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“Making Monsters: Inside Stories from the Creators of Hollywood’s Most Iconic Creatures”- A Must Have For Horror Fans

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Academy Award-winning make-up effects artist Howard Berger (ARMY OF DARKNESS, JENNIFER’S BODY, DRAG ME TO HELL) and acclaimed journalist Marshall Julius are celebrating monsters, monster movies, and monster moviemakers with the ultimate love letter for horror fans, “Making Monsters: Inside Stories from the Creators of Hollywood’s Most Iconic Creatures” in a gorgeous new hardbound book that is a MUST have for anyone that call themselves a horror fan.

Making Monsters dives into the world of the greatest horror movies ever made to answer the question: what makes a great movie monster? To find out, Howard and Marshall include interviews with more than 75 luminaries in the film industry, from legendary directors John Carpenter and Wes Craven and iconic horror film actors like Barbara Crampton and Simon Pegg, to dozens of make-up artists including Tom Savini and Greg Nicatero along with music composers and writers themselves.

With a foreword by Robert Englund and afterword by Alex Winter, Making Monsters explores the creature feature genre, from the earliest days of monsters with Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi, to the newest arrivals of Art the Clown and Vecna from STRANGER THINGS. The book is a behind-the-scenes tale of what goes into making a horror movie, as well as an all-access collage of never-before-seen on-set photos and several specially commissioned new art pieces by Jason Edmiston, Graham Humphreys, Mark Tavares, and Terry Wolfinger.

The engaging insider text and stories behind these passionate movie mammoths will have horror fans and film aficionados who truly appreciate all that goes into making a “monster movie”, chest bursting at the seams with visual gore-lore while taking you down a horror information highway that you won’t want to get off of. It’s an absolutely gorgeous piece of work that no coffee table should be without ready to go on a rainy Sunday afternoon with a pumpkin-spiced coffee in hand.

Making Monsters: Inside Stories from the Creators of Hollywood’s Most Iconic Creatures is set to be released to the public on September 16th, 2025, and you can preorder your copy from AMAZON RIGHT HERE.

Editorials

Listen to Reason: “Pee Wee’s Big Adventure” Is Totally A Halloween Movie

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I must admit that I fully know that many of you reading this are going to say this is a far reach; however, I got you here didn’t I?! So you must be open somehow with listening to reason that Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, most certainly can be seen as a Halloween movie.

Pee Wee’s first big-time Hollywood debut is one that many audiences cherish from this nugget in time and one that I personally, have both fond, and nightmarish memories of. The 80s’ really had a knack for taking a family-friendly film and inserting horrific scenes in them, giving kids, and hell even some adults, nightmares for years to come. Great examples of such are Return To Oz, hell that whole movie is a horror show, and how about Atrax’s fate in The Neverending Story? It’s clear as day why anyone of us growing up in the 80s’ needed therapy. Pee Wee’s Big “Halloween” Adventure is no exception, as the movie is chock full of sketchy scenes that are horrific in nature, horror movie references, and plenty of Halloween decor to give us that good ol’ Halloween feeling that we’re watching a film dedicated to our all-time favorite holiday.

So let’s open with the fact that this Tim Burton’s first big directorial debut, working alongside composer Danny Elfman. Who we all know when the pair are teamed together, make one hell of a kooky, gothic soundtrack that can only be described as well, Halloween-ish. Even in the light-hearted musical excerpts from the film have an underlying spook factor that you just can’t smooth over. And I absolutely love that shit.

Then, of course, there’s Pee Wee’s home. First off, there are Jack-O-Lanterns all over the house, skeleton cling decor, and a creepy Abe Lincoln with his minion animal dinosaur skeletons helping make Pee Wee breakfast. Pee Wee even sleeps with a cow skull attached to his headboard, with Godzilla figures keeping a watchful eye over his slumbers. I think Doc Brown would approve of the breakfast contraption, while I wholeheartedly approve of the creepy representation.

The Lobster might be mocking my Halloween vibes.
Notice the big ceramic (maybe) pumpkin on the shelf in the background.
The makings of a madman sleeping with cow skulls.
Another ceramic jack-o!
I spy some sort of weird Jack-O-Lantern dummy prop!

Hell, there’s even a little Jack-O-Lantern set up in the front yard that is a part of his secret hiding spot for his bike!

Then there’s Mario’s Magic shop, where it’s anything but. It just looks like a hole-in-the-wall Halloween store where horror fanatics are frequent flyers. Halloween masks and shrunken heads galore. Tell me this doesn’t scream Halloween mini-mart?

Not to mention the mistress of the dark herself, Elvira makes a cameo not only in the film as the badass biker chick, but on the wall of Mario’s at the entrance!

Now let’s talk about some of that nightmare-inducing imagery. Recurring scary clowns are all over this movie, and every single one of them gives all the damn skeevies.

Then there’s a delightful appearance with Francis as the devil murdering Pee Wee’s precious bike. I gotta tell you this whole dream sequence was pretty anxiety-inducing as a kid. Softcore kid horror at its finest folks.

Oh, and let’s not forget, there’s a Day of the Dead parade happening in the middle of the movie. Which, of course, happens to be celebrated on the day after Halloween.

For context, this is seen during the chase between Andy and Pee Wee.

Last, but certainly not least, who could forget the most iconic scene from Big Adventure- LARGE MARGE. Yes sir. It was the worst accident I’ve (never seen). And I’m still of the opinion that Marge needs her own stand-alone horror film where we dive into her death and her restless spirit scaring the shit out of hitchhikers. Thanks.

I’m not here to convince anyone that Pee Wee’s Big Adventure is definitively a Halloween film, but I sure do get those Halloween vibes every time I watch it and it hits those notes even higher and more profound around the October season. Whether you agree with me or not, let’s at least agree that the movie rules.

Editorials

“Jason Takes Manhattan” Is The PROPER Ending To The “Friday The 13th” Franchise

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What a time to be alive. Growing up alongside slasher horror movies in the 80s’ was certainly a peak moment for many adolescent horror fans in the decade. As the villains’ became pop-culture phenomenons appearing on lunch boxes and bootleg toys, our special boy Jason Voorhees was no exception to the horror synthwave of the 80s’. With the exception of 1983 and 1987, Friday the 13th was the ONLY series of films to release one movie every single year from 1980-1989 with everyone bearing some charm, gore, and new angle to bring Jason back onto the scene for more murderous rampages on teenagers. After 1989, they tried to resurrect him again, but people like me just weren’t buying it. Friday the 13th Part 8: Jason Takes Manhattan was the true and final ending to a decade-long franchise of the Crystal Lake Killer.

Fight me.

Let’s rewind a bit: In The Final Chapter, Corey Feldman’s Tommy Jarvis successfully accomplished what everyone was trying to do for 4 years- kill Jason. While technically, this right here would have been a dignifying sendoff for our special, special boy, fans clamored for more and the studios pulled a 180 by bringing him back in A New Beginning… Well sort of. We all THOUGHT we were watching Voorhees torment a now teenage Tommy laying low in a camp for troubled teens- mass murder from a guy in a hockey mask in a Friday the 13th film, who else would it have been? The twist is that it was actually paramedic Roy Burns who, like Pamela before him, went into a homicidal rage after the death of his kid. Jason was still dead and the murders were done by a copycat. This kind of pissed off audiences and they felt cheated. While I always thought that was a clever route to go down by refreshing the storyline, much like with Halloween III, fans wanted the REAL Jason.

Bending to the fans who can make or break the studios, Paramount begged for forgiveness with Jason Lives. A more focused, and determined Jarvis returns to Jason’s grave to ensure he truly is dead. And he is until Jarvis and a friend open the casket for a Frankenstein resurrection moment to happen with Voorhees. And we’re off to the races again with a more powerful zombie Jason in predator mode- until he gets trapped at the bottom of the lake not once, but TWICE. The first time is when Jarvis sends him back to his watery grave from which he was formed in Part 6, and again with Tina’s telekinetic powers in Part 7. I mean, if it didn’t work the first time what made anyone think it would a second? Now, let’s get to where Jason takes a boat, I mean Manhattan, and the true and final ending to Voorhees.

I honestly don’t give a shit what anyone says. Jason Takes Manhattan is probably the most fun Friday movie given to us in the 80s’. It almost becomes such a parody of itself in the process of the film that you just can’t help but overlook the cop-out of him only spending about the last 20 minutes of the movie in New York; which at the time, had quite the reputation of being a dangerous place indeed full of crime and sketchy individuals. Jason fits right into the mold.

Jason’s final confrontation with main characters, Rennie and Sean, has them ending up in the city subway system, where it’s coincidentally revealed that a river of toxic waste is released every single night. In pursuit, Jason gets trapped inside the toxic waste, and reverts to a child-like state- and HE SPEAKS! This is blasphemy! Jason never uttered one word throughout the whole franchise, yet while his face is melting away and sees a river of more sewer waste pounding towards him, he cries for “mommy”. It’s actually sort of gut-wrenching and a stern reminder that Jason really just has the mind of a child. This is only validated further when Reenie sees Jason’s childhood self, at peace in death among the waters.

Ok, who’s cutting onions in here!

I truly feel as if this was the proper send-off to an otherwise tragic character. Not this Jason Goes To Hell garbage that made him a demon-body-hopper. I don’t know, maybe I’m too sentimental, but I believe an icon as important to the genre as this deserves a fitting ending if we’re going to give him one.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.

Friday the 13th Collection [Blu-ray]