Mai Tai Monster Movies...

check out my list at http://www.retroplanet.net - it's their Tiki issue, so dig it.

Anyone else out there agree "From Hell It Came" is the greatest tiki monster movie of all time? I'm also curious to know if anyone else out there has even seen/heard of it...

On 2003-08-01 14:29, AquaZombie wrote:

Anyone else out there agree "From Hell It Came" is the greatest tiki monster movie of all time? I'm also curious to know if anyone else out there has even seen/heard of it...

DANG! I've been wracking my brain for years trying to find out the title of that one-I saw it in FIRST GRADE! The old man used to let me stay up late Saturday night and we'd watch monster flicks. "FROM HELL IT CAME" ranks up there with "Queen of Blood","Robot Monster" and "Teenage Caveman"

AquaZombie, I think I love you...Do you like spam?

Okay, as long as we're racking our brains for childhood horror movie memories, I remember coming home after school when I was about 9 (that makes it some time in the 70s) and watching some sort of cheezy horror show (it was real horrorshow, me drugies), that starred Vincent Price. I remember him doing a voice-over during the opening credits complete with creepy organ music and bad thunder and lightning effects over some sort of haunted castle. I cannot remember tha name of the show, but I want to say that it was something like "House of Frankenstein". Ring a bell, anyone?

...and this should not be confused with the recent thread in "Beyond Tiki" dealing with Young Frankenstein (and/or Fronk-en-steen).

Oh yes, I'm well aware of Tabonga the Tree Monster of "From Hell It Came." It's a pretty cool monster!

One of my favorite drinking movies, very good with rum drinks, is George Romero's "Day of the Dead," which is terribly gory (this was in the unrated 80's), but a friendly film in certain other respects.

This is a movie where zombies have taken over the world and the few remaining humans live underground in a cave, where they do experiments on zombies to try to figure out how to deal with them.

Two of the humans have a little Tiki Retreat off in one corner of the cave (they believe in partying their way through the apocalpyse), and one of the two (the radio technician) is drinking constantly--I mean CONSTANTLY--through the film, carries a flask with him and everything. This character even drinks to make the unpleasant and frightening task of "zombie killing" a bit easier. I find this very funny--and also strangely realistic. Hey, who wouldn't do it that way?

Romero has always had a different way with a zombie tale.

to Tikibars:

Quite possibly the film you are describing is Roger Corman's "The Raven," from 1963, which opens with Price reciting the poem, and the backdrop is Price's creepy castle. The film also starred Peter Lorre, Boris Karloff, and Jack Nicholson.

People in the California area might know this.
Who was the guy who used to be a host on late night TV in the early 70's, that introduced horror movies on Saturday night the way that Elvira did. I remember he was funny and wore a big/large black rimmed hat. Just Wonderin

Jeepers Creepers?????????????

UB wrote:
"Who was the guy who used to be a host on late night TV in the early 70's, that introduced horror movies on Saturday night the way that Elvira did. I remember he was funny and wore a big/large black rimmed hat. Just Wonderin"
I believe his name was Sigmund.

I think it was Seymour Presents on Fright Night, I loved that show!!

http://latvlegends.com/Seymour/Seymour.html

[ Edited by: DawnTiki on 2003-08-02 08:15 ]

That's him!
This brings back a lot memories
Thanks DawnTiki.

The bay area had Creature Features on channel 2 if my memory serves me right. My favorites were the Godzilla shows. They'd say they were going to show three movies. The second "movie" was always a cartoon short, "Godzilla vs. Bambi". I never could stay awake through the last movie.

Tikibars, that show was "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein". A Canadian cult classic. I am amazed you got it in Chicago. I grew up watching that show... ahh the memories! Here's a great fan site for the show:

http://www.frightenstein.com/main.html

Tikibars, that show was "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein". A Canadian cult classic. I am amazed you got it in Chicago. I grew up watching that show... ahh the memories! Here's a great fan site for the show:

http://www.frightenstein.com/main.html

By gooley, yes, it was "Hilarious House of Frightenstein"...I should have been reading that post more closely. That show ran in Los Angeles also. I just visited their site, and was surprised by the amount of stuff they have up!

If memory serves, the numerous very decent monster makeups were created by Bob Laden...

[ Edited by: procinema29 on 2003-08-02 12:46 ]

Okay, I haven't even THOUGHT of "Hilarious House of Frightenstein" since I was like ten, so we're even, a memory for a memory. I didn't know Vinnie the P did the VO, either.

I don't remember the actual tiki bar in "Day of the Dead" but I do remember there was lotsa drinking. If you check out the archives of http://www.retroplanet.net for the previous issue, you''ll find my piece on Cocktail Cinema or Martini Movies or whatever it's called and my #1 drinking movie of all time is THE KILLER SHREWS! There is more hard drinking in that flick that in any other movie I've ever seen - but hell, if you were surrounded by rabid dogs wearing fake fangs and shag rugs, wouldn't you get smashed, too?

I always thought of zombies as being kinda tiki, since so many exotica albums have "Voodoo" in the title (or are just called "Voodoo" - Robert Drasnin, Richard Heyman, I'm sure there're lots more). As I explained somewhere in this vast , dark chat room, in the newcomers forum, wherever that is, I chose my moniker here, "AquaZombie" off the top off my head but I think it's inspired by the infamous underwater zombie/shark scene in Fulchi's ZOMBIE, which is also set on a tropical isle, a la I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE, but of course this is MUCH sicker and gorier. I'm showing "Zombie" Oct 9 in my cult movie show Thrillville, by the way (www.thrillville.net) - many of you probably know me as "Will the Thrill" but that's such an overused user's name I thought I'd go something a bit more off the wall.

Oh, I love you too, babe.

Sorry I was off about 10 yrs. Jeepers Creepers was in the 60's and before Seymour. Anybody remember him?

Tiki Rider,
You are right on track!
The writers for "Seymour" were big fans of Jeepers Creepers.
Full circle.

http://latvlegends.com/Seymour/MyFriend.htm

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-08-03 00:22 ]

For a long time I've felt that the "Zombie Shark Fight" in "Zombie" was a moment of exploitation bliss: We have a half-naked girl diving in the scene, and a shark, and a zombie, all involved in a nice fight. It's a three-course exploitation meal. People who have never seen this invariably lean back and say, "I dunno if this is good, but it sure is unique!"

I understand that the shark trainer played the zombie, and that the original zombie actor chickened out when it came time to film the fight scene because he was (for some strange reason) nervous.

Although the zombie appears to be losing the battle when we leave the scene, he does get to bite the shark a couple of times, and I don't think I ever saw a man bite a shark in any other movie.

I visited Retroplanet, and saw the Blood Island movies listed there...those have a real nice atmosphere, and when I saw the trilogy recently, I was surprised at how well-written the films were. They're great favorites of mine...

[ Edited by: procinema29 on 2003-08-03 02:25 ]

Hey...

I remember 'Frightenstein' too!! That's stored back there in the deep, deep recesses of my brain. I remember watching it as a kid in New Jersey on WNEW which was channel 5 a local station from New York City probably around 1973-74 (WNEW is now known as WNYW 'Fox 5').
My other favorite shows (which were also on channel 5) were The Monkees and The Mickey Mouse Club from the 50s!! Yeah, Spin & Marty, Annette, Cubby, etc. Both these shows were in syndication then. Still a huge Monkees fan today. Can't wait to buy the DVD box set of the entire first season just issued on Rhino. Hope the 2nd season on DVD is not far behind!! By the way...speaking of the deep recesses of the mind, all of you owe it to yourselves to check out http://www.retromedia.tv, a really amazing sight!!! Great TV flashbacks of all kinds.

Aloha :sheckymug:

[ Edited by: donhonyc on 2003-08-03 04:30 ]

On 2003-08-02 10:45, Cultjam wrote:
The bay area had Creature Features on channel 2 if my memory serves me right.

The host of Creature Features was a guy named John Stanley. He's now on the lecture circuit and he's written a couple of movie guides.

--cindy

I remember in Los Angeles there was a "Creature Features" in the early 70's that started out with a shot of a miniature dungeon with all these rubber wiggly guys chained to the wall (wiggling, of course, rigged with wires or sticks or something). There were the standard screaming, chain rattling Halloween sound effects playing over this. Is this the same opening the Bay Area "Creature Features" had?

"The Killer Shrews" does have a lot of drinking in it, and might be good to watch for tiki party inspiration. The little dogs in the costumes are pretty funny looking, poor things.

Shameless Plug: Those tikis on the Retroplanet title page come courtesy of yours truly! One of the tikis from the Imperial Luau and my friends Mr. Amu and Mr. Uma. You can also see me recieving a Mystery Drink at the Mai Kai by going to the "Road Trip" section and clicking to the second page. (Thanks, Tim!)

That intro to "Creature Features" sounds hilarious. I don't remember the intro at all other than the dripping title. Stanley's website says it was just on a local SF station, KTVU.

John Stanley appears annually (as oppossed to anally) in my Thrillville cult movie show, normally with the original "Creature Features" host, Bob Wilkins (who has appeared the last three Octobers in a row, but can't make it this year). John is a great guy, very sweet, and I hope Bay Area locals can come meet him when he co-hosts the new Godzilla movie at the Parkway October 23 ("Godzilla/Mothra/Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack") and then up at Copia Napa on Oct. 27 when he co-hosts "Horror of Party Beach" with me. (see http://www.thrillville.net Schedule link for details)

End of plug. (we're all shameless here)

Back to the infamous and underrated "Blood Island" movies: I highly recommend these for background atmosphere at your next luau (for adults only, they're pretty racy - lotsa topless Filipino babes in flower skirts being sacrificed to horrible, lust-crazed monsters, etc). Most of 'em star AIP drive-in icon John Ashley ("High School Ceasar" the Beach Party movies, etc). Titles include "Brides of Blood" and "Mad Doctor of Blood Island" (the two best ones) as well as "Beast of Blood" and "Beast of the Yellow Night", all available on DVD. There's another one directed by Al Adamson that is marketed as part of the series but isn't really, "Brain of Blood" still worth seeing but it wasn't filmed on the Philipines and so lacks that tropical island setting that make these movies so exotic and erotic. Also check out the two vampire movies from the same filmmaker (Eddie Romero, who also made "Black Mama White Mama" with Pam Grier, and others), "Blood of the Vampires" and "The Blood Drinkers." Again, they're Filipino, not Polynesian, but reek of sleazy '60s cheese, and after a few cocktails your guest won't be able to tell the difference.

I really like those "Blood Island" movies, even though they're nasty violent and yucky and seem like they were made my mutant maniacs. I saw a couple of them on TV in the mid-70's, a good time to see them really, and they were cut for television of course, but a lot of fun. The Chlorophyll Monster is a real original, and the island settings do provide serious atmosphere--lots of jungles and real waterfalls. And those films, according to Eddie Romero, were made for practically nothing, so the inventiveness level is very high.

I now consider Eddie Romero to be the "other" intellectual filmmaking Romero. He wrote very thinky scripts for his horror films, and this is something I definitely appreciate. "Beast of the Yellow Night" is almost TOO thinky!

Portland had an Elvira type host for Sat. night horror flicks too. Don't recal the name, but it was a vampire in a big red velvet arm chair. The show was called Sinister Cinema and it came on at 11:30, was a double feature, and played old time serials inbetween the 1st and 2nd movie- like Captain America and The Lone Ranger. I lived for Saturday nights, but would rarely make it thru both features. I would usually catch up on sleep the day in church!

For my Oct 9 "Thrillville" show I'm hosting a "Horror Host Palooza" co-hosted by Berkeley cable access horror host Doktor Goulfinger (www.goulfinger.com) and Sacto's Mr. Lobo (www.cinemainsomnia.com) and featuring Fulchi's "Zombie" (from which I take my moniker here) as well as something from 1974 called "Voodoo Black Exorcist" (anyone out ever seen or even heard of this obscurity? I'm showing it because I want to see it and if I don't, no one else will!)

There's a whole "horror host underground" thriving today, much like Tiki Central, an entire subculture/on-line community of like-minded ghouls hosting old-fashioned horror movie programs all over the country (mostly on cable access). A lot of them are into Tiki, too, so there's a crossover appeal (I'm evidence of that, too). Unfortunately, as with any other niche community, including Tiki, there is sometimes petty in-fighting and competition leading to divisions within the ranks. I never understand that kinda thing, to be honest.

Oh, on late night cable I caught part of "Day of the Dead" and saw that impromptu tiki bar someone on this forum referred to. Another quasi-tiki sighting in an otherwise seemingly incongruous cinematic setting. In the movie, they all wind up on a tropical isle, too.

On 2003-08-02 11:14, tikifish wrote:
Tikibars, that show was "The Hilarious House of Frightenstein". A Canadian cult classic. I am amazed you got it in Chicago. I grew up watching that show... ahh the memories! Here's a great fan site for the show:
http://www.frightenstein.com/main.html

Jane, you rock. To my rescue once again.

I haven't seen this show in probably over 20 years, but I used to watch it every day after school (BTW, I grew up in Tiki-free Cleveland, not so far from Tiki-free Toronto - I guess Vincent scared all the Tikis away)

The only show almost as elusive was Banana Splits, which I finally got my adult dose of about 8 years ago when some cable channel ran a 12-hour Splits marathon, which I taped. Uhhh-Ohhh! Chooonnnngooo!

Okay, This site you link to has an MP3 of the opening mon,ogue. I am on this.

On 2003-08-15 10:59, tikibars wrote:

The only show almost as elusive was Banana Splits, which I finally got my adult dose of about 8 years ago when some cable channel ran a 12-hour Splits marathon, which I taped. Uhhh-Ohhh! Chooonnnngooo!

I grew up on the Banana Splits. Na na na, na na na na na!

That and Beanie and Cecil, Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse, George of the Jungle, and others you don't see too often anymore.

On 2003-08-15 10:59, tikibars wrote:
Uhhh-Ohhh! Chooonnnngooo!

Awesome! I just worked with the guy who played Chongo. His name is Kim Kahana and he is a great guy.

Banana Splits was the first show from Sid & Marty Krofft, who later created mind altering children's shows like HR Pufnstuf, Lidsville, The Bugaloos, Land of the Lost, Bigfoot & Wildboy, Lost Saucer, Elektra Woman and Dyna Girl, Wonderbug, Dr. Shrinker, and more.

All classics. If I was Bill Gates rich, I would start a network called F'd TV and all the Krofft shows would be staples.

[ Edited by: TheMuggler on 2003-08-15 15:45 ]

Oh man, I remember those wiggly creatures at the beginning of Creature Feature in L.A. That is definately one from the deep dark grey matter archives. Anybody from L.A. remember the Groovy Ghoulie. He was on UHF channel 52. The same station that you could catch the little Rascals and 3 stooges on in the 70's. He was an host of a night show that played even more Stooges and Rascals. I recall one episode he made himself into a human sandwich. The Groovy Ghoulie layed down on a piece of foam cut out to look like bread. One of his buddies proceeds to pour red, yellow and white paint on him. (condiments) It was done to an oldie tune. I dont know the name of but the lyrics were something like..:"He likes bread and butter, he likes toast and jam blah blah blah blah blah blah, he's our loving man" Pretty funny.
I totally dug the Banana Splits too. I wanted a Banana Buggy so bad. The Splits were cool and The Sour Grape Bunch was Hot. One more for you , Anybody remember "Here Comes The Grump?" That one had me stumped for a long time. Hardly anybody I met remembers that obscure Sat morning Cartoon.
Chongolio

Apparently Richard Donner got his start in directing with the Banana Splits...

Another great "cinema classique" with a tiki theme is Gamera vs. Barugon... Complete with Japanese actors wearing bronzer...

Aaron...

On 2003-08-15 15:44, Chongolio wrote:
The Sour Grape Bunch was Hot.

You sick bastard! :) Those girls were like 10 years old!

...then again, from the POV of a 7-year old, they're unattainable older women...

On 2003-08-03 02:19, procinema29 wrote:"Zombie Shark Fight" in "Zombie" was a moment of exploitation bliss...

Although the zombie appears to be losing the battle when we leave the scene, he does get to bite the shark a couple of times, and I don't think I ever saw a man bite a shark in any other movie.

Ah! I just saw "The Spy Who Loved Me" again on TV last night. "Jaws" is released into the shark tank (after being magnetically lifted into the air by his teeth!), but wins by biting the shark to death! True cinematic genius!

*On 2003-08-15 15:44, Chongolio wrote:*It was done to an oldie tune. I dont know the name of but the lyrics were something like..:"He likes bread and butter, he likes toast and jam blah blah blah blah blah blah, he's our loving man"

"Bread and Butter" by the Newbeats (1964)

Ah, you remember those wiggly rubber monsters on Creature Feature...!

I seem to remember the Groovy Ghoulie on Channel 52, didn't he resemble The Great Hoodoo? There was a Rascals/Stooges host like this who did his show on a nice cheap black backdrop, doing little gags between the short subjects...

There was also a show with Don Adams where they did recreations of scenes from classic movies...what was that called again...

Don Adams Screen Test, I was just a kid but I loved that show.

Don Adams' Screen Test

1 9 7 4 - 1 9 7 5 (USA)
26 x 30 minute episodes

The syndicated game show Don Adams' Screen Test ran for 26 episodes in 1974 and 1975. Contestants appeared in staged scenes from classic films such as From Here to
Eternity, On the Waterfront, and The African Queen, putting up with the intentionally schlocky production values in hopes of being chosen by a participating director for a tiny role in a real production.

Helping the former Get Smart star and his Hollywood hopefuls with the scenes were such real-life actors and actresses as Bob Newhart, Phyllis Diller, Mel Brooks and Milton Berle.

On 2003-08-16 13:02, thejab wrote:

*On 2003-08-15 15:44, Chongolio wrote:*It was done to an oldie tune. I dont know the name of but the lyrics were something like..:"He likes bread and butter, he likes toast and jam blah blah blah blah blah blah, he's our loving man"

"Bread and Butter" by the Newbeats (1964)

Also covered by Devo.

I recently posted this in the apparently dead thread called "Tiki in Old Movies" or something, but along with "Gamera vs Baragon" (now on DVD from Alpha video http://www.oldies.com under its original title "War of the Monsters" - glad to see someone else noticed this!), other Japanese monster movies with a tiki theme/South Sea setting include "King Kong vs Godzilla" "Mothra" and "Godzilla vs the Sea Monster."

aloha,

I was just checking out 1948's "Wake of the Red Witch" starring John Wayne, and Duke Kahanamoku. It comes complete with Huge Moai, and bad rubber octopus underwater fight sequence!

How that didn't make the list is beyond me!

From Hell It Came
A bizarre combination of 1950's Polynesian paradise + Obi-wan style being more powerful after death + a rampaging ghost tree zombie + a title only Yoda could love.

trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-QV9CL-p_Y

cat fight broke up by killer tree zombie
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BiP6W0ZCQRg&NR=1

this topic is so kool I remember my uncle taking me to semor show years ago , ive only met one person that remembered him . anyone remember a show on ch 13 kinda a groovy cycadelic monster show , one of the carectures was DR pet vet . kids show

the Master of the Macabre, the Eppy-tome of Evil, SEEEEEEEYmooooourrrr!

The show was "Fright Night" with Seymour (Larry Vincent) Elvira took over the show when Vincent died.
It was on channel 5 in LA and in New York on WOR-TV,in the early to mid 1970s
Showed all sorts of old Monster & SciFi movies like "Plan 9 from Outer Space"

On a side note this was my 666th post on TC, now I am going to Hell!
Sorry to repost this info as it was mentioned in on the first page of this thread.
[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2010-03-11 23:38 ]

[ Edited by: Atomic Tiki Punk 2010-03-11 23:41 ]

On 2010-03-11 22:49, tyger jymmy wrote:
this topic is so kool I remember my uncle taking me to semor show years ago , ive only met one person that remembered him . anyone remember a show on ch 13 kinda a groovy cycadelic monster show , one of the carectures was DR pet vet . kids show

The show you're thinking of is "Shrimpenstein"....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oK4AyO1Pq50

Also the topic of this thread is South Seas monster movies not horror hosts of the 1960's !!

This thread's been derailed for almost 7 years. Let me put it back on track.

IMHO, one of the greatest South Seas horror movies was "Attack of the Mushroom People" (aka Mantango) directed by the great Japanese director Ishiro Honda....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVyRYjJoZfc

Think of it as a Japanese version of "Gilligan's Island" gone horribly wrong.

Hilarious. Was it really called "Fungus of Terror" once or did someone make that up? Dang, John, now you got me stuck on U-Tube again! :)

I remember watching this movie on "Fright Night" so that is your connection! John-O :lol: Boom goes the A-Bomb!

For fans of horror hosts and the movies they show, I recommend these:

"Television Horror Movie Hosts" by Elena M. Watson

"The Creature Features Movie Guide" by John Stanley

I own both of these and I re-read/refer to them a lot. The horror hosts book includes a profile on Seymour as well as Ghoulardi, Count Gore DeVol, Sir Graves Ghastly and loads of others.

As for the Creature Features guide, I always try to remember to bring it with me whenever I go rent a movie.

Great books.

Count Gore DeVol is a legend in the DC area. He hosted our Creature Feature on then independant Channel 20 on Saturday Nights. He also played Captain 20, the afternoon kids show host, and I believe was also the local Bozo the Clown. And he was the station manager. A true multitasker. I think he still does his thing online.