the monsters in the 21st Century have been uneven. On the one hand, The Invisible Man won Best Horror Movie at both the Critics Choice Super Awards and the Saturn Awards, while Elisabeth Moss won Best Actress in a Horror Movie at the former and Best Actress in a Film at the latter. I even voted for her. On the other hand, 2017's The Mummy earned seven Razzie nominations and Tom Cruise the Razzie for Worst Actor. Yikes!

Speaking of mummies, Monstrum's next video was Egyptian Mummies: From Sacred Vessels to Scary Undead.

Mummification was a sacred, transformative practice in Ancient Egypt - a ritual process that made one’s body and soul fit for existence in the afterlife. It begs the question: when and why did the Mummy become the popular movie monster that we are so familiar with today?

That was fascinating, as well as a worthy sequel to the Universal Monsters video.

I close with "The Mummy" Inspired Cocktail | 31 DAYS OF HALLOWEEN by Secret of the Booze.

RECIPE

THE MUMMY

2 oz devil’s cut
1 oz. honey whiskey
1 cup hibiscus tea
Dry ice

Drink responsibly!

That's it for Halloween, but spooky season continues for one more day with Day of the Dead. I'm feeling like continuing with Monstrum's examination of Mexican monsters. Stay tuned to see if I follow through with that thought.