Nerd Talk with the SomewhatNerdy Crew

New Nerd Talk!!! Nerd Talk is where some of the Nerds here at SWN answer questions from you, the fans, about Nerd culture … with very special guest Kevin Fertig former WWE/ECW superstar (Kevin Thorn/Mordecai) make sure to check out his FB page HERE and Twitter HERE. This week we have a special Halloween edition of Nerd Talk and talk about our favorite classic horror monsters, also check out our last Nerd Talk HERE where we talk about our favorite 80’s stand alone movie. Make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel HERE, we have some video Nerd Talks up right now and we will continue to do our video toy reviews and Live Streams in the future. Thanks for reading and if you got a question to ask the Nerds you can email us at Snarfkris@somewhatnerdy.com and make sure to comment with your own answers in the comment section below or on the FB page HERE.

Kevin Fertig

I know everybody expects me to say a Vampire, but since I wrestled as one for so many years, it almost feels played out.  So many classic monsters to choose from, but I would have to go with Frankenstein.  Frankenstein is literally larger than life.  I mean, he is made up of countless body parts.  Which brings to question, who the hell did he use for the head?  What one person has a melon that size.  I have a big melon but that one tales the cake.  Who was the original owner of that 10 gallon head is what I want to know.

Raz

“What is your favourite classic monster and why?” Well that’s simple for me, it’s ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’. 1931’s “Frankenstein” was my introduction to classic Horror and I’ve never looked back, it showed me how a character can be viewed as the bad guy yet you’re sympathetic towards him, it’s such a rarity in film but this is the perfect example of it. Boris Karloff played him perfectly, the only other actor to do the character justice was the great Sir Christopher Lee.
Don’t get me wrong I love all the ‘Universal Monsters’ but I feel more of a personal connection with ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’, it’s hard to explain but it happens sometimes, you feel a connection with a character. Maybe you see some o yourself in them, maybe it’s something subconsciously, whatever it is ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ will always have a place in my heart and will forever remain my favourite classic monster.

Billiam

In 1897 Bram Stoker was a literary genius and created the quintessential classic monster and in 1931 Bela Lugosi brought him to life and became the iconic Count Dracula and thus affected the course of movie monster history.  I have no idea what my fellow nerds are going to say and I wouldn’t be surprised if we all picked something different but at the same time I wouldn’t be surprised if we all picked Dracula because of his iconic status. I read Dracula when I was a little kid and loved it. It was a fantastic, scary, and unique book that just captured my imagination and now over twenty years later he still sticks in my mind as the best monster ever.

There have been a ton of portrayals of Dracula (Sir Christopher Lee, Gary Oldman, Frank Langella, and Leslie Nielsen)  not to mention all the other vampires created after him. But no matter who portrays him, if you Google Dracula the first image that pops up is Bela Lugosi in his black and white outfit (which worked because this was before color), his slicked back black hair, chalk white face, slender claw-like fingers, and his intense soulless gaze. He’s an evil that will invite you to dinner, feed you, treat you like royalty, give you a place to stay, and then take you in your sleep. You won’t see him coming and that’s the scariest part. You close your eyes, go to bed, and never wake back up.

Frankenstein’s Monster, Wolfman, The Mummy, they’re all great but there’s only one of the classic monsters who deserves to be the best. After all, who was the final bad guy in 1987’s Monster Squad? Not the Wolfman with his nards. No. It was Count Dracula.

Critter

When it comes to monster movie classics, it’s hard to really decide. I know that one of the scariest movies I’ve ever seen was the 1922 silent classic, Nosferatu. I always seem to accidentally see the scariest stuff when I was 5, thus providing the never ending nightmare fuel that powers my dreams. And don’t fool yourself, even though Nosferatu is a silent movie, it’s pants wettingly terrifying.
Pictured: The reason generations of people needed plastic sheets for their beds.

However, it’s tough to say that’s my only favorite. I also really liked the 1931 version of Frankenstein starring the horror icon, Boris Karloff. If you’ve ever read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (or the Modern Prometheus), you might know that it’s one of the most boring books to ever be written about a walking talking corpse bent on revenge. Crazy to think a subject matter like that could be boring, but trust me when I tell you it’s a pretty slow book. The 1931 Frankenstein was vastly different than the original source text, but ended up being a really bad ass movie with some of the best makeup and special effects for the time, which also led to the standard look to the Frankenstein monster. I’m not sure if you know what Boris Karloff looked like, but this was him:

Left Picture: Boris with Frankenstein makeup.  Right: Boris without…Wait no. It’s the other way around. Maybe? I don’t know. I can’t really tell. Either way, I can picture him strangling someone with little to no remorse. Now that’s good casting.

Yeah, he’s a pretty scary looking dude without scars all over his face and bolts in his neck.

You know when a book is made into a movie, and you have that one pretentious friend that just goes “hmmmph…well the book was better.”? Well, in my opinion this may be the first and possibly only time the movie was better than the book. That’s just my opinion though.

If you haven’t seen any of the Universal classic monster movies, then get off your ass and watch them this Halloween. You will be really happy to see how great all these movies are.

Derf

Growing up as a child, people always related me to Frankenstein’s monster since I was so tall for my age.  My brothers liked Dracula ass well as demons, but I was never really into like them.  I always found myself drawn to the Wolfman or werewolf.  I was interested in the power without the limits.  For example, Dracula lives forever but cannot see the sun.  As a Wolfman, you just have to worry bout stocking up on razor blades.  Just something always pulled me to the Wolfman, it’s kind of hard to explain really.  I just love the concept of changing into a beast but yet living a “normal” life as man as well.  Maybe, I ‘m just a little twisted, XD. Besides, it was the comic Werewolf By Night that introduced the world to my favorite hero, Moon Knight.

Snarfkris

This one is pretty easy for me … something that was pointed out to me at a young age is that I share the last name with the original Wolf Man’s Larry Talbot (Lon Chaney Jr.’s character.) Since then I have been a Werewolf fan. So other than those classic Wolf Man movies you got the great An American Werewolf in London to The Howling to Sliver Bullet and with some of the newer Werewolf movies like Dog Soldiers or Howl … its pretty easy being a werewolf fan . Plus I’m hairy like a Werewolf so I got that going for me …