Just in case you might be late to the party, next weekend, Aug. 27th & 28th, at the Skyline Drive-in, they are holding their 10th annual Super Monster Movie Fest, with the theme this year of The Devil Made Us Do It, featuring 10 films dealing all things with the devil! We’ve been coming out to this event pretty much every year since 2012, and once again, we’re excited as hell to head out there next weekend as well!
Here is the final lineup and times for this year’s features:
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Well, pick up this new book and you’ll get close to 250 examples of just how bad kids can be! Evil Seeds: The Ultimate Movie Guide to Villainous Children is out now and available on Amazon, and priced at only $19.95! Edited by Vanessa Morgan, we get reviews on some of the “creepiest, weirdest, and most dangerous kids to inhabit cinematic landscape, sourced from over 40 different countries.” This means that no matter how hardcore of a horror fan you are, I can pretty much guarantee you’ll find a few titles in here you never knew existed, such as a Turkish version of The Bad Seed! Hitting just under 400 pages, with a variety of talented writers, they will delve into the depths of deviant offspring, from the alien invaders to young sociopaths, this volume will cover it all.
Morgan has previous given us volumes on vampires in Strange Blood: 71 Essays on Offbeat and Underrated Vampire Movies, and killer beasts with When Animals Attack: The 70 Best Horror Movies with Killer Animals, both of which are available on Amazon.
To order your copy of Evil Seeds, just click HERE.
(1960)
Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey
Starring Christopher Lee, Patricia Jessel, Dennis Lotis, Tom Naylor, Betta St. John, Venetia Stevenson, Valentine Dyall, Norman MacOwan.
If you’re looking for a prime example of the beauty of black and white cinema, then look no further then this title. This has so much atmosphere that you’ll swear the fog is seeping right out from your TV into your living room. Add in the fact that the different shades of the monochromatic colors are used so well to give us such strong whites and the enveloping darkness of the blacks.
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(2009)
Directed by Tiwa Moeithaisong
Starring Mai Charoenpura, Anuway Niwartwong, Wiradit Srimalai, Rattanaballang Tohssawat, Duangta Tungkamanee
When the press release for this one calls it a “proud member of the ‘torture-porn’ sub-genre”, I wasn’t looking forward to sitting through yet another Saw / Hostel inspired movie that is about nothing more than seeing people getting beaten, tortured, sliced up and killed. Hate to sound old fashioned here, but for me to be entertained, really entertained, then the movie has to have a good story. Sure, we not against gore for gore sake, and have enjoyed many movies over the years that don’t offer much more than that. But as of late, since there has been a constant onslaught of these types of movies, they get really old, really quick.
Continue readingI apologize for not having a new photo up last week but just had too many fires going to get it done. I hope to have some news to announce soon that will sort of explain some of the lack of updates as of late. But for now, let us get to the business at hand. Our last photo was from Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s 1989 ghost epic Sweet Home. A nice old fashion haunted house movie that is pretty damn effective. Kudos to the following for sending in the correct answer: Kevin Hart, Erik Martin, and Gary McGuire. Well done!
Now on to this week’s photo. Don’t stare too long or bad things can happen! Just remember to send your answer to us, at jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good luck!
We Are the Martians: The Legacy of Nigel Kneale
Published by Electric Dreamhouse, 2017. 479 pages.
Edited by Neil Snowdon
I am a huge fan of the Quatermass films that Hammer Films gave us back in the late ‘50s, and the 3rd film, Quatermass and the Pit in the ‘60s. Eventually I was able to track down the original serial versions (or what was left of the first story) on an import DVD. The more I found out about its original creator, Nigel Kneale, the more I discover his other cinematic worlds that he had written, such as The Stone Tapes (1972), The Woman in Black (1989) and the Beasts series (1976). And the more I was impressed.
To say that Kneale was ahead of his time seems to be one of those comments thrown about certain Sci-Fi authors, writing about our future technology. But the difference with Kneale is that while he did do that to a degree, he also seemed to write about our future as human beings. Within those stories, he also could create some unbelievable terrors, without really showing much to the audiences. It made us think.
This book is a collection of essays that covers a wide range of subjects dealing with Kneale and his work. There is chapter by Tim Lucas that cover his lesser-known literary short stories, other ones on specific episodes of his TV shows or films that he created. Mark Chardbourn’s essay, The King of Hauntology sort of gives us a biography of Kneale, except that instead of a straight biography, it goes over different events going on around him at the time, giving possible influences that could have had on him, and his writings.
Continue readingWhile I do have a few “toys” in my collection, I wouldn’t say that I collect them. There are so many these days, it would just be way to expensive for me to keep up, and still afford all the books and movies I want to still get. But seeing these two figures that were recently announced, I may have to add them to my collection.
Nothing reminds me of my childhood and the beginnings of my life-long love of the monsters and the horror genre than watching Saturday morning programs like Groovie Ghoulies, Monster Squad, and a mixture of reruns of The Addams Family and The Munsters, besides the late night shows like The Night Stalker, Ghost Story / Circle of Fear, and The Night Gallery. And for obvious reasons, my cereal of choice back then was, of course, Frankenberry. Every now and then I’d throw some Boo Berry into the mix, but Frankenberry was always the go-to. So to have one of those figures sitting on my bookshelf is another easy way to bring back some fond childhood memories in an instance.
After all, isn’t that why we collect what we do? To have that little gateway into our past and the pleasures that it brings?
I have quite a few famous horror figures in my collection that I’ve picked up over the years. Some are model kits, many of which I actually painted myself. Others are statues I’ve purchased that came painted already. Granted some of these were a bit pricy, but never more than a 2-3 hundred at the most. Granted, the full size bust of the poster zombie from Zombie or Dr. Hill’s decapitated head in a pan were a bit higher than that, but for a figure, I try to shy away from the real expensive stuff, mainly because I personally just can’t invest that much money into something like that.
But now Sideshow Toys has announced a couple figures that are $530 EACH and I’m trying to convince my brain that I DO need to invest in these!
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Of course you do! And these are ones to definitely add to your library.
The first one is from our good friend Troy Howarth, published by BearManor Media, this time covering a movie that not only is one that doesn’t get much attention, it is one well worth your attention. The film is Alfred Sole’s 1976 film Alice, Sweet Alice, and the book is entitled Unholy Communion: Alice, Sweet Alice from Script to Screen.
Within the 300+ pages, Howarth goes through the history of this little film that was made outside of the Hollywood system, as well as background information on Sole. It “explores the genesis, production, and reception of one of the key horror films of the 1970s.” We get a brand new in-depth interview with Sole, going through his entire career, as well as reproducing the original shooting script, and plenty of analysis of not only the film, but the genre at the time as well.
Howarth has written several books, such as a 3-book series on giallo films, as well as one on Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Mario Bava, Paul Naschy, and more. Like all of his titles, I can only assume it will be a must read. You can order this directly from BearManor Media or through Amazon. It is available in both hardcover ($39.95) and softcover ($29.95).
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I should have posted this after the first comment, but I figured it was just that person. And then someone else mentioned it to me, and then another one over this last weekend, so I figured I’d throw out a little explanation to make sure everyone understands.
It’s about the green font color that I use for my site here. I didn’t realize at first but when it goes out to the ones that have signed up for updates, the background isn’t black, like on the site, but the font color is still green, making it a little difficult to read. Still trying to figure out how I can changed that up a bit, but haven’t gotten there just yet.
So if you do get the update, say on your phone and you have trouble reading it, all I can say is that I apologize, but you’ll have to go to the site, where the black background will make it much easier to read. Or at least until I figure out a better way.
