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Monster Madness - In Memorium

Ariel Feist 
Originally published November, 2016

I came to a realization recently when I was watching a particular horror film. I owe a fair amount of my love for the horror genre and my interest in analyzing and reviewing films to James Rolfe and his Monster Madness series.

You may not know anything about his website Cinemassacre.com, his Angry Video Game Nerd character, or the indie films he's made. You may also have never heard of the Monster Madness feature he's showcased on his website for the past 10 years either, but it is probably my favorite video series of his. If you haven't heard of Monster Madness before, sorry you missed it, because he's announced that 2016 is its final year. However, while he may not be actively doing the Madness anymore, there's still plenty of reason to watch the archives, like I've done every year since I discovered it.

I first learned about James Rolfe in 2006 by being introduced to his Angry Video Game Nerd (AVGN) videos that were gaining popularity at the time. The AVGN was a character he created that was meant to be something of a genuine, but satirical representation of an avid video game fan who played games that were made in the previous century. The AVGN had the hyperbolic anger of a YouTube commenter before YouTube was even a thing. His videos were funny, well-made, and creative in an era when videos on the internet were all mostly terrible—the best you could find elsewhere was on Ebaumsworld. It was entertaining watching him rage about some of the most popular or obscure games and their frustrating mechanics that were common on the old Nintendo and Atari consoles.

Eventually, I followed the links on his videos back to his website, Cinemassacre.com. Here, he hosted a ton of his personal independent films that he made growing up, as well as some random movie review videos. It didn't take long to figure out that he was a horror movie enthusiast—his domain name was pretty self-evident. In October of 2006, he announced a video feature he was adding to his website called Monster Madness.

Monster Madness originally started as a 31-day event where he would feature/review a horror movie per day throughout the month of October. The first year, he went through the timeline of horror-movie history starting with silent films and making his way up to the modern era. I was hooked already. He would talk about the behind-the-scenes, the importance of the film in terms of historical impact, and how it would be an influence on future films. The next year, I understood why I liked his feature so much when he did a MM of all the Godzilla movies. His videos about horror films were just as entertaining as his AVGN videos and they shared the mark of quality that just wasn't available elsewhere on the internet at the time. To this day, I still go back and binge-watch a bunch of these videos to listen to him discuss the films of their day and the various details about what went into making them.

Why am I bringing up Monster Madness? Why do I care so much about it going away? His Monster Madness feature was somewhat instrumental to my current perspective on horror movies and film in general, among other forms of art and entertainment. It actually brought forth from me an interest in the horror genre I never had before. It also broadened my view of what a "good" movie was and made me realize the depth of quality of the horror genre I had previously ignored.

I always knew I was a strange kid for enjoying movies like Jaws, Alien, and The Thing at too young an age, but I had never considered myself a fan of horror movies. I actually tended to avoid most of them for one reason or another. I thought a lot were cheap trash, gore-filled bloodbaths, or stupid formulaic exploitation films. All that is still true, but I've learned to appreciate all these qualities much more, flaws and all. I became more interested in seeking out and understanding what makes a "good" horror film so special. I owe this love and interest in movies to Monster Madness.

The first few years of MM made me interested in horror films in a way I had never been before. I sought out many of the classics after watching Rolfe's reviews, like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy, Nosferatu, etc. His appreciation and enthusiasm for these movies could easily be seen in his videos and translated into enthusiasm for the viewer. However, it was his interest in the horror genre in particular that made me realize how narrow of a perspective I had on all forms of entertainment.

Before watching Monster Madness, I was a snob who didn't know how to appreciate horror movies beyond my list of personal favorites, such as the classics, as well as the dumb, the bad, the goofy, and the gory. I learned what made even the bad movies fun and insightful. As Rolfe continued his tradition throughout the years and covered different varieties of film on his website, I was attending college and started to learn some of the same lessons about appreciating other forms of art and entertainment in the same way. While I learned about the importance of character flaws and the proper use of clichés in creative writing classes at school, I was also learning about how to appreciate the flaws and goofiness of low-budget cheesy horror films.

As time went on, James Rolfe became more and more well-known. His Angry Video Game Nerd character was popular enough that he was able to fund and shoot a full-length AVGN movie that was released in theaters. He also appeared in various other projects of internet celebrities, and in some films as well. As he's said on multiple occasions, Monster Madness started out as just a simple project he wanted to do for Halloween, which grew in popularity and scale to the point that it took up too much time out of the year for him to produce. With all of his projects up in the air and a decade's worth of videos in the bank, he's finally putting the feature to rest this year. If you've never seen any of his videos, you can still check out the archives, which I've listed here:

I owe a great deal of my more open-minded perspective on film, video games, books, and music to James Rolfe and his website. With the retirement of my favorite Cinemassacre video feature, I'm a little sad he won't be dumping a list of random movies I've never heard of in my lap every October. However, it's also given me a desire to do something similar of my own, eventually. If I ever find the time, I may revisit some of the same films and provide my own takes. Thank you, James, for making something so entertaining, educational, and enlightening for the past 10 years.

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