Read Time 3 Minutes
Alright. Now we’re cooking with gas. It’s part 5 of my long winded, festive Halloween guitar galleries. Today’s should be a bit more simple since it’s only three franchises, so this shouldn’t be too painful. If you’re still reading the franchises are Predator, Alien, and Hellraiser. If you’ve bypassed this and just started clicking then you probably already know that.
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I’ll start with Alien here. I think the DMG Alien guitar [http://dmg.donmousseau.com/gallery.htm] is quite possibly among the coolest guitars I’ve ever seen. I think H.R. Giger has one of the most unique artistic styles and translating that to the body of a guitar is a match made in heaven. When the body is one of Giger’s aliens with the bottom horn being the inner mouth popping right out there, no doubt to chomp some unsuspecting space miner’s face off.
For a movie that came out in the 70s it still looks believably futuristic and with a crew of so few on a ship so huge with a barely visible alien that could show up at any time was a recipe for awesome. A lot of horror filmmakers out there could learn from Ridley Scott’s tendency to barely show the antagonist. Not only would it have killed a lot of mystery showing more alien, but it could’ve made it look a lot more like a dude in a costume. The refined look didn’t really come about until James Cameron got his Midas touch on the aliens… And then someone somewhere decided the franchise could use some suck. Cue Alien 3. Yeah. Resurrection was no blessing in disguise itself.
The Alien Vs. Predator guitar showcases a good shot of the two famed aliens ready to wage war on each other. I don’t have any proof on this, but I’m guessing that one is a picture laid upon a guitar rather than actually painted on. I’m using the red sides to further corroborate my theory, but who knows? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe someone out there just has a horrible taste in matching colors. I know colorblind people, so it’s possible.
Sticking with the alien concept, let’s rap about the Predator guitar which features a beautifully painted Predator zapping some random beefed up grunt just to prove who’s boss. I’m pretty sure what makes this guitar look exceptional is the blending of colors. The cold, blue background with the hot, orange foreground, with some brown meshed in there.
The guitar was painted by Jim Fogarty who has a portfolio well worth checking out. Don’t take my word for it. See for yourself. [www.jimfogarty.co.uk]
I was initially debating whether or not this would count as a horror movie, so I intiated my fail-proof, tie-breaker sequence. I asked my mom if the movie scared her. She said yes, and expressed a complete distaste for the way they showed the victims post-skin, and the whole invisibility thing, and then she expressed an adamant choice to never see it again. There were some obscenities screamed along the way, and coffee mugs were thrown, so I’m guessing she didn’t like it. Me I thought it pretty much set the precedence for awesome.
And then there are the Hellraiser guitars. Holy freaking crap, man. Now for a bit of background. When I was a kid I hated horror movies. Hated them. They scared the crap out of me and I remember a number of times I’d leisurely stroll through my local Blockbuster video and I’d see Hellraiser sitting on the shelf every time. Pinhead would sit there on the cover, eying me down, and I’d practically crap my pants on the spot.
How times have changed. As of this writing I have Hellraiser 2 playing on a television directly to my left.
If anything I think Hellraiser makes for wonderful art to use on a guitar. At least for anyone interested in playing heavy metal. Much like the Explorer body above has portrayed. The guitar with all four Cenobites was made by the company GMW and as long as I’m plugging other companies I may as well say they are more than worth checking out as well. By all means. They don’t have nothing but just horror guitars. [www.gmwguitars.com]
The GMW also has signatures of three of the original cenobite actors, the replacement female cenobite, and our heroine Kirsty, played by Ashley Laurence.
I know a number of people that don’t like the Hellraiser movies, and to be fair there is nothing I can say to argue against. They’re pretty gruesome movies, so it’s hardly unfathomable that people wouldn’t just want to dive in and see what’s going on. A lot of movies before Hellraiser had toyed with more vulgar imagery, but Hellraiser perfected the nauseating extreme approach.
