Is it a new month already? It almost slipped by me! But still the first of December so I’m still on time! This month, we’re going to put the spotlight on being confined to one place, whether it is your house, an apartment, or maybe even stuck at your work for whatever reason. But it is in this place where the horror tries to invade and get to you. It could be a bunch of zombies, or something as simple as a stalker wanting to kill you, or a character losing their grasp of their sanity while home alone and secluded, so the variety of ideas is wide open. Now, I’d like the whole movie to take place in this one setting, but obviously there needs to be a set up to get there, or there could be moments in the story where they leave the dwelling for a short time, but the main setting is where the threat takes place, so I’m not going to get too picky with that. For example, if someone had not seen Romero’s Dawn of the Dead (1978), I would accept that, even though it does take a while to get to the mall. Another example would be Roman Polanski’s The Tenant (1976). But I think this will be a good concept to really stretch those boundaries on just what type of threat is trying to get to you while you are stuck where you are!

One of the things that I’m always preaching here is to open up your comfort zone to different types of movies. I know to most of you reading this, I’m probably preaching to the choir, but there are newer fans to the genre, or film in general that don’t care for subtitles. “I want to watch a movie, not read it!” is the best response that I’ve gotten over the years. But the funny thing is that the more subtitled movies you watch, the faster you read them, to the point where you’re not even reading them but just glancing at the words at the bottom of the screen and your brain does the rest. True story. Well, at least I believe it. But it will get easier.

We’re about a month away from completing a year’s tour of duty in the Kryptic Army. It’s been fun reading some of the entries from the ones participating, even getting some good suggestions for movies to watch. Strangely though, for all of those that seemed to be glad it was back, we didn’t seem to get the participation that I thought we would have. So my question to you out there, do we go another year? Continue reading →

This month, I will be turning 55 years old, getting even closer to really earn the moniker of “old man Kitley”. This means that I was born in 1965, and since I’m turning 55, I thought I would go with something a little easier for this month’s mission, but also help you dig a little deeper into the genre’s history.

Your mission is to find 2 horror films that you haven’t seen, that came out between the years 1955 and 1965. You have a whole decade to peruse to find a couple of titles to chose from. From all the old giant monster movies of the last part of the ’50s, to the birth of Hammer, and rise of the Italian horror films, you should have plenty to chose from. On a side note, if you’re wondering if one of those sci-fi films from the late ’50s, with some sort of monster or threat terrorizing the country, would count as a horror film, the answer is yes. Because we all know that Sci-Fi isn’t really a genre, right?

So you have until 11:59pm on August 31st to find, watch, and then report back your findings. Don’t take too long… time flies these days so don’t let it sneak up on you!

Ever since I dismissed the Kryptic Army back in 2015, I had more than a few people tell me, on multiple occasions, that I need to start it back up. After a while, it made me realized that while we all watch a ton of movies on our own, the soldiers of my little army still enjoyed a little challenge each month, to purposely seek out two films they hadn’t seen. And as the saying goes that no soldier will be left behind… well, I feel that no movie should be left behind! With more and more new movies coming out, as well as so many titles that are in fear of being trampled over and lost in the dirt, I think it is even more of a perfect time to raise the call and to help put the spotlight on some titles that we have missed so far.

So welcome back to the front lines!

To start off the new deployment of the Kryptic Army, I think it is a perfect time to honor those already fighting the good fight. This month’s mission is to find two horror films that you have not seen before that have a military angle to them. It could be from any era or time frame, and could take place in any country, but it has to have some sort of military theme to it. Could be Nazi Zombies, could be ghosts from the battlefields coming back to haunt the living, or any aspect that involves soldiers, dead or alive.

You have until 11:59pm on January 31st to find these titles, watch them, and then give your report. Just come back to this post and in the comments section state the two titles you watched and what you thought. Even if it is simply “Great movie” or “Waste of time”, just some sort of opinion. Granted, we’d love a little more info on your thoughts, but it is up to you on how much you want to say. Also, please keep any spoilers out of your reports.

Once a report is posted, please feel free to post your own comment to the report. Obviously this is not a requirement for the mission, but the goal is to get a discussion going, whether you might have liked it or not, some other movie suggestion, and again, no spoilers.

So step up, Soldier! Get your gear and hit the dirt! Or just play on the Blu-ray player…