Monday, October 1, 2012

Monstrous Memories

Before I heard the names of Van Helsing, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Blade, or any of the other monster hunters, I hunted them like I was seeking the Christmas present hiding place (which changed every year, but I always found it.) I didn’t use silver bullets or garlic, or an electrically-charged net, though. I didn’t need to. My monsters were confined to a small box in our living room. And, like a cat stalking its prey, I was always looking.

I loved it every time I found a new show that offered the possibility of seeing a new monster/alien/robot. Looked forward to that little electrical feeling of excitement and fear when I saw a new critter, and sometimes straight out-and-out fear if the monster was a bit more than I could handle, which did happen occasionally.

Because I did not see many movies at the theater when I was a kid, most of my monster memories are restricted to the small box in the living room. Here are just three of my favorite monsters from way back when.

The Invisible Monster – Jonny Quest. Sometimes what you don’t see is scarier than what you do see, and those creative geniuses at Hanna-Barbera used that extremely well in The Invisible Monster episode. We’re set up for the pre-scare with a lone scientist working in his lab on a remote island (always spells trouble).

The Salt Vampire – Star Trek. As soon as you throw in the word “vampire”, I’m there. Well, not so much, now, but certainly back then.

The Galaxy Being – The Outer Limits. Re-watching the episode as an adult, I realized that the poor guy wasn’t truly a monster. But, as a 7-year-old kid watching it on our old black-and-white set (which made it even scarier) it was truly frightening.

More critter memories to come...

'til next time... Adios.

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