Tuesday, July 28, 2009

It came from Wikipedia

Even Wikipedia isn't the most accurate source of information in the world, I still find myself browsing through when I'm bored and need to kill a little time online. I checked the information found in the links below using other resources and can guarantee that they're all true.

Even though I'm not a fan of the Saw franchise, I'm fascinated by the licensing decisions surrounding it. Not only does the soundtrack for the European version of Saw III has a Dethklok song in it, but there are also an amusement park ride and video game based on the series.

Speaking of odd choices for video games, it turns out that there was a Plan 9 from Outer Space computer game! What's even weirder is that the game is about recovering the film's reels (stolen by Bela Lugosi's double) rather than it being a playable adaptation of the game.

I find it odd that, despite J. J. Abrams' claim of coming up with the idea for Cloverfield out of a desire to create an American monster, there's a (currently) Japan-only manga prequel.

You might know John Agar from movies like The Brain from Planet Arous or Tarantula, but I bet you didn't know that he started a theme park called "Land of Kong" that featured a forty foot tall King Kong statue Sadly, the park (which had since changed its name to "Dinosaur World") closed in 2005. As noted on in these blogs, the massive King Kong statue's blinking red eyes and roaring sound effects (along with the now-outdated dinosaur statues) couldn't compete with the thrill-rides and realistic animatronic effects that can be found in modern theme parks.

It's a rare treat to get some insight the creation of the horror movie posters of yesteryear. The late Tom Chantrell, who designed the posters for Star Wars and many Hammer horror films, apparently only used a basic plot description and a few publicity stills (along with pictures of himself and others posing) in order to create his masterpieces.

Japan's first giant monster movie might have been a lost 1938 film called King Kong Appears in Edo. I say "might have" because there are some allegations that the film is a hoax and it's been theorized that the film was actually called King Kong and the "Appears in Edo" was merely the tagline. You can find an alleged publicity picture here.

When I first read that Viras (and other monsters from the Gamera franchise) had an animated cameo on the children's television series Franklin, I was convinced it was just a joke. Then I saw a screenshot...

Speaking of giant monsters, I was surprised to learn that the 1977 novelization of The Creature from the Black Lagoon changed the Gill-man into a thirty ton, hermaphroditic monster.

Finally, Poltergay. I honestly don't know what else to say about this.

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