Scandal strikes the SFF world again. Writer Neil Gaiman accused of, but denies, sexually assaulting two women, one of whom was the nanny of his child. The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, an animated film by Warner Brothers based on Tolkien’s work, releases some preview artwork. (It’s anime style.) In related …
Tag: Movies
The Little Prince (1974) [Review]
If you were an elementary school student in the 1970s, your school library probably contained a copy of The Little Prince. Written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, a French nobleman, pilot, and adventurer, and published in 1943, it has since become an oddball but revered children’s classic, standing beside The Phantom Tollbooth, Willie Wonka and the …
Bonez
Strange and alien creatures abound in SFF media, but most of the time we don’t get to see their skeletons. This screenshot, however, from one of the Predator movies, gives tempting hints of what lies beneath the skin or scales. Of course there are some human skulls (still with spines) there, because man is the …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 8/30/23: Glenstorm and His Sons (Narnia XLIX)
… and daughters too, let’s make that clear. Trufflehunter called again, “Glenstorm! Glenstorm!” and after a pause Caspian heard the sound of hoofs. It grew louder till the valley trembled and at last, breaking and trampling the thickets, there came in sight the noblest creatures that Caspian had yet seen, the great Centaur Glenstorm and …
Children of the Elder Things, or Echinoderm Horror
As I talked about here, H. P. Lovecraft’s Elder Things were such a unique creation both of their time and for SF in general that their caliber was not duplicated for many years. There were echoes of them in the BEMs (bug-eyed monsters) of the lurid SF pulp covers of the 1930s through the …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 3/2/22: Battle of the Gargantuas (Syfy monster movies)
In the 2000s and 2010s, that purveyor of quality entertainment, the SyFy channel, released over 200 original made-for-TV movies, which, given the network’s name, could only peripherally be called science fiction. Most were what was once called B-movies, variations on disasters, monsters both mythic and human-created, and horror… and often all three, with the addition …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 1/19/22: The Best of Twittersnips (Playing in Another’s Sandbox)
Very occasionally over the past years I’ve stepped out and created random characters for existing media — books, movies, or even toy lines. Here’s a selection. Franchise and fanfic characters Middle Earth (J. R. R. Tolkien) Smerri Peachlake, Nol Bluffbuggin, Gosti Threeclasp (Hobbits) Yevenglazar, a giant spider Prince Thrindhöil Gandian Graymurgh, a wizard Islands …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 10/27/21: Horror Movies
Nosferatu, or The Undead, was a 1922 German silent film that predates the more familiar Universal version of Dracula. Max Schreck played the titular vampire, Count Orlov; the actor had an unusually tall, thin, lanky build that added to the otherworldly look of the being, highlighted in this trailer for a restored version of the …
Worldbuilding Wednesday 5/5/21: The Best of Twittersnips (B-Movie Madness)
I have to admit this old poster is pretty creepy, not because of the flying brain with its two beady eyes, but the Satanic face of the child with its filed, oddly spaced teeth. At least, I think it’s a child. Old, schlocky, crowd-pleasing, over-the-top movies are a special interest of mine, which is why …
* simper *
Seena Owens as a Babylonian Empress in the silent film classic Intolerance, 1929.