Natural History of Horror at NHLA!

The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (NHLA) has a new exhibit on horror!  It started on October 10th, but I was only able to visit yesterday, December 4th since I was also at another event in the area.  It is free with paid museum admission and ends on April 19, 2020.  I went on a Tuesday which is free, but I made a donation and got a dinosaur stuffie and seeds. If you love horror or Universal Monsters, then it is worth a visit!  

The exhibit is in a corner room of the museum.  Once you turn a corner, there is a full sized recreation of the Creature from the Black Lagoon!  I would love to see the original that I think is in Florida, but I just love seeing any form of the Creature.  A small kid was pleading with his mother not to continue the exhibit when he saw the Gill Man!  There is a bust of the Gill Man’s head and then a wall with the coelacanth, the prehistoric fish that inspired the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  Review of the 1954 classic here: http://geektruth.blogspot.com/2018/10/retro-review-creature-from-black-lagoon.html

Bust of the Gill Man, Natural History Museum L.A., photo by the author.

There was a large screen showing the films and to the left side was a section for Frankenstein.  A table that features a switch and a pale, real frog’s leg, throw the switch and “It’s alive!”  The twitching leg is really gruesome.  Also on display is the shackles from the original movie.  Frankenstein is compelling as a modern narrative, bringing back to life what was dead, and Mary Shelley’s novel is a hallmark of science fiction literature.  It also stands out as the most brilliant work of cinema with James Whale’s direction. His life was made into the film Gods and Monsters (1998).  

Next, there is a door that opens up to the baleful stare of Karloff as The Mummy!  There is props of a vase and the mummy’s wrappings from the 1932 film as well as various Egyptian artifacts from the museum’s collection.  There were modern remakes of the classic, but the original is still powerful.  Finally, there is the bat prop from Dracula and actual bats and a bat skull.  Dracula is a moody horror classic, it is so difficult to separate the original from the Bela Lugosi imitations, but the vampire craze all started with the 1931 film. Lastly, there were foley props to recreate thunder (some visitors may have been surprised when I used it!), creaking doors, and bat wings flapping!  There is always great memories from horror classics and see some of the best at Natural History of Horror!  Don’t miss it!   

Frankenstein display, frog leg on the bottom!, photo by the author.

#NMLA, #NaturalHistoryofHorror, #CreaturefromtheBlackLagoon, #Frankenstein, #TheMummy, #Dracula