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Post by someoldguy on Jan 4, 2020 16:32:08 GMT -5
Moved from Christmas Watchathon thread to a more appropriate forum. Personally, I'd count Monster Squad as a werewolf movie (the same wolfman from Fright Night Part 2, BTW) so it's always on topic around these parts. Also one of my favorite wolfman style designs. Yes, Jonathan Gries did the werewolf character in both Monster Squad and Fright Night 2 (1988). Here is the Monster Squad version.  In Fright Night 2 (1988) Louie was not actually a werewolf. He was a vampire who liked to stalk his victims in half-wolf form. Shapeshifting to a wolf is one ability of vampires in many representations. I am reminded of (Horror of) Dracula 1958 where Van Helsing (Peter Cushing) refuses to accept that vampires can shapeshift to get into the house. He is right. Dracula (Christopher Lee) has smuggled his coffin into the basement.  In Coppola’s 1992 Dracula, the vampire assumes a werewolf-like form when first attacking Lucy and later kills her in full wolf form. Gary Oldman turned out to be allergic to the makeup so the wolfman scene was done with a double. I thought I had read somewhere that Gries did that but he is not listed as a double or in any other capacity. Here is the Lucy and the wolf guy sequence where Mina (Winona Ryder ) catches them in the act. www.youtube.com/watch?v=notOVdHVTPIThis includes an interesting discussion of how the wolves were wrangled in making Dracula 1992. humanehollywood.org/index.php/movie-archive/item/bram-stoker-s-dracula |
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Post by ArcLight on Jan 4, 2020 16:35:08 GMT -5
Given my love of connecting different things, it counts and he's actually the same person in both. |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 4, 2020 19:20:45 GMT -5
The Return of the Vampire (1943) The werewolf is the vampire’s less than willing servant. Lugosi ‘resurrects’ his Dracula persona in all but name. Universal owned that name for movie title and character purposes and this was Columbia. The werewolf can talk BTW. Spooky and atmospheric, with good performances by a capable cast, Return of the Vampire is a very good horror flick, so much so that even today you have to pay to see it. A sample: www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWj2ZQtC8-QOther 1940s movies with vampire and werewolf House of Frankenstein (1944) House of Dracula (1945) Both of the monster mash genre, part of Universal’s attempt to continue to suck blood, so to speak, from an aging turnip. In both movies, John Carradine does his unique spin on Dracula and that works just fine. In ‘Frankenstein’, Drac is already dead by the time Larry Talbot shows up, played admirably as usual by Lon Chaney. In ‘Dracula’, they are both around in the same time and place but interaction is negligible. Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948) This is the correct title of the movie despite Wiki and other sources. Another monster mash but livened up by Bud and Lou and by Lugosi returning for the second and final time as the onscreen Dracula. (Lugosi portrayed the Count many hundreds of times on stage in New York and London.) What really makes this movie work is that it is not a spoof. Everyone but the comedy duo plays it completely straight, making this a legitimate horror movie. Chaney does his Larry Talbot bit as well as ever. Unlike the two ‘House of’ movies mentioned above, the Wolf Man definitely interacts with Dracula. BTW Frankenstein (the monster) arrives in a large wooden crate just as he does in Monster Squad, one of the many refs to classic Universal horror movies. I love that scene in Monster Squad where the crate is rising up from the water and suddenly the gill man is revealed lifting it. (AKA The Creature From The Black Lagoon) The Big Five of old school Universal horror together again for the first time! (The Invisible Man does not appear in Monster Squad. Neither does he non-appear as he does at the end of ‘Abbott and Costello’.) If anyone wants to talk about the Twilight or Underworld series, go ahead. Personally, I do not care that much for the latter and not at all for the former. Are there any other movies not yet discussed that feature both a vampire and a werewolf? |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 5, 2020 9:36:18 GMT -5
Forgot another one that did not do it for me - Van Helsing
Am I wrong about those three?
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Post by ArcLight on Jan 5, 2020 11:35:41 GMT -5
The Underworld stuff - some I liked more than others, with 'Rise of the Lycans' being the obvious favorite. Still, they're all watchable to me (well, maybe not the last one - haven't tried it a second time yet)
Twilight I watched more out of a sense of obligation to the cause (that cause is trying to check out any possibly werewolf-related thing I can), but I'm far, far away from the target audience and I knew that going in.
Van Helsing - honestly, given all the pre-release talk of franchises and spin-offs and what-have-you I expected it to be a steaming pile of disappointment so in a way I wasn't disappointed.
Technically it's a 'vampire in a werewolf movie' but don't forget The Howling 6 - The Freaks. One of the better Howling sequels (tho that's a bar you can basically step over) in my mind. I'm also amused by the 'role reversal' as stars Brendan Hughes (the werewolf) and Bruce Payne (the vampire) have both played the opposite creature in other films. Hughes was a vampire in To Die For and Payne was a werewolf in Full Eclipse.
There's also Evil Ed's turn as a wolf-creature in the original Fright Night, with a well-done and somewhat heartbreaking reverse transformation.
Pretty sure Monster Brawl included both along with a bevy of other creatures but if I watched it I don't remember if they faced off against each other or not.
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 5, 2020 19:11:26 GMT -5
The Underworld stuff - some I liked more than others, with 'Rise of the Lycans' being the obvious favorite. Still, they're all watchable to me (well, maybe not the last one - haven't tried it a second time yet) Twilight I watched more out of a sense of obligation to the cause (that cause is trying to check out any possibly werewolf-related thing I can), but I'm far, far away from the target audience and I knew that going in. Van Helsing - honestly, given all the pre-release talk of franchises and spin-offs and what-have-you I expected it to be a steaming pile of disappointment so in a way I wasn't disappointed. Technically it's a 'vampire in a werewolf movie' but don't forget The Howling 6 - The Freaks. One of the better Howling sequels (tho that's a bar you can basically step over) in my mind. I'm also amused by the 'role reversal' as stars Brendan Hughes (the werewolf) and Bruce Payne (the vampire) have both played the opposite creature in other films. Hughes was a vampire in To Die For and Payne was a werewolf in Full Eclipse. There's also Evil Ed's turn as a wolf-creature in the original Fright Night, with a well-done and somewhat heartbreaking reverse transformation. Pretty sure Monster Brawl included both along with a bevy of other creatures but if I watched it I don't remember if they faced off against each other or not. Unfortunately I saw Love Actually just before Underworld. I could not help but see Bill Nighy not as Viktor but as the former rock star, ex-heroin addict trying to make a comeback with a silly Christmas song. My real problem with the Underworld series is that they are really action movies that happen to involve vampires and werewolves. There are even Underworld action figures. I wonder if there is a life sized Selene blowup doll I want my supernatural slower paced and deeper in concept than that. Also too much CGI. I had forgotten the vampire Harker in Howling VI. Nice bat creature appearance when he turns. Good death scene too. Too bad the werewolf appearance is less than thrilling. I agree that not all Howling sequels are awful but I would not call any of them very good. V and VI are probably the best. I did not connect Hughes and Payne with their opposite roles in other movies. Thanks for that bit of info. You do like connections. I thought of Evil Ed’s wolf transformation in Fright Night (1985) as part of a vampire’s bag of tricks and not as him being a werewolf per se. Which raises the question, does this make a vampire also a werewolf? I never saw Monster Brawl and it appears you have to pay to see it. Maybe some other time. I understand that the Lady Vampire and the Werewolf are both played by professional wrestlers. Probably others too but those are the ones I looked up. |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 6, 2020 19:22:32 GMT -5
Monster Mash: The Movie (1995)
Not to be confused with the animated and even sillier Monster Mash (2000)
Teenage boy and girl suffer their car breaking down on a stormy night and take refuge at a mysterious old mansion where the characters are all weird and menacing and there is singing and dancing. No, not The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Monster Mash (1995) is based on a musical play from 1967 that might possibly have influenced Rocky. A comedy of course, 'Mash' has the full cast of characters one might expect: Dr. Frankenstein (Bobby 'Boris' Pickett who did the original Monster Mash record from 1962), the Frankenstein monster (with what seems to be a store bought Frankenstein mask), Igor, Count and Countess Dracula, the Mummy (who is actually Elvis resurrected).
And of course Wolfie, who has a 'pre-existing condition' namely he is 'canine challenged'. Or so his mother puts it, having come to Dr. Frankenstein for a possible cure. (Remember that movie?). The good (?) doctor lays it on the line "Your son is a werewolf ... keep him off the carpet". The werewolf look is disappointing, no more than a heavy beard. His mother does a pretty good musical number though.
Much of the humor derives from references to other monster movies. This includes the brain swapping idea from Ghost of Frankenstein, which gets rather involved with switches going on. Then there is the Frankenstein monster trying to tell Igor something important via a game of Charades. The hump gets into the act when Igor plays the 'bagpipe' using a hookah and his hump.
BTW the girl is played by a teenage Candace Cameron, aka D J Tanner and Aurora Teagarden.
If one goes into this movie expecting no more than silly humor and some not too shabby songs, it is a pleasant way to waste some time. If you want anything more serious than that, forget it.
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 7, 2020 15:46:04 GMT -5
Transylvania 6-5000 (1985) The owner of a sensationlist tabloid receives a video purporting to show the Frankenstein monster. He sends reporters to Transylvania to find the Frankenstein monster or be fired. They find lots more. A very stupid movie. With few exceptions it is quite unfunny. Acting and dialog are ludicrous. Among other things it is surely the worst performance Jeff Goldblum ever gave. The poor attempts at humor include things like people laughing at the tabloid reporter who asked the hotel clerk about Frankenstein. This goes on for a minute and a half. The only non-embarrassing performances I can come up with are Carol Kane who plays Lupi the butler's wife ('loopy' get it?) with surprising restraint, Joseph Bologna as the mad scientist who is only crazy when in his lab (a gag that actually works), and a post-Fridays pre-Seinfeld Michael Richards. His performance would be utterly embarrassing except that it is clear that he knows the movie is ridiculous and he is being intentionally ridiculous too in order to ridicule it. I suspect most of his performance is ad lib. If anyone wrote that stuff they should be shot. Oddly, this movie was financed by Dow Chemical. (The script was apparently inspired by Sandoz. Does anybody get that?) The movie was made in Yugoslavia when that country still existed. As the law stood then, revenue received in Yugoslavian currency could not be taken out of the country. So they financed a movie. Amazingly it showed a profit. Despite all the hoopla, there is neither a vampire nor a werewolf in the movie. There is a young Geena Davis who likes to dress like a very sexy vampire and who is a nympho. No problem by me. But not a real vampire. And there is a guy who has congenital hypertrichosis terminalis (lots of hair all over his body). Not a real werewolf. |
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Post by someoldguy on Jan 13, 2020 20:07:10 GMT -5
Werewolf: The Beast Among Us (2012)
How did I forget this one? Maybe because it is almost entirely a werewolf movie with the vampire (a wurdulak actually, like Karloff in Black Sabbath) only showing up near the end.
As werewolf movies go, it is not half bad, but neither is it any more than half good. Pros: Lots of gore and the creature is not too bad for CGI. Cons: The story is a bit confusing IMO, dialog and acting are less than terrific and the identity of the werewolf is obvious not all that far in. But if you want a furry flick that you do not have to invest much thought in, this is not a bad choice.
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Personally, I'd count Monster Squad as a werewolf movie (the same wolfman from Fright Night Part 2, BTW) so it's always on topic around these parts. Also one of my favorite wolfman style designs.
Le Loup-Garou Qui Rit