Author Archives: Jon Kitley

Book Review: Biology Run Amok!

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BBiology Run Amokiology Run Amok!
Published by McFarland, 2018. 255 pages
By Mark C. Glassy

I first discovered the writings of Glassy with his first book, The Biology of Science Fiction Cinema, which I stumbled across at a Half Price Books a few years ago. Within those pages, he discusses different films in the horror and sci-fi genre, looking at the science in them and seeing what could be true and what is totally off. Such an enjoyable read. This time out, Glassy does the same, but also is educating the reader with a lot of science knowledge and how it is applied in some of our favorite films. These were originally published in Scary Monsters magazine, starting back in 2009, but now are all gathered together in this one volume.

In the beginning of the book, he describes how audiences today are the “Jurassic Park Generation” since we pretty much will believe the science we see in movies as reality. But Glassy goes through these different theories and explains in more details some of the fallacies therein, but also when some of the films gets the science correct.

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Looking for a New Book?

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While I continue my quest to add more books to my personal library that I’ll ever be able to read in my lifetime, I thought I would give a little shout out to a few titles that are currently sitting in my Want List on Amazon. I don’t have any of these yet (key word…yet) so all I know about them is what I’ve read on the Amazon description. But they do sound pretty interesting, and I know that I intend to pick them up at some point. While I’m in the middle of reading 3 different books right now, and have a few piled up that I still need to find room in the bookshelves for, it might be a bit.

Who am I kidding, I’ll probably order them next payday!

I’ll list this these alphabetically so it doesn’t look like I’m playing any favoritism!

Ad NauseamAd Nauseam By Michael Gingold
Any horror fan worth their weight in magazines knows Gingold from his decades working for Fangoria magazine, but has been keeping himself quite busy since those days. His book The Frightfest Guide to Monster Movies is just awesome and is simply a must. But his new book is something that older fans will love paging through, as well as giving younger fans a look into the past. In his youth, Gingold would cut out the ads for horror films, the bigger named ones as well as the smaller titles that snuck out. This book is a walk through the 1980’s in a year-by-year guide to Gingold’s archive, featuring more than 450 ads. Remember folks, years before the internet, this is how we found out movies that were playing so these ads had the tough job of capturing the attention of the person paging through the newspaper and make them want to rush out to see this movie. And more times than not, at least for us horror fans, it worked.

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Mystery Photo 7-2

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Seems like forever since our last photo, doesn’t it? Well let’s not waste anymore time and get right on it. Our last photo was a little tribute to the Monster Bash show we were going to be heading to, since Joyce Meadows was going to be there. Of course one of the films she is known for is where our photo is from, The Brain from Planet Arous (1957). Such a fun movie! Kudos to the following that sent in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Gregory Avery, Dave Fronto, Troy Howarth, Charles Miller, Michael Shields, and Neil Wright. Well done!

Now on to this week’s photo. This is in tribute to all the seafood we ate while we were out in Baltimore last week! Granted, we didn’t tackle anything THIS big! Please remember not to post your answers here so others can have a guess. Just send your guess to us in an email to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

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Another Glorious Monster Bash!

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Last weekend we spent in Mars, PA, for the Monster Bash Conference. This was our fourth year there and it is becoming one of our favorite shows to do. So much fun, each and every time. Ron Adams puts on one hell of a show, with plenty of stuff to keep any monster fan busy from the early morning to the wee hours of the next morning!

It’s not often that I get excited about a guest these days, but I was able to add one more Hammer alumni to my Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography book at the show. That was Janina Faye, who played the young Tania in Horror of Dracula (1958). She is now the fifteenth person to add her signature from people that wrote, directed, or appeared in a Hammer film. Sadly, seven of the names in there have already left us. And since the original studio’s last movie came out almost forty years ago, well… none of us are getting any younger.

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The Omen Score on White Vinyl

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omenVarèse Sarabande has released a limited edition “demonic white vinyl” version of Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar winning score for Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976). Talk about an iconic score! This release is only available on Varèse Sarabande website and each of the copies of this remastered LP will be hand numbered, as well as only having 666 units being released.

This is one of those scores that just listening to it can bring back the chills the film creates and has always been one of my favorites. This is a prime example when a score enhances what is happening on the screen so much, it truly is a masterpiece.

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Hammer Horror at the Super Monster-Rama!

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The Riverside Drive-In and DVD Drive-In have announced the titles for this fall’s Drive-In Super Monster-Rama and it is a Hammer fans dream! They will be screening four classic Hammer titles each night on Friday, Sept. 7th and Saturday, Sept. 8th. Each of the titles will be screened from a restored DCP presentation, with four of the titles being screened uncut at a drive-in theater for the first time! Here is the list of what is showing:

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Horror History: Robert L. Lippert

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lippertRobert L. Lippert
Born Mar. 31st, 1909 – Died Nov. 16th, 1976

If you are a fan of cheap sci-fi/horror films of the ’50s and ’60s, then you’ll probably are familiar with the name of Robert L. Lippert. He is the man was named the “Quickie King” by Time Magazine due to his ability to crank out movies cheap and fast. Sure, they might not have been top-notch films, but they were usually entertaining. He was also the one that started to bring The Fly to the screen in 1958, before it was pretty much taken over by the studio and kicked him to the curb. But he still brought us fun titles like Rocketship X-M (1950) as well as Witchcraft (1964), The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Earth Dies Screaming (1964), and Curse of the Fly (1965).

Lippert had started in the film business working in a theater, starting his way at the bottom and moving his way up. He eventually owned a chain of theaters in California and Oregon. In the late ’40s, he figured out the easiest way to get movies to show in his theaters were to make them himself. He was also reported to be the man responsible for bringing popcorn machines into the theaters!

Monster Bash This Weekend!!!

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MB-Lobby-Card-2018

In just a few days, we’ll be heading off to Mars! No, we’re not a member of the new Space Patrol, but instead are going to Mars, PA for the Monster Bash Conference this weekend! This has become one of our favorite shows and have been looking forward to this for quite some time. Can’t wait to browse the amazing dealer room since I’m always finding some cool stuff to add to the collection. Plus, get to see some old friends, make new ones, and chat with some of our favorite guests and authors. Not to mention hopefully catching a few movies that are screening throughout the whole weekend!

If you’re coming out to the Bash, make sure you stop by our table and check out our goodies. We’ve got a lot of new inventory of great horror reference books just in so there’s going to be a lot to choose from, most only in single copies so don’t wait too long to come and check to see. Plus don’t forget that Troy Howarth will be at our table on Saturday with copies of his new book, Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy, that he will be selling and signing.

For all the information about the show, just click HERE.

Convention tables

And to make this weekend even better, after the show we’re heading to Baltimore for a few days. Going to check out some (hopefully) amazing food places, maybe find some good old fashion book stores, see where Mr. Poe eternally rests, and who knows what.

If anybody has any recommendations, for restaurants, old fashion used bookstores, or anything other macabre and monstrous things in the area that we should check out, please let us know.

Book Review: Book of the Dead

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2005 Edition
2014 Edition

Book of the Dead: The Complete History of Zombie Cinema
Published by FAB Press, 2005. 319 pages
Re-Issued by Titan Books, 2014. 376 pages
By Jamie Russell

There are tons of film books on the zombie sub-genre. When this title was first released in 2005, The Walking Dead TV show was still 5 years away from hitting the airwaves. Since that time, books on the zombie culture have flooded the fandom like walkers a Pittsburgh shopping mall. So when this title first came out in 2005, it was long overdue. Finally, someone had taken a very serious look into this sub-genre. But while zombies became really popular in the ’80s, from Romero’s Dawn of the Dead and Fulci’s Zombie, they have been around a lot longer than some might realize. That is where this book comes in.

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Mystery Photo 6-18

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Yeah, yeah…running a little late today. But better late than never, right! I will say that I thought for sure that I would stump everyone with last week’s photo, since it is a little obscure independent but I was proved wrong, by THREE people! The film is called Wendigo, or Frostbiter: Wrath of the Wendigo, that came out in 1995. If you like stop-animated monsters, than you’ll enjoy this one. This one is a prime title for a Turkey Day marathon and will be screening this November at ours. Kudos to the following for recognizing this little gem: Hoby Abernathy, Margaret Santiago, and Will Wilson. Well done!

Okay, let us get to this week’s photo. This one might be pretty easy, but there is a little reasoning behind it. Plus it’s a damn fun movie. So gave at the photo and hopefully you don’t end up like the guy in the photo!

As always, please remember not to post your answers here so others can have a guess. Just send your guess to us in an email, to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

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