horror movies

Stay The Fuck Home Vincent Price Edition

There are three actors that I had major crushes on when I was younger. Harold Lloyd (silent film star), Jon Erik Hexum and Vincent Price. Yes, that sounds like a mixed bag, but they all had a uniqueness that had me crushing hard. I know… I know… you need more info than that.

Harold Lloyd had an adorable awkwardness about him. Watch any of his movies (Girl Shy, The Freshman or Why Worry) and you will get it. Jon Erik Hexum… his time travelling, swash buckling hero character of Phineas Bogg got my heart a pitter pattering. But Vincent, Vincent Price was this horror loving, spooky story girl favourite.

Vincent Price was not only the voice of many radio plays, he was a Film Noir star and a campy horror god! I’ve long been a fan of his horror movies and radio plays, but it wasn’t until recently that I have really gotten into his Film Noir movies. I highly recommend Shock!, Laura and The Long Night. Here is a link to some more of his well known Film Noir roles. Check them out, you won’t be disappointed. However, it’s his horror films that we know and love him for the most.

However, before I get to the horror stuff, I need to talk about the Vincent I remember from my childhood. If you are not Canadian you many not be as familiar with this as we are. There are box sets out there of the entire series, you need to go buy them. What am I talking about, well, The Hilarious House of Frightenstein of course! This show, along with the Addams Family were my favourite things to watch. They were dark, funny and I loved all of the characters. I also love that it is a Canadian show filmed in Hamilton.

Then comes The Last Man On Earth. This is still one of my favourite of his horror movies along with The House On Haunted Hill, The Witchfinder General, The House of Wax, The Pit and The Pendulum, The Bat, Theatre of Blood and The Fly. There are so many more, but this post will end up being really long!

Let’s not forget that Vincent also loved to cook! He and his wife Mary created a cookbook called A Treasury of Great Recipes! Oh how I would love to get my hands on a copy! My birthday is coming if anyone is looking for gift ideas!

Stay The Fuck Home The Creature From The Black Lagoon Edition

I have a soft spot for B-movie creatures. My biggest soft spot is for King Kong, Frankenstein and the Creature from The Black Lagoon. I often wonder if I’m drawn to them because I always feel like I’m out of my element, especially when I was a teenager. I felt like I was growing up in a place I not only didn’t belong in, but was put there without my own choice. The three creatures I just mentioned, were either yanked away from their home, brought back to life against their will or had their home invaded by unwelcome visitors. All things they never asked for. All things throwing them out of their own element.

Many moons ago, while I was browsing DVDs at Sonic Boom (Toronto), I came across one of many box sets I ended up purchasing, of these beloved creatures. The first one I bought was Frankenstein, then The Creature From The Black Lagoon, Then Dracula and finally The Wolf Man. The only one I’m missing is The Mummy (again… my birthday is coming soon). I’ve watched all of these box sets over and over again, but the one I’ve watched the most is The Creature From The Black Lagoon. I tend to crave it the most right around this time of year. I’m not sure why. I tend to watch it along with the first Jaws movie. Maybe it’s my version so Summer Fever?

My good friend Carlin who passed away in December of 2019 created dolls and made me my very own Creature From The Black Lagoon. I will cherish it always.

The Creature From The Black Lagoon had two sequels, Revenge of the Creature (1955), in 3D and The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), filmed in 2D. Abbott and Costello even had a comedic episode on the Colgate Comedy Hour called Abbott and Costello Meet the Creature from the Black Lagoon.

Then… there was failed attempts at a reboot. I’m generally not a fan of remakes. I love when movie creatures inspire other movies such as The Shape of Water, but when a movie doesn’t need to be remade… just leave well enough alone.

Watching all of these amazing b-movies and creature features, really has me wanting to finally make one of my own!

Stay The Fuck Home Creature Features Edition

I find some of the best cinematic entertainment, for me anyway, is b-movies. Especially, 1950s creature features and scifi. Honestly, how can you not. Not to mention how inspiring it is to hear stories about what the creators did to ensure their movies got made! Below are some really popular b-movies as a well as some of my all time favourites!

I have most of these in box sets, but you can find many on YouTube!

What are some of your favourite creature features?

Enjoy!

(links below are a combo of full movies and trailers)

Creature From The Black Lagoon

Little Shop of Horrors

Godzilla

Famous Monsters The Wolf Man

Famous Monsters The Mummy

Other B Movie Creature Features I Love Below are some of my favourite b-movie creature features that I’ve watch many times over!

The Giant Gila Monster

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster

Lady Frankenstein

Attack of the Giant Leeches

The Amazing Colossal Man

Them!

The Giant Spider Invasion

Stay The Fuck Home The Something Creepy Edition

I’ve always leaned more towards the creepy than the delightful. I prefer the world of creepy things. Haunted houses, bats, spiders, gothic novels, horror movies, spooky stories and Victorian Death Photography. I know many of my friends appreciate these things as well. I know that my tastes either turn people on or scare them away, however, I know everyone has a week bit of interest in the darker side of things. For today’s blog post, I am going to give you things to read or watch to either entertain you or educate you! Let’s be macabre together!

Haunted houses! I have always wanted to live in a creepy old, ghost filled Victorian. Nice ghosts of course. No one wants to live with assholes! Especially, those who can walk through walls.

Bats! If you been reading my blog. You know I love them! Go check out this article!

Spiders come in all shapes and sizes and we have a few living in our home. I know many of you are afraid of them, but trust me, a lot of them are harmless to humans and keep pests at bay in your home. If you see one, don’t kill it. If you really can’t stand it being in your home, carefully remove it.

Gothic novels are one of my favourite things to read. Frankenstein, Dracula, Varney the Vampire, Jane Eyre, the works of Charles Dickens, Edgar Allan Poe, and many, many more! You can read many for free on Gutenburg.

Horror movies have been my favourite way to kill a couple hours. See what I did there. Kill a couple of hours… get it? Nevermind.

The classics such as Universal Monsters (Frankenstein, The Mummy, Creature From The Black Lagoon, The Werewolf, Dracula), or silent horror are my my all time favourites.

Spooky ghost stories are best told right before bed so you can have delightful nightmares! At least that is my favourite time to read them. This website has some good flash horror fiction if you can only handle it in a small bite at a time.
https://thoughtcatalog.com/christine-stockton/2018/06/ghost-stories/

Victorian Death Photography (aka memento mori photography) is one of those topics that has a lot of fiction attached to it. It was a real thing, don’t at me about the fiction part. But there are many photos out there claiming to be Victorian Death Photography, aka , when in fact it’s a regular photo.

Atlas Obscura has a great article about Victorian photography and the contraptions used to help subjects still while the photo was being taken. It was necessary for the subject to be still because Daguerretype camera‘s required it due to the long exposure. Some contraptions called headclamps were used to keep the client still. Many photos showing the headclamp being used are wrongly labelled as Victorian Death Photography. Something to be aware of!

Stay The Fuck Home Zombies Edition

Zombies!

Come ON! You knew this one was coming!

So many people ask me why I love zombies. Why? Have you noticed that even in their undead state, they still work together as a community. Well, they do. Yes, it sucks that their limbs will fall off and they stink of rotting flesh and they need to eat the living to keep going, but yeah for community! We could all take a lesson out of the zombie book!

My love of zombies started when I was quite young. One would think it was when I was introduced to George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), but in fact, it was much earlier than that. My first taste of zombies, was much more of a traditional zombie. Movies such as Nosferatu ()King of the Zombies (1941), I Walked With Zombie (1943) and White Zombie (1932), were often played on TV. I recall watching them over and over, being fascinated with what a zombie really was. Then came along a completely different type of undead being.

Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead, Return of the Living Dead, Zombi, Night of the Comet and 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead showed us a variety of possible zombie types. Slow, fast, rabid and ones who could become friends. To this day Shaun of the Dead is still my go to movie when I feel depression creeping in.

There are also a large number of books and comic books that tell fantastic zombie stories. I have a stack of books but my favourites are World War Z, The Zombie Survival Guide, Patient Zero, and for a little bit of fun Pride and Prejudice and the Zombies! I’m also a huge fan of The Walking Dead graphic novels (not a fan of the TV series).

And of course my all time favourite zombie genre, b-movies! Here are a bunch that are available on YouTube!

Teenage Zombies (1959)