Movie Monsters

Luche Libre: Chupacabras

Just a brief note that with the success of Jack Black in the movie Nacho Libre (2006), many North Americans are awakening to the popularity of luche libre ("free-style fighting"). The masked version of Mexican professional wrestling has been around since the 1930s. As a reflection of popular culture, it is not surprising that cryptids pop up as characters, now and then, in luche libre. One luchador ("wrestler") has even dressed himself as a Chupacabras. Do you know others?

Narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness Dies

Arthur Franz, a character actor whose voice will forever be remembered as the narrator of The Legend of Loch Ness, died at St. John’s Hospital in Oxnard, California, of heart failure and emphysema, on June 17, 2006, at the age of 86. The film was a 1976 documentary on the famed Scottish Lake Monsters, Nessie. Franz was earlier best known for his role in Invaders from Mars (1953). Franz, who lived in New Zealand until the last month or so, had been in failing health for some time and wanted to spend his remaining days in California. Franz also played [...]

Will Mothman Deaths Return?

According to a listing of TV Movies for June 11 – 17, 2006, a sinister banshee is on the horizon. The Mothman flies again: The Mothman Prophecies ’02. Richard Gere. A reporter investigates the sightings of a strange creature and other strange phenomena in a small town. (PG-13) (2:30) TNT: Jun 17, 2006, Sat. 2 P.M., 11:15 P.M. (CC) Who will die of the Mothman Death Curse in the coming days? June 20th is the fourth anniversary of the date when Mothman investigator Jim Keith’s former partner Sherry Marie Yearsley’s body was dumped along eastbound I-80 at Sparks, Nevada, near [...]

Mothman Pizza

Now there’s something to eat in honor of John A. Keel. The Charleston Daily Mail is running a story on May 30, 2006, about Point Pleasant’s Village Pizza Inn making the “scariest pizza you’ve ever seen.” Apparently, it is a local secret as the specialty doesn’t actually appear on the printed menu — but it is made on request. Dubbed the “Mothman Pizza,” this round 19-inch pie features the winged, crimson-eyed creature atop its crisp, crunchy dough. Here’s what Mr. Mothman looks like in edible pizza form: His eyes are two round red cherry peppers with tiny green olives as [...]

Cannes 2006: The Host

A special little movie has been invited to screen at the Cannes 2006 Director’s Fortnight that is of interest to Cryptomundo. It is entitled The Host (Gue Mool), and directed by Bong Joon-ho, 37, of South Korea. Bae Doona, 27, model-turned-actress (above), who has had strong parts and gotten rave reviews, stars, along with lead David Joseph Anselmo. Perhaps under-whelming in its initial description, the Hollywood Reporter called The Host “a sci-fi horror about a mutant rising from Seoul’s Han river…full of special effects.” But then noted it has been described by Pere as “an auteur film and a very [...]

Cryptid Cats, Murdering Bigfoot, and Giant Claw

Need a cryptofix? How about trying some cryptofiction – via a new movie of a Mystery Felid, a new novel of a Maraudering Sasquatch, and a visual flashback at an old movie of a Giant Bird? Headlines on May 20, 2006, tell of “Giant Feral Cats to Scare on Screen”, and how they will appear through the device of a 1.5 million dollar movie. Shall our Australian readers see it first on a movie theater near you? The mystery big cat thought to prowl the Blue Mountains is set to star in a horror movie. A Sydney-based team will start [...]

Thunderbird Film Discovered

Wisconsin writer and investigator Todd Roll has discovered an early forgotten, overlooked film that coincidentally appeared as a precursor to the famous Thunderbird flap in the 1970s. The movie was released in 1974, and entitled The Legend of Hillbilly John. Three years later, with the attempted airborne abduction of Marlon Lowe by two giant birds at Lawndale, Illinois, on July 25, 1977, the modern era of Thunderbird sightings began. The first investigator on the scene was my brother, Jerry, and the first write-up of the case came from his rough notes in Creatures of the Outer Edge. Based on a [...]