Posts Tagged ‘Munsters’

Munster Koach

It has to be the ‘Munster Koach’ built by ‘George Barris’ for the hit TV show ‘The Munsters’.

This hot rod car is 18ft long and made from three Model T bodies.  Each member of the Munsters family required their own compartment, which included a laboratory for Grandpa Munster.

It has blood red velvet interior and black gloss pearl paint on the exterior and gets three miles to a gallon on embalming fluid. 

1964 the cost to build the first Munster Koach was $18,000.00 and there was only two built.

The studio only gave ‘George Barris’ 21 days to complete the car.

It has a four speed manual transmission with a power rear end.

The car is powered by a 289 Ford Cobra engine which was bored to 425 cid.

Second Best TV Car Ever?

Dragula

Dragula was Grandpa Munster’s car which was also built by ‘George Barris’.

The fibre glass body of DRAG-U-LA was shaped like a coffin. It featured a 350HP 289CI Ford Mustang V-8 engine, with a four-speed stick shift.

As a child watching the old black and white movies of Universal Horror, I would be mesmerised in a world of excitement and wonder. To me, it was a different world altogether, one where I could escape, one that was attractive and full of amazing characters.

I was introduced to wonderful gothic architecture and mobs of angry peasants with blazing torches chasing the Wolfman, Frankenstein’s monster and Dracula down to an unfortunate end.

I was touched when Frankenstein’s monster was given a bride.

I loved the dramatic acting style from the likes of Lon Chaney Jr, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi against the backdrop of a musical score that built in intensity as the drama unfolded.

I have a lasting impression of these monsters faces, not only in the films, but on horror posters and in magazines.

These images have stood the test of time and almost everyone I know relates them to Universal Horror.

I’ve paid homage to Universal Horror with the creation of my ‘Horror Posters by Amanda Norman Photography ’. I just love the style of them.

The old graveyards in these films looked beautiful with the white smoke and the long casting shadows. This has undoubtedly influenced my passion for photographing graveyards in order to try and capture the same eerie atmosphere that Universal Horror projected so well.

I can’t ever remember being scared of these movies!

A few years on and I stumbled across The Munsters.

This TV programme made me laugh and it still does to this day as I have both season one and season 2 on DVD. I always remember wanting a family like The Munsters and for Herman to be my Dad.

As a teenager, I fell in love with Hammer Horror.

These films were like the modern day Universal Horror, but they were in colour and they were illicit with their sexual undertones. No wonder I was captivated as a teenager going through puberty.

I was totally mesmerised with Christopher Lee. He was scary, yet very sexy.

The power he had over the numerous women who would fall weak at his knees and beg to become his vampire lover and be with him for all eternity, obeying his every command. How I often wished that I would be woken by Dracula standing beside my bed. It must have been the forbidden desires of falling under his erotic spell that I loved so much.

Lee turned Dracula into a master of horror while Hammer Horror put the sex into vampires.

Not a lot of people are aware of this but Hammer Horror did base some of their films on true storylines.

The story of Countess Dracula played by Ingrid Pitt was based on the very real Elizabet Bathory (1560-1614) who was sentenced to live out the rest of her life in an asylum for the murder of over 600 young women. She tortured and killed them for her sadistic pleasures.

Hammer Horror based the story around her thirst for blood.  When she bathed in virgins blood, Countess Dracula believed it kept her looking young. For an interview with Ingrid Pitt and her comments about Bathory, click here.

Hammer also based 3 of their films on the character Carmilla Karnstein created by Joseph Sheridan LeFanu in 1872.

The first film was ‘The Vampire Lovers’ starring Ingrid Pitt, this was followed by ‘Lust for a Vampire’ starring Yutte Stensgaard and finally The Twins of Evil starring the Collinson twins.

I could waffle on all day about Hammer Horror, but they are without a doubt, one of my inspirations for my horror photography and my love of vampires.