WELCOME TO MONSTER MOVIE WORLD

Most film historians agree that the "Golden Age of Horror" began with the release of Universal Picture's DRACULA in 1931 (Gary D. Rhoades includes WHITE ZOMBIE) and ended in 1941 with THE WOLF MAN. Some will go so far as to say that the Golden Age's last gasp was as late as 1948 when the monster rally spoof, ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN was released. By that time, however, monster movies had been de-clawed and de-fanged to the point of being used primarily as comic relief in a dwindling market until the Atom Age began, and monsters assumed a more "modern" persona, being bred from the realm of reason with science and radiation instead of the world of superstition with Alchemy and natural forces.

In August 1957, Columbia Picture's Screen Gems Division released a 52-film package for television that included horror and mystery titles from Universal's past B-movie glory years. The package was called simply SHOCK! (SHOCK THEATRE was the title given to some of the TV stations that aired the films), and its release heralded the advent of the "Monster Craze" years. After that, as they say, the rest is history.

Welcome to another new feature here at MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD. It's called MONSTER MOVIE WORLD and it is designed to cover those very things that monster movie magazines rely on for their life's blood -- monster movies! I've had a blogspot under this name for a while now and have found that it's a little too time consuming to run multiple blogs and to also have time for writing articles and books for other venues (more about that later). As a result, with the exception of something unusual or that I find especially interesting, I will be retiring the MONSTER MOVIE WORLD blog.

So, now on weekends, I'll be covering monster movies and horror films as the primary content for MONSTER MAGAZINE WORLD. Material will vary from reviews, to clippings, to videos, but the focus will be on monster movies, both old and new, and from all over the world.

A NOTE TO FILM PRODUCERS, DISTRIBUTORS, MARKETERS: If you have a movie that you'd like to have covered at MONSTER MOVIE WORLD, please get in touch with me HERE, and I will let you know more.

In the meantime, for today I've added a few pages from the original SHOCK! film package promotional book. It was a comb-bound publication that promoted the package and provided information on each movie that was offered.

I hope you like this new feature. As always, you are welcome to comment and let me know. Have a great weekend, monster lovers!

NOTE: SHOCK THEATRE is a blog that covers the history of this historical event. Check it out from the link on the sidebar to the right of this blogroll.