Author Archives: Jon Kitley

Horror History: John Agar

by in Horror History and tagged , , | 2 Comments

johnagarJohn Agar
Born Jan. 21st, 1921 – Died April 7th, 2002

Though he started his film acting career doing westerns, it’s the films he did in the ‘50s that made John Agar so memorable to horror fans.  Agar was a staple when it came to battling giant monsters, aliens, and mad scientists.  He always gave it his all, even when the script wasn’t the greatest, or even the monster that he was fighting against.  He always gave a fun and entertaining performance, even when working with uber-low-budget king Larry Buchanan on a couple of films.  He would even make appearances in more modern day films in titles like Clive Barker’s Nightbreed and the Tope Hooper directed episode of John Carpenter’s anthology Body Bags.

Of few of his highlights (and lowlights, depending on your feelings) would be Revenge of the Creature (1955), Tarantula (1955), and The Brain from the Planet Arous (1957), as well as Larry Buchanan’s  Zontar: The Thing from Venus and Curse of the Swamp Creature (both 1966).

Movie Review: The Human Race

by in Reviews: Movies and tagged , | Leave a comment

humanraceThe Human Race (2013)
Written and Directed by Paul Hough

A good friend of mine told me about this movie when he had seen it at a film festival, which sounded interesting because the fact that it is about a race and the main actor is really missing a leg. Plus, it was directed by the son of John Hough, who directed Legend of Hell House and Twins of Evil, two of my favorite films. So I knew I was going to want to give this film a look when it came out. Of course, like a lot of movies these days, they get lost in the numbers with so many other titles. But I recently got it from Netflix and figured now was the time to check this flick out. And so glad I did.

A group of people suddenly appear at a strange location with messages coming to them in their head, in their own voices, giving them instructions on what to do and what not to do, and lastly….to race or die. They are told that they need to move along the path pointed out by almost weapon looking arrows, and if they are lapped twice, they will die. So right away we get the name of the title, The Human Race. Of course, we learn later the brilliant play on it. Because they are scared and not understanding what is going on, some don’t follow the instructions and end up dying in very gruesome way, which in turns makes the crowd even more afraid.

Continue reading →

You Did What?!?!? – HorrorHound Report…Part 3

by in Conventions and tagged , | 2 Comments

incrediblestrangeDuring the show, a guy came up and was browsing through the books and pulled out a copy of the Incredibly Strange Film book published by the Re/Search Publications in 1986. This is a great little book, filled with interviews and articles on some of the kings and queens of exploitation cinema, like Ted V. Mikels, H.G. Lewis, Doris Wishman, Dave Friedman, and many more. As I started to tell him more about the book, he told me that he had recently picked up a copy from ebay, that had over 20 signatures in it from the people involved, like Wishman, and only paid $100. Now, a few of the people covered in that book have since passed away, like Ray Dennis Steckler and Wishman. But just when I was telling how freaking amazing of a deal he had there, he said that he had been ripping the pages from the book and selling them on ebay.

It was at this point where I stopped talking and tightly closed my jaw. I was afraid that if I was to open it, something would come out that could be considered either offending and/or threatening. I just stood there shocked, unable to move or say anything. Now, let me clarify that I understand that some things might not be as important as it is to others. I get that. But the fact that he had an incredible book, filled with signatures from some of the people responsible for making exploitation cinema what it is today, and was literally tearing apart the book to sell the individual pages, really hurt something deep inside of me. I mean, first off…he’s tearing apart a book!!! And secondly, he is destroying a one-of-a-kind piece of history.

To each their own, as they say, but it just kills me knowing that someone had gone through the trouble of collecting those signatures in that book, which was then ripped apart. Needless to say, a very sad and disturbing moment at the show. Lucky for me, the rest of the show was not like that.

Book Review: The Films of Larry Buchanan

by in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged | 2 Comments

filmsofbuchananThe Films of Larry Buchanan
By Rob Craig
Published by McFarland & Company, 2007. 271 pages.

While the films of Larry Buchanan might be an acquired taste, he is probably my favorite of the low (or no) budget filmmakers. And hearing stories about his films and the making of them are sometimes more entertaining then the movies themselves.

Author Craig does an amazing job dissecting Buchanan’s film, giving us a ton of information about the films, the people who worked on them, and Buchanan himself. The only problem is that I think Craig has looked at the films at little too close and started to see things and meanings that I don’t necessarily believe are there. Now granted, with any film study, there are those who see deeper into the pictures than others can. That is not to say they are right or wrong, but for me I think if you stare and examine anything long enough, you will find whatever it is you might be looking for. As much as I love and enjoy Buchanan and his films, I don’t think some of these deeper messages that Craig points out were really there or at least never consciously intended to be there. Again, this is just MY opinion.

Continue reading →

Book Review: It Came From Hunger! Tales of a Schlockmeister

by in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged | 3 Comments

hungerbookIT CAME FROM HUNGER!  TALES OF A SCHLOCKMEISTER
By Larry Buchanan
Published by McFarland & Co, 1996.  215 pages.

For those out there that think that Roger Corman made movies with incredibly low budgets, then you need to learn who Larry Buchanan was.  Station out of Texas, Buchanan churn out film after film with embarrassing low budgets, some of them making some decent money.  This is one of my favorite quotes from the book:

“Roger Corman had been giving three times the budget we had.  His version was in black and white, and he had as his leads Peter Graves, Beverly Garland, and Lee Van Cleef.  And the running time was only 71 minutes.  For $30,000, I was expected to shoot 80 cut minutes of color and bring in three young stars from Hollywood.  Their board, hotel, and air fare alone would be $15,000!”

Continue reading →

Book Review: The Argento Syndrome

by in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged , , | Leave a comment

argentosyndrome-scThe Argento Syndrome
By Derek Botelho
Published by BearManor Media, 2014. 261 pages.

Do we really need another book on Dario Argento? I mean, after the great tome from Alan Jones, what more could be said? The answers to those two questions is Yes and a LOT! There are some books that are just fact based, like reading something from IMDB. Or others are just loaded with stories from the authors point of view. But the real beauty of Botelho’s book is that it is a combination of those two types, making it not only a great read, but very informative.

He covers all of Argento’s movies, but also gives us a little story behind it of how he first saw it, which gives the reader an insight to the author, but it also shows that he is a fan, just like most of us. Reading a book on a filmmaker that is basically someone’s college thesis can sometimes be a bit dry, but Botehlo gives us some great stories about the man, the movies, and the different people that worked on them.

Continue reading →

Movie Review: Mark of the Devil

by in Reviews: Movies and tagged | Leave a comment

markofthedevil-arrowMark of the Devil
Directed by Michael Armstrong & Adrian Hoven
Starring Herbert Lom, Udo Kier, Olivera Katarina, Reggie Nalder, Herbert Fux, , Gaby Fuchs, Johannes Buzalski, Adrian Hoven, Ingeborg Schöner

It has been quite a while since I sat down with this notorious little film. And after watching it, I remember why it has been so long. For me, this is a very brutal and disturbing film. Not in the sense of something like Cannibal Holocaust, but because this really is based on historical fact, and what the church and their underlings did to innocent people, for reasons of greed, lust, jealousy, and just about every other sin there was. I mean, you have a group of nuns being attacked and raped in the first few minutes of the film, so that sets the tone pretty quickly. Watching this story unfold once again in front of me, it brought forth my feelings towards this kind of religious fever and terror from a group that is supposed to be about peace and love. In his book Horror Films of the 1970s, author John Kenneth Muir writes that this “film exists solely to catalogue man’s brutality against man.” I completely agree with that, but think that is the reasoning behind it, to show what we as a race have done to each other. This film shows a very unsettling period of time then, and sometimes makes me think we could go through that all over again.

Continue reading →

Mystery Photo 3-30

by in Mystery Photo | Leave a comment

Yes, I know it has been a while since our last Mystery  Photo. I can only blame it on being gone last weekend for the HorrorHound show. But since things on the weekend tend to happen, like conventions, I’ve decided to move these Mystery Photo posts to Mondays. That it will be at least one good thing to look forward to Mondays for, right?

Our last photo was from George Romero’s The Dark Half, which I just recently seen for the first time since it probably came out on video. But this little part where the frame grab was taken from really gets the jump from the audience. Kudos to the following for sending in the correct answer: Aaron Christensen, Matt Dean, Ken Johnson, Kevin Matthews, and Mike Tutino.

Continue reading →

Cinematic Crossroads – Battle # 3: Cabin Fever

by in Cinematic Crossroads and tagged , | Leave a comment

With this episode of Cinematic Crossroads, we take on Eli Roth’s debut film, Cabin Fever. So let’s get started!

cc-cfbannerSpecial Guest Start: John Pata. John Pata comes from the land known as Oshkosh, WI, where he is the owner of Head Trauma Productions. Pata co-wrote/directed the feature length film, DEAD WEIGHT, released earlier this year. He also is the president of the Time Community Theater, a volunteer-based, non-profit theater in Oshkosh, and continues to organize various horror events as Oshkosh Horror. Oh, and he loves burritos and iced tea. I mean LOVES them.

Continue reading →

Cinematic Crossroads – Battle #1: The Blair Witch Project

by in Cinematic Crossroads and tagged , | Leave a comment

It seems I got the order of these a little screwed up. This is our first entry in the Cinematic Crossroads, with From Dusk Till Dawn being our 2nd venture. So I’ve edited our last post a bit. But in our first one, we didn’t have a guest start yet, so it was just myself, Aaron Christensen, Brian Kirst, and Dave Kosanke. Enjoy.

blairwitchbannerr Continue reading →