Happy Halloween!

October 31, 2026 by Jon Kitley in Misc. Ramblings, Movie Events and tagged Aaron Christensen, Cinema Wasteland, Hammer Films, Horror 101 with Dr. AC, Horror of Dracula, Music Box of Horrors, Music Box Theatre, Sulzer Library, Super-Horror-Rama, The Innocents | Leave a comment

It has been one hell of a month, one filled with movie screenings, conventions, lectures, and so much more. I know I am sheer exhausted by the time the month is over, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Wait… actually, I’d like to have even more time to see more movies, go to more different spooky and Halloween themed events, as well as spending more time with my other horror friends and family. With all the crap going on in the world, these are the things where you can sit back and still see the beauty in the world, even when it’s covered in spiderwebs and has fog encircling it! There are times when I start to lose hope for humanity, but then I have a passionate conversation about an old black and white movie that they have just seen. Or even just two complete strangers talking about movies together as they wait in line for a film. It not only still shows me the power of film, but it seems that more and more people are “getting it”.

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Music Box Celebrates Horror in October!

September 9, 2026 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged Amityville II: The Possession, Attack the Block, Begotten, Black Magic with Buddha, Black Sunday, Darkness, Diane Franklin, E. Elias Merhige, Event Horizon, Guillermo del Toro, Halloween, Hammer Films, Horror of Dracula, I Saw the Devil, In the Mouth of Madness, Joe Dante, John Carpenter, Leif Jonker, Mario Bava, Michael Dougherty, Music Box of Horrors, Music Box Theatre, Peeping Tom, Possession, The Devil's Backbone, The Howling, The Innocents, The Leapord Man, Trick 'r Treat, Val Lewton | Leave a comment

This year’s Music Box of Horrors, their annual 24-hour horror movie marathon, as we know sold-out in record time this year. Literally within minutes. Just crazy. But honestly, it shouldn’t be a surprise with what the Music Box has been programming, with plenty of stuff to keep us horror fiends excited all year long. They have announced a few more titles for this year’s marathon, which we have everything they have listed on their website below, or you can just click HERE to right to their page.

Amityville II: The Possession (1982) with Diane Franklin in person for a post-film Q&A
Attack the Block (2011)
Black Magic with Buddha (1983)
Danse Macabre (2011)
The German Chainsaw Massacre (1990)
The Haunted House (1921)
I Saw the Devil (2010)
The Leopard Man (1943) – Val Lewton!!!
Suspiria (1977) – Ultra-rare IB Tech 35mm print English-language, original UK release version

But it is the rest of October that is just jar-droppingly stunning with the number of amazing features, Q&As, and everything else they have listed. This isn’t the full list, but just a few titles that I think are pretty special or have a special guest attending! For the entire lineup, just click HERE.

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International Horror Film Festival in Columbus

June 19, 2025 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged Alain Robak, Baby's Blood, Black Sunday, Claire Denis, Cristobal Leon, Dr. Jekyll and Sister Hyde, Hour of the Wolf, Ingmar Bergman, International Horror Film Festival, J.A. Bayona, Jack Clayton, Joaquin Cocina, Kiyoshi Kurosawa, Mario Bava, Ohio State University, Pulse, Roy Ward Baker, The Bloody Lady, The Innocents, The Orphanage, The Wolf House, Trouble Every Day, Viktor Kubal, Wexner Center for the Arts | Leave a comment

Next month, at the Wexner Center for the Arts, at the Ohio State University, will be holding an International Horror Film Festival showcasing films from around the world, from Italy to Japan to France and more. It’s one of those times when I wished to be retired and wealthy, only to be able to travel around attending these different festivals! They have a great lineup here with some truly amazing examples of the horror genre, but also incredible pieces of cinema as well. The festival runs from July 10th through Aug. 14th. Most of them are single screenings, but there are a couple of nights where there is a double feature. Below is the list of films playing:

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2023 Year End Review – Part 2: Best Viewings!

December 31, 2023 by Jon Kitley in Year End Reviews and tagged Against the Grain, Alfred Hitchcock, Blood Flower, Cobweb, Demien Rugna, Don't Listen, Eloy de la Iglesia, Eskil Vogt, I See You, Joseph Stefano, La Abuela, Martin Landau, Mike Vraney, No One Heard the Scream, Paco Plaza, Psycho, Something Weird Video, Terrified, The Ghost of Sierra de Cobre, The Grandmother, The Innocents, Vinegar Syndrome, Voces, When Evil Lurks | 3 Comments

As always, it was a struggle getting my list down to ten films. It was even stranger because when I first started going through my list of movies I watched this year, at first, I thought I was going to have trouble even coming up with five titles. But the more I looked into them, the more I realized that not only did I have more than ten, but almost like last year, most of the films I have listed here came out in the last few years. I’ve only got two “old” ones and the rest from 2020 to 2023. I would like to say that it gives me hope for modern films, but really mainly if you look outside the country! Six of my films are from foreign countries, which does give me a LOT of hope of the horror genre as a whole.

Let’s get started, shall we? These are listed in alphabetical order to make it a little easier for me, since narrowing it down to ten was hard enough!

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Book Review: The Haunted House on Film

February 5, 2020 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged Haunted Castle, Haunted House on Film, Legend of Hell House, McFarland, Old Dark House, Paul Meehan, Psycho, Rosemary's Baby, The Haunting, The Innocents, The Shining | 5 Comments

The Haunted House on Film: An Historical Analysis
Published by McFarland, 2019. 222 pages
By Paul Meehan

The haunted house film is one of my favorite sub-genres so I was very excited to dig into this title when it finally came out. I was hoping to add a multitude to titles to my “Crap! I haven’t seen that yet” list, which is exactly what I did. Even before we get into the thick of this review, anytime a book has you seeking out different titles, that is always a good thing!

The introduction gives a great overview of the not only haunted house in cinema, but in fiction as well, giving the reader a nice background as to where all of this really started. When you consider that the very first haunted house film, Georges Méliès 1986 film Le Chateau Hante (aka The Haunted Castle), was also the very first horror film, makes this sub-genre really the oldest in the horror film category. But we also have early titles discussed such as D.W. Griffith’s One Exciting Night (1922) and Roland West’s The Bat (1926). Meehan covers the early “old dark house” films that really were a combination of mystery/thriller/comedies, giving a good explanation as to why these are really different than what one would normally define as a haunted house film. On many of the movies discussed, where there is a mystery killer, the author leaves it up to the reader to find the movie and watch it to find out who that might be. Since many authors will give away any surprises, which really is a letdown going into the film if you know the ending, it’s nice to know those secrets were left hidden. Continue reading →