UGLY MUGS

In the conventional sense, monsters are not meant to be "beautiful" -- instead they are almost always quite the opposite (unless it's the monster lurking inside a "normal"-looking person). Monsters are intended to scare us, and what better way to do that than to depict disfigurement of the face and body, typified in the image above from THE RETURN OF COUNT YORGA. Human ugliness has been shunned for centuries and those unfortunate enough to have been born or become that way have suffered humiliation, persecution and oftentimes, worse. 

Some of the most frightening memories that many of us have of monster movies is the horrible visages that have been constructed by the skilled hands of makeup artists and special effects technicians. Whether the character elicits pathos or pure evil, they still possess the basic element of fear and repulsion.

This gallery shows the various ways that ugliness and disfigurement have been used to scare the hell out of us on TV or at the movies.

Fright Night.

Incredibly Strange Creatures...etc.

Island of Lost Souls.

Jack the Ripper.

Mysteries of Paris.

The Night Walker.

Nightmare Castle.

The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe.

Tales from the Crypt.

Tales of Tomorrow.

Tarantula.

The Manster.

The Vampire.

Tomb of Torture.

See more ugly mugs HERE.

UGLY MUGS

Lon Chaney in A BLIND BARGAIN.

Last weekend I posted an interview with Peter Lorre from 1935. He had just begun his acting career in America and would become known for his eerie and eccentric roles in MAD LOVE (1935), THE FACE BEHIND THE MASK (1941), THE BEAST WITH 5 FINGERS (1946), and the Corman Poe films such as TALES OF TERROR (1962) and THE RAVEN (1963). He also played supporting roles opposite Humphrey Bogart in two of the most famous films ever made, CASABLANCA and THE MALTESE FALCON.

Born Laszlo Lowenstein on 26 June 1904 in the Carpathian Mountains of Hungary to wealthy parents, they moved to Vienna when he was young, where he ran away from home and then fell into acting. After a film career of over 100 film appearances, Lorre passed away from a stroke on 23 March 1964 in Los Angeles.

Lorre was at his best when acting in comedy roles. But it was his peculiar features and "Falstaff physique" that fascinated and sometimes even terrifying movie-goers. A little noir underlighting and Lorre was as menacing as anybody. One could say, in colloquial parlance, he had an "ugly mug". Other actors were possessed of naturally-unpleasant looks, like Rondo Hatten, whose features were a result of the hormone-mutating disease, acromegaly.

Many more movie monster characters were made-up, defaced and deformed by makeup artists to reflect horrible burns, scars and "surgical mistakes" by insane "doctors". They were the "ugly mugs" that provided the scares in many horror films.

Shown today is a gallery of a number of these creepy countenances that have been depicted in monster movies over the years.

ASYPHX

CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS

CURSE OF THE FLY

DARK INTRUDER

DR. BLOOD'S COFFIN.

DR. X

FACE AT THE WINDOW

NIGHT WALKER

HANDS OF THE RIPPER

THE HORRIBLE DR. HITCHCOCK

MUTATIONS

THE WORLD'S UGLIEST COFFEE MUGS

How do you like your morning coffee? Black? With sugar? Or straight out of hell? That’s how Jo Scravis does it, the artist behind the monstrous handcrafted pottery from Scravis Mugs.

“I’ve been creating pottery for approximately 10 years,” said Jo to deMilked. “All of my mugs are hand sculpted and one of a kind – right down to wrinkles in the “skin” to bloodshot eyes – never to be duplicated. Each mug is made on a pottery wheel and sculpted. Once dry enough, they are individually hand painted and fired several times in a kiln,” with a signature on the bottom to prove its uniqueness.

The designs range “from zombies to demons of every kind, and they are a great conversation piece.” You also don’t have to treat them as a delicate piece of art, as they are made out of sturdy stoneware clay to be dishwasher and microwave safe.

[SOURCE: deMilked.com.]

NOTE: An internet search has turned up zero results for these. They have apparently been sold out.