The Skyline Drive-in in Shelbyville, IN has announced their lineup for this year’s Super Monster Movie Fest and it’s a dozy! They had announced a teaser early with the tag line that “Size Doesn’t Matter”, which had me thinking it was going to be all about giant monsters but turns out I was only half right!
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This is a local show for us that I’ve been wanting just to go and check it out for a few years now but finally just decided to get a table and check it out that way. Of course, then the pandemic hit and that put more than a few things on hold. But this weekend, the show is back, and we will be set up there for the first time. This show has been going on for over 2 decades and while it’s not strictly a horror themed show, it does have its fingers in the genre. Not sure what to expect but since it is local, I figured at least we’d have some fun.
So, if you’re in the area, and are interested in things like Pulps, paperbacks, original art, movie memorabilia, and a whole lot more, head on out and check out the show. It is taking place at the Westin Lombard Yorktown Center, in Lombard, IL. You can check out all the info from the website HERE.
Welcome to May! One month closer to October and Halloween, right? We’re more than halfway there! But let’s get down to business. Our photo from last week, which a lot of people recognized right away, was from the 1958 “Hammer-ish” film Blood of the Vampire, written by Jimmy “Frankenstein” Sangster, which was how he was actually billed on the poster art. While it obviously isn’t a Hammer production, I’ve always found it pretty entertaining. Congrats to the following for sending in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Dave Fronto, Kevin Hart, Bob Hartman, Troy Howarth, Erik Martin, Gary McGuire, Bryan Senn, Vincent Simonelli, and Michael Shields. Well done!
Now believe it or not, but it seems this week’s photo is our first black and white pic of the year. I was kind of surprised myself. So why not have the first one from a classic. You believe me, right? Or am I trying to trick you? Either way, take a look below and see what you think. Just send us an email with your guess to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!
Back in 2008, when Mark Hartley’s incredible documentary Not Quite Hollywood: The Wild, Untold Story of Ozploitation came out, I had no idea just how many horror and exploitation films had actually came from Australia. More and more titles that I had heard or seen, but never knowing they actually were made ‘down under’. Plus, it also put the spotlight on a few titles that I had never seen yet. No matter what though, it showed that country had definitely made its own mark on the genre.
More importantly, I’m not sure that I knew the Australian government had actually banned horror films, from making them to even importing and showing them, all due to religious communities and righteous watchdog groups. Now thanks to author Daniel Best, we’re going to have a chance to learn all about the history of the ban, the censorship, and getting past it, in his book Terror Down Under: A History of Horror Film in Australia, 1897 – 1973. For me, there is nothing more enjoyable than opening up a new world of information about the horror genre, giving one a new insight to the history of the genre that us here in the States (or other countries) might not have a clue of what was going on during certain times. At first, I thought this was a standard film guide for Australian horror films but after reading what the book was actually about, I am even more intrigued and interested in digging into it!
Priced at $39.95 and 204 pages, it set to come out from McFarland this October.
(1987)
Directed by Sui-Tung Ching
Starring Leslie CHeung, Joey Wang, Wu Ma, Wai Lam, Sui-Ming Lau, Zhilun Xue
In the early ‘90s, I was really getting into the Hong Kong action flicks that were just starting to break out here in the underground market, especially the works of John Woo. Around that time, there was a British TV show called Incredibly Strange Film Show (1989-1989), hosted by Jonathan Ross who would interview strange directors and characters from cult and exploitation films, such as Doris Wishman, Russ Myer, Ray Dennis Steckler, and Ted V. Mikels. On one of these episodes, he talked to Tsui Hark, producer of a lot of the early John Woo films, showing clips from the different titles he’s produced or directed. During this montage, they showed some scenes that just blew me away. It had flying heads, a guy with a HUGE tongue, beautiful ghosts, and things I had never seen before. These were from A Chinese Ghost Story (1987), and I knew I had to find to see if it was as amazing as the short clips I saw.
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Occasionally the infamous and best magazine devoted to Hammer here in the States will go outside the famous studio to focus on another title or two. They did it previously on the Frank Langella version of Dracula (1979) or Frankenstein: The True Story (1973), and with each of those issues put in as much love and research as any of their Hammer features. So, while I love their work they do on Hammer, I also love when they venture outside there because I know they are going to do it so well!
The new issue, #48, has one of my favorite movies on the cover, The Trollenberg Terror (1958), or as it was known here in the states, The Crawling Eye! Featuring another one of kind cover by artist Mark Maddox, I think it will enjoy looking at you as much as you will looking through its pages!
This is what else if featured in this issue:
Continue readingWelcome to our last photo for April. How times flies, huh? A quarter of the year almost behind us. Onward and upward, right? Well, we can only hope. Unfortunately, we didn’t get any correct answers for our last photo. Maybe it was too new? Could be. The name of the film is Malasaña 32, or 32 Malasana Street as it is called on Amazon Prime. It came out in 2020 and directed by Albert Pintó and if you like creepy haunted house stories, this one packs a punch.
But let’s get to this week’s photos. Maybe this one might be a little easier to recognize, especially for those that have a love of older films. Okay, that’s a big enough hint for you! Check it out below and see what you think! Just remember to send your answer to me at jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!
Fans of the weird and strange exploitation films might have heard of René Cardona’s 1969 film Night of the Bloody Apes, which I have to say is one hell of a title. Honestly, if the trailer alone doesn’t get you to watch the movie, nothing else will. But it was a remake of Cardona’s own film Doctor of Doom (1963) but in color with some nudity, blood & guts, including some stock footage of some real surgery! It is a great little flick for those akin to this kind of twisted cinema.
At the last convention I was at, I picked up the new Blu-ray of this film that was released by VCI Entertainment. I had the old Something Weird DVD but figured it was “now restored in 4K from original 35mm negative” I could always use an upgrade. Plus, this new release also had a bonus feature of the previous mention Doctor of Doom. But as I watched it the other night, something was amiss. Now there were some scenes that either didn’t go through the 4k scan because the quality noticeably dropped, but during some of the gore scenes, the quality of the print changed, almost like someone had messed with the contrast or something. Now this is coming from someone who knowns NOTHING about what goes into restoring movies. But when the quality of the print dramatically changes, and not like it went back to a grainy print, but where the colors looked oversaturated or something, something obviously noticeable, something wrong.
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(1966)
Directed by Herbert J. Leder
Starring Dana Andrews, Anna Palk, Philip Gilbert, Kathleen Breck, Karel Stepanek,
Basil Henson, Alan Tilvern, Ann Tirard
There are those films we first see in our youth that sent a sense of awe through our brain, as well as chills down your spine. A time way before we’re smart enough to know whether something could really happen or not, or how far science could really go, when most concepts or ideas where completely new and therefore fascinating to our young minds, sparking that imagination. That is when I first experienced The Frozen Dead. I can remember telling the kids on the playground the next day at school, about a wall of arms that were still alive, or Nazi soldiers that could only comb their hair or bounce an imaginary ball, or even more exciting, a decapitated head that was STILL ALIVE!!! Years or maybe even decades later when we see these films again, we’re a little ashamed to think that it was it was that amazing at the time. But others, like this particular film, even though it might be a little silly or even outrageous, it still impresses me.
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Yours Cruelly, Elvira
Published by Hachette Books, 2021.284 pages.
By Cassandra Peterson
You couldn’t be a horror fan from the ‘80s until now and not know who Elvira is. Sure, while she was always great to look at, as you get past those teenage boy thoughts, you start to realize just how smart and talented the woman behind the makeup and wig is. I was a fan of her since those Thriller Video days, back when trips to the video stores were a weekly thing. I was excited when her first movie came out and laughed quite a bit at the not-so-subtle jokes in there. I’ve met her a few times at different conventions over the years, both as Elvira and as Cassandra, and was always amazed at how funny she was and connected to her fans.
So yeah, a big fan.
When her biography was announced, I quickly pre-ordered it because this was the first time we were really going to hear about the woman behind Elvira. Once I finally got it, it was one of those instances where I just picked it up browse through the photos knowing I would get to it at some point. Next thing I know, I’m 90 pages in! I finished the entire book in about 3 sittings because it was a very easy read but more importantly, we got to hear Cassandra’s story. We learn how she got her start, go-go dancing while she was still underage, going from being a rock band groupie to becoming a Vegas showgirl, to becoming the famous Mistress of the Dark, not to mention the ton of famous people she met along the way.
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