Author Archives: Jon Kitley

Feedback & Reviews Welcomed!

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Back in the summer of 2019, right before the world went crazy, I published my first book, Discover the Horror. You may have heard me mention it a time or two here on the site . . . I’ve heard from quite a few of you that have purchased it and enjoyed it, giving me a lot of great comments and thoughts about it. But I need to ask one more favor from you. If you have read it, please consider taking a few minutes and posting a review on Amazon. Doesn’t have to be too be wordy and long, but just a review. The more reviews on there, the more it will circulate along with other similar items. The more it pops up, the more a chance someone who doesn’t know me and the Krypt, will take a chance on it. Every little bit helps, so it would be very much appreciated!

But that also goes to my site, and my new venture into podcasting, with my friends Damien Glonek and Aaron AuBuchon. If you’ve listened to any of our episodes, we’d love to hear some feedback. You can post comments on the site (discoverthehorror.com), or on our Facebook page, or you can even email us at podcast@discoverthehorror.com. Feel free to leave not only comments, but suggestions for a future topic, or maybe some of your favorites from a subject we just discussed.

The point of all of this is to keep the trend of positivity going. By that I mean not just for my book, the site, or the podcast, but anything you’ve come across that has impressed you. Leave a positive comment. At a restaurant where you could tell the waiter was busting their butt, or if the food is really good. If you’ve heard a song or album recently, post about it and let others know!

A positive comment can go a long way.

Movie Review: Bad Dreams

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(1988)
Directed by Andrew Fleming
Starring Jennifer Rubin, Richard Lynch, Bruce Abbott, Harris Yulin, E.G. Daily, Dean Cameron, Susan Ruttan, Sy Richardson

I would make a strong guess this film was made to jump on the Freddy bandwagon when it first was being made. First, it came out right after Nightmare 3, which seemed to be at the peak of Freddy-mania, and even getting one of the cast from the film, Jennifer Rubin to play the lead protagonist. Whatever the reasoning behind it, I remember not really caring for it when it first came out in the theaters way back then. When I recently watched it again, I tried to watch it with a fresh set of eyes and see if it played any better this time. Well . . . not so much.

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Turkey Day 2021

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I seem to say this with every Turkey Day report, but it never ceases to amaze me. This was the 19th year I’ve held my little annual marathon, which means next year will be two whole decades since I started this maddening excursion. Even more crazy is the amount of people that are anxious to join me on that quest. Granted, since 2019, we’ve had to hold them online, which has been fun, but I have to admit that it is just not the same. I’m really hoping that by next year, we can get back to the in-person marathons, but we’ll just have to see. I know that is going to disappoint some of the people that have been able to partake in the online version, but maybe that just means you should start your own Turkey Day event!

Nonetheless, my first official Turkey Day was in November of 2003, where I was by myself. That’s dedication for you. But that was the last year going solo since the following year the number started to increase until we were hitting close to 15 or more people before the pandemic started. Going online, I think we hit over 25 joining at some point. In May of 2015, we started holding Turkey Day in May, simply because there were just too many turkeys to only hold this even once a year! So, from 2003 when it all started, this was the 26th Turkey Day Marathon. That . . . is a lot of Turkeys. But it also was a lot of fun as well.

One of the things I posted earlier this month was about what I was thankful for. To have a group of friends, and even some I never have met, join together for these crazy viewing parties is something I am forever grateful for. To those that joined in, even if it was for only one or two films, thank you.

But let’s get the movies!

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Nightmare Industry – Italian Horror Documentary

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From the producers of the In Search of Darkness documentaries comes a new one that looks to be just amazing! Nightmare Industry is a new documentary coming out soon that is going to cover the Italian horror film industry. With Phillip Escott and Eugenio Ercolani as the co-directors and producers, I have a great feeling that this is going to be essential viewing. According to Escott, they want to “tell the ultimate story about Italian horror cinema.” He also states that their goal for this project is for fans to learn something, which has my support right there! Escott said “I want them to be entertained. I want them to have fun, because that’s what Italian horror cinema is all about. But I also want them to walk away enlightened. I want them to learn. A lot about what went into making these incredible movies.”

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Dawn of the Dead at Music Box in Chicago

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Now I will admit that out of George Romero’s Dead Trilogy (yes, nothing exists after Day), I would put Dawn of the Dead (1978) as my least favorite. I know, I know, but I will defend that statement!

BUT . . . no matter what, if you have not had the chance to see this film in the theater, and live near the Chicago area, then you need to fix that and come out to the Music Box Theatre, either on Friday, Feb. 4th, or Saturday, Feb. 5th, for a special midnight screening of the original theatrical cut of this epic film. I’ve already checked and this will be screening in the main theater too!

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Yvette Mimieux & Carol Speed – Rest in Peace

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I meant to get this posted yesterday about the passing of Carol Speed but before I could get to it, news of Yvette Mimieux came through today.

Carol Speed passed away last Friday, Jan. 14th, at the age of 76. Best known for her roles in some ’70s exploitation films, which is a shame because she was a treat to watch on screen. She worked for a few of the low budget directors, like Jack Hill’s The Big Birdcage (1972) and Al Adamson’s Dynamite Brothers (1974), but it was her title role in William Girdler’s 1974 film Abby that probably drew most of the attention.

But Speed was also an author, singer and songwriter as well. In fact, the soundtrack for the film Abby has a song that she wrote and performed called My Soul is a Witness. Fans of those early exploitation films will definitely be keeping memory alive. I got to meet her at a Cinema Wasteland convention back in, I believe, 2010. Such a nice person.

We also just lost Yvette Mimieux today. While she did appear in a couple of TV movies in the ’70s, Snowbeast (1977) with Bo Svenson, and Devil Dog: The Hound of Hell (1978) with Richard Crenna, most wouldn’t consider those great films. But I’ve always been highly entertained by them, so there. But she also appeared in a couple of films from my youth that always made me remember her. As a kid, watching the original George Pal version of The Time Machine (1960) not only hooked me into the story, but I definitely found my horror element with the Morlocks that used the Eloi as food! When that little bit of storyline hit my young brain, it through me for a loop! Years later, she appeared in The Black Hole (1979), which while wasn’t a great film, as a teenager, I really enjoyed it.

Mimieux, who was also an anthropologist, passed away today at the age of 80.

Thankfully, we still have their movies to still bring us entertainment and joy while watching them work. Gone, but not forgotten.

Movie Review: Albert Fish – In Sin He Found Salvation

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(2007)
Directed by John Borowski
Narrated by Tony Jay

I have never been a big fan of documentaries on true life crime and serial killers. Maybe a little history of Jack the Ripper might peak my interests every now and then, but I’ve never really delved into too much detail. Maybe since it is real, and not the fiction or alternate reality we succumb to while watching a movie, it makes it more disturbing and even harder to just walk away from.

Some time ago, I got a chance to see this documentary by John Borowski on H.H. Holmes, the first real American serial killer. While again, this wasn’t my particular forte, I watched it anyway. I was not only drawn into the history of this psychotic and amazed at the things he had done back in the late 1800’s, but also the style that Borowski told the tale of this demented person. From using grainy black and white re-enactments, it gave an interesting look and feel to this already dark story.

When I heard that Borowski’s next documentary was one the notorious Albert Fish, I was excited to see if he could use this style once again. I knew a little about Fish and his exploits, enough to know that I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know more detail. After watching this documentary, I was in shock. I thought I’d heard enough about Gein, Gacy, and the others to prepare myself for the atrocities of Mr. Fish. I was wrong.

After viewing this 86-minute documentary, I have to say that this was one of the most disturbing films that I’ve seen. The film is really not visually graphic at all, but the things that Fish did to others, not to mention himself, that is simply and utterly horrifying. Hearing Fish’s own words from a confession letter to the mother of one of his victims, a 10-year-old girl, is something that I will never forget.

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Mystery Photo 1-17

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Welcome to Monday. The start of another week where we hope for a more positive outcome of our world. We can hope, right? As hard as it is, if we can make one person smile this week, or make one person’s day better, than I think that’s a good start. I’m going to try and do that with a little pictorial puzzle. Before we get to this week’s photo, I was surprised at the number of correct guesses for last week’s photo. Here I was thinking that because you couldn’t see Jonathan Frid’s face, it might be a little tougher. You guys proved me wrong! It was of course from Dan Curtis’ House of Dark Shadows (1970), the big screen version of the TV series. Kudos out to the following: Hoby Abernathy, Dave Fronto, Kevin Hart, Bob Hartman, Troy Howarth, Doug Lamoreux, Gary McGuire, Jeff Owens, Bryan Senn, Michael Shields, Vincent Simonelli, Mark Turner, Dave Voigt, Todd Warren, and William Wilson. Well done, indeed!

Now this photo is not going to be as easy, that I promise you, so we’ll how clever all of you are! Take a peek below and send in your guess in an email to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

Movie Review: After.Life

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(2010)
Directed by Agnieszka Wojtowicz-Vosloo
Starring Liam Neeson, Justin Long, Christina Ricci, Chandler Canterbury, Josh Charles, Celia Weston

This is a strange film. Billed as a psychological thriller but is really a creepy horror movie dealing with a very twisted serial killer. Or is it? That’s the beauty of this film. All throughout the movie, you’re pretty sure what is really going on, but you’re never really positive since they never tell you one way or another. That in itself, might just piss off a few film fans that like to know the outcome of a movie and not have to think.

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Any Black Christmas Fans?

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Black Christmas is one of those early horror films that made a huge impact, though it seems to get lost in the shadow of another big title that came out 4 years after Bob Clark’s ground-breaking film. But now you can learn even more about this film and why it is important in our horror film history. Author Paul Downey & David Hastings give us It’s Me Billy: Black Christmas Revisited, a 320-page volume going into the history and discussion of the film’s themes and characters, with interviews with the cast and crew. The book not only covers the original, but the remakes as well.

Published by BearManor Media this Feb., you can get it either in either a hardcover edition ($43 only from BearManor’s site), or in Softcover ($33). I know I’ll be adding this to my library as well, and know that once I dig into it, I’ll be revisiting the classic film once again!