Mystery Photo 7-9

Is summer over yet? I’ll sure be glad when it is. Maybe because that means Halloween is right around the corner, or that I won’t have to deal with this sweltering heat for a few month. Either way, I’ll be happy. Our last photo was from the 1980 film Island Claws, starring Robert Lansing. While this might not be the best giant crab movie, you have to give them credit for building the giant monster! Kudos to the following for sending in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Jamie Chimino, Doug Lamoreux, Gary Miller, Michael Shields, Alan Tromp, and William Wilson. Well done, indeed.

Now for this week’s little mystery photo. One could say this is a shot of me looking out the window waiting for the sun and heat to go away, but it’s not. But do you know where this shot is from? Please remember not to post them here, but send them to me in an email to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

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Greetings from Castle Rock!

July 8, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged Castle Rock, Consequence of Sound, Creepshow, Cujo, Dead Zone, Music Box Theatre, Needful Things, Pet Sematary, Shawshank Redemption, Stand By Me, Stephen King, The Loser's Club, The Mist | Leave a comment

castle rock

Ever since the publication of Stephen King’s 1979 novel, The Dead Zone, the fictional town of Castle Rock would become a staple in a lot of King’s later stories. Now with Hulu, King, and J.J. Abrams creating a new series based on this little strange town, it seems the perfect time to celebrate the different stories that have a connection with it. And now thanks to the Music Box Theatre and Consequence of Sound podcast, Chicago area fans will have a chance to see 8 different films based on King’s work on the big screen.

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Movie Review: Centerfold Girls

July 7, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Movies and tagged Aldo Ray, Andrew Prine, Centerfold Girls, Dark Sky Films, Francine York, Jamie Lyn Bauer, John Peyser, Ray Danton, Tiffany Bolling | 1 Comment

Centerfold Girls

The Centerfold Girls (1974)
Directed by John Peyser
Starring Andrew Prine, Jamie Lyn Bauer, Aldo Ray, Ray Danton, Francine York, Tiffany Bolling

Sure, this might sound a little jaded, but if you have a movie that was made in the 70’s that starred Andrew Prine, then you are going to be entertained, plain and simple. Prine is one of these actors that I grew up watching, in both movies and TV and always loved seeing this guy on screen. Sometimes he was the good guy, sometimes the bad guy. But always entertaining. His career started doing a lot of TV westerns, but it was in 1971 when he appeared in the title role of Simon, King of the Witches that started him in the genre. From there, he appeared in movies like Crypt of the Living Dead (1973), Barn of the Naked Dead (1974), Grizzly (1976), The Evil (1978), Amityville 2 (1982), and even on the TV show V, as one of the reptilian alien invaders. Prine was always giving a great performance, even if the film was lacking in other departments.

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Book Review: Biology Run Amok!

July 5, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged Biology Run Amok, Bride of Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Mark C. Glassy, McFarland, Scary Monsters, Science Fiction | Leave a comment

Biology Run Amok!
Published by McFarland, 2018. 255 pages
By Mark C. Glassy

I first discovered the writings of Glassy with his first book, The Biology of Science Fiction Cinema, which I stumbled across at a Half Price Books a few years ago. Within those pages, he discusses different films in the horror and sci-fi genre, looking at the science in them and seeing what could be true and what is totally off. Such an enjoyable read. This time out, Glassy does the same, but also is educating the reader with a lot of science knowledge and how it is applied in some of our favorite films. These were originally published in Scary Monsters magazine, starting back in 2009, but now are all gathered together in this one volume.

In the beginning of the book, he describes how audiences today are the “Jurassic Park Generation” since we pretty much will believe the science we see in movies as reality. But Glassy goes through these different theories and explains in more details some of the fallacies therein, but also when some of the films gets the science correct.

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Looking for a New Book?

July 4, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Book News and tagged 1984 Publishing, Ad Nauseam, Antonio Lázaro-Reboll, BearManor Media, Brian Harris, Cinematic Art of Fantastic India, Harryhausen The Movie Posters, Ian Olney, Jaws 2, Jaws 2 The Making of a Hollywood Sequel, Joseph Lanza, Louis R. Pisano, Michael A. Smith, Michael Gingold, Ray Harryhausen, Richard Holliss, Skyhorse Publishing, Steven Fenton, Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Films of Jess Franco, Tim Paxton, Titan Books, Wayne State University Press | Leave a comment

While I continue my quest to add more books to my personal library that I’ll ever be able to read in my lifetime, I thought I would give a little shout out to a few titles that are currently sitting in my Want List on Amazon. I don’t have any of these yet (key word…yet) so all I know about them is what I’ve read on the Amazon description. But they do sound pretty interesting, and I know that I intend to pick them up at some point. While I’m in the middle of reading 3 different books right now, and have a few piled up that I still need to find room in the bookshelves for, it might be a bit.

Who am I kidding, I’ll probably order them next payday!

I’ll list this these alphabetically so it doesn’t look like I’m playing any favoritism!

Ad Nauseam By Michael Gingold
Any horror fan worth their weight in magazines knows Gingold from his decades working for Fangoria magazine, but has been keeping himself quite busy since those days. His book The Frightfest Guide to Monster Movies is just awesome and is simply a must. But his new book is something that older fans will love paging through, as well as giving younger fans a look into the past. In his youth, Gingold would cut out the ads for horror films, the bigger named ones as well as the smaller titles that snuck out. This book is a walk through the 1980’s in a year-by-year guide to Gingold’s archive, featuring more than 450 ads. Remember folks, years before the internet, this is how we found out movies that were playing so these ads had the tough job of capturing the attention of the person paging through the newspaper and make them want to rush out to see this movie. And more times than not, at least for us horror fans, it worked.

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Mystery Photo 7-2

July 2, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Mystery Photo and tagged Mystery Photo | Leave a comment

Seems like forever since our last photo, doesn’t it? Well let’s not waste anymore time and get right on it. Our last photo was a little tribute to the Monster Bash show we were going to be heading to, since Joyce Meadows was going to be there. Of course one of the films she is known for is where our photo is from, The Brain from Planet Arous (1957). Such a fun movie! Kudos to the following that sent in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Gregory Avery, Dave Fronto, Troy Howarth, Charles Miller, Michael Shields, and Neil Wright. Well done!

Now on to this week’s photo. This is in tribute to all the seafood we ate while we were out in Baltimore last week! Granted, we didn’t tackle anything THIS big! Please remember not to post your answers here so others can have a guess. Just send your guess to us in an email to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

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Another Glorious Monster Bash!

July 1, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Conventions and tagged Caroline Munro, Christopher Neame, Hammer Horror, House of the Gorgon, Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy, Janina Faye, Joshua Kennedy, Mark Maddox, Martine Beswicke, Monster Bash, Rod Barnett, Ron Adams, Troy Howarth, Veronica Carlson | Leave a comment

Last weekend we spent in Mars, PA, for the Monster Bash Conference. This was our fourth year there and it is becoming one of our favorite shows to do. So much fun, each and every time. Ron Adams puts on one hell of a show, with plenty of stuff to keep any monster fan busy from the early morning to the wee hours of the next morning!

It’s not often that I get excited about a guest these days, but I was able to add one more Hammer alumni to my Hammer Films: An Exhaustive Filmography book at the show. That was Janina Faye, who played the young Tania in Horror of Dracula (1958). She is now the fifteenth person to add her signature from people that wrote, directed, or appeared in a Hammer film. Sadly, seven of the names in there have already left us. And since the original studio’s last movie came out almost forty years ago, well… none of us are getting any younger.

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The Omen Score on White Vinyl

June 30, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Soundtrack and tagged Jerry Goldsmith, The Omen, Varese Sarabande | Leave a comment

omen Varèse Sarabande has released a limited edition “demonic white vinyl” version of Jerry Goldsmith’s Oscar winning score for Richard Donner’s The Omen (1976). Talk about an iconic score! This release is only available on Varèse Sarabande website and each of the copies of this remastered LP will be hand numbered, as well as only having 666 units being released.

This is one of those scores that just listening to it can bring back the chills the film creates and has always been one of my favorites. This is a prime example when a score enhances what is happening on the screen so much, it truly is a masterpiece.

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Hammer Horror at the Super Monster-Rama!

June 29, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged DVD Drive-In, Hammer Horror, Riverside Drive-In | 1 Comment

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The Riverside Drive-In and DVD Drive-In have announced the titles for this fall’s Drive-In Super Monster-Rama and it is a Hammer fans dream! They will be screening four classic Hammer titles each night on Friday, Sept. 7th and Saturday, Sept. 8th. Each of the titles will be screened from a restored DCP presentation, with four of the titles being screened uncut at a drive-in theater for the first time! Here is the list of what is showing:

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Horror History: Robert L. Lippert

June 20, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Horror History and tagged Robert L. Lippert | Leave a comment

lippert Robert L. Lippert
Born Mar. 31st, 1909 – Died Nov. 16th, 1976

If you are a fan of cheap sci-fi/horror films of the ’50s and ’60s, then you’ll probably are familiar with the name of Robert L. Lippert. He is the man was named the “Quickie King” by Time Magazine due to his ability to crank out movies cheap and fast. Sure, they might not have been top-notch films, but they were usually entertaining. He was also the one that started to bring The Fly to the screen in 1958, before it was pretty much taken over by the studio and kicked him to the curb. But he still brought us fun titles like Rocketship X-M (1950) as well as Witchcraft (1964), The Last Man on Earth (1964), The Earth Dies Screaming (1964), and Curse of the Fly (1965).

Lippert had started in the film business working in a theater, starting his way at the bottom and moving his way up. He eventually owned a chain of theaters in California and Oregon. In the late ’40s, he figured out the easiest way to get movies to show in his theaters were to make them himself. He was also reported to be the man responsible for bringing popcorn machines into the theaters!