It’s the middle of October, so about damn time for me to do something remotely spooky around here. It’s also been what feels like forever since we touched on some good, classic Cinemassacre content, and since it’s Halloween month (and since the complete yearly compilations are currently being re-uploaded to the “Cinemassacre Clips” YouTube Channel) why not take a look at one of James Rolfe’s favorite yearly projects from back when he actually had time — Monster Madness!
The original run over a 10 year timespan (the last of which I actually covered back in 2016) worked like this: 31 days, 31 movie reviews. All horror or monster themed. Given Rolfe’s love of the genre, he provided some nice insight into the films in question, be they absolute legends like Nosferatu or insane cult classics like Basket Case. It wasn’t super detailed but it didn’t need to be — it was a nice, daily bite-sized bit of spooky goodness for the best month of the year!
I originally began watching in 2009, when I finally became aware of AVGN, and quite enjoyed going through the previous years videos in anticipation for the October 2009 Monster Madness. Following that I watched every year excitedly, simply because I enjoyed James’ passion for the subject matter.
Monster Madness is still happening, albeit in a reduced form, thanks to the fact that James, you know, has a family, and with that comes no time. Hey, at least he’s still trying.
Anyway, given that all of the old ones are being freshly re-uploaded now is as good a time as any to take a look at each one of them, in order, starting with 2007’s History of Horror. The funny thing is, I already did that back in 2017 when this was first re-uploaded in full! Thing is, thanks to the fucked nature of Copyright and Fair Use on YouTube, that version used stills for the films, as opposed to proper clips — the new uploads are, as far as I can tell, mostly original with the proper film clips, so this is really the best way to marathon the series!
From Nosferatu to A Nightmare on Elm Street. From Dracula to Friday the 13th and more, here we have Monster Madness – The History of Horror!