In this bi-centenary year of the great Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley, (1792-1822), let’s kick off this subject with that most famous of monsters; that created by Victor Frankenstein in the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, the poet’s wife.
Penned in the summer of 1816, while the couple were guests of George Gordon, Lord Byron, this science fiction masterpiece tells the story of how an ambitious scientist creates a living creature from the limbs and parts of other dead people. The results are tragic, leading to the deaths of innocent people, the arrogant creator’s downfall and self-destruction of his creation. Byron, the writing workshop leader at his villa, commented to his publisher John Murray on 15th May 1819, p203, Byron Letters: “Methinks it is a wonderful work for a girl of nineteen – not nineteen indeed, at that time.”
Still in print two hundred years later, an achievement indeed for both author and workshop leader, Frankenstein is now on school literature syllabuses, or in literature exams and has been turned into numerous play adaptations, animation, comic strip books and films. By coincidence, I attended an online play reading last Halloween weekend of Frankenstein, a bold new work with a feminist slant, showing the work still has contemporary importance in our IT environment and social media world.
Nowadays, the monster is a favourite character for fancy dress parties. His image is also found on T-shirts, lollies or candy bars and even in cake form. Portrayed as green, the creature in the novel is grey. Rejected in this story because of his grotesque appearance, he ends up friendless and alone. Nowadays, we love him!
In the Rocky Horror Show, Frankenfurter, played by Tim Curry, is an obvious reference to Shelley’s creation, and a much sought-after role to sing along with. It is said that the iconic rock star Mick Jagger wanted to play this role and he certainly could have done! Firmly ingrained in our culture now, we can say he is one of us. He has been on a journey!
As a child, I thought the best monster was the Living Mummy. They are great! Popular characters in the 1970s because of the recent Tutankhamen exhibition in London, which reminded the world of the great discovery of British archaeologist Howard Carter in 1922 of the boy king’s tomb, which gave an unparalleled insight into ancient Egypt,
I became aware, as a youngster, of a superstition that was often written about in 1970s publications by writers who liked to encourage belief in the supernatural. Often referred to as the Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb, the public were told that no-one should open the coffins of the dead, otherwise the dead king’s ghost would come to get you. Stories abounded about the deaths of people who had dared to disturb the sacred land of the dead and how the king had claimed his revenge. Images emerged in comic strips, books and animation of a ghastly, supernatural undead creature dressed in bandages, chasing human prey, its hands held out. I remember watching an episode of Scooby Doo with just such a scene, absolutely enchanted.
There is, actually, a grain of truth in the superstition about the dead king’s ghost, which has a basis in scientific fact. People have died after opening the tombs of Egyptian kings because of diseases that existed in the ancient world that have since been eradicated, and which were present in the tomb. Bacteria in the coffin has increased over the intervening thousands of years. People living in a later age have caught an illness to which they have had no resistance, which existed on the dead king. Interesting, isn’t it?
Of course, short stories, comic strips and films have sprung up about this monster, along with documentaries about Carter and his enterprise. Who remembers The Mummy with Harrison Ford and Rachel Weiss? Wasn’t it a great pot-boiler?
The next monster in the line-up is simply a howl. You’ve guessed it – the werewolf. The subject of folklore, saga, legend, fairy tales, Gothic and horror fiction, fantasy fiction, poetry, comic strips, short story and film, this creature is a person in the normal course of day-to-day life who, on the night of a full moon, turns into a wolf. A curse is usually involved, or a bite from another werewolf.
First appearing in ancient Greek literature, the concept of this creature developed in the medieval age and many communities believed in the condition of lycanthropy.
This had disastrous consequences for a farmer from Cologne, Peter Stumpp, (1533-1589), who is known as The Werewolf of Bedburg. Under torture on the rack, he confessed to having received a belt from the Devil that facilitated him turning into a wolf. A search was ordered for this belt as evidence, which, needless to say, was never found. Herr Stumpp nevertheless, was executed on the wheel, his limbs broken and then he was beheaded, while his mistress and his daughter were strangled and burned. Who were the monsters here?
Such a creature is a gift to the film industry. The first film was Werewolf in London, in 1935, followed by the hit The Wolf Man in 1941 staring the great horror actor Lon Chaney. Does anyone remember him?
I remember An American Werewolf in London, with Jenny Agutter, in 1981, now a cult classic. The metamorphosis into a wolf was a tour-de-force of cinema for its time and the film won many awards.
Anyone who wants to seek out fiction about werewolves should look up Fritz Leiber, H P Lovecraft and the English Saki. The latter’s Gabriel Ernest is sure to send a chill down the spine, while sacrificing none of the tongue-in-cheek trademark sardonic humour.
We now come to the ghoul, to the Western world, a creature who robs graves and devours corpses. Originating from pre-Islamic Arabian culture, it was, to them, a monster that dwelt in the desert or isolated places and lured hapless travellers astray. They were often hyena shaped, with hooves of a donkey. It was only when Orientalist scholar Antoine Galland translated the twelve to fourteen volumes of The Arabian Nights between 1704 and 1717 that these monsters took root in Western culture.
We must recall the old Scottish prayer,
“From ghoulies, ghosties and long leggety beasties
And things that go bump in the night
May the good Lord deliver us!”
By the twentieth century, ghouls were still hot property with the promise of box office success to theatres and cinemas and a cracking opportunity for the visual. The first film with this protagonist was The Ghoul, in 1933, starring Boris Karloff. Its success is indicated by the follow-up horror comedy which followed, What a Carve Up! produced in 1961 with Sid James.
To this day, happily undead and kicking, ghouls have maintained their importance in the cinema and theatre industry. They are part of the English Harry Potter franchise and the American Creepshow franchise written by Stephen King and George C Romero. A ghoul is the Weasley family’s beloved pet, while King and Romero creations cause shocks and shivers in their eager audience.
In Japan, the play, Tokyo Ghoul has extended into gaming, with A New Tokyo Ghoul coming out in this year 2022.
Finally, we come to the Vampire. The catalyst for making them central to spook culture, as we all know, is due to the novel Dracula by the Victorian theatre manager Bram Stoker, published in 1897. These guys turn into bats, hate garlic, make other people vampires by biting their neck and only die when struck through the heart by a stake. They follow a pattern of other monster creation over time and are now regarded as fodder for comedy rather than fear or tragedy and more inspiration for the food industry. An example are the snacks called fangs. There are also many chocolates, cakes, biscuits and candy around vampires, expressing a focus on consumer enjoyment of these cultural icons. In films nowadays, lots of vampires are young, becoming associated with the concept of eternal life rather than death and morbidity. The comedy horror film that has been re-produced titled The Lost Boys, is but one example of this youth-based genre.
As I mentioned the famous Byron at the beginning of my blog, it’s worth mentioning a story I heard about the actor Christopher Plummer, who suffered due to his screen image, but with far less disastrous consequences for himself than poor old Peter Stumpp. His car broke down while on holiday in France. He made his way to a French farmhouse to ask for help. The person who opened the door cried out, “Oh, mon Dieu, c’est lui!” (“Oh, my God, it’s him!”) The actor was left saying “Aidez moi, aidez moi!” (“Help me, help me!”) I take no responsibility for its veracity but it’s a good story and another quote!
All these familiar monsters in this blog have become an expected part of the festivity of Halloween. Now, freed from the world of superstition, let’s celebrate monsters. They are entertaining, wonderful fodder for the imagination of succeeding generations and mean chill-out, laugh and groove away. Dine out on your hot blood soup, (tomato soup with roasted beetroot added), eyeball jellies, (lychees filled with blackcurrants covered with lemon jelly) and graveyard cake * paired with mulled wine and cinnamon or bloody Marys. Monsters are fun!
*For graveyard cake, make a simple chocolate cake from two sponge cakes with hot chocolate added to the regular ingredients, add chocolate buttercream or Nutella as a filling between the two sponges and add chocolate icing on top. Then cement chocolate malted milk biscuits to lolly sticks with royal icing and pipe RIP in icing on the biscuits, then stick them in the cake.
I am going to end with the words of my song The Vampire Boogie. The arranger is M. Jean Thibert.
Come and funk with the Vampire dudes now,
Come and join us up here and we’ll show you how.
Forward, back and turn around, now move the hips and click the fingers
Now jump way up high
Right, left, right left, boogie in the skies
Now raise your arms up
Shake your bod and start again
To chill out good in the Vampire’s food hall
It's the Vampire’s ball!
Chorus:
Lah, Tee Doh Re Mi Fi See Lah
Soh Fah Mi Ray Doh Tee Lah.
Verse 2:
Come, tuck into the vampires’ feast here,
Sup the black bat soup and taste the witches’ beer.
Eyeball pasty, dead-rat jellies
That’s the fare this starry night
But you must buy a graveyard pud
(Background voices: With real soil from the graveyard!)
Munch and crunch while grooving till the dawn.
That’s when the vampires’ have to go to sleepy-bye
So chill out good in the vampire’s food hall
At dawn, you’ll have to go!
The words for the chorus are an opportunity to teach your child/grandchild/nephew etc the words of the melodic minor scale. As they sing it, they move across the room stamping, being a grumpy ghoul. Then, when they reach Lah, they turn into a vampire and step to each word with their arms wide out. Have fun!
Anne
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