This year’s Super Monster Movie Fest at the Skyline Drive-In, in Shelbyville, IN, is having an all bugs themed movie marathon! Taking place on August 28th and 29th, you’ll get to see older classics along with some more modern day ones, all dealing with giant bugs! Here’s the complete lineup: Continue reading
The Black Scorpion (1957)
Directed by Edward Ludwig
Starring Richard Denning, Mara Corday, Carlos Rivas, Mario Navarro
1957 really was one of the best year’s when it came to fun sci-fi/horror pictures, with plenty of giant monsters running around causing havoc. And this film is a prime example of that. What would make this giant monster flick even better? How about when it includes stop-animation work from the one and only Willis O’Brien, the one responsible for bringing the original King Kong to life in 1933 (and never even got a screen credit for it!?!?!). So the creature effects in here are everything to make a monster fan out a young kid, or bring back the kid in an old monster fan. Continue reading
For those fans out there like me, that grew up watching Rod Serling’s Night Gallery, we all wondered at some point in our fandom, “I wonder whatever happened to those paintings?” Now, not only will those questions be answered, but soon you’ll be able to page through a single book and view every one of those incredible and memorable pieces of art. Continue reading
Almost forgot today was Monday since it’s a holiday! But even though it is a holiday, we’re still working to bring you a little puzzle at the beginning of the week. But before we go, let’s review last week’s photo. It was from Tobe Hooper’s 1985 film Lifeforce! I figured if I would have put a shot of Mathilda May in there, everyone would have gotten it, so I went with something a little different. But congrats to the ones that did send in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Troy Howarth, Lee Nattrass, Gavin Schmitt, Vincent Simonelli, and William Wilson.
Okay, let’s get to this week’s photo. A bit older but still a fun one. Just send us your guess to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!
Hellraiser
Released in 1987 by Cinedisc
14 Tracks, with a total running time of 43:08 min.
Music composed by Christopher Young.
There are some contemporary scores that resonate with fans just as much as the themes from Jaws, The Omen, or even The Exorcist. They may not be as familiar with the normal public, but if you play a few seconds of Christopher Young’s score from Hellraiser, they will know what it is. Maybe because the film itself is pretty iconic and well known, but what Young has done here is make something special, and lasting. Continue reading
The Alligator People (1959)
Directed by Roy Del Ruth
Starring Beverly Garland, Bruce Bennett, Lon Chaney Jr., George Macready, Frieda Inescort, Richard Crane, Douglas Kennedy.
As a young movie fan, we would get used to the fact that sometimes, just sometimes, the movie title didn’t exactly live up to what actually took place in the film. Yes, I know it’s hard to believe, but it did happen every now and then. Still does today, to be completely honest. But not with The Alligator People! So for that fact alone, you have to give the makers of this one credit! An alligator head on a human body now may get a snicker or laugh, but as a kid, it was just awesome. Even excluding that, there are many things about this film that still make it enjoyable today. Continue reading
Final Exam
Released by American Entertainment Industries
13 Tracks with a Total Running Time of 36 min.
Composed by Gary S. Scott
I picked up a CD-R of this soundtrack at a convention, since it had never been released before on CD and I’m a sucker for soundtracks. I hope that it gets an official release at some point because I really enjoyed it! It is very simple, with seemingly done with a keyboard, but it is still effective. Scott comes up with some nice spooking sounding cues, others doing a nice job building some suspense, and a love theme in there. Yes, there is a track that it sounds like he’s making fart noises with this hands, but there is also a fun little song called The Executioner’s Song, with a great line about a guillotine “dripping with the memories of the people it had seen.” Awesome!
This was Scott’s first soundtrack before working on a lot of TV scores, including some work on Freddy’s Nightmares. While this might not be a classic score, for what it is, I found it pretty entertaining.
The movie, however, is not, and I would not recommend watching it. Oof!
Another month half over. Time just flying by, huh? Well, to make it a little easier, let’s have another Mystery Photo, shall we? This one might be a little easy. But first, let’s take care of last week. It was from the 1962 film La strage dei vampiric, better known here in the states as Slaughter of the Vampire, a nice little black and white gothic traditional vampire story with lots of great atmosphere. Kudos to the following for sending in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Dave Fronto, Bob Hartman, Michael Shields, Vincent Simonelli, and Kristin Wicks. Well done!
Now on to this week’s photo. Might be easy, might not be. Take a look and see what you think. Just send us an email (to jon@kitleyskrypt.com) with your guess. Good Luck!
The Reptile (1966)
Directed by John Gilling
Starring Noel Willman, Jennifer Daniel, Jacqueline Pearce, Ray Barrett, Michael Ripper
As a young horror fan, when you page through enough of the classic horror reference books, you’re bound to come across a shot of the title terror from this movie. I know I had seen it many, many times before I got to see the actual film. Each time I saw the image, my mind raced to imagine what kind of movie this could be with a monster like this, with large fangs and even larger bulging eyes! It is also one of the movies that would never live up to those high expectations that your mind had set, waiting to see this snake creature slithering about throughout the whole movie. Sadly, it doesn’t, only get to see it a few times, in short quick shots. None the less though, once you get over that and really watch the film for what it is, you’ll find a very strange story. And like most Hammer pictures, a highly enjoyable one as well as memorable. Continue reading
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
Directed by Val Guest
Starring Brian Donlevy, Jack Warner, Richard Wordsworth, Margia Dean, Thora Hird, Lionel Jeffries
“There’s no room for personal feelings in science.”
– Professor Bernard Quatermass –
That quote is one of the reason why I enjoy the Quatermass movies so much. What attracted me the most was the blind dedication that Quatermass has, much like one of his fore-fathers… Victor Frankenstein. Of course, it also doesn’t hurt when you have an alien monster on loose either. Continue reading
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