Post 5 of 6 : Big Bug Movies!

Welcome to Post 5 of 6 this afternoon!

9) EIGHT “BIG BUG” MOVIES!

It’s summer and that means fun, sun, sand, swimming, boating, backyard barbecues, and quaffing a cold one in the heat to refresh! This summer especially, assuming everyone is double-dosed, it’s a welcome pleasure to be able to enjoy these summertime doings with family and friends in person!

But setting the lingering pandemic aside for a moment, summer also brings with it another, rather less pleasant thing: bugs! Ants to ruin a picnic, beetles to chew their way through our vegetable gardens, dock spiders to spin a web of fear for anyone who suffers from arachnophobia—and many of us do, at some level—stinging bees to blitz a barbecue, and as any Canadian hiker or camper knows all too well, black flies and mosquitos to buzz, bite, and annoy! Many of us are, at best, hands-off and at worst, actively loath and stomp on these frisson-inducing creepy-crawlies.

Our innate uneasiness with and for some, fear of insects and other bugs is not lost on sci-fi/horror film producers, who play on the discomfort we have with insects, arachnids, and slimy worms to script a cavalcade of fright films in which bugs serve as the scary monster. A subset of the bug-as-monster movie is the giant-bug-as-monster movie!

In the 1950s, as the nuclear age dawned and atomic radiation became a ready explanation for all manner of terrifying mutation, sci-fi scriptwriters imagined proximity to atom-bomb test sites, or the consumption of radio-active waste of some kind would be sufficient to transform the tiniest bugs into titanic beasts slavering for human flesh! That tradition continues to this day, only now with genetic engineering or toxic pharmaceuticals or climate change as the MacGuffin.

Here are eight “Big Bug Movies” of interest, most of them from the 1950s, the decade which pioneered and produced probably the best—and worst!—of the subgenre.

THEM! (Warner Bros., 1954; B&W): James Whitmore, Edmund Gwenn, Joan Weldon, James Arness, Onslow Stevens, Sean McClory, Sandy Descher, Fess Parker; Gordon Douglas, director

Ants, mutated by residual radiation from the first atomic bomb test in the New Mexican desert nine years earlier, have grown to enormous size and are soon terrorizing the area, and beyond!

First of the “Big-Bug” pictures of the 1950s and the template for its many imitators, Them! was initially to be shot in colour and 3-D, but test footage proved unsatisfactory and further, a malfunctioning 3-D camera rig prompted the studio to scrap its original plans for the production. Studio chief Jack Warner was not particularly enthusiastic about the project and the A-level production was unceremoniously downgraded to something more closely resembling a B-movie, albeit with more of a budget than most such fare. Retained perhaps as a nod to the earlier vision was a vivid red-and-blue title card, now set against a black-and-white desert landscape.

The film opens as state troopers find a little girl wandering in the desert, in shock and apparently rendered mute by some traumatic experience. The officers trace her steps back to a nearby vacation trailer which has been ripped open like a tin of sardines. Blood stains at the scene are ascertained to have been made no more than a half-day ago and a mysterious print in the sand confounds the policemen, one of whom finds sugar cubes among the debris. Suddenly, a weird chirping sound is heard, leaving the troopers to wonder if the wind is playing tricks with their hearing. With the frightened girl dispatched to hospital, the policemen seek possible witnesses to whatever event it was that has so upset the child. They find a local country store in shambles, demolished just like the trailer. A barrel of sugar has been overturned and the store’s proprietor is found dead, his shotgun twisted out of shape and, we will soon learn, his body laced with formic acid. One of the officers remains on site to watch over the scene until a forensics team arrives. When he hears again that uncanny chirping noise, he steps off-camera to investigate and meets his end, screaming in terror as he discharges his sidearm.

Half mystery thriller, half sci-fi fantasy, and featuring a collection of well-drawn protagonists, Them!’s superb screenplay is measured in its pacing, progressively unveiling clues to the conundrum presented in the opening scenes, until we first cast eyes on one of the colossal ants in an unforgettable encounter in the dust-blown wastelands. Thereafter, it’s man versus giant ant as the authorities mobilize across the region, racing to destroy these mutant monstrosities, lest humankind face certain annihilation.

A laudable cast of character actors approach their roles with proper import, eliciting empathy from the audience and lending a level of credence to what is, after all, a pretty outlandish story. Terrific dialogue is compellingly voiced under first-rate direction, and seasoned with just the right pinch of tension-relieving humour.

Regrettably, the large mechanically operated ants, of which two principal and a few secondary models were built for the production, move a little too robotically in some shots, falling a tad short of the film’s otherwise top-notch production values. Maybe this was the reason 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea bested Them! in the 1954 Oscar competition for special effects.

Them! is fittingly regarded as an originator of the atom-age monster movie and unquestionably, a sci-fi classic.

THE BLACK SCORPION (Warner Bros., 1957; B&W): Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas, Mario Navarro; Edward Ludwig, director; Willis O’Brien, special effects supervisor

Colossally huge scorpions unleashed from an underground cavern by a volcanic eruption ravage the Mexican countryside before the largest and most aggressive of the brutes, the titular Black Scorpion, kills the others and soon threatens Mexico City. The military rig some kind of oversized taser to take the creature down.

While hardly a classic, this effort benefits from the involvement of stop-motion pioneer Willis O’Brien, who famously oversaw the special effects for the original King Kong (1933). O’Brien’s assistant on the project, Pete Peterson, was responsible for most of the animation, here. A large dressing room at the Mexico City studio at which this American/Mexican co-production was shot was repurposed for O’Brien and Peterson’s special effects work, which had to be completed in Peterson’s garage in Encino, California, when funds began running short.

Script, direction, and acting are adequate, but the best parts of the movie are those scenes featuring the giant bugs wreaking havoc. A model scorpion’s head used in repeated close-up shots showing the creatures drooling, however, is jarringly cheesy in comparison to the stop-motion work. This puppet was constructed by designer/prop- and model-maker Wah Chang, whose credits include the TV series Star Trek (1966-’68) and Land of the Lost (1974-’76), and the films The Time Machine (1960) and Planet of the Apes (1968).

Between action sequences, audiences are treated to often melodramatic performances, uninspired dialogue, and a romantic storyline typical of such fare, here between American geologist Hank Scott and local rancher Theresa Alvarez, played by leads Richard Denning and Mara Corday.

The film, finally, should appeal at least to fans of old-school monster flicks.

THE DEADLY MANTIS (Universal-International, 1957; B&W): Craig Stevens, William Hopper, Alix Talton, Pat Conway, Donald Randolph, Florenz Ames; Nathan Juran, director

A volcano erupts on an island near the South Pole and this “action”, intones a narrator, has the effect of causing a “reaction”—Arctic ice breaks up and melts! This in turn frees a gargantuan praying mantis that has been frozen in the ice for millions of years. The titanic insect soon descends on a remote DEW Line station in Northern Canada and destroys the outpost. When Colonel Joe Parkman investigates, he finds total devastation and strange furrows carved into the snow. Shortly thereafter the deadly mantis brings down an aircraft in flight and Parkman again investigates, finding the same furrows in the snow, and additionally, a five-foot long organic appendage embedded in the plane’s wrecked fuselage.

Paleontologist Dr. Ned Jackson is called upon by armed forces authorities to examine the appendage and concludes that it’s a spur from the forelimb of a giant prehistoric praying mantis. Before too long, the military are tracking the mantis as it makes its way south, eventually alighting atop the Washington Monument in the American Capital, a shot achieved by positioning a real praying mantis on a miniature model of the D.C. landmark.
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Soon airborne again, the mantis heads towards New York City and Parkman pilots one of the fighter jets scrambled to intercept the creature, but loses sight of it in the clouds. Abruptly, the mantis looms ahead of Parkman’s plane and crashes into the aircraft. Parkman bails out safely but the mantis has been injured by the collision and seeks shelter in the Manhattan Tunnel, where the movie’s final act plays out.

The film’s decidedly asinine science, dull plotting, banal dialogue, and abundant use of tired giant-monster-movie tropes is offset somewhat by casting as the monster perhaps the most terrifyingly menacing of predatory insects, providing audiences with a number of satisfying scenes of suspense and destruction, including the towering creature’s fog-shrouded assault on a bus and that closing act in the tunnel. Notable, too, are the mantis’ early attacks on humanity, in which the sound alone of the giant insect’s wings beating at supersonic speed is most effective at portending impending danger. But shots of the creature in flight look far too fake and director Juran wisely kept his monster obscured by darkness or fog in most other sequences so as to mask the fact that the mantis puppet and miniature work, overall, are really only convincing in a tabletop-model-train-layout sort of way. All rather quaint by modern standards, but still fun to watch!

ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES (American International Pictures, 1959; B&W): Ken ClarkYvette Vickers, Jan Shepard, Michael Emmet, Tyler McVey; Bernard L. Kowalski, director; Gene Corman, producer

Giant, intelligent leeches are living in an underwater cavern in the Florida Everglades and preying upon the townspeople, capturing their hapless victims and slowly draining them of blood. Femme fatale Vickers, the town vixen, is one such victim and when the local game warden sets out to investigate the disappearances, his girlfriend and her father, a doctor, aiding in the effort, he discovers the leeches’ underwater den. With a few state troopers pitching in, dynamite is employed to blow up the cave, and the leeches, real good!

Produced on a shoestring budget by Roger Corman’s brother, the film’s production values clearly reflect that budget. Limited by what could be affordably staged, there’s not really a lot of action, here; mostly people standing in rooms, or by the swamp, melodramatically delivering dialogue!

BEGINNING OF THE END (Republic Pictures, 1957; B&W): Peter Graves, Peggie Castle, Morris Ankrum, Thomas B. Henry, Than Wyenn, Richard Benedict, James Seay; Bert I. Gordon, producer/director/special effects

At a government experimental farm, agricultural scientist Dr. Ed Wainwright is employing nuclear radiation as a means of growing oversized fruits and vegetables in a well-intentioned bid to end world hunger. But when ordinary grasshoppers get into a silo and consume the radioactive grain stored therein, Wainwright’s tests prove the inadvertent cause of a plague of locomotive-sized locusts that raze rural Illinois before descending on Chicago!

Produced on a shoestring budget by well-known B-movie mogul Bert I. Gordon, this film was a modest success upon release but was then, as today, slammed by critics as derivative, ludicrous, bottom-of-the-barrel sci-fi rubbish, and a dreadfully poor example of the big-bug monster-movie subgenre. Production values were decried as shoddy and the quality of the acting sub-standard.

There’s really no arguing with these assessments, and yet the movie has a charm all its own. In fairness to a few of the principal actors, if not award-winning, their efforts are at least earnest. And some of Gordon’s quick-and-easy special effects shots are to be appreciated for their inventiveness, if nothing else. While many of these are less than believable—particularly the process shots of real grasshoppers magnified and sloppily combined with live-action footage—a few are quite cleverly conceived and, shall we say, almost convincing.

Photographs of cityscapes were used as backdrops, against which real grasshoppers were filmed. Foreground elements, like city buses, were tiny close-cut photos stood up on miniature tabletop sets, around which the grasshoppers swarmed. The signature shots of the giant locusts climbing up the façade of a skyscraper were achieved by simply placing the real grasshoppers on a photo of the edifice and prompting the bugs to crawl “up the building” by lightly blowing on them. The result is surprisingly convincing until one of the insects ambles over a part of the photo the perspective of which immediately gives away the trick. Also, instances of grasshoppers stepping off the “building” into the “sky” just a tick before the end of the shot could have been precluded with tighter editing. So a smart, simple, inexpensive effect might have looked a lot more realistic had greater care been taken in the execution. Still kind of nifty, though!

MONSTER FROM GREEN HELL (Distributors Corporation of America, 1958; B&W): Jim Davis, Barbara Turner, Robert E. Griffin; Joel Fluellen, Eduardo Ciannelli, Vladimir Sokoloff; Kenneth G. Crane, director; Wah Chang, designer, stop-motion models (uncredited); Gene Warren, stop-motion animation (uncredited)

Lifting footage from the Spencer Tracy adventure film Stanley and Livingstone (1939), producers splashed a little red-tinted colour into this black-and-white B-movie when lava flows onto the screen.

As preparations for a first manned rocket flight into space proceed, American scientists have been sending up a variety of insects and animals in test rockets to gauge endurance. When a payload of wasps is lost due to a malfunction, estimates are that the missile will likely crash somewhere off the coast of Africa.

Sometime later, one of the scientists reads a newspaper article about natives in a remote part of Africa known as Green Hell coming under attack from some kind of gigantic monster. He surmises that the lost payload of wasps may have been exposed to a massive measure of cosmic radiation and crash-landed in the jungle. He and his associate travel to Africa to investigate, where they discover that indeed, their wasps have grown to colossal size and threaten to swarm across all of Africa! The wasps are finally vanquished when a volcano erupts and lava wipes them out.

THE FLY (20th Century Fox, 1958; Colour): Al Hedison, Patricia Owens, Vincent Price, Herbert Marshall, Charles Marshall, Kathleen Freeman; Kurt Neumann, director

Based on a 1957 short story of the same name by George Langelaan, The Fly is a first-rate sci-fi/horror hybrid that easily qualifies as a classic of the genre. Set in our own Ville de Montréal, the story centers on an experiment in teleportation that goes horribly wrong when a common house fly accidentally gets into the works.

The film opens with the discovery by a night watchman of a gruesome murder in an electronics plant; a body lays crumpled on the floor beside a blood-splattered hydraulic press! We soon learn that the body is that of scientist André Delambre and that, incredulously, his wife, Hélene, is responsible. She admits to having killed her husband but calmly refuses to divulge to police what motivated her to commit such an appalling act. Her sudden anxiety at the sound of a house fly buzzing about, and odd preoccupation with capturing a particular fly, suggests that she is likely insane. But the investigating police inspector does not think her so and plans to charge her with murder. When finally persuaded by her sympathetic brother-in-law, François, to tell police what happened, her unbelievable tale, divulged in flashback, is one most strange.

Deftly directed and atmospherically shot, the film’s deliberate pacing masterfully builds mystery and suspense, tantalizing audiences before revealing the terrible results of Andre’s experiment gone wrong. Patricia Owen (Hélene) had not been shown the fly-head mask worn by her co-star before this pivotal scene was shot and the actress’ innate fear of insects prompted her entirely authentic scream! The film’s final, memorable chill is brilliantly delivered in the Delambre family garden.

EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS (Warner Bros., 2002; Colour): David Arquette, Kari Wuhrer, Scott Terra, Scarlet Johansson, Doug. E. Doug; Ellory Elkayem, writer/director; Dean Devlin, producer

This is a 21st-century horror/comedy entry that pays homage to the Big Bug films of the 1950s.

When a truck driver swerves to avoid hitting a rabbit, a barrel of toxic waste falls off his vehicle into a reservoir frequented by a local breeder of exotic spiders who collects crickets at the site to feed to his arachnids. Having soon ingested these contaminated crickets, the man’s spiders grow in both size and appetite, shortly attacking and devouring him, after which they swell to even larger proportions. A number of pets around town mysteriously disappear and before too long, a horde of ravenous, SUV-sized spiders are dining on townsfolk in a frenzied bloodbath!

The film doesn’t break any new ground with regard to Big Bug movies, but with a likeable cast of characters, it’s a well-made, briskly-paced, piece of entertainment.

Post 4 of 6: Planning Session

We’ll be talking on our Zoom about programming for future meetings, and generally for the coming months. Your Input is needed and Chiropractors http://appalachianmagazine.com/2015/10/19/the-incredible-story-of-the-blue-ridge-parkway/ free levitra samples believe the body has the ability to delay the process of aging in different ways. Consulting with a chiropractor and developing a postpartum plan of commander cialis http://appalachianmagazine.com/cialis-4027 care for optimal results. Vacuum pump treatments and medical caverject are some of the physical treatments available for sex drive issues due to sluggish blood supply can also impede the blood supply within the penile region and leading to cialis prices in australia powerful erection. It is one of the key ingredients of FitOFat capsules that help to improve muscle strength and prevent weakness caused by loss of viagra low price body weight. encouraged! If you can’t join us on Zoom, leave your suggestions in the comments section.

 

Post 3 of 6: Time for a Break!

Post 3 of 6: Time for a Break!

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Get your bhere and chips, enjoy the displays and converse with your friends!

It’s time for the break!

 

CLUB NEWS

WARP 111: Danny is waiting for you contributions to WARP 111. Send your stories, poems, reviews, puzzles for the MonSFFun page, etc to <warp@monsffa.ca>

 Display Table

From Brian Knapp, who writes: “I’m attaching a few photos of an Accurate Miniatures 1/48 Yak-1 & Hasegawa A6M2b Zero that I just finished a few days ago. These are from the shelf of doom of half started projects.”

Click the image to enlarge.

 

From Wayne Glover:

Click the image to enlarge.

B-20C , B-25D , B-25J ,
Zero , P-38H , F4U-1
F4U-1 Corsair , VMF-214 , Black Sheep , Major ” Pappy ” Boyington

 

Participation Prizes

3 or 4 names (depends on how many become involved) will be drawn from a hat. All you have to do is be here! But we really would like you to also leave comments on our website.

Click to enlarge images:

Mecha Japanese Capsule Toy, donated by Brian Knapp The USS Enterprise, model donated by Brian Knapp
Stikfas Super villain & hero set donated by Brian Knapp 1972 edition, good condition, but my name is cut out of it. Dust jacket a bit torn. Donated by Cathy
DVD, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
directed by Tim Burton, stars Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore Donated by Joe Aspler
DVD: La Peau blanche
film d’horreur québécois,
adapté du roman éponyme de Joël Champetier
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Peau_blanche
Donated by Valerie Bédard
Slinky Sea Serpent, designed by Judy Peterson, cut from Padauk by Cathypl Grand Prix 2005 de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois, Prix Boréal 2005, Prix 2006 des
lecteurs Radio-Canada, donated by MonSFFA
Metal Earth model of the Kepler space telescope. No
glue required, just fold into shape and insert tabs to lock into place. https://www.metalearth.com
Donated by Dom Durocher
Anthology edited by Brian W. Aldiss & Harry Harrison, stories by VanVogt, Asimov, Clement, Simak, others, donated by MonSFFA

Before we get back to the meeting, let’s take a moment to ask, “What are you Reading?”

 

Post 2 of 6: Invention is a Mother

Presented by Joe Aspler:

 

Invention is a Mother

An old saying goes, Necessity is the Mother of Invention.

Or is it? The paths of modern civilization are strewn with the wreckage of failed inventions. Some were noble efforts that lost out to better or more versatile technologies. Some represented the expenditure of vast sums of money on products that make us say WTF were they even thinking? Some represented the wishful thinking of generations of SF fans and other futurists.

Zeppelins? Autogiros? Rocket packs? Flying cars? Fake leather? Zero calorie fat substitutes? Betamax?

In this talk, we will review some great and not-so-great inventions. Some we can look back on wistfully, and some with a giggle.

Click to enlarge the slide


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Okay folks, time for a break!

 

Post 1 of 6: Opening and Introduction

This is post 1 of 6 related posts which together make up our August 14, 2021, DIY, MonSFFA e-Meeting!

 

1) ZOOM CHAT OPENS RIGHT NOW!

Welcome to our August 2021 MonSFFA e-Meeting!

We are officially opening today’s Zoom chat right now, at 1:00PM, the exact same moment we’ve put up this first post of the meeting. Our Zoom will run throughout today’s meeting, in parallel to the Web site-based content that will be presented on a roughly hourly schedule throughout the afternoon, and will afford MonSFFen and friends opportunity to catch-up, discuss today’s presentations, and offer opinion on the latest books, movies, and TV shows in sci-fi that they have recently enjoyed.

To join our Zoom session today, click below and follow the prompts: This Afternoon’s MonSFFA Zoom

If you’re not fully equipped to Zoom by computer, you can also join in by phone (voice only); in the Montreal area, the toll-free number to call is: 1-438-809-7799. If you’re from out of town, find your Zoom call-in number here: International Call-In Numbers

Also, have this information on hand as you may be asked to enter it:

Meeting ID: 885 2213 2905
Passcode: 196580

2) TODAY’S MEETING: INTRODUCTION

As we gather online for this month’s virtual club meeting, we take a moment to encourage all MonSFFen, if they haven’t already, to get themselves vaccinated as soon as possible, and to continue with all necessary precautions in order to keep themselves and others as protected from the virus as can be.

This is our 17th virtual MonSFFA meeting. The afternoon’s get-together will unfold right here on the club’s Web site over the course of the next few hours, beginning with this first post, and followed by subsequent posts at 2:00PM, 3:00PM, 3:30PM, and 4:00PM, with a concluding post at 4:30PM. All content will also be available concurrently on MonSFFA’s Facebook page (www.facebook.com/MonSFFA), however, note that the interface best suited for taking in this meeting is this very Web site.

As we cannot yet, with complete safety for all, assemble in larger numbers indoors, this August virtual meeting has been prepared especially for you, MonSFFA’s membership. Sit back, check out each of the afternoon’s posts, scroll down leisurely through the proffered content, and enjoy! And join our Zoom chat this afternoon, as well (see first item for details)!

Don’t forget to comment on what we’ve presented. Let us know what you think of specific topics or the meeting overall. Your input helps us to tailor these virtual meetings for maximum interest and enjoyment.

3) MEETING AGENDA 

In This Afternoon’s Virtual Meeting:

1:00PM, Post 1 of 6 (Introduction, Zoom Opens)

1) Zoom Chat Opens

2) Today’s Meeting: Introduction

3) Meeting Agenda

4) Are You Vaxxed to the Max?

5) August Quiz

2:00PM, Post 2 of 6  (WTF Were They Even Thinking?)

6) Presentation: Invention is a Mother

3:00PM, Post 3 of 6 (Break)

7) Mid-Meeting Break (Display Table, Raffle, Zoom Continues, What Are You Reading?)

3:30PM, Post 5 of 6 (Your Input Wanted!)

8) Programming/Planning Session for Upcoming Months (Zoom Discussion) 

4:00PM, Post 4 of 6 (This One Might Bug You!)

9) 10 “Big Bug” Movies to Watch! 

4:30PM, Post 6 of 6 (Wrap-Up)

10) Answers to August Quiz

11) Thank-You!

12) Membership Renewals

3) ARE YOU VAXXED TO THE MAX?

It’s summer, and we are all enjoying the sunshine, warm weather, and especially, given the last two years or so, the opportunity to again see family and friends in person! Society is reopening, many of the Public Health restrictions we’ve been living with all these months have been eased or lifted altogether, though not all it’s important to note—some social distancing and mask-wearing remains necessary.

A majority of the general public have had their second jab and are now fully vaxxed, which is the good news. But the bad news is that COVID-19 case numbers are beginning to rise again, prompting worries of a fourth wave, although importantly, hospitalizations seem more or less stable, unlike in previous waves, so there’s some good news, then, mixed in with the bad. Also under the heading of “Bad News,” there remains a sufficiently large cohort of the unvaccinated and only partially vaccinated—roughly 30 percent, nationally—keeping us from achieving those herd-immunity levels the experts say are vital to seeing a complete return to normal. Until enough of us are vaxxed to the max, the virus will continue to circulate throughout the population and mutate—as is the nature of viruses—possibly into even more dangerous, vaccine-resistant variants, which is the solemn concern now preoccupying authorities. We are already seeing that this Delta variant seems to cause greater sickness in children, for instance, than did the  original virus of a year ago.

So short of requiring mandatory vaccinations for all, the Quebec government is trying everything the politicians and bureaucrats can think of to convince, pressure, coerce, and finagle folk into getting or completing their regimen of shots. The latest tactic is to wave money in front of people with this month’s Lotto Vax prizes!

Bottom line: if you are still not fully vaccinated, it’s time to get with the program! By holding out any further, you are, frankly, endangering our collective future and contributing to the delay in all of us getting back to the way things were before.

Sermonizing over; on with the meeting:

4) SUMMER QUIZ

Team Canada has won a record 24 medals at the just-concluded Summer Olympics in Tokyo! Congratulations to all of our country’s athletes! In celebration, Keith Braithwaite has devised the following quiz:

Below are listed 24 brief story synopses, one for each of the medals Canada’s Olympians brought home. Represented here are a mix of novels, graphic novels, short fiction, films, and television shows.

Following this first list is a second of science fiction, fantasy, and horror story titles, all of which include the word “summer,” a nod to both the season and the Tokyo Games.

Your challenge is to correctly match each synopsis to its corresponding title!

Team Canada enters the stadium at the Opening Ceremonies, Tokyo Summer Olympics

Answers will be given both live on Zoom just before 2:00PM, and on the club’s Web site (www.MonSFFA.ca) in the meeting’s closing post at 4:30PM.

Good luck!

1) By means of suspended animation and later, time travel, a despondent engineer and inventor travels forward in time and back again in order to alter his own history for the better.

2) A professor reveals that he is a mage from a magical land and draws five University of Toronto students into this realm, where they embark on adventures and discover their destinies amid an epic conflict.

3) Inspired by the urban legend commonly known as “The Hook,” a group of friends harboring a terrible secret are terrorized by of a mysterious rain slicker-clad, hook-wielding maniac.
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4) The continuing adventures of present-day Chicago’s only professional wizard, in which he is tasked with solving a murder and finding a changeling who has gone missing. 

5) A powerful city-state’s economy depends upon a mystical spirit summoned by, then magically tamed and bonded for life to a poet-sorcerer, but this thriving center of commerce and culture is made vulnerable by a cruel scheme hatched in league with a tyrannical rival empire eager to overthrow the world’s last bastion of peace and progress. Only a woman from the slums who rose to prominence and her few cohorts stand between ruin and salvation!

6) An exploration of the consequences that ensue when the strongest, virtually invulnerable member of a righteous, technologically-enhanced team of superheroes kills the President of the United States and several of his advisors after discovering that they have committed war crimes.

7) Married off to an aging, widowed farmer for a tidy price by her greedy father, a teenaged bride must make the best of her situation and a tattered scarecrow becomes for her an imaginary lover. When Wayfarers afford her the chance to see her fantasy become reality, the temptation is too much to resist, but comes with consequences potentially soul-destroying.

8) The day before he and his friends are to start the sixth grade, a young boy who, among other missteps, has embarrassed himself in front of the girl on whom he has a crush, is struck unconscious by a wayward skateboard. He awakens to find himself reliving the day over and over again, until he understands that to escape this weird time anomaly, be must summon the confidence to make his day turn out for the better.

9) As the crew of space station from Earth observes from above, the high summer comes to a planet approaching the point nearest to the great sun around which it completes an orbit every 2000 years. Epic world-building is on display as we examine the grand kingdoms and lesser nations of this world during a time of great technological innovation, religious turmoil, political manoeuvrings, and military engagements occurring across the globe, all set against the backdrop of increasing temperatures and the subsequent effect on the planet’s ecology.

10) A farmer in the Old West rescues a strange and clearly pregnant young woman dressed in curious silver clothing from harassment by a pair of cowboys allied with the local strongman. The farmer had suffered brutal torture and injury in a past tangle with the strongman and his lackeys, prompting him to retreat to his farm and keep his distance, but on this day, against his better judgement, he stepped in to save the woman and offer her refuge on his farm, where she can give birth. He learns that she is under pursuit by the agent of an ancient enemy that has warred with her people for thousands of years. The woman supplies him with a gun from the future and the superior firepower afforded by this weapon might well allow him to best his enemy, and hers.

11) Eerie and terrifying events are unfolding in an old school and five pre-teens must face the many acolytes of a centuries-old evil striving for rebirth in their time, and in their town. The youngsters must band together to thwart this monstrosity, lest it annihilate them, their families, friends, and possibly, the world!

12) A teenaged city girl reluctantly attends summer camp while her parents finalize the details of their divorce. Walking alone in the woods one night, she is attacked and bitten by a werewolf and soon thereafter begins craving raw flesh and experiencing bouts of elevated rage. She meets a mysterious boy who knows a lot about werewolves and together they try to figure out how to stop her lycanthropic transformation. But they only have three months to find a cure, for by the end of summer, she will permanently transform into a monster!

13) On cloudy, rain-drenched Venus, the sun shines for just an hour once every seven years, and a class of students too young to have ever been bathed in sunlight listen while a girl who recently moved to Venus from Earth describes to them the brightness and warmth of the sun. But they disbelieve and antagonize her, and just before the sun comes out, lock her in a closet so that she misses the glorious event. 

14) An alternate-history and sequel to Arthur Conan-Doyle’s The Lost World (1912), in which the events of that early science fiction classic were not fiction, but actually happened. Shortly after World War II, an expedition sets out to return to Conan-Doyle’s famous South American plateau living dinosaurs from the last of the dinosaur circuses. These circuses have fallen out of favour with the public due to a number of unfortunate deaths which resulted when some of the prehistoric beasts escaped their cages. Among this expedition’s compliment are Hollywood filmmakers Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen, whose skills at bringing dinosaurs to life on screen by way of movie special effects was unnecessary in this version of history, and who, here, are simply hoping the plateau will yield interesting subject matter for a film.

15) An imagined account of the philosophical discussions, drug use, mind games, and sexual escapades of leading Romantic poet Lord Byron and the guests he welcomed to a secluded villa he had rented near Lake Geneva, Switzerland, during the incessantly rain-soaked summer of 1816. Byron’s fellow Romantic writer Percy Bysshe Shelley, recent paramour, Claire Claremont, personal physician, John William Polidori, and Claremont’s stepsister, Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin made up the small group, who, when the weather kept them indoors, would amuse themselves with ghost stories, prompting Byron to suggest a contest to see who could write the best gothic horror story. Godwin, shortly to take Shelley’s name in marriage, emerged with what would soon be expanded into her first novel, Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus.

16) Had Jane Austen inserted a touch of magical realism into her fiction, the result might resemble this story, in which magic, or “glamour,” is real in Regency-era England. It is 1816, the historical “Year Without a Summer,” and a husband-and-wife team of master “glamourists,” who manipulate magic to paint with light, creating beautiful visual illusions, have returned from their honeymoon on the continent. While visiting her parents and attractive younger sister in the country, they accept a commission from a prestigious family in London to craft a “glamural,” offering to have the sister travel with them to the city, where the prospects of finding her an available gentlemen suitable for marriage might be improved. There, they soon become involved in the growing unrest surrounding lower class magic workers able to effect thermodynamic transfers of hot and cold air, much as does a refrigerator. These “Coldmongers” are blamed for the unseasonable weather.

17) The lyrical story of a young man who travels far and learns much, forming an oral history of the post-apocalyptic world into which he was born some thousand years after the end of civilization. From his enclave of “Truthful Speakers,” where over the centuries, an exactingly accurate, transparent means of communication has been developed so as to leave no possibility of misunderstanding or deception, he ventures out into the larger world in pursuit of a lost love, discovering the dismal remnants of a civilization only dimly remembered, meeting people simply engaged in living their lives who have forged for themselves in strange and wondrous ways new societies. Ultimately, he becomes a “Saint,” one who speaks not only of his or her own life, but of the human condition.

18) A series of strange occurrences convince counsellors that supernatural evil haunts their seemingly idyllic summer camp.

19) It is revealed to a sixteen-year-old orphan living on the streets that he is the son a Norse god and must retrieve an ancient weapon hidden away, but he dies battling a Fire Giant and is transported to “Hotel Valhalla” by a Valkyrie, where he learns that as an Einherjar—a fallen warrior—he will join others like him in training for Ragnarök. A prophecy, however, confounds matters and with newfound friends, and the enhanced abilities of a demigod, he leaves the hotel to embark on a quest of discovery and adventure, finally returning after successfully restraining the dreaded lupine son of Loki and so thwarting the Water Giant’s plan to hasten the end of the world. Hailed as a hero by Odin, he is offered the chance to return to his mortal life, but declines.

20) A farmer becomes servant to Sir Gawain, renowned Knight of the Round Table, and tells the tale of legendary King Arthur’s ascendancy, of Gawain’s search both for a lost love, and for her forgiveness, and of the shocking discovery that Gawain’s own parents, Morgause and Lot, King and Queen of Orkney, and brother, Mordred, are among the forces gathering to oppose Arthur. The seeds that will ultimately lead to Arthur’s downfall have been planted.

21) A planet’s sentient, dolphin-like beings are hunted to near extinction for the valuable immortality serum in their blood, which is much desired by the off-worlders of the Hegemony, a grouping of seven civilized planets, all that remains of a vast interstellar empire. These aquatic beings prove integral to the maintenance of the fallen empire’s colossal and forgotten network of knowledge as a new ruler strives to unite the Luddite people of this world while advocating against tradition for a technologically advanced society in this multi-layered story of intrigues, betrayals, wonders, secrets, and love.

22) When their parents disappear in the middle of the night, two young sisters set out to find them, following a cryptic clue left by their mother, which leads them to a familiar gate in the woods. But familiar surroundings soon give way to a dark, entirely new world, one of talking birds and an evil Puppeteer Queen. Soon separated, each sister must follow her own heart in the quest to find their parents, vanquish the Puppeteer Queen, and discover the identity of the true Queen of the Birds.

23) Two princes—half-brothers—vie for both a crown and a virginal siren/sorceress born of myth who watches over legendary magical livestock in an enchanted mountain valley and is not averse to a little erotic bathing!

24) An aging Hollywood millionaire striving to discover the secrets of vastly extending one’s natural lifespan finds that an 18th-century English earl has so succeeded, and has been alive for over 200 years! But the method the nobleman employed to extend his life has caused him to devolve, over the years, into an ape-like creature. The millionaire is so desperate to stave off death, however, that he decides to undergo the same treatment regardless.

A) Kingdom of Summer 

B) Summer of the Unicorn

C) Helliconia Summer

D) Six Moon Summer

E) The Sword of Summer 

F) A Shadow in Summer 

G) The Summer Tree 

H) Dinosaur Summer 

I) Engine Summer 

J) Summer Knight

K) Dead of Summer

L) The Summer Witch

M) Without a Summer

N) Skirmish on a Summer Morning

O) Summer and Bird

P) Haunted Summer

Q) The Door into Summer

R) The Summer Queen

S) Summer of Night

T) After Many a Summer

U) Black Summer

V) All Summer in a Day

W) The Last Day of Summer

X) I Know What You Did Last Summer

 

MonSFFA meeting today, August 14, 13:00h

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Meeting tomorrow, August 14th

Important meeting tomorrow! We need to put our heads together re planning for upcoming meetings.

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There will be an excellent presentation by Joe Aspler, and Keith has one of his great quizzes planned.
Wonderful attendance prizes as well!
I am hoping for free passes to a movie as well: sci-fi thriller, REMINISCENCE, from the co-creator of Westworld, Lisa Joy, and starring Hugh Jackman, Rebecca Ferguson and Thandiwe Newton.

Meeting on the 14: view our raffle prizes!

Participation Prizes on offer at our August 14th meeting

3 or 4 names (depends on how many become involved) will be drawn from a hat. All you have to do is be here! But we really would like you to also leave comments on our website.

Click to enlarge images:

Mecha Japanese Capsule Toy, donated by Brian Knapp The USS Enterprise, model donated by Brian Knapp
Stikfas Super villain & hero set donated by Brian Knapp 1972 edition, good condition, but my name is cut out of it. Dust jacket a bit torn. Donated by Cathy
DVD, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,
directed by Tim Burton, stars Johnny Depp, Freddie Highmore Donated by Joe Aspler
DVD: La Peau blanche
film d’horreur québécois,
adapté du roman éponyme de Joël Champetier
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Peau_blanche
Donated by Valerie Bédard
Slinky Sea Serpent, designed by Judy Peterson, cut from Padauk by Cathypl Grand Prix 2005 de la science-fiction et du fantastique québécois, Prix Boréal 2005, Prix 2006 des
lecteurs Radio-Canada, donated by MonSFFA
Metal Earth model of the Kepler space telescope. No
glue required, just fold into shape and insert tabs to lock into place. https://www.metalearth.com
Donated by Dom Durocher
Anthology edited by Brian W. Aldiss & Harry Harrison, stories by VanVogt, Asimov, Clement, Simak, others, donated by MonSFFA

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More zines!

Three more zines! From the N3F, Ionisphere, and via their franking service,   Mount Void.

      Ionisphere30   CONTENTS

  • Cover by Bac Berrendos “Riding High”
  • Editorial: Come, Ridley, by John Thiel, page three
  • Boots On the Moon, by Cardinal Cox, page eight
  • Behind the Scenes: Children in Science Fiction, by Jeffrey Redmond, page nine
  • Commentary on the Article, by John Thiel, page fifteen
  • Award-Winning Novelist Bill Crider and I, by Jon Swartz, page sixteen
  • People Interviewed in Ionisphere, page twenty
  • On View: Jeffrey Redmond, page eighteen
  • Time at Ease, by Will Mayo, page twenty
  • The Finding, by John Polselli, page twenty-two

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MT VOID 2179    Table of Contents

  • Old Bridge Discussion Group Change
  • AIRPLANE! (film retrospective by Mark R. Leeper)
  • Wine Clubs (comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
  • LAND (film review by Mark R. Leeper)
  • Romper-Noir (letters of comment by Gary McGath, Dorothy J. Heydt,and Paul Dormer)
  • The Battle of Midway, THE CALCULATING STARS, and Long Form Dramatic Presentations
  • (letter of comment by John Purcell)
  • Jazz (letter of comment by Kip Williams)
  • THE HUMAN COSMOS and New Grange (letter of comment by Kevin R)
  • This Week’s Reading (THE FORGER’S SPELL, DRACULA (1974),
    THE PICTURE OF DORIAN GRAY, and IN HARM’S WAY)
    (book and film comments by Evelyn C. Leeper)
  • Quote of the Week

THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER HAS BEGUN

THE PERSEID METEOR SHOWER HAS BEGUN: Earth is entering a stream of debris from giant comet 109P/Swift-Tuttle, source of the annual Perseid meteor shower. Although it doesn’t peak until mid-next week, the shower is already active. Last night alone, NASA cameras detected more than a dozen fireballs over the USA. More information and observing tips @ Spaceweather.com.

[] 
Above: A rainbow Perseid over the Czech Republic on Aug. 3, 2021. Photo credit: Petr Horálek. More: Realtime Perseid Photo Gallery,

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