Need Some Career Advice? Strap Yourself In!

Today I‘m taking a break from talking about horror movies. Instead, I have some highly valuable career advice to share with the world in general and you in particular, my friend!

A friend is his late twenties was wondering if he’d made the right career choice. He’s a graphic designer, and while he enjoys his work, it ain’t exactly what you’d call a bucket of rock ‘n’ roll turbo-thrills. So he asked me, what might be a hot career move for him?

His question echoes the sentiments of millions of Americans nationwide. Folks everywhere are bored with their jobs. It used to be, Americans felt lucky to even be employed, and would stay in a mind-numbing, dead-end career for decades. They would push brooms and sling hash and twist little screws into the backs of VCRs, just to get that almighty paycheck. They’d then use that paycheck to buy nice clothes and cars, so they could attract potential sex partners. They’d use some of that money to buy drinks and get those potential sex partners drunk, in case nice clothes and cars weren’t enough to get the job done. After all, potential sex partners become 13.7 percent more attractive with every drink.

Obviously, the biggest reason for holding down any job is to get more sex.

That, of course, is why I write horror fiction. It’s a documented fact that horror writers are lucky No. 7 on the list of professionals who get the most sex. Let’s review the list (my thanks to JOHNSON: the Journal of Outstanding Horniness and Newsworthy Sluttishness in Occupations Nationwide, for allowing me to reprint the list, originally published in their ‘Who’s Gettin’ Some?’ Autumn 2011 issue):

1. Adult Film Industry Performers

2. Spiritual Guidance Industry Performers

3. Prostitutes

4. Sex-Product Testing Engineers

5. Rock Stars

6. Professional Sperm Donors

7. Horror Authors

8. Bartenders

9. Hospitality Industry Members (including Waiters, Waitresses, Hotel Maids, Airline Stewards and Stewardesses)

10. Automobile Salespersons

Clearly, these are today’s super-sexy jobs, so my friend the graphic designer had better think long and hard about a career change. If he’s looking for a bucket of thrills, those are the positions that will fill that bucket to the steaming brim.

No. 1, Adult Film Industry Performers, is certainly no surprise. I looked up the bio of a random porn star online, just to get a handle on how much action he’s getting. He’s has been in the business one year and has made 167 films so far. If you consider that on-average, during production, he has to churn up six money-shots while on-camera and, say, four during rehearsals, that would mean 10 per movie, adding up to 1,670 carnal acts in his first year alone. Lots of folks don’t do that well in a lifetime! And remember, that’s not even counting whatever action he’s getting in his personal life.

Most folks used to think that individuals in the No. 2 category, Spiritual Guidance Industry Performers, didn’t get any action at all. But recent headlines have proven otherwise. You can’t open a newspaper these days without reading about the escapades of some religious shepherd gettin’ busy with members of the flock. Former choirboys nationwide are singing a new song: a little number called the “He Touched Me in a Bad Place” Blues. And it doesn’t stop there. I read an interesting article about an evangelist who had spent years preaching against same-sex fun and drug use. The article concerned recent allegations that he was, in fact, heavily involved with – and paying top-dollar for – same-sex fun and drug use. If the allegations are true, why would he have preached against all that? I suppose he didn’t want other people playing with his expensive toys. More for him that way!

Most of careers from No. 3 through 6 are pretty self-explanatory. Prostitutes and Sex-Product Testing Engineers: yeah, they’ve got to make a living. Rock Stars: they’ve got a reputation to live up to. Professional Sperm Donors: Most people don’t even realize this occupation even exists, since there are so many amateurs in the field. But yes, there are some guys out there who are so smart, so handsome, and so well-built that their baby-batter is worth its weight in liquid gold. Unlike the folks in the other occupations, these guys usually end up pouring their payload into plastic cups. Still, nice work if you can get it.

As for No. 7: yes, it’s true … folks line up for blocks for some of that sweet, sweet Horror Author lovin’. But the less said about that, the better. My colleagues would get upset if I gave away too many trade secrets.

Bartenders: When you’re slinging the booze, you can pick and choose. To see the truth in that, one only has to watch any rerun of the old TV show “Cheers.” They marketed it as a sitcom, but I sometimes wonder if that wasn’t the first reality-TV show. Alcohol also plays a part in career line No. 9, Hospitality Industry Members. They’re often serving the frisky refreshments, and hey, we all need a little hospitality from time to time.

No. 10, Automobile Salespersons, may seem surprising to some, but I’ve always suspected it, based on anecdotal evidence. Plenty of test-drives end up at nearby hot-tub motels. And since most American cars don’t have much steel in them, many male salespersons have to use some pink steel to seal the deal.

So there you have it, sports fans: the heavy-hitters in the world’s oldest and most popular game. If you’re looking for a career change to spice up your humdrum workday, those are your top options (or bottom options, depending on whether you’re pitching or receiving). But remember, no matter what career and/or coworker you get into, always remember: Play safe, say “No!” to drugs, eat right, get plenty of sleep, and take your vitamins.

You’ll need all the energy you can get.

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The Big Mistake: Can We Reverse It?

Once upon a time, life on Earth was happy. All creatures were sea life, and all were united in the great womb of the world’s water.

Oh sure, big critters still ate little critters, but that was to be expected. And really, when they devoured each other, it didn’t matter too much — they were still a part of each other. Life was connected. Life was interactive. Life was good.

But then The Big Mistake happened.

Some scaly muddahfukkah washed up on land and decided to raise a family there. And it’s been downhill ever since.

Let’s face it: sea life has it all going on. The amazing mobility: venture wherever you want, whenever you want — just let the currents take you there. The streamlined lifestyle: just do your own thing! It’s so delightfully uncomplicated. Eat and poop without ever having to look for a fork or a toilet — the ocean is both your banquet hall and your bathroom!

Modern life-on-land tries vainly to recreate all the wonderful conveniences of ocean life. Millions of people get on the Internet, trying to do business and socialize across vain distances via electrical cords and cables. Pathetic!

Internet interaction is just a shadow-play, creating the illusion of actual interaction. Of course, us land-dwellers still use it because it’s the best we can expect — sad, dry-skinned, stick-fingered creatures that we are! Fish and their clammy colleagues have no need for electronic hocus-pocus when they want to network. They just mingle with a school of their buddies, slip into a current, and zoom here, there, everywhere.

Land-dwellers are always seeking comfort. But actually, how comfortable can we be, always walking around, jolting our knees and spine with every herky-jerky step? Our dry skin is always chafing against the rough fabric of our clothes – we are all cursed to the same friction-filled abrasive Hell.
By now, I’m sure I have you convinced: ocean living totally rocks, while the dry life is the existential equivalent of cheap European toilet-paper — in a word: harsh.Sea creatures, on the other hand, are always comfortable. They’re floating in water, like happy fetuses in a joyfully buoyant mommy-zone. If the water’s a little too hot or a little too cold, they just rise or sink to a level with the right temperature. What could be simpler?

The Creature from the Black Lagoon definitely had the right idea, livin’ the dream in his wet ‘n’ wild world. As always, old horror movies show us the way to ultimate bliss!

So what can we do to get back in the swim? The solution is simple…

Accelerate global warming!

Buy a bigger car and drive it as often as you can! Use up all the aerosol products in the house, and then go out and buy some more (even aerosol cheese)! Only buy products that are made by huge smoke-churning factories!

Come on, gang, let’s melt those polar ice-caps and jumpstart a really strong thaw. The objective is to cover all the ridiculous dry land with beautiful, nourishing, lovely sea-water. That’s Step One!

Step Two: Tell genetic scientists to get off their academic derrieres and make with the oceanic mutagens. We aren’t getting any younger — or wetter! By this time next year, I want to see gills and scales on every man, woman, child and selected housepets around the world.

Step Three: Obviously, smokers are going to have to break the habit. The world is going to be one big no-smoking zone.

Step Four: Fans of Mythos fiction will know what I’m talking about when I say it’s time to ditch the current crop of land-dweller gods and switch to deities with higher moisture levels. What’s that blowing up your cellphone? It’s the call of Cthulhu and you’d better not put Him on hold.

This season and every season, the Innsmouth look will be the one-and-only big fashion craze, and trendy Dagon worshippers will be sporting dorsal fins and come-hither googly fish-eyes. Some say that many hands make light work, but worshippers of the octopus god Kugappa will soon come to realize that a cluster of agile tentacles makes every task as easy as eel pie!

Step Five: Say goodbye! — to lawn-mowers and SUVs and bumper stickers and outrageous gas prices and insurance coverage and music videos and vacuum-cleaners and hair-conditioner and furniture and styrofoam cups and washing machines and DVDs and doilies and paperclips and TV dinners and phonebooks and furnace filters and of course, bicycles. You won’t need any of that sappy seahorse-shit ever again.

Then say hello! — to utter bliss as the waters rise above your scaly head.

Working together, we can implement my six-step plan and reverse The Big Mistake. And in the meantime … start eating more sushi. You’ll want to get used to it now, because that is what’s going to be on the menu for the rest of your life.

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They Call Him Doctor Love, and/or Phibes


They Call Him Doctor Love: An Overview of the Romantic Comedies, The Abominable Dr. Phibes
and Dr. Phibes Rises Again

What do women want?

Dr. Phibes knows. That’s what makes him…the Love Doctor.

The Abominable Dr. Phibes and Dr. Phibes Rises Again were made in 1971 and 1972, respectively … just a few years after the swingin’ Sixties. After a decade of pulse-pounding, rutting frenzy, the world was ready to return to a stylized, romantic interpretation of love.

Often you will find the Phibes epics shelved by mistake as “Horror” in video stores – probably because they starred Vincent Price, who did a little work in horror here and there. But truly these movies really belong in the romantic comedy section, along with The Pajama Game, The Seven-Year Itch, The Girl Can’t Help It, and King Kong Vs. Godzilla.

The Phibes movies concern a classic ménage a trois, the three participants being: 1.) Dr. Anton Phibes – a disfigured concert organist who wears wigs and fake features to hide his grotesque appearance, 2.) Victoria Phibes – his wife, a dead lady with a penchant for frilly nightgowns, and 3.) Vulnavia – a mute henchwoman.

In the first movie, we learn that Victoria had died on the operating table, and Dr. Phibes was involved in a flaming car crash shortly thereafter. The accident left him with a scorched, skull-like face. He has stolen his wife’s body from the family mortuary and keeps it preserved in his hidden lair. You’ve got to take an instant liking to an impetuous Romeo like that

Dr. Phibes decides to kill everyone who assisted in his wife’s fatal surgery. Each murder is based on one of the Biblical curses visited upon Pharaoh. And so the merriment begins! One doctor is love-nibbled by a horde of amorous bats, unleashed by Phibes. Another physician is stung to death by a hive of playful bees. At a masquerade, yet another doctor is decapitated by a mechanical frog mask. Talk about giving head!

Gerbil fans will think they’re in vermin heaven when Phibes serves up a load of rats for one lucky physician. Another medic is speared by a statuette of a unicorn – feeling horny, doc? More doctors and even a nurse all receive Phibes’ brand of tender loving care – and before you know it, we’re into the sequel.

Phibes had placed himself in a hidden crypt with Victoria at the end of the first film. He wakes up from suspended animation and calls forth Vulnavia from ‘the other side.’ His henchwoman had died at the end of the first movie, but apparently is easier to revive than Phibes’ wife.

Phibes now must take Victoria to an Egyptian tomb, where he can resurrect her via the waters of the River of Life. But a scholar named Biederbeck has taken Phibes’ papyrus map to the tomb. Phibes retrieves the papyrus, in the process bumping off a husky manservant – who, while making a call, is skewered by a miniature serpent-spear fired from the receiver. The last word in phone sex!

Phibes and Vulnavia take a ship to Egypt with Victoria stashed away in the cargo hold. The Love Boat has set sail, and Biederbeck and his colleagues are also onboard. Soon Phibes puts a stranglehold on one of Biederbeck’s friends and introduces him to the joys of erotic asphyxiation.

Once in Egypt, Phibes, Vulnavia and Victoria retire to an underground love-nest that Phibes had constructed near the tomb years earlier. Biederbeck and his explorers set up camp, not knowing that Phibes is in the vicinity. One by one, the explorers bite the dust – or in this case, sand.

Nature-lover Phibes makes sure the creatures of the desert are well-fed. One explorer gets up-close and personal with a ravenous hawk, and another gets an all-over body massage from some capering scorpions.

The love doctor has a few kinky toys in his goody-bag. One explorer, snoozing in a sleeping bag, becomes entangled in the comfy embrace of a portable man-compactor. Another explorer receives a relaxing facial from a high-power sandblaster.

The action roars to a thundering climax in the hidden chambers of the tomb, where Biederbeck, Phibes, Victoria, and Vulnavia all meet their ultimate destiny. The only thing missing is a final scene a la The Dating Game, with Phibes and the gang lined up to blow kisses to the audience.

And there you have it. Dr. Phibes: the man, the myth, the magic, the murder.  May Phibes always be a shining star in the firmament of the romantic comedy genre with his two fine movies, and however many more the future may hold. May his film legacy continue, through remakes, sequels, remakes of sequels and sequels to remakes, on and on through time, until at last the sun collapses and becomes a black hole, drawing our solar system into a swirling vortex of silence, darkness and death.

That’s entertainment!

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Welcome to BMovieMonster.com

Welcome to BMovieMonster.com. I’m horror author Mark McLaughlin and this is where I’ll be sharing future thoughts, essays, stories, observations … you name it.

As the domain name indicates, I’ll be talking about B-movies and cinematic monsters sometimes, since I love ’em. I’ve seen thousands of horror movies over the years. Also, I’ll be talking about my many horror and dark fantasy books, which would make great movies (Hollywood, are you listening?)  😉  To fill you in on my background, here’s some information on my books and other writing projects:

My fiction, nonfiction, and poetry have appeared in many magazines, newspapers, websites, and anthologies, including Black Gate, Galaxy, Fangoria, Writer’s Digest, Midnight Premiere, Dark Arts, and two volumes each of The Best of the Rest, The Best of HorrorFind, and The Year’s Best Horror Stories (DAW Books).

I am the author of the novels, Human Doll, The Hell Next Door, and Injectables. I’ve also written numerous story collections, many with my best friend and collaborator, Michael Sheehan, Jr.  I am the coauthor, with Rain Graves and David Niall Wilson, of The Gossamer Eye, which won the 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Poetry.

To check out all of my books, feel free to visit my author’s page at Amazon:
www.amazon.com/stores/Mark-McLaughlin/author/B008QCY4TC

I am an Active member of the Horror Writers Association. Feel free to befriend me at www.Facebook.com/MarkMcLaughlinMedia.

Talk to you later!

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