Mystery Photo 3-21

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Back to the grindstone, as they say. But at least I’m hoping these little mystery photos are giving you some sort of enjoyment about your Monday! One can hope. The photo from last week was from the Italian film Panic (1982), starring David Warbeck and Janet Agren. Not the greatest film but a fun watch. The VHS box art was always one to draw in a potential viewer, which means it totally did its job! Kudos to the following for sending in the correct answer: Troy Howarth, Simon Jakobsen, Tim Palace, Michael Shields, William Wilson, and Greg Wojick. Great job! Always nice to see when obscure titles like this one get a little recognition.

But on to this week’s photo! This is another favorite of mine, mainly because we had it at the theater when I worked there, if that gives anybody a little hint on the time frame! But I think a lot of you are going to know this little tike in the photo! Remember, send me your answer in an email, to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

Movie Review: Tales from the Crypt Documentary

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(2004)
Directed by Chip Selby
Starring John Carpenter, Jack Davis, Digby Diehl, Al Feldstein, William M. Gaines, George Romero, Bernie Wrightson

I grew up in the late 60’s / early 70’s, so the horror comics that I remembered reading in my youth were titles like Creepy and Eerie. The moniker Tales from The Crypt was from a movie as far as I knew. Once I started really getting into horror, I kept coming across references to these comic books from the ‘50s. Eventually, I would learn a little more about what EC comics had done a good 10 years before I was born. Then when the reprints started to come out, I was able to see and enjoy these wonderfully created images and stories that caused such a roar back in the mid 50’s.

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Movie Review: Simon, King of the Witches

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(1971)
Directed by Bruce Kessler
Starring Andrew Prine, Brenda Scott, George Paulsin, Norman Burton, Gerald York, Ultra Violet

Back in the early days of VHS, finding a copy of this film was pretty damn tough. It had been released on VHS but was a very rare title if you happened upon it. Plus, the print was so dark and grainy that in many of the scenes you had no idea what was going on because it was pretty much black. But it was one of those cult titles that us film geeks had to seek out. Plus, because it starred Andrew Prine, that made it even more of a treasure to find. Thankfully, when Dark Sky Films released it on DVD, the print was a HUGE improvement where you could actually watch the entire film!

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Tales from the Crypt Bookends!!!

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In case anybody out there is wondering what to get me for my birthday, look no further! While I just might have a few books around the old Kryptic Office so bookends are always something in need. But just look at these bad boys! Brought to us by Dark Horse Director, these two book ends feature three of the main hosts from those E.C. Comics that gave us images of terror and horror, wrapped inside a gruesome tale! One of them features the Crypt Keeper, which is 8 1/2″ tall by 6 3/8″ side, while the other one features the Old Witch and the Vault Keeper, which is 9″ tall and 6 1/4″ wide, both highly detailed and painted. These were sculpted by Chris Dahlberg.

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Need Some Epic Italian Zombie Soundtracks?

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Okay, so they might not necessarily be “epic”, or even zombies depending on who you ask, but Quartet Records has given fans of some of the lower quality (but still damn entertaining) zombie or plague flicks from 1980!

Quartet Records, in collaboration with Cinevox Records has released the score for Bruno Mattei and Claudio Fragasso’s 1980 film Virus, also known as Virus Apocalipsis Canibal, and probably best known as Hell of the Living Dead or Night of the Zombies. Now, anybody that has seen this film probably noticed that there are some parts of the score that sounds a little like Goblin’s score for Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978), and you would be correct. In fact, there is also music lifted from the score Goblin did for Luigi Cozzi’s Contamination (1980), and even a bit from Fernando Di Leo’s crime drama Diamanti Sporchi di Sangue (1978), done by Luis Bacalov. But it did actually have some original music in it, from Gianni Dell’Orso.

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Movie Review: Slither

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(2006)
Directed by James Gunn
Starring Michael Rooker, Nathan Fillion, Elizabeth Banks, Gregg Henry, Tania Saulnier, Don Thompson, Brenda James

Back before James Gunn was a huge player in Hollywood, not too long after his days of working for Lloyd Kaufmann and Troma, and shortly after he had written the remake for Dawn of the Dead (2004), he wanted to make a good old fashioned monster movie, like the ones he grew up on in the ‘80s. And he did just that. I went to see Slither in the theater when it came out and just loved it. Unfortunately, not too many other people did go see it and it bombed at the theater, telling Hollywood that nobody wants to see these kinds of films. How wrong they were. The real shame is that just because it didn’t draw in the crowds, it stopped producers taking chances on similar type films.

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Mystery Photo 3-14

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Look at that . . . already halfway through March! Next thing you know we’ll be baking in that summer heat waiting for the fall to come along. Well, I will at least. But back to business! Our photo from last week was from Dan Curtis’ version of Dracula (1974), starring Jack Palance. That is Nigel Davenport in the photo, putting an end to the Count. That was probably one of the earlier versions of the movie that I saw in my youth, along with a ton of other Dan Curtis projects! Kudos to the following for sending in the correct answer: Peggy Christie, Kevin Hart, George Hilton, Troy Howarth, Charles Miller, Lee Nattrass, Vincent Simonelli, William Wilson. Good show!

On to this week’s photo. Let’s see how many fans of the gooey stuff there are out there. Take a peek and email me your guess at jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good Luck!

Soundtrack Review: Rosemary’s Baby

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Rosemary’s Baby
Released by La-La Land Records, 2012
36 Tracks with a total running time of 71:21 min.
Composed by Christopher Komeda

Coming from a jazz background, one wouldn’t think that composer Komeda would be able to create a score for such a haunting film, but he does just that in a very different sort of approach. Right from the opening track, Lullaby from Rosemary’s Baby Part 1, with Mia Farrow doing the vocals, it sets the tone with what should be a soothing lullaby but becomes something darker. Which switch back to a soft and easy jazz piece in Track #3, Moment Musical, before going back into something more frightening with Track 4, Dream. From the piano work, the strings, the chanting, it all comes together to give one incredible and powerful score. Just listen to Track #28, What Have You Done?, and tell me you can’t feel the emotions from that ending in the film?

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Movie Review: Prey (2007)

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Directed by Darrell James Roodt
Starring Peter Weller, Bridget Moynaham, Carly Schroeder, Connor Dowds, Jamie Bartlet

In the early 2000s, we got a lot of movies that tried to convince us not to do certain things. Hostel (2005) showed us the troubles of traveling abroad in some of those smaller European countries. Wolf Creek (2005) did the same for the Australian outback. Hell, even some of us are still heeding the warning from Jaws (1975) not to go in the water, that came out almost 50 years ago! And along those same lines, Prey is warning you about those trips through the wilds of Africa where you can see the wildlife firsthand. Never a good idea.

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Discover the Horror Podcast: Episode 12: Ghoulish Gary Pullin

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Horror art has become more and more these days, with the whole Mondo movie poster movement, as well as just more of an appreciation of what some of these talented artists are creating.

If you know horror art, you probably know Ghoulish Gary Pullin, and even if you don’t know his name, you know his work. From Rue Morgue magazine to posters to album covers and more, Gary’s signature style is everywhere you look in our little fandom community, so we talk to him about his career, the nature of horror art, and various other odds and ends.

Here is a list of films mentioned in this episode:

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