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.
No comments:
Post a Comment