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I love those old horror movies. Don't you? Doesn't everyone?
Count Dracula, and Frankenstein's Monster, and the Wolfman wander round Transylvania. Then the villagers form a mob and burn down some random castle.
You know where you are in Transylvania. And who you are. You're either a monster, a mad scientist, or a villager. And, let's be honest, the monsters and mad scientists are more interesting, more human, and altogether more fun.
My favourite of all is House of Dracula, which despite this lukewarm review, has all the classic ingredients. Monsters behave like monsters, mad scientists behave like mad scientists, and crazed villagers carry torches. You know where you are.
Here are some links to the series, starting with the first team-up:
Oh, and by the way. I recently discovered a discussion group, The Castle of Dracula, deserted and eerily quiet. I wonder what happened to everyone ...
So I and some of my friends, including Jacinth and Jenny, are taking a look. You're welcome to join us. I wonder where the group owner went ...
Anyway, back to the movies. I suspect that there's a lot of intellectual pretentiousness goes into those lukewarm reviews. Kabuki (Japanese melodrama) is intellectually acceptable in the West, as it's foreign and exotic (at least to some people). It is also a fossil, nowadays performed by robots. No new kabuki plays have been written for centuries. That's not necessarily a bad thing, of course. The old plots are the best. You know where you are. But the same intellectuals who enthuse about kabuki sneer at Western melodrama. Which is odd, as it has the same plots (allowing for minor cultural variations) and the same characters, particularly the villains.
Where would we be without villains? Unhand her, you villain! (Villain smirks and twirls mustache.) Good guys may have virtue on their side, but they don't make for interesting plots.
The difference is, melodrama didn't turn into a fossil. It just moved from the stage to the screen.
The big advantage of melodrama is that you don't have to waste time with character development, because everyone has met the characters several times before. They're old friends. You can just get on with the action.
Speaking of action brings me to the other type of monster movie, where a ginormous monster devours a city, uprooting skyscrapers, treading on humans the way humans tread on ants, and generally having fun.
It doesn't matter whether it's Godzilla destroying Tokyo, King Kong destroying New York or Gorgo destroying London. Whoever and wherever it is, it's melodrama. It doesn't need, or even want, subtle characterisation or hidden meanings. All it needs is a ginormous monster and a city.
It's rather a pity that giant monster team-ups don't work as well as the Frankenstein-Dracula-Wolfman team-ups. The giant monsters end up fighting one another. And who wants to see giant monsters fighting one another when they could be stomping cities?
I love watching giant monsters stomp cities. Don't you? Doesn't everyone?