Thursday, October 31, 2019

making the monsters real































We used to call them monster movies when I was a kid.  Not your basic Frankenstein or Dracula, but the ones we first saw on Chiller Theater, Zacherly, or Svengoolie.  The bad B movies, with names like Hideous Sun Demon, The Manster, It! the Terror from Beyond Space, and Creeping Unknown.  Black and white, made on a low or no budget in the fifties, with varying plots, but one common denominator, they all had a monster in them.  From mad doctors experimenting with radioactivity, to creatures from outer space hitching rides on space ships, these monsters all took on a personality of their own.   We very rarely got a clear view of them if at all, usually in the shadows, but the illusion of what they looked like in our minds was more than enough, so that for the few seconds they did appear, you could be disappointed.  It took magazines like Famous Monsters of  Filmland to fill in the blanks, and give us background, but we kept coming back, each Saturday night to see the next one.  Maybe you did too...
Some of my favorites other than the above are, The Tingler, Monster of Piedra Blancas, The Alligator People,The Neanderthal Man, Four Skulls of Jonathon Drake, Invasion of the Saucer Men, Brain That Wouldn’t Die, Brain From Planet Arous, and any John Agar movie, and Attack of the 50 Foot Woman.  Movies we would stay up late for, setting our alarms to watch, when we saw them in TV Guide.  Movies so bad they were good, movies that still scare a little, still put you on edge, and monsters that still scare you.  With one recurring theme, somehow the monsters were believable.  You believed, didn’t you?
It took a creative mind, not a low budget one, to make a monster believable.  So that a Hideous Sun Demon looked like the sun had made him hideous, that the floating skulls and shrunken heads looked real, that the Tingler’s shadow made you tense, and is that really what a saucer man looked like?  Somehow we all could associate with them, I can only think of a few monsters that ever disappointed me, I rather look back on the ones I could associate with, the ones you never saw enough of, the ones you tried in vain to describe to your friends in school the next day, or the ones like The Creeping Unknown, who first showed up on the space ship’s video, then on Victor’s hand, and finally trying to consume Westminster Abbey.  So believable they were unbelievable, I can still hear the 50 foot Woman calling for “HARRY!  Harry!”  While demolishing all those cool Plymouths in her path....
With one basic premise, to scare the pants off you.  To hold you in suspense, to let your imagination go crazy about the what did the monster look like, and to not disappoint you when they were finally seen.  No one knew what a real space monster looked like, or a person changed by radiation, or by having his head shrunk, just enough of science that was fiction to make you believe, and make you argue with your friends the next day. who all knew more about such things than you did, to them it was only a stupid movie, but to those of us who watched and worshipped them, it was real, and made our imaginations kick in, with a big what if, and what would we do in the situation if we ever saw one.  No borders on our imagination, seems the cheaper the film budget, the larger the imagination to enjoy it.  Of course these were made up, right?  I mean they were, weren’t they.....
But what we really had was faith, a faith that although the monsters may not be seen, that they existed.  That we may never see an invisible man, but we know he was there.  Christians are saved by faith, but often we don’t display our faith as we should or could.  To me it takes little or no faith to believe in Jesus, but many cults, atheists, and non-believers have different versions of God, which take more faith to believe than the facts the Bible verifies.  I listen when a non-believer tells me about his god, how the works he must do to get to heaven, to achieve nirvana, to ascend to the next level, and how they are loyal to the lies.  Such cults as The Way, playing Jesus’ words of how “he is the way,” but never acknowledging him as deity, or that he is the way.  Have it their way.  JW’s who deny his deity too, and live never knowing if they are good enough to make it to their afterlife.  Add in LDS, who have a made up Jesus, who was not God or even the son of God, but a created being, and you find even the staunchest believers denying the truth of the gospel, all based on false faith.  Each one adding a bit of a lie, and twisting scripture so the weak ones believe.  Jesus warned us, that they will sound so real that even the elect can become deceived, so how do you know?  One simple question, one you will be asked to answer sometime in your life, “who do you say Jesus is?  Is he truly deity?  Is he truly resurrected?”  Or is the god portrayed in their cult like the ones in monster movies?  Made up, based on facts, then let up to your imagination....not your soul. 
You see there is the truth, and then smaller truths, cleverly disguised but still a lie.  All lies being based on truth.  And these cultists go after the weak ones in their recruiting, again we are warned of weak woman who fall prey to these men, so beware.  Test the spirits like we are admonished to do, take nothing on face value, demand to see the hands of Jesus, as Thomas did.  Not a doubter, but he wanted proof, and Jesus supplied it.  Ask your pastor, read your Bible, test the spirit, to see if it truly is holy, for even Satan can appear as an angel of light.  Don’t fall into a fake religion, a cult, or a fad, based on a friend, or social pressure.  Even the cults know the others are cults, just not them.  Read your Bible, and trust Jesus, and when the false teachers and teachings don’t match up with scripture, leave.  NOW!  Don’t even wish them “God bless you,” lest you give credence to their false God.  Most of the New Testament has warnings about false teachers and doctrine, all leading up to the appearance of the anti-Christ, whose spirit is already here.  The anti-Christ spirit, instead of Jesus, so subtle, but really only needing you to miss Jesus, to make you wait or delay in believing, to poison your mind against the truth.  A spiritual battle going on for your eternal soul, right now, so hideous no monster could scare like he does.  Yet many follow in the dark....
There was a reason we watched monster movies in the dark, they were scarier, but when in the light and exposed, we find we are not as scared, even admitting, “I was afraid of that?”  When Jesus appears in your life, when his spirit directs you to him, you walk in his light, there is no darkness at all, for evil and the devil cannot live in his light.  So if your spirit is uncomfortable, maybe Jesus is trying to tell you something, it is called the truth.  It may make you leave your friends, your family, or even your social group, but Jesus says “pick up your cross and follow me.”  The cross makes all the difference, and he who was resurrected.  The Way is not the way, nor is any other false religion.  Be warned, not all monsters are out on Halloween, they are out everyday, seeking to kill and destroy.  Only Jesus saves, a simple fact to believe, because he proves it.  All others are based on lies and even tradition.  If where and how you worship is beset by a set of rules, beware, you are already under their control.  Know of the freedom in the spirit, heaven is real, but so is hell, and only Jesus is the way.  Follow him or these other monsters out to kill your spirit.  Jesus saves......only Jesus saves, and it is a gift you cannot earn.  He will remove your scars, his will endure forever, as proof of who he is and what he has done.  You do believe don’t you.....
Now back to your regular scheduled station....Gort, Klaatu barata nikto!
love with compassion,
Mike
matthew25biker.blogspot.com