Monster on a mission
Let’s set the scene.
It’s the 90s, crimping your hair and wearing jelly sandals were THE SHIT! Didn’t matter if you looked like you’ve been struck by lightning or that those glittery bitches made your feet breakout in blisters; beauty is both a pain to experience and to now see in pictures. Wouldn’t change a thing.
Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice! Beetlejuice!
Like a lot of odd kids, I talked to the wind (we don’t bat an eye at “communing with nature,” but the kid talking to branches is a weirdo… okay) and believed I was a witch (still working on this one). BUT, a true mark of an outcast was my obsession with Beetlejuice and The Addams Family. I’m talking, saying Beetlejuice three times at night, thinking about changing my name to Wednesday level. This fascination ran contrary to the Gap or Limited Too “lewk” I was rocking then. Still, I knew that whatever that creepy, kooky monster genre matched my inner feelings to a T. Fast forward to adulthood. I’m still channeling that inner monster in watching as many horror movies as possible, BUT with a better fashion sense and friends that don’t snap off in the Fall.
Yes. Yes. But Why Monster Mamushka?
We danced the Mamushka while Nero fiddled, we danced the Mamushka at Waterloo. We danced the Mamushka for Jack the Ripper, and now…
A new take on a “graveyard smash” why do the mash when you can do the Mamushka instead? Monster Mamushka is based on The Addams Family’s most fabulous member… Morticia Addams.
Other than its appearance as a dance at an Addams' Reunion, the word “Mamushka” closely resembles the Russian “Mamochka”- Mommy, and who better to be a Mother of horror? The dark, intoxicating, and fascinating Monster Mommy herself… Morticia.
I’m in no way an official film critic. My background is in data analytics, intel, linguistics, and marketing. With this being my first foray into blogging, I wanted to use my experience to explore horror better. I was finding too often that my favorite genre was getting a bad rap as far as ratings, or the movies that did get high marks were more related to box office performance than whether it was scary; this triggered my data brain, so I decided to develop a rating system that factors in the scares, a rating for horror fans.
I try to provide a solid rating by adding controls to critic and user reviews, standardizing the film's length, and incorporating “peak points” into a calculation. That being said, film, like music, is full of subjective opinions. I’m no exception, but I’m trying to give horror a fair shot by incorporating what makes horror the best genre, adrenaline-pumping moments.
One thing to note here, you won’t find any “raspberry movies” (e.g., the acting is so poor that it’s funny or straight campy movies) included in the data. We don’t put Annie Hall on the same level as The Room, so I don’t want to do that here. I intend on including a Horror Comedy post eventually and welcome any input you will have.
I like to make a ‘RAK’ET!
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