Mystery Photo 12-8

by in Mystery Photo and tagged | Leave a comment

Hopefully wherever you are reading this, you’re not getting pelted with snow, unless of course you want it! We’ve gotten more in the last week or so than I think all of last year. Still, I’d rather have it than the 90-degree heat. But that’s just me. Our photo from last week was from William Castle’s Homicidal (1961), with another fun gimmick with the “Fright Break”. Really miss Castle’s sense of ballyhoo and style. But congrats to the following for sending in the correct answer: Hoby Abernathy, Kevin Hart, Charles Miller, Bryan Senn, Mike Shields, and William Wilson. Well done, indeed!

Take a look at this week’s photo and see if you can recognize where this shot is from. Just remember to send your guesses to me in an email, to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. And most of all, stay warm and good luck!

Turkey Day 2025

by in Turkey Day Marathon and tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Another one in the books. We only had 5 of us this time, but we still managed to make our way through our normal 7 titles, which I have to admit was tough in a couple of them! But we’re professionals and we struggled through them to become stronger! Or something like that. Joining us this time out was our usual suspects: Neil Calderone, Brian Fukula, Tim Palace, and my T-Day co-pilot Aaron Christensen, making this event his 20th anniversary of Turkey Day! While we did miss a few of our regulars, due to incoming bad weather and other such issues, we still had a good time. And probably ate way too much pizza.

Continue reading →

January Giallo Returns to the Music Box

by in Movie Events and tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Once again, this January the mysterious sub-genre known as the giallo comes back for 4 screenings. This has been going on for a few years now and they never fail to bring in some really interesting titles, and this year is no different. The screenings take place every Monday in January. See below for the titles.

January 5th – Paranoia (1969) – Directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Carol Baker, screening from a 35mm print.

Continue reading →

John McCarty – Rest in Peace

by in Rest in Peace and tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

For someone who has been collecting horror reference books for over 30 years, John McCarty was a pretty prolific author of those types of books in my early days of collecting. The first one I can remember getting was Splatter Movies, which was first published in 1981, but re-released in an expanded hardcover edition in 1984. While I didn’t agree with McCarty a lot of the times, I admire the fact that he cranked out several volumes on the horror genre over his long career. From the two volumes in his Official Splatter Movie Guides, The Sleaze Merchants: Adventures in Exploitation Filmmaking, The Fearmakers, and more, he was out there talking about these films. And of course, I added each one to my library.

Continue reading →

Muchas Gracias Señor Lobo Updated

by in Book News and tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Being a collector of horror memorabilia, it’s always nice to be able to see the wide variety of different posters, lobby cards, and other such promotional materials that were made and distributed to promote different features. Seeing the different artwork from different countries, sometimes very similar, other times being dramatically different, but always interesting to see. And depending on how much you tend to indulge in those collecting habits, sometimes just seeing the images is cool enough. Or at least it gives you something to search for!

Back in 2012, Thorsten Benzel and the fine folks from Creepy Images put out the massive volume Muchas Gracias Señor Lobo which was this huge hardcover book filled with images of different posters, lobby cards, and other promo items from different Paul Naschy films, including illustrations from Naschy himself. This volume had just under 400 pages that had over 1400 images within, showing the glorious film work of Naschy. All in color! That book had sold out, becoming out-of-print years ago, going for big bucks on the secondary market.

Continue reading →

Abbott & Costello Meet the All the Monsters?

by in Misc. Ramblings and tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Growing up watching old movies on Saturday afternoon on my small 13″ TV in my room are some of the best of my childhood memories. And combining monsters with my favorite pair of comedy actors, Abbott & Costello, well, that just made it even better.

Some time ago, Kino Lober posted a photo of a box et they’d be releasing, with 6 different features with Abbott & Costello where they sort of cross over in the horror genre. They were: Hold That Ghost (1941), Abbott & Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948), Abbott & Costello Meet the Killer Boris Karloff (1949), Abbott & Costello Meet the Invisible Man (1951), Abbott & Costello Meet Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1953), and Abbott & Costello Meet the Mummy (1955), all in 4K presentations. In fact, to the right is the graphic they released.

Continue reading →

Mystery Photo 12-1

by in Mystery Photo and tagged | Leave a comment

Now that November is over, we can move away from those Turkeys and get back to some more serious movies. Or not. Our last photo of the month was from the wild Hong Kong movie simple called The Cat (1991), which features the most amazing battle between a dog and a cat that you’ll see outside of professional wrestling. Great stuff. Kudos to Lee Nattrass and Tim Palace for sending in the correct answer!

This week’s photo is from a nice little picture from a very popular director. Take a peek and see if you can recognize where it is from. Just remember to send me your guess in an email, to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

Movie Review: House on Haunted Hill

by in Reviews: Movies and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

(1959)
Directed by William Castle
Starring Vincent Price, Carol Ohmart, Richard Long, Alan Marshal,
Carolyn Craig, Elisha Cook Jr., Julie Mitchum, Leona Anderson

I can vividly remember renting this film for the first time on VHS. I’m not sure if I had seen it on TV at some point before in my life, but I knew of it. But once I became a dedicated fan, starting down that road to see every horror film that I could, this was one of those rentals. This was even before I had my own VCR but would rent a few films and take them over to my future in-laws during a Saturday afternoon and sit and watch 3 films back-to-back.

Continue reading →

John Gore Studios Acquire Tyburn

by in Misc. Ramblings and tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

After hearing many, many times that someone had acquired the Hammer Studios name and was going to bring it back from the dead, it was so nice to finally see it happen, when John Gore finally started to do it. More than just ideas and plans, since Gore has taken the reigns, we’ve seen some amazing restorations of some of Hammer’s classic titles, as well as some of their lesser-known ones. Looking at John Gore Studios website and their mission statement, it really does sound like they are doing great things there and for the right reasons. As posted on their site, not only do they “believe in the power of compelling storytelling to ignite imagination and celebrate the enduring legacy of British film, television, and theatre”, but that they have a mission to “the acquisition, restoration, and distribution of historic film catalogues, ensuring these cultural touchstones remain vibrant and accessible.” Not only through acquiring the film rights, but also by using Silver Salt Restorations, another company owned by Gore, they can make them look as even better than when they first premiered. Just love to see that they understand and agree with the cultural relevance of these film titles, specifically the ones in the horror genre!

Continue reading →

Movie Review: The House with Laughing Windows

by in Reviews: Movies and tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

(1976)
Directed by Pupi Avati
Starring Lino Capolicchio, Francesca Marciano, Gianni Cavina, Guilio Pizzirani, Bob Tonelli, Vanna Busoni, Pietro Brambilla, Andrea Matteuzzi, Pina Borione, Eugene Walter

You’ll often read that this film is considered a giallo, the same genre that would include Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace and Dario Argento’s Deep Red. And if you try and compare House to those two, you might have trouble seeing many similarities. Upon my first viewing, I agreed completely with that statement, even while discussing it on a podcast I was on a few years ago. But that shows a few things. First of all, it shows how open the parameters of the giallo sub-genre really are, and secondly, and more importantly, how one’s thoughts and opinions of a picture can evolve. When you compare House with something like Lucio Fulci’s Don’t Torture a Duckling (1972), which is also a giallo, then you can see it having more of a connection. That’s the beauty of different sub-genres, and film in general, isn’t it? They are so subjective and always open for different or possible interpretation. And for this one, it’s definitely one of those.

Continue reading →