Back in the seventies, from what my brain remembers, there was a fascination with what was then termed “mysterious monsters.” I distinctly remember films about Bigfoot, and they frankly scared the shit out of me. I was a wimpy kid, but I was fascinated that that which most scared me. At the time, it was Bigfoot. Why I was frightened of Bigfoot living in Sarasota, Florida, I can’t say. However, one thing we all understand about fear is that it is seldomly rational.
Looking back, I remember watching Creature Feature, with Dr. Paul Bearer, on Saturday afternoons. As you can imagine, these movies were always old and always bad. I spent Saturday afternoons with monsters and aliens from the fifties and sixties, usually entertained and rarely frightened. I only remember one movie that had an effect: I think it was called Twisted Brain by Dr. Bearer, but IMDB calls it Horror High.
It was an updated Jekyll-and-Hyde revenge story. Vernon Potts was the troubled teen — the intelligent nerd bullied by the jocks. He invents a syrum that allows him to . . . you get the picture. The images that stick in my mind are the dark, deserted halls of the high school in which the monster Potts chases down several victims; the decapitation of a teacher by one of those medieval paper cutters — you know, the one with the big hinged arm that looks more like a torture device than a crafting accessory; and another teacher dumped in a drum of powerful acid that eats him down to his bones — the students find his bleached skull the next day. All of these are the clichés of B-movie horror, but it left an impression on me for a number of years.
There was another movie called Just Before Dawn. Now IMDB says this one came out in 1981, which seems a bit late for my memory of it. Yet, the description sounds right. It’s another one full of the clichés — teens go to woods and encounter a maniac — but the final scene has one girl running through the woods with the relentless killer closing. The sun is coming up . . . I can’t remember what happened. It’s less about the end with horror. I remember the moments, not the outcomes.
Anyway, all this to introduce my story “A Mysterious Monster” that I unearthed during my scanning project. I’m thinking about finishing it someday, or at lest correcting the spelling.
Now I think I’ll go watch The Legend of Boggy Creek 2.
Or better yet, the MST3K version.
