Author Archives: Jon Kitley

Book Review: Icons of Fright

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Icons of Fright: 100 Interviews with Legendary Horror Filmmakers
Published by Harker Press, 2025. 469 pages
By Mike Cucinotta, Rob Galluzzo, Adam Barnick, and Jason Alvino

When you first look through this massive volume of interviews, it’s astonishing the number of people covered within the pages. The subjects range from directors, actors, screenwriters, makeup artists, stuntmen, and just about everyone in between! And the names in those categories ranges from the very well-known to the more up-and-coming ones that have just started in the industry or are just getting some notoriety from their work. But then I quickly noticed that the interviews are old… like decades or older. And I quickly thought, “Who wants to read interviews from 15 years ago?”

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Bob Burns – Rest in Peace

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Bob Burns was the ultimate fan of the sci-fi and horror genre. He was an author, actor, makeup man, consultant, historian, and more importantly, a collector and archivist. He knew the importance of these items, from the original Time Machine from the 1960s film to the armature from the original King Kong, not to mention masks from a young 16-year-old Rick Baker to pieces from both Alien and Aliens, and so much more. And the best part, he looked at this stuff like the same little 10=year-old that is inside of all of fans, with a sense of wonder and fascination.

He worked with Paul Blaisdell on films like It Conquered the World (1956) and Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957), but in the early ’60s, they created a short-lived magazine called Fantastic Monsters of the Films.

He would often appear in a gorilla costume, usually billed as Kogar, but also was a Gorilla named Tracy in the 1975 Saturday morning show The Ghost Busters.

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Mytery Photo 12-15

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Happy Monday! We survived our freezing temps over the weekend, but then again, this is the Midwest, so just another winter. That didn’t stop me from traveling into the Chicago a couple of times over the weekend for some cool events. Hopefully everyone out there also had a good weekend. But let’s get to why you’re here. Our photo from last was indeed from Ryan Coolgler’s Sinners (2025). It was definitely one of my favorites of the year but can understand why not everyone feels the same as I do. But that’s the fun part about movies. We did get quite a few correct answers, which is always nice. They were: Hoby Abernathy, Sherry Alvarez, Aaron Christensen, Dada Debaser, Chris Dyer, Kevin Hart, Steven Kennedy, Erik Martin, Gary Miller, Jeff Owens, Jennifer Pike-Cruz, Chris Richmond, Bryan Senn, and William Wilson! Well done!

This week’s photo is not as current as that last one, nor is it as well known. So yeah, another one from the vaults. Take a peek and see if you can remember where this little guy came from. Just remember to send me your guess in an email, to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. And Good Luck!

Those that Inspire

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“Read good books, say kind words, do good deeds, be a good person.”

Earlier this morning, I braved the minus 1-degree temps and headed into Chicago for a screening of the documentary Ishirō Honda: Memoirs of a Film Director, by director Jonathan Bellés. Afterwords would be a Q&A with authors Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle, who’s latest book, Godzilla: The First 70 Years had just come out. They had previously written Ishirō Honda: A Life in Film, from Godzilla to Kurosawa, which came out in 2023. It also gave me the chance to have them sign their new book that I recently got. So even though it was cold as hell, I knew it was an event I didn’t want to miss. The good thing (for me anyway) was because it was so cold, traffic was pretty much non-existent, so getting into the city was a breeze.

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Book Review: Fulci’s Inferno

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Fulci’s Inferno: Faith in the Films of a Horror and Giallo Auteur
Published by McFarland, 2025. 257 pages.
By Matt Rogerson

Anytime I see a book dedicated to Lucio Fulci and his work, I’m immediately in, which was the case for this book from Rogerson. That’s mainly because there isn’t a ton of work on him, which is very sad. I will say this work is more in the “academic study” style, which for me at least, were usually a little too “out there”, with lots of theories as to what the filmmaker really meant, at least according to the authors. But I’ve found that as I’ve gotten older is that while I may still not agree with what the author is saying, and that’s with any author, I really now do enjoy reading about these different ideas or theories and just thinking about them. Doesn’t mean I’m going to agree with them, but I love the fact that it gets your mind pondering different ideas and maybe thinking about a particular film, or even a single scene in the movie in a way you didn’t before.

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DtH Episode 111 – Paul Naschy

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Count Dracula’s Great Love (1973), Horror Rises from the Tomb (1973), Panic Beats (1983)

We’re finally back to discuss the wonderful cinematic world of Paul Naschy! Back in episode 21, we covered three different entries in Naschy’s werewolf films. So, this time out, we are covering three of his NON-werewolf titles. This is to show newer fans that while he was known for his Waldemar Daninsky werewolf films, but that he had made plenty of other films, incorporating a bunch of different kind of monsters. And if you are familiar with more of his work, then what better time to revisit some of them, right?

Making over a hundred titles in his career that spanned decades, Paul Naschy loved the horror genre and made the kind of films that he wanted to, giving fans a wide variety of well-known beasties, as well as ones we’d never seen before. While some might say they vary in quality, Naschy’s passion never did, and always put his heart and soul into each one of them. 

Films mentioned in this episode:

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Ishiro Honda Documentary in Chicago

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This Sunday at Facets in Chicago, they will be screening the documentary Ishiro Honda: Memoirs of a Film Director, directed by Jonathan Bellés, put on by the Chicago Japan Film Collective. The screening will start at 10:30am and then is followed by a panel discussion with Ed Godziszewski and Steve Ryfle, authors of Ishiro Honda: A Life in Film and Godzilla – the First 70 Years: The Official Illustrated History of the Japanese Productions.

Barry Kaufman from House of Monsters will be in the lobby before and after the screening with copies for sale of both books by Godziszewski & Ryfle.

For tickets to the event, just click HERE.

Mystery Photo 12-8

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Hopefully wherever you are reading this, you’re not getting pelted with snow, unless of course you want it! We’ve gotten more in the last week or so than I think all of last year. Still, I’d rather have it than the 90-degree heat. But that’s just me. Our photo from last week was from William Castle’s Homicidal (1961), with another fun gimmick with the “Fright Break”. Really miss Castle’s sense of ballyhoo and style. But congrats to the following for sending in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Kevin Hart, Charles Miller, Bryan Senn, Mike Shields, and William Wilson. Well done, indeed!

Take a look at this week’s photo and see if you can recognize where this shot is from. Just remember to send your guesses to me in an email, to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. And most of all, stay warm and good luck!

Turkey Day 2025

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Another one in the books. We only had 5 of us this time, but we still managed to make our way through our normal 7 titles, which I have to admit was tough in a couple of them! But we’re professionals and we struggled through them to become stronger! Or something like that. Joining us this time out was our usual suspects: Neil Calderone, Brian Fukula, Tim Palace, and my T-Day co-pilot Aaron Christensen, making this event his 20th anniversary of Turkey Day! While we did miss a few of our regulars, due to incoming bad weather and other such issues, we still had a good time. And probably ate way too much pizza.

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January Giallo Returns to the Music Box

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Once again, this January the mysterious sub-genre known as the giallo comes back for 4 screenings. This has been going on for a few years now and they never fail to bring in some really interesting titles, and this year is no different. The screenings take place every Monday in January. See below for the titles.

January 5th – Paranoia (1969) – Directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carol Baker, screening from a 35mm print.

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