Saturday, December 29, 2018

Giant spiders are made of joy and whimsy


As the year winds down, I have shifting my reality a bit by trying to figure out what the core of my being is. For too long I've felt like I've let too many people take control of my mind. I mean, it's been great to some degree; I lack certain responsibilities that would cause me grief, but at the same time I also miss certain freedoms I feel I used to have.

My hobbies keep me safe and sane, for sure. all I do is collect novelties and toys, and watch and appreciate strange films that would be tossed aside by any other mundane viewer. I'm beginning to realize that there was never truly such a thing as a really bad film. Every movie in existence is someone's favorite, or at least, within their top twenty films. Learning to appreciate art in spite of mundane worlds expectations to what a narrative should be is a victory. The media and literature we ingest help us create a filter for our world, and form how we react to any sort of stimuli. 

I never thought of the content itself being all that important, but that's been changing recently. I don't know, I never felt being a hardcore horror fan, or whatever, made anyone more or less emotional in any way, but maybe I'm just blinding myself to some sort of obvious truth. 

What sort of affects do the hidden intentions and goals of others really have on us on a psychic level; I doubt there's any way to really understand or quantify this. 


I'm somehow really excited for next year. I'm tossing aside so much so I can try new things. I won't lie; this is sort of terrifying for me, but I really want to switch things up while I have a chance to do so at a reasonable age. 

The weather is still pretty warm even though we're almost in January. I still carry my skull-scarf around in my bag if I need it, but it hasn't happened too often that I do. 


Since I'm on break from both work and school, I decided to partake of an herbal remedy I found in one of the many Discordian books written. I believe I found this particular recipe in the Zenarchy Cookbook. And let me tell you, it's really quite potent. I mean it only takes a few ingrediants, but it's both tasty and kick that lasts for at least 5 hours. In my case though it last nearly a full day and it was glorious. 


And not that I should spread this around, but just in case you might be an ordained SubGenius Reverend, please check out our new chat hub on Mastodon. It's like Twitter if Twitter was a Windows 98 program. Real low-tech and to the point. I  really like it. You can use the below QR Code to reach me or view my profile or something. 



So I've known about this figure for a long time, but I never got around to buying it. I kept putting it off, but it was always on my list. Finally, with the help of some spare Xmas money, I purchased a Full Moon action figure of the Laserblast Alien! I'm pretty excited about this little guy being in my collection. I may buy one more to keep in the packaging, but this one for sure is going to roam free around my desk!

LASERBLAST ALIEN COLLECTIBLE FIGURE





So since I woke up late today with a head full of frop, I decided to watch a shit ton of movies featuring killer spiders. 

GIANT SPIDER MOVIE MARATHON

So I started watching "Insectula!" earlier in the semester but ended up not having time to finish it until yesterday. What a strange but fun creature feature. It was beautifully made actually; there's a real comic book feel to it, and the opening sequence on the planet of monsters really stole my heart. 



"Giant Spider" is a recent film made to look like it was made back in the 1950's, and it does a pretty good job. Apparently the director of this film has made a bunch of other movies that have also caught the attention of monster movie fans, so I'll have to check them out. 




 This is a close up look at the titular Giant Spider. When he's shown up close, he's this puppet, but when filmed from afar the Giant Spider is played by a real tarantula (who is credited at the end of the movie.)


"Arachnia" was an impulse watch for me. Mainly, I chose to watch it because the poster art caught my attention. I'm happy I ended up watching it though because it was a really enjoyable tongue-in-cheek sort of movie. The spiders in this are beautiful; I couldn't tell if they were stop-motion or CGI trying to mimic stop-motion. There's some prop and puppetry in this too. What a surprise treat. 







 "Creepies" and "Creepies II: Las Vegas Attack" may very well be my favorite giant spider movies since "Tarantula". A combination of CGI, puppets, miniatures, stock footage, stolen sound-effects, and in both cases, great casts. There's even some great music in the first one especially, by Manda and the Marbles. 



Manda and the Marbles Documentary



The Creepies can communicate in the first one. It's not clear that's the case in the second one. 


"Creepies II: Last Vegas Attack, King Spider Vs. The Mecha-Destructor" is a fantastic follow up to the original. It takes place almost immediately after the first one ends, and moves all the action from LA to Las Vegas, and introduces the all-powerful Mecha-Destructor! While the spiders in this seems to be the same puppets, dolls, etc., used in the first one, Mecha-Destructor is literally a store bought toy (a "RoboSapien") with another toys head attached (looks like one of the robots from the anime "Zoids")  









"King Spider" seen below isn't it's own character, but rather it's the final attack of all the Creepies coming together to form this behemoth. 


So no spoilers for "Creepies II: Las Vegas Attack", but there's definitely room for a third installment in this series. And I hope there is one someday! I'll hazard and guess both these movies were made either back-to-back, or, it was just one movie that was so long they made it into two, but either way I really enjoyed both. Just wacky giant monster nonsense. 


THE FILMS OF JEFF LEROY

So, after finishing my thoughts on the "Creepies" movies, I stumbled upon other movies made by the same director, and I subscribed to his YouTube channel, Giantess Attacks. Director Jeff Leroy doesn't seem to have an official website, but there are plenty of his movies on Amazon Prime, and there's a Facebook Page as well. He seems to cater to the "giantess fetish" community, which is something I can respect. 

Besides the Creepies movies, I've never really looked into the rest of Jeff Leroy's filmography, but I have to say I'm pretty impressed. I totally dig this guys style, and I look forward to binging his movies in the coming days. I wish they were easier to find on DVD though. I've never seen a physical copy of "Creepies" or "Creepies II". 



The sequel isn't out just yet, but there's this poster for it. 








"Alien vs Titanic" is known as "Predator World" on Amazon Prime






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