It looks like we stumped everyone with last week’s photo. It was from the 1972 giallo The Crimes of the Black Cat, which features a very brutal shower murder sequences. We didn’t even get a guess or two either, which is surprising. Oh well….let’s get on to this week’s photo, which I think you might find a little easier. Maybe.
But as always, please remember not to post your answers here, so others can have a try at it. Just send us your guess in an email to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!
T
exas filmmaker Larry Buchanan has always had a special place in my film fan’s heart. Making titles with very little money, he still managed to create something that I’ve always found entertainment in, even if for the wrong reasons. He gave us titles like The Eye Creatures, In the Year 2889, Zontar: The Thing from Venus, The Naked Witch, The Loch Ness Horror, and of course, Mars Needs Women, along with so many others. His budgets tended to be so low, a mere fraction of what Roger Corman was getting to make his low budget features. But Buchanan still go them made, and usually turned a pretty decent profit. Granted, most of them won’t be remembered for being anything but a turkey, but hey…at least they are being remembered, right?
Years ago, I was lucky enough to score a hardcover copy of his autobiography It Came From Hunger: Tales of a Cinema Schlockmeister, originally published by McFarland in 1996. If I didn’t love his work then, I surely did after reading this wonderful and insightful book. It does give a lot of information on how he got started in the business and how he managed to continue it in throughout his career, even when he had little or no money to make a picture. The stories within these pages, such as what happened to his very first feature film, are so compelling and fantastic, really giving an insight to this man who just loved making movies.
This book has been long out-of-print and tends to go for big bucks on the secondary market. But now, you can get your own paperback edition of this book for only $9.99! Even at triple the price, this book is a must for independent filmmakers, as well as anybody who loves these kind of films.
You can read my review of this book by clicking HERE.
So do yourself a favor and head over to Amazon to order your copy today. I promise you that you will just love this one. And if not, then you’re only out $10!
I know it’s been a few weeks since this happened and had planned to get something written up, but just never got to it. Then yesterday, I was watching Michael Felsher’s making of Creepshow documentary, Just Desserts, which features some interviews with Wrightson. I knew then that I needed to get this done and posted about this incredible talent that the world of horror and comic books has lost.
Now, I’m not an artist so I couldn’t even attempt to explain just how talented Wrightson was, or the impact that he had on generations of artists. I just know that looking at the below piece he did for the illustrated Frankenstein that was released in 1983 (after spending seven years working on it) just blows my mind at how this is even possible. The detail and layout is just astounding and I couldn’t even begin to understand how a talent like this could even exist.
A Youth in Babylon
By David F. Friedman
Published by Prometheus Books, 1990. 355 pages.
In the world of exploitation movies, David F. Friedman is right up there at the top. When it comes to selling whatever to the market, Friedman was a god. He grew up in that carnie-like industry, learning from some of the best, like Kroger Babb, on how to market and sell movies, even if they were just terrible. The exploits of Friedman, and some of the other “Forty Thieves” are just priceless and are such a treat to be captured and put down in this book.
As if it wasn’t proven to me more than at the recent HorrorHound Weekend that print is definitely not dead, here are a few more titles that I’ve come across that are either out or coming out soon. I know I’ll be adding them to my library at some point in the near future.
The first one is comes from FAB Press, so right there we know the quality of it is going to be worthy of the cost. But then you throw in the fact that it was written by Michael Gingold, then that is just icing on the cake.
Growing up in the early ’70s, the small town I lived didn’t have it’s own movie theater, so I had to get my beginning monster education from the TV. From shows like Night Gallery, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, to plenty of made-for-TV movies around that time that were horror themed, it was everything a young horror fan could ask for. And I loved them all. But there was one show which was shown over two nights in 1973 that stuck in my mind for decades. It was Jack Smight’s 1973 film Frankenstein: The True Story, starring a wide array of actors such as James Mason, Leonard Whiting, David McCallum, Jane Seymour, Agnes Moorehead, Ralph Richardson, John Gielgud, and Tom Baker.
At the time, I had no idea just how far away the “true” part really was, but when I was a 8-year old boy, all I knew was that it was mind-blowing. I can vividly remember watching this with my slightly older brother, amazed at some of the gore on screen, and anxiously waiting for part 2 to take place the two nights later. Years later, after finally being able to track down the full unedited edition, I could re-visit this great tale, which I did multiple times. Even after being more educated about the “true story”, I still consider this a favorite. And now, thanks to Little Shoppe of Horrors, I will once again be able to dive into this wonderful production.
The Devil’s Candy
Released by Death Waltz Recording Co., 2017
18 Tracks with a total running time of 37 min.
Music by Michael Yezerski
Right from the very second this score starts, it grabs you by the core. At first, it might just seem like a loud guitar riff, but it is much more than that, having a strange and eerie quality to it. It definitely gets the listener’s attention.
Hey Kiddies…yeah, I missed it last week. That’s what happens after an amazing convention weekend where you get very little sleep, then get home about 4 hours before you’re supposed to get up to go to work. Some times are just not going to get done! But this is a new Monday, and things are somewhat back to normal. Or at least enough to have a new photo!
But first, let us go over the last one we did. It was from the 1981 British film about a plane crash called The Survivor. Not to be confused with Sole Survivor, which came out two years later. This one stars Robert Powell and Jenny Agutter and directed by David Hemmings. But even with having two weeks to ponder this one, it seems we only had one correct answer sent in, which was from Jaeson Finn. So kudos out to you, Jaeson!
So…here’s our latest photo. Sorry to say, but I think this one is going to be a tough one. Sorry for the lesser quality of it, but that is the best source I had. I will tell you right now, it is not from Psycho, so don’t even bother sending that one in. This is in color, not black and white. And don’t try to tell me there was some remake made in the ’90s…that’s just more of that alternate fact stuff.
As always, please remember not to post your answers here but send them in an email to me at jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!
The Eyes of My Mother (2016)
Directed by Nicolas Pesce
Starring Kika Magalhães, Diana Agostini, Olivia Bond, Will Brill, Joey Curtis-Green, Flora Diaz, Paul Nazak
This is one of those films that will definitely leave a mark on the viewer. Whether or not you like what unfolds in front of you, it will be very hard to forget. And isn’t that what we hope from all cinema? Something that has substance and is not easily forgotten a day later? Something that will make you think or get a reaction from you. That is what writer/director Pesce has done here with this film.
Years ago, if I had gotten sick, whether it was the flu, cold, sinus infection, I would struggle through it and still try and continue my normal rituals during the day, hoping the drugs I was given would fight off whatever bug I had contracted. I’d still be working on the computer, writing, or doing something other than what illnesses require the most…plain and simple rest.
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