Ghostly Manifestation


As I indicated on a previous Illuminated Sketchpad page, I was very fond of the no-longer-existent Giants and Girls website. I connected to it because its collection of B-movie imagery captured what resonated for me about B-movies. I saw many of the films represented as a boy and their imagery rooted in me, refused to go away - ghostly manifestations, like melodies we can never forget. B-movies reduce themselves to self-perpetuating genres, where plot, character are recycled over and over until the entire process turns campy, yet driven by echoes of childhood hobgoblins.

The above animation was sampled from what I believe is a publicity photo for The Ghost of Frankenstein. By the time The Ghost of Frankenstein was made in 1942, the Frankenstein monster had become embedded in America's consciousness, with its outline dancing in the back of our minds.


© 2004 Peter Schmideg

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