Category Archives: Misc. Ramblings

Keep the Passion Burning…

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…and the Mind on Fire!

One of my favorite things about the conventions that I attend every year is the conversations. Not only am I having the opportunity to talk about the genre I love so much, but it is those conversations that can spark new thoughts, new ideas, or new ways to think about a film that I never had before. Often, it has made me want to bust a movie out and rewatch because of a simple discussion with someone.

The same goes for the variety of riches that we have with DVD and Blu-ray releases of films, usually filled with commentaries, interviews, or features about the making of the film, or maybe those behind the films. The intake of information we receive, some of it we might have known, or maybe knew but had forgotten, or simply had no clue about, it aways gets those gears moving.

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A COLOSSAL CD Release

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For fans of sci-fi/horror films of the ’50s and Bert I. Gordon, Dragon’s Domain Records has recently announced their latest release, The Albert Glasser Collection, Volume 5: Science Fiction Atomic Mutation II. This features the scores for The Amazing Colossal Man (1957) and its sequel, War of the Colossal Beast (1958). Both scores were mastered by James Nelson at Digital Outland, and it contains a booklet with liner notes by film music journalist and author Randall D. Larson.

Glasser did a lot of work with Mr. B.I.G., including Attack of the Puppet People and The Spider, as well as working with other films like Monster From Green Hell.

For more information, head over to Screen Archives Entertainment by clicking HERE.

Jaws 50th Anniversary Soundtrack

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If you are so inclined, Intrada have recently released a 3-CD release of John Williams’ score for Steven Spielberg’s Jaws. I had immediately ordered the 2-CD set when it came out in 2015, which had some extra tracks on it that had never been released before. For this, you do get some more extras never released but it seems the main point is that it has been remastered once again, with a much better sound to it.

According to Intrada’s website:

Back in 2015 when Intrada first released the complete score, Universal made a fresh transfer of the three-track masters at a standard resolution of 44k/24-bit. For this release, Universal created a new high-resolution transfer at 192k/24-bit that provided levels of detail previously unheard. The most striking improvement, however, comes from the MCA album program. Back in 2015 no one could locate the elements for the original soundtrack recording beyond the CD digital master made in 1992. In the intervening years, UMe located the 2-inch, 16-track multichannel master tapes for the album recording. They transferred these in high-resolution as well and they proved to be in excellent condition. GRAMMY-nominated soundtrack producer Mike Matessino cleaned up and fully remixed these transfers, allowing this classic recording to sound more alive than it ever has before—and that’s not hyperbole. Even more remarkable was the discovery of never-before-heard material on master tapes that hadn’t been played for half a century.

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Curse of Frankenstein on 4K

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This is something Hammer fans have been waiting a long, long time since the new owners of the studio started releasing some amazing 4K editions. They have finally has announced the next title getting their all-star treatment is none other than The Curse of Frankenstein (1957), the film that really put them in the big league. While they started to get attention with their two Quatermass films, once Curse hit the theaters, including the US, it just exploded. And now, the wait is over. Sort of.

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No Internet = It Sucks!

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Sorry for no new Mystery Photo this week, but we got hit with a big storm this last Saturday that knocked out our power for about 8 hours. When it came back on, no internet. Of course, it took 3 days for them to come out and fix it. So, in the meantime, while I could get to my email from my phone, couldn’t do much else. But hopefully we’ll be back to our regular rantings and ramblings from this point on!

Thanks for your understanding!

Dan Curtis Lives!

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I would like to hope that Dan Curtis was very aware of the impact he had on young fans of the horror genre. From when he took a chance on a failing daytime soap opera, adding a vampire to see what happened, he never looked back. As a kid growing up in the late ’60s & early ’70s, I was flooded by countless characters, monsters, and other ghastly sites, all thanks to Mr. Curtis. While there as not been a constant stream of his work being released on varying formats over the decades, from VHS, to DVD, and now Blu-Ray, there still have been some that we have yet to see. But thanks to Kino Lober, now only do we get two of the three of his retelling of three classic monsters on Blu-Ray the first time, we also get four films he made for the Late-Night Mysteries series, which all aired in 1974. And if you order them now, they are damn near half price! Both are priced at $39.95 (which is a great deal already with what you’re getting), but now you can get each of them for $26.57! Just head over to Kino Lober by clicking HERE.

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Young Brain vs Old Brain

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I’ve written many times about the “new eyes” concept, where you can’t see the same film twice with the same eyes. In fact, I wrote a whole chapter on it in my book, Discover the Horror back in 2019. But I got to thinking recently about something a little different about that concept. Yes, I still believe in that theory about your eyes while viewing a film, but I started to realize it goes deeper than just that. Sometimes, it is our brain that is “seeing”, or rather “thinking” about something differently or realizing how we’re taking in the story is much different than we thought the first time, or times, around.

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It Came from the 1950s to Niles Library

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This Wednesday, Aaron Christensen and I will be heading to the Niles-Maine District Library to present a lecture on the Sci-Fi / Horror films of the 1950s. It will take place from 7pm to 8pm, in Studio B, and address is 6960 Oakton St., Niles, IL 60714. We would love to have anybody come out and join our celebration of all those atomic monsters and alien creatures that the movie-going audiences had to deal with back then!

For all the information about the event, just click HERE!

Being Thankful in the Midst of Chaos

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I know the world, specifically the US, is a real shithole right now. There are a lot of people deeply affected by what is going on, from losing their jobs, insurance, and just basic human rights. I always wanted to keep the real world and all of that away from this site because I wanted this to be a place people could go to, to temporarily escape all the BS of reality. Not to dismiss or diminish the struggles everyone might be going through, if I could try and point out that in the midst of all this chaos and crisis, there are still some positives out there.

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Naschy in 3D Is Almost HERE!

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I know we posted about September, but with these things, you never know if it is actually going to happen. Especially with something been anxiously waiting over 30 years to happen! But now, it is almost here since Kino Lober has announced the release date and is even taking pre-orders!

For those of you out there that might be unfamiliar with the work of Paul Naschy, which probably means you’re relatively new to this site since I tend to mention him a bit . . . BUT Paul Naschy was a Spanish actor/director/writer and all-around lover of the horror genre. He was inspired as a young boy after seeing Universal’s Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1943), mainly the plight of the tragic Lawrence Talbot, the Wolf Man. He would eventually work his way into filmmaking, first appearing in bit parts, before writing a screenplay called La marca del Hombre Lobo. After they couldn’t find a suitable actor to take on the lead role of Waldemar Daninsky, who would acquire the curse of lycanthrope, Naschy was given the chance. And after over a dozen films with him playing the same character (well, in name), not to mention appearing in over 100 films in his career that spanned five decades, his mark on the genre is quite impressive.

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