I was happy to see that my local library has a bunch of The Legacy Collection movies available. A couple of weeks ago, I borrowed both the Frankenstein and Dracula Legacy Collection series. The Legacy Collection series of movies concentrates on one monster per set, with each 2-DVD set containing 4 to 5 movies and lots of behind the scenes information. These are really OLD, black and white movies - pure cheese fest but a lot of fun.

Fan of Frankenstein
I really enjoyed the Frankenstein movies. This year marks our 4th annual Halloween Costume Party. We start putting up decorations the middle of September, and decorate the entire house and front yard. I even did a Mad Scientist Party a few days ago, as a Team in Training fundraiser to help raise funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. If you click on my links above, you can see photos of some of the decorations I put out for both the Halloween and Mad Scientist's party.

One of my favorite movies, is the horror spoof classic Young Frankenstein. After watching all the Legacy Collection Frankenstein movies, I can see where Gene Wilder came up with a lot of the ideas for Young Frankenstein. Really pay attention to Son of Frankenstein, and you will see a lot of influences for Young Frankenstein. I also love watching the old horror movies to get ideas for decorating my house at Halloween.

ABOVE: Scene from Bride of Frankenstein

The Frankenstein Legacy Collection includes the following movies:

• Frankenstein (1931) - Boris Karloff is the monster
• Bride of Frankenstein (1935) - Boris Karloff is the monster
• Son of Frankenstein (1939) - Boris Karloff as the monster, Bela Lugosi as Ygor
• Ghost of Frankenstein (1942) - Lon Chaney as the monster, Bela Lugosi as Ygor
• House of Frankenstein (1944) - Glenn Strange as the monster, Lon Chaney as the mad doctor, Bela Lugosi as the Wolf Man, John Carradine as Dracula

More Legacy Collections
I just made a trip to the library, a short while ago, and found The Mummy and The Invisible Man Legacy Collections. A search on Amazon shows that The Wolf Man and The Creature From the Black Lagoon are also available. I'll have to check the library the next time I'm there for those two collections.

If you are a horror fan, check out The Legacy Collection of monster movies.

Scary monster, is that an oxymoron? Not really, I can think of a lot of monsters that aren't scary at all. Like Disney's animated movie Monsters Inc. - even the scariest monsters in that movie are still pretty silly.

Frank Langella's Dracula
On a more serious note, I have a thing for vampires. This goes way back, years, even decades ago. Way before the current TV, movie, book vampire phenomena. My interest in vampires goes back to the 1979 version of Dracula staring Frank Langella, Kate Nelligan, Donald Pleasance and Laurence Olivier. I was in high school at the time, and my friends and I fell in love with that movie. We saw the movie many times at our local theater, which back then was a single screen affair. A few years ago it was turned into a 3 screen theater.

My 3 best friends and I all identified with one of the characters in the movie. I was Mina VanHelsing - yeah, she gets killed off towards the beginning of the film. But she comes back later as a nasty looking vamp, only to be killed, permanently this time, by her father played by Laurence Olivier. Who wants to be the leading lady, BORING!

Werewolves Anyone?
I also have a penchant for werewolves, but that's probably due to the Underworld movies that have come out in recent years. I have a few vampire related books and tons of movies. I'll eventually get around to reviewing them all for the Horror Diva blog.

I can't wait until the new season of True Blood starts up in June. I haven't read any of the Sookie Stackhouse books by Charlaine Harris, but I sure did like the HBO series.

So, what's your favorite scary monster?

While not a horror movie in the traditional sense, disaster movies can almost be a subclass of horror movie. Movies like The Towering Inferno, Poseidon Adventure, Titanic, Volcano, The Day After Tomorrow and Dante's Peak are all about disasters, whether natural or man made.

The disaster becomes the horror that the characters must deal with. The Towering Inferno was originally released in 1974. I recently borrowed the special edition DVD of The Towering Inferno, which was released in 2006, from my local library. I haven't seen that movie in a long time.

The Towering Inferno was directed by Irwin Allen, who also directed the Poseidon Adventure, another great disaster movie.

Here's the teaser from the DVD:
"One tiny spark becomes a night of blazing suspense. The tallest building in the world is on fire. You are there with 294 other guests. There's no way down. There's no way out."

The 2 disk special edition contains all that extra stuff that I love including:

• New audio commentary by film historian F. X. Feeney.
• Scene specific commentary my Mile Vezina, special FX director on X-Man, and Branko Racki, stunt coordinator on The Day After Tomorrow.
• Special featurettes including: Inside the Tower, Directing the Inferno, Putting out Fire, etc...
• Over 30 extended, deleted scenes.
• AMC backstory: The Towering Inferno.
• Storyboard-to-film comparisons.
• 1977 Irwin Allen interview.
• Still photo galleries.
• Behind the scenes conceptual sketches and costumes.

Manly Men
The Towering Inferno cast had a whole slew of manly men acting in it. Actors like Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Robert Vaughn and Robert Wagner give the movie a definite macho flair.

Other actors in The Towering Inferno, such as Richard Chamberlain, Fred Astaire and OJ Simpson, don't have quite the same star quality as the macho men I mentioned in the previous paragraph. OJ Simpson? I forgot he ever was an actor, the dude can't act.

The Towering Inferno was based on two novels:

1. The Tower by Richard Martin Stern
2. The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia & Frank M. Robinson

What's your favorite disaster movie?