Every Sunday there's a great meeting of fun people on The Mastodons, affectionately referred to as #Monsterdon. If you go to your favorite Mastodon location, and search that hashtag, you'll undoubtedly see some of what I'm talking about. If you have no idea what Mastodon is, then suffice it to say that it's another social media style platform. I'm sure I'll be rambling on about Mastodon in future posts, so I won't try to cover that ground here.

As might be guessed by its name, the movie the Monsterdon crowd group watches is usually some kind of monster or horror movie, though the criteria for that is quite loose. There are also science fiction movies, sometimes fantasy movies, and occasionally comedies (by which I mean films that intend to be funny).

Every Monday there's a poll to vote for the one we're going to watch. These days there tend to be a couple hundred votes every week, which is kind of amazing. This is all organized and hosted by https://timeloop.cafe/@Taweret who does an amazing job every week of digging up some fun films, and wrangling us all together for the following Sunday.

It should come as no surprise that these movies don't tend to be blockbusters, but many of them do hold special places in the hearts of those who like old movies. Some, especially the Godzilla movies, are deeply ingrained into our cultural consciousness, even for folks who may have never seen any of the original films.

That's probably enough of an introduction. If you are someone who already uses Mastodon, and want to participate in something that's akin to MST3000, but with hundreds of participants, search out the #Monsterdon hashtag, and join us next Sunday! There's also a #MonsterdonAlert hashtag that tends to just focus on notifications, like what the next film is going to be, and the polls.

The movies from last month (August 2025) were:

The Raven (1963)

This Roger Corman directed film was shot in only fifteen days, and pulled in a number of well known names. The script was a bit sparse, which was something that Peter Lorre took great advantage of, inserting ad libbed lines whenever and wherever he could. Apparently this was much to the chagrin of Boris Karloff. Vincent Price did a better job of handing Lorre's improvisational zigs and zags, though even found it to be a bit of a struggle. The film also features a very young Jack Nicholson.

While there are pieces of Edgar Allen Poe's poem tacked on to the film at the beginning and end, that, a character with the name of Lenore, and the title are the only things that relate the film to the source material. It had about as much in common as Lawnmower Man did with the Stephen King story it was supposedly based upon.

Richard Matheson, of I Am Legend fame, was the primary script writer, and decided to take things in a distinctly comedic direction. This mostly works, though Peter Lorre's performance is the true comedic bolster.

The basic plot is that a magician, Dr. Bedlo (Peter Lorre), has been turned into a raven by another sorcerer, Dr. Scarabus (Boris Karloff), and seeks the help of another magician, Dr. Erasmus Craven (Vincent Price), to both change him back and to exact revenge. Craven pines for a lost love, Lenore (Hazel Court), who he believes to have diet. It turns out that she faked her death, and teamed up with Scarabus. There're wizard duels, diabolical mind control, magic potion stew, and plenty of camp that fills out to an almost 90 minute runtime.

In the context of Monsterdon, this was a lot of fun, and Vincent Price is always a joy watch, even in films that are generally lack luster otherwise.

Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack (2001)

This was the second time I've watched this movies as part of Monsterdon, with the first viewing being way back in 2023. In a strange bit of synchronicity that watching also occurred on the second Sunday of August.

This Godzilla movie is part of the "Millennium Era", which includes six films that range from 1999 to 2004. In the case of this movie, it doesn't tie into any of the other Godzilla films, being instead set up as a direct sequel to the original 1954 Godzilla movie. This break from continuity is common among all the titles that make up the "Millennium Era" films. As its title suggests, there are a LOT of monsters stuffed into the hour and forty five minute runtime.

Basically all the other monsters, the so-called "Guardian Monsters" must all be awakened so they can keep Godzilla from destroying Japan. While there are plenty of animation effects, the vast majority of special effects are still practical, including the monsters basically being people in suits. This works amazingly well, and adds some thematic connection to the original Godzilla. In the end Godzilla is not only defeated, but is exploded! While a big departure from other Godzilla movies, there's a tease at the very end where we are shown Godzilla's disembodied heart slowly beating on the ocean floor.

All in all, this is a fun and enjoyable Godzilla movie, and even has a decent plot underscoring all the monster battles. There are a number of references baked in, including using the actresses that played Mothra's twin fairies in other films in a brief crowd shot. There's also a lot of noodle eating in this movie, so if that's something that gets you hungry, you might want to prepare in advance!

I fully expect this one to roll back around again on the Monsterdon list, as it's a lot of fun.

Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

This is another Roger Corman film, though made a few years before The Raven, and is the progenitor of the Broadway musical which itself spawned the 1986 film. This film also has a young Jack Nicholson playing a small part, which was almost entirely ad-libbed. The production was about as slapped together as they come. The sets were leftovers from Corman's previous film, and he only had two days to do all the filming before they were torn down. Even the score was a retread of music used in other Corman movies. Since the production was so rushed, there were many places where scenes just didn't stitch together right in the editing room. To fix the problem, a static shot of the moon was spliced in for all those occasions.

As should be no surprise, the film is a bit of a hot mess. But there is a kind of frantic pacing that underlies everything, no doubt bleeding through from the equally frantic shooting schedule. And the premise, an over eager assistant at a small florist who cultivates a carnivorous plant that eventually leads to out of control mayhem does set the stage for a fun story. While the musical, and the later movie, are better than the original in almost every conceivable way, it's worth watching this one just to see how the idea first came to fruition.

Swamp Thing (1982)

This movie, while released in the 1980s, has all the hallmarks of a 1970's movie. The source material is a DC Comic of the same name that got started in the early 1970s, and had not done particularly well from a sales perspective. While Wes Craven wasn't exactly an unknown, it was the film that he did after Swamp Thing that really catapulted him into the limelight, A Nightmare on Elm Street.

While the plot is thin, and the rubber monster suit ridiculous, it is evident that Wes Craven knows how to direct. The pacing and action sequences are pretty good, and he manages to build some interest from source material that is underwhelming at best. It probably didn't help that the film was shot in South Carolina in the summer where the heat and humidity is miserably oppressive.

DC Comics tried to draft off of the film's release to revive the comic series. While that effort fell flat, it did set the stage for Alan Moore to take over the title in 1984, which was an incredibly successful run that cemented Swamp Thing into the DC Universe.

Back to the movie, it was a fun Monsterdon watch, but while it has its moments, I don't think it's something that I'd watch again outside of another Monsterdon event.

Grizzly (1976)

The final Monsterdon in this set is one of the seemingly never-ending riffs attempting, and failing, to capitalize on the success of Jaws, which was released a year previous. In this variation, there's a national park where the titular grizzly stalks its human prey.

The actual bear, named Teddy, was a little bit of a handful. Due to some scheduling delays, by the time shooting commenced it was getting close to Teddy's hibernation time, so he was a little bit on the cranky side. While they were able to get him to stand up and stretch for marshmallows (Teddy never actually roars. All those sounds were added in post.), the crew had to up their game and start enticing him with fish. They made the mistake of playing a game of switcheroo where they would dangle a large fish on a pole, and then after Teddy did his thing they'd toss him a smaller fish as a reward. Teddy quickly caught on to this ruse, and ended up rushing the camera at one point. Thankfully for everyone involved, he was only after the big fish on the pole, and after snatching it, returned to his position. After that, though, they quit trying to trick Teddy.

Part of the problem with this movies, aside from the literal mountain of loose threads that never get resolved, is Teddy just isn't particularly menacing as a "big mean monster". The scenes of the bear running through the woods have a fun little loping nature to them, even when he's ostensibly running down one of the hapless humans for his next meal.

There are a number of hilariously gory moments in the film where limbs and body parts covered with almost neon red paint go sailing across the screen. And at the end, the movie seems to realize that it has nowhere to go, and the ending shot is one of a bazooka being fired at the bear with a quick cut to a giant explosion. One of my favorite Mastodon comments about the scene was:

Okay, that's all for this post. Watch for another one after the end of this month! We're starting September with an old alien invader style movie, so if you like these kinds of things, check back in later. Or even better, join all of us on Mastodon by following the #Monsterdon hashtag!