Movie Monsters

Keel News Now & Mothman 40 Years Ago

Today is the symbolic 40th anniversary of the beginning of the modern era of Mothman sightings. On this date, I am happy to pass along the news (from Doug Skinner) that John A. Keel, 76, uncomfortable but very much alive, has been released from the rehab facility to his home. My very best wishes to Keel for a speedy recovery. Four decades ago, Keel did not know his life was going to take him down this road to Mothman. Intriguingly in 1966, a new book of his, The Fickle Finger of Fate, had just been published. Events were unfolding in [...]

Creature From the Black Lagoon Again

Boing Boing has a good new posting on the just-released Creature From the Black Lagoon novel. Cory Doctorow writes: "If you’re looking for a fun little paperback to take you away from your life for a couple hours, you need look no further." Perhaps we all will need this after the election is over today… As I’ve mentioned at Cryptomundo before, the original concept for the movie developed from the excitement in the early 1950s that surrounded the Comoros Islands (near Madagascar) discovery of a "living fossil," the coelacanth. After its initial find in 1938, and the eventual acceptance that [...]

Abominable Snowman’s Writer Dies

One of the most influential television writers of the 20th century and the writer of one of the most important motion pictures in Yeti cryptofiction has died. Earlier this year, I noted that director Val Guest died on May 10, 2006, in California. Now, Nigel has passed away. That would be Nigel Kneale, here pictured from the 1950s. At the Hammer Film’s site, in a remembrance there, writer Robert Simpson shares the sad news: Tom Kneale (better known as Nigel Kneale) died on Sunday 29 October 2006 aged 84. To many he was the godfather of television science fiction, a [...]

Halloween TV

As most of us have noticed, Halloween is a great time to catch up on all those documentaries or reality programming we didn’t see all year – or even for decades. Craig Woolheater’s image and mine have been rebroadcast all week, especially on the “Weird Travels” repeats. Here’s a few more to watch while you are waiting for the local trick or treaters to come around, or helping your own kids eat their candy. Monday, October 30, 2006 Travel Channel Weird Travels: Creepy Creatures 7:00 PM Tuesday, October 31, 2006 Travel Channel Weird Travels: Creepy Creatures 2:00 AM Tuesday, October [...]