Friday 20 April 2018

AtoZ2018 - R is for ... #MovieMonsters #AtoZChallenge


R is for ...

Greetings and welcome on R day for the AtoZChallenge. Most of my monsters today aren't overly scary, but to make up for Q having so few, there are 5. Hope everyone is well and enjoys my picks.

Scariness Rating


The little skulls by their name are my scariness rating as to how monstrous and scary I think the creatures are when seen in their films.
  •  1 skull (not scary at all) - 5 skulls (very scary)
  •  and there is a special rating for a few - 5 red skulls (utterly terrifying)

Rowan North (Ghostbusters)

Rowan North is the epitome of whiny man-child who isn't recognised by those he feels are inferior to him, so he wants to destroy things. In his case, the world.

He is a mad scientist who has developed devices to summon ghosts, which will open a portal to the ghost dimension and bring about the apocalypse. As a human he is a monster who cares for no one but himself.

Later he becomes a real monster is still a whiny man-child, just a more powerful one. He's a great villain with no redeeming features at all.

Raven the Shadmock (The Monster Club)

A Shadmock is a monster hybrid of vampire, werewolf and ghoul of some combination. Raven is a shadmock and lives a reclusive lonely life.

Shadmocks only have one supernatural ability - they whistle.

The whistling is an emotional reaction they find difficult to control, hence Raven's hermit type existence.

Whistling might not seem like a particularly horrific monster thing to do, but a Shadmock's whistle can destroy in terrible ways.

Raven is a sad figure and to be pitied, especially when he is a very kind monster who cannot help what he is.

I'll let Vincent Price explain monster family trees :).


The Red Queen (Resident Evil)

The Red Queen is an artificial intelligence created by the Umbrella Corporation. In the original Resident Evil film she run their base called The Hive. When the Hive is contaminated by the T-virus she shuts it down and kills everyone inside.

She is monstrous to our human sensibilities because she has no feelings and does what she has been programmed to do. She kills at will to complete her task and cannot be reasoned with, only blackmailed, since her own existence is important to her.

In Resident Evil she is only part of the enemy, but she's a really great part. The Resident Evil films are basically post-apocalyptic zombie movies, which I don't usually like, but there's something about them that just grabs me.

Darryl Revok (Scanners)

Scanners are human beings altered as fetuses by the drug ephemerol, which was designed to relieve adverse symptoms of pregnancy. Those exposed to it developed psychic powers including telepathy with a side of mind control, empathy and psychokinesis.

However, many lose control of their powers, unable to deal with the voices their hear in their heads and go insane, or turn to anyway of suppressing what their hear.

Revok is a scanner who successfully controls his powers. He also has a network of scanners at his disposal and has a habit of killing any scanner who refuses to join him. When a human is scanned at full power, or another scanner is scanned by a scanner stronger than them, it can result in physiological reactions so extreme their heads literally explode. Revok is very good at using this technique to remove anyone in his way.

He see humans as tools and is perfectly happy to control them any way he sees fit. He is a monster with a human face.

I love the Scanners franchise. The first is a David Cronenberg, with lots of gore and spy level stuff going on, and they get cheesier from there, through Scanners II: The New Order and Scanner III: The Takeover, with Scanner Cop and Scanner Cop II as spin-offs.

Have the first head exploding scene from Scanners from youtube.


The Rabbit of Caerbannog (Monty Python and the Holy Grail)

This rabbit has "wee pointy teeth" and it'll have your head off in a second. This is no fluffy bunny we're dealing with. Of course it has 5 red skulls, because what's scarier than a killer rabbit? ;)

This rabbit guards the cave where the location of the Holy Grail is inscribed on the wall in the hand of Jospeh of Arimathea himself.

What could possibly have created this evil beast is a mystery. Maybe it was the hand of god himself, to make sure only the worthy could reach the cave. We may never know. Only the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch is a match for this monster.

Q: Which is your favourite Monty Python film? What other R monsters have I missed?

AtoZ List of All Participants

15 comments:

  1. Hari OM
    did sit through Life of Brian. Once. I was in polite company so sat it out. Loved the VP clip - decided not to watch the other. Star Trek TOS had Redjac, ("Wolf in the Fold"), an energy life form which travelled worlds as a seriel killer; on Earth it was Jack the Ripper...Then there was Ruk the android ("What Are Little Girls Made Of?")... YAM xx

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  2. Hi Tasha - the Rabbit must be pretty gruesome - 5 red skulls ... hate horror though, even when it's fun!! Cheers Hilary

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  3. I was so happy to see only a couple of white to start with and then oh god there they were five in red! I'm with Hilary - books are scary enough :)

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  4. I love Monty Python so it wins hands down =) Love MP and the Holy Grail. For some reason when I was growing up it used to be on tv every New Year's Eve (we only had 2 tv stations back then so not a lot of choice).

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  5. Oh, I did love Holy Grail! I was doing an Honours thesis in Arthurian literature at the time ai first saw it and so enjoyed it even more - I got all the in-jokes. It reminded me that this team had met at university and knew their stuff.

    R Is For Gillian Rubinstein

    https://suebursztynski.blogspot.com.au/2018/04/a-to-z-blogging-challenge-2018-r-is-for.html

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  6. There's something oddly disconcerting about a rabbit with five red skulls LOL

    Dena
    https://denapawling.blogspot.com/

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  7. I love that you put the rabbit in! So funny :-)
    https://iainkellywriting.com/2018/04/20/r-is-for-rome-italy/

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  8. Lots of R monsters today. I love you added the rabbit from Monty Python. XD

    ~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    My A to Z’s of Dining with IC
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

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  9. Red Queen ties in with my post - https://rolandclarke.com/2018/04/20/r-is-for-resident-evil/ - but I've not encountered her. But that Rabbit in the film with watery tarts and coconuts, now that is scaree nastee.

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  10. I've never seen Scanners, but I really want to now! I have to agree with your top monster today though, that rabbit is something else

    Song a Day
    R is for Ringo Starr

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  11. From this list, I've only seen Ghostbuster, and yet I can't remember Rowan. I think I might have to go back and watch it!

    Right Back in the Water by Jesse McCartney

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  12. I have not seen any except for the Monty Python and the dreaded rabbit. I love all Monty Python but Life of Brian is my fav. Vincent Price talking about movie monsters made me laugh and get more confused:)

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  13. Damn! all are creepy

    Sorry, i have been unwell last week and could not comment on your posts.

    Tongue Twister's

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  14. I love that you included the rabbit. I'm a big Monty Python fan.

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  15. Just re-watched Ghost Busters -- Rowan is a great monster!

    Ronel from Ronel the Mythmaker A-Z road-tripping with Everything Writerly: R is for Reimaginings

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