Accademia Giallo

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I’m not sure why I haven’t posted about these earlier (Sorry Ian!), but over the last several months, I have been honored to be invited to participate in this podcast done by Ian Simmons, from Kicking the Seat, in which Ian is learning about the Italian giallo, but picking a new movie each month and discussing afterwards. Now before we go further, let me back up a bit. Mr. Simmons has been running his Kicking the Seat podcast since 2012, after starting his blog in 2009. You can quickly tell how much of a passionate film fan he is, and is always entertaining to listen to. You might not agree with him all the time, but that is the whole point to being a movie fan, discussing our different thoughts on the motion picture industry.

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Mystery Photo 6-21

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We’ve had a few more recent photos so with this week’s pic, I thought I’d go a little old school. But before we get to it, let’s go over last week’s photo. It was from Tobe Hooper’s 1995 film The Mangler, based on the Stephen King short story. While the movie itself isn’t stellar, it is fun to watch Robert Englund. Plus, working around machines most of my life, seeing scenes like in the photo can be a little unnerving for me. Kudos to the following for sending in the correct answers: Hoby Abernathy, Aaron AuBuchon, Scott Bradley, Aaron Christensen, Peggie Christie, Craig J. Clark, Karl Hanks, Kevin Hart, Erik Martin, Gary McGuire, Charles Miller, Jason Siegel, Alan Tromp, Nick Wilson. Quite a few this time out, so well done to the lot of you!

Okay, lets get to this week’s photo. It’s a classic and obviously in black and white. Just send your answers by click HERE or to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

Creepy Bitches: Essays on Horror from Women in Horror

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Now if that title doesn’t tell you exactly what this book is about …

While we haven’t read this one (yet), I know we will be adding it to our library. One of the most important things one can do as a fan of this genre is listen to other voices. Not everyone thinks the same way you do so even if someone has a difference of opinion, you still should listen to them. Might not change your own feelings but maybe it will open your eyes a bit so at least you can see and understand another point of view. Women in horror is one voice that has been struggling to be heard for years, namely because most won’t listen. So let’s fix that. One step would to simply buy this book and read some essays on the genre by female writers, from the film industry, fandom, growing up in a video store even more in depth like exploring the gender roles in The Creature from the Black Lagoon trilogy. It also covers the “therapeutic benefits of watching horror” that I know a lot of us have been preaching for years!

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Chattanooga Film Festival

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Starting next Thursday the 24th, and running through Tuesday the 29th is the Chattanooga Film Festival, which will be held online once again due to the pandemic. But that shouldn’t stop you from having the chance to see some interesting and intriguing films! Just browsing through the film listing, it looks like quite a few titles that I know I will be catching, including a Conversation with Gary Sherman, Chicago’s own director who gave us films like Death Line (aka Raw Meat) and Dead & Buried, as well as the documentary Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror by Kier-La Janisse.

For all the information, such as the films scheduled to play, admission fee, and everything else you want to know, just click HERE.

Friday Favorites: John Carradine

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Here’s a name that is one of the icons of acting, not to mention in the horror genre. Sure, most remember him from all the cheesy and low-budget titles that he appeared in, especially in his later years, but he was always delivering a fine performance. I mean, think about that for a minute. He appeared in Ted V. Mikels Astro Zombies, which I happen to love, and learned all this technical dialogue for his role of the mad doctor, and gave the performance if he was doing Shakespeare.

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Happy Birthday, Lucio!

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I guess I can’t let the day go without wishing my favorite Italian director a birthday wish. It’s been 25 years since we lost this great talent, but it thrills me to know that not only do his films live on (which then keeps him alive) but that his fan base seems to keep growing with each year. Of course that means that every new year, we have more movie fans dedicating more of their time to the horror genre, wanting to learn about history of the genre, and the masters of horror that have already left us. As an older fan, that gives me such hope for the future of the genre when the younger ones embrace the past.

Buon compleanno, Lucio! You may be gone, but never forgotten!

Visiting the Dead … with Friends

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This last weekend, we drove over 500 miles to go to a drive-in to see movies that we have already seen.

Why?

Well, first of all, the question should be why not? But it really comes down to because of doing something out of the ordinary to have fun and spend time with friends and other like-minded monster fans.

Monster Bash usually has their convention in June, but that couldn’t happen because of the pandemic. Instead, they decided to hold Monster Bash: Under the Stars at the Riverside Drive-In, in Vandergrift, PA, where they screened 6 classic films from the ‘50s over two nights. Since we would have normally taken those days off from work, we decided we might as well use that vacation time and go out and have some fun. Especially when we heard that some other friends decided to do the same thing.

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Claudia Barrett – Rest in Peace

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While this happened a couple of months ago, we just read about it on the Monster Bash Facebook page and wanted to mention it here as well. Claudia Barrett passed away back on April 30th, at the age of 91. Now most are not going to recognize that name, but seeing the photo below, you will immediate recognize the movie she had appeared in. Barrett was only 24 years old when she starred alongside a man in a gorilla suit wearing a space helmet, in the ultimate Turkey Day movie, Robot Monster (1953).

While she did make her (uncredited) screen debut in 1949 alongside James Cagney in White Heat, she worked quite a bit in different movies and TV shows, even after Robot Monster, until she retired from the business in the early ’60s. In 2016, she was a guest at the Monster Bash Conference, as well as her co-star Robot Monster co-star, Gregory Moffett, who played her little brother. They both had some fun stories about the making of his classic and were just so friendly to chat with.

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40th Anniversary of Dead & Buried

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Many years ago, apparently like decades or so, when perusing the video store aisles looking for a great film to spend your evening with, there was always Gary Sherman’s Dead & Buried (1981). It never failed to hit all the marks, from being creepy, even scary, having some incredible special effects, but also a very interesting and captivating story that was played out by some very talented actors, from veterans like Jack Albertson or James Farentino, or up-and-coming ones like Melody Anderson, Lisa Blount, or even a guy named Robert England, just a few years from becoming a huge star. I really loved it back then and still remains as one of my favorites and unfortunately one that doesn’t seemed to get the recognition it much richly deserves. But now, with a stunning new transfer coming out, maybe it will change all of that.

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Mystery Photo 6-14

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Welcome to Monday! Hope everyone had as much fun as I did this last weekend, though now am trying to play catch-up! But let’s get down to business, shall we? Our photo from last week was from Renny Harlan’s 1987 film Prison, which starred a very young Viggo Mortensen. Definitely a title that needs some more love. Kudos to the following for sending in the correct answers: Hoby Abernathy, Aaron AuBuchon, Karl Hanks, Bob Hartman, Gary McGuire, James Turner, Mark Turner, and Nick Wilson. Well done, everyone!

Now on to this week’s photo, another one that might be pretty easy, or maybe not. That’s the fun part, isn’t it? Do you think you know it? Are you sure? None the less, send your guess to us by sending us an email at jon@kitleyskrypt.com, or just click HERE. Good Luck!