Monster Monday: The Pale Man

The Pale Man from 'Pan's Labyrinth' (Image from Bits of News)

Get ready to draw eyes on your hands, put them up to your faces and uh...devour children! Alright, maybe not the devouring children part, but for Monster Monday this week, the spotlight falls on the gloriously ghoulish Pale Man, from Guillermo del Toro's Spanish-language masterpiece 'Pan's Labyrinth' ('Laberinto del Fauno' 2006). 

Ofelia and the Pale Man (image from Movie Connoisseurs)

The Pale Man sits motionless, in his underground lair, at the head of a table laden with delicious-looking food. He lies in wait for any hungry children that may find their way into his chamber, with his eyes on the plate in front of him. If the child should give into temptation, and dare to eat from the platters of nourishment before them, they'd better get out of there quickly, the pallid monster will be awakened from his stasis. 

The Pale Man (from jamiesandoval.com)

Against the warnings of her fairy friends Ofelia, the main protagonist of the story, makes the mistake of tasting some grapes on the table, causing the Pale Man to become animate. After killing two of the fairies, he then chases Ofelia, who is forced to run for her life and climb to safety through a magic door she outlines in chalk on the ceiling. 

Even those who don't like the movie surely have to admit that the Pale Man is a fantastic monster. Definitely the stuff of future childhood nightmares!

Science Sunday: Lobotomies

Lobotomy was a misguided and now largely obsolete psychiatric treatment, in which the prefrontal cortex of the brain would be intentionally damaged by inserting a long pointed rod, called an orbitoclast, through the eye socket. The orbitoclast was then thrust into the brain with a small hammer, in an attempt to bring about a change in the patient's behaviour. 

The medical technique originally began as a neurological practice in 1935, and lasted well to the 1950's. The practice cost the lives of many patients that went through it, due to severing the connecting tissues in the brain that allegedly cause us to worry, in the hope of curing mental illnesses such as Alzheimer's and schizophrenia.

Rather than being cured, those that survived the quick and allegedly painless operation, often had negative repercussions, such as greatly reduced cognitive functioning or severe pain. There were, however, very occasionally some patients, such as 1940's French Canadian singer Alys Robi, who claimed that the lobotomy she was forced to undergo had actually been beneficial to her.

A still from the lobotomy scene in 'Sucker Punch'

Though highly traumatizing in reality, the procedure has inspired many intriguing cinematic scenes in film and television, such as those featured in Stephen King's 'Kingdom Hospital', William Butler's 'Madhouse', and more recently, Zack Snyder's 'Sucker Punch'.

Art & How-to Guides: Jim McGee's Monster Drawings

Y is for Ygor

Originally hailing from the UK and now residing in Tokyo, Jim McGee draws familiar (and some not so familiar) faces from popular culture, in his own distinctive style. In 2010 he created a pictorial A-Z of monsters, featuring a plethora of characters from horror and science fiction, such as Vampira, Godzilla, Sadako, Ygor and  many more.

N is for Neko Musume and Nurikabe

V is for Vampira

Though the drawings don't always look like exact copies of the characters/actors, they aren't necessarily supposed to and it's obvious who they are. Every monster personality is represented wonderfully well, often with a dash of humor, which will make the drawings very endearing to fans of the genre. Another nice touch is the cameos and background extras that often crop up in McGee's work. For example, The Monster, The Wolfman and Una O'Connor are all in the background of the Ygor portrait.

G is for Godzilla

In addition to the monster art, there are also a multitude of tutorial and speed drawing videos on McGee's YouTube channel. It's not all spooky, with subjects ranging from Zombina (of Zombina and the Skeletones) to Tinkerbell, Frankenstein's Monster to Totoro, but it is certainly worth a look as he updates often, and is willing to take requests as well!

A still from 'How to Draw Zombina. Horror High School. Prof Fearstone'

Each video drawing is completed in 10 minutes, with extra characters/details being added if there's spare time and space. The above still features Zombina, with Professor Fearstone (a character McGee plays in 'Horror High School') coming to life in the background. Video tutorials on how to draw Zombina, Beetlejuice and Frankenstein's Monster are included after the cut below.

To see more of Jim McGee's work, you can visit the following sites:

Jim's very own A-Z of "Movie Monsters" on Facebook

Jim's Cartoon Tube on YouTube

Horror High School

Thank you to Jim for permission to use the images!

Science Sunday!

There's been Monster Monday and Fright-day Foods but today, my little horrors, we bring you Science Sunday! Every Sunday we'll be updating about things related to the world of real science-related horrors and oddities, as well as mad scientists, radioactive ghouls and everything else in the science fiction horror genre.

Previous Science Sunday Posts

As with Monster Monday and Fright-day Foods, we'd also love to see submissions from everyone else as well, so if you want to take part in Science Sunday, let us know and we'll link to your post or feature your contribution on HSL! Posts can be about any kind of horror-themed science fiction or real science-related horror. All we ask is that submissions are in by the preceding Saturday so that we have time to compile the list. To submit a link or ask a question, please post a comment on this entry, or e-mail us at: 1x15x5@gmail.com

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Fright-day Foods: Infected Cupakes

Another post for Fright-day Foods!

Many horror-themed cakes are made in the creepy cute style, largely because it looks much more appealing to eat than say, green slime and guts. However, if you want to have horror-themed eats that truly reflect the nature of the subject matter, then try these thoroughly disgusting looking (but delicious tasting) 'Infected Cupcakes'! The green cake represents the infected flesh, whilst the red fruit and white cream denote the oozing blood and pus respectively. Mmm...yummy! :D

To make these cupcakes: 

• I used an amalgamation of a meringue (ignore the clotted cream, just make the meringue) and a cupcake recipe, and added a dash of green food colouring to the mix (you don't need much). I also added some cream of tartar to make the mixture thicker, but it isn't really necessary. Cook them as you would cook the cupcakes, as they are more like cakes than meringues. The meringue part gave it a fruity tang, whilst the cupcake part gave a cake-like texture. 

• For the filling, I whisked up some low-fat double cream and put some icing sugar into the a portion of the 'Blood Shake' mixture and put it in the fridge overnight. This then gave it the consistency of a thin jam/thick sauce. I then took off the cupcake lids (muffin tops) and placed them upside down. Then the cream and 'Blood Shake' sauce went on, followed by the bottom of the cupcakes.

Fright-day Foods: Blood Shakes in Syringes

The inspiration for this came from a recipe for 'Dracula's Blood Shakes' from Tesco, which was sent to me by Kei from Unfortunately Oh!. It's really simple and quick to make and can contain almost any kind of fruit and non-carbonated drink you like. They're perfect for a little extra ambiance on any spooky table!

This post is for today's Fright-day Foods...

Ingredients and how-to guide after the cut below↓: