DtH Episode 127 – Shock Theater

July 22, 2026 by Jon Kitley in Discover the Horror Podcast and tagged Dracula, Frankenstein, Shock Theater, The Black Cat, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, The Raven, The Wolf Man, Universal Classic Monsters | 4 Comments

Believe it or not, there was a time when instant access to hundreds of horror movies didn’t exist. Scary thought, huh? Before in the ’50s, unless you caught a movie in the theater, you probably weren’t going to see it, especially when you’re talking about the classic monster films, like Dracula and Frankenstein. But then in October of 1957, Universal had sold 52 of their titles, many of them being the classic monsters, were released to TV in what was called the Shock Theater package. And to help promote these, it was suggested for TV stations to have a “horror host” that would introduce the features. Simply put, it exploded. And help give birth to the Monster Kid generation.

Add in that Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine started the following year, there really was no turning back. Now you could see these monsters in the safety of your own home. A long way away from being able to hop on your computer or streaming TV service and find thousands of titles at your fingertips. But this was starting of real horror fandom, where you could get your weekly fix of monsters, as well as be reading Famous Monsters, buying your very own Aurora Monster model kits… life was great.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of this event and how it really was a game changer for horror movie fans.

Films mentioned in this episode:

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Book Review: Monsters Unborn

July 19, 2026 by Jon Kitley in Reviews: Horror Reference Book and tagged Anne Rice, Bride of Frankenstein, Bruce Kilkowski Jr., Creature from the Black Lagoon, Frankenstein, George Romero, Harker Press, Jack Arnold, John Carptenter, John Landis, Mick Garris, Monsters Unborn, Rick Baker, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, The Wolf Man | Leave a comment

Monsters Unborn: The Lost Universal Monster Remakes
Published by Harker Press, 2026. 271 pages
By Bruce Kilkowski Jr.

Every time fans see another remake/retelling/sequel/or whatever they are calling their version of one of the classic Universal monsters, some tend to groan, thinking, here we go again. But the funny (actually no so funny) thing what this picture probably went through to even get started. And in this new book by Bruce Kilkowski Jr., you will get a good idea what I’m talking about.

This book goes through a bunch of unmade sequels or remakes, and proposals that were all based on some of the classic Universal monsters, mainly the Bride of Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. We learn how the story of a particular project got started, by who, and who else was involved, such as the writer(s), possible director(s), producer(s), and even the makeup effects guys who were going to design the new look.

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Peveril’s Hammer Scrapbook Available

February 11, 2025 by Jon Kitley in Book News and tagged Blood from the Mummy's Tomb, Curse of the Mummy's Tomb, Hammer Films, Hammer Mummy Scrapbook, Hammer Studios, Peveril Publishing, The Mummy, The Mummy's Shroud, Wayne Kinsey | Leave a comment

Peveril Publishing has released their sixth volume in their Scrapbook series, and it is now available to order! This volume deals with the four Mummy movies that Hammer produced: The Mummy (1959), The Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb (1964), The Mummy’s Shroud (1966), and Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971).

Like all of their scrapbooks, it contains rare images, FOH stills, lobby cards, posters, press material, letters, set designs, call sheets, censor notes and documents, makeup designs and so much more. It also includes a 100-page day-by-day production diary of the making of Hammer’s Blood from Mummy’s Tomb film, using daily progress reports, parts of actress Valerie Leon’s annotated script, and a ton of images and rare photos and images, all within the 368 full color pages, and limited to only 800 signed copies.

The books are priced at £40, which is just under $50, but then will cost you another $20 to get it shipped over here to the US. So yeah, it is pricy, but when you look at all the other scrapbook volumes they’ve put out and see all of those have sold out. These are limited editions and when they are gone, they are gone, and then become collector items, or just really nice volumes for your Hammer Library!

For all the information, just click HERE.

Discover the Horror Podcast – Episode 51: Universal Mummies

September 6, 2023 by Jon Kitley in Discover the Horror Podcast and tagged Karl Freund, Lon Chaney Jr., The Mummy, The Mummy's Curse, The Mummy's Ghost, The Mummy's Hand, The Mummy's Tomb, Tom Tyler, Universal Classic Monsters, Universal Monsters | Leave a comment

The Mummy (1932), The Mummy’s Hand (1940), The Mummy’s Tomb (1942), The Mummy’s Ghost (1944), and The Mummy’s Curse (1944).

In this episode, we go back the Universal Classics and take on one of the most unusual of the classic monsters, the Mummy. It’s probably one of the best costumes and memorable character, but never seems to reach the same level of notoriety as his fellow monsters. But strangely enough, it is the one Universal monster to have more films devoted to his character alone, without going into the Monster Rally films where they had more than one monster in the picture.

Here we dig up some facts as well as our own thoughts on the original 1932 film starring the one and only Boris Karloff, as well as the 4 other Mummy films that came out almost a decade later, but with much smaller budgets. These sequels started with a different mummy character and had a continuing storyline between the 4 films, or at least tried.

Films mentioned in this episode:

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Universal Classic Horrors at the Strand Theatre

January 22, 2023 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, Frankenstein, Fright Night Frights, Old Dark House, Strand Theatre, The Black Cat, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, The Strand Theatre, Universal Horrors, Universal Monsters | 1 Comment

The Strand Theatre in Shelbyville, IN, has announced this year’s Friday Night Frights schedule and once again, makes me wish I lived closer to the theater! We all know and love the Universal Classic Monsters (or at least we should!) but few fans have had the opportunity to see them in a movie theater on the big screen. Well, if you live near the Indianapolis area, now you have your chance.

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More Hammer Figures from Mego

October 19, 2021 by Jon Kitley in Misc. Ramblings and tagged Hammer Films, Mego, Phantom of the Opera, Plague of the Zombies, The Gorgon, The Mummy | 4 Comments

Just when I was content with not getting into collecting a lot of these horror action figures or collectible figures, I hear about some of these Hammer figures that Mego is now putting out. These are all 8″ figures that pre-orders are being taken now. The two they announced last week were for The Gorgon and The Mummy. Which, while they were not bad looking and only priced at $20 each, it didn’t make me change my mind on having to collect them.

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Halloween Favorites

July 15, 2020 by Jon Kitley in Book News and tagged Beetlejuice, Black Sunday, Cat People, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Curse of Frankenstein, David J. Skal, Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Dracula, Frankenstein, Fright Favorites, Get Out, Halloween, Hocus Pocus, Horror of Dracula, House on Haunted Hill, Invasion of the Body Snatcher, Mystery of the Wax Museum, Night of the Living Dead, Nightmare on Elm Street, Nosferatu, Phantom of the Opera, Pit and the Pendulum, Rosemary's Baby, Scream, The Birds, The Exorcist, The Haunting, The Mummy, The Shining, Them!, Turner Classic Movies, Wolf Man, Young Frankenstein | 2 Comments

Horror scholar David J. Skal has a new book coming out this fall, just in time for Halloween, entitled Fright Favorites: 31 Movies to Haunt Your Halloween and Beyond. Presented by Turner Classic Movies, Skal takes on 31 films ranging from the silent era, hitting a few titles from each decade through the ’80s, and a few beyond that. Most of these everyone will agree are classics, with a few comedies listed in the later day titles. The description in Amazon says they are “family-friendly” but not sure The Exorcist (1973) and The Thing (1982) are ones I would be screening for 8-year old Timmy! Continue reading →

Horror History: Karl Freund

June 11, 2020 by Jon Kitley in Horror History and tagged Dracula, Karl Freund, Mad Love, Murders in the Rue Morgue, The Mummy | Leave a comment

freund Karl Freund
Born Jan. 16th, 1890 – Died May 3rd, 1969

Karl Freund was a German cinematographer that worked with some other top names in the business: Robert Wiene, F.W. Murnau, and Fritz Lang. When he finally made his way over to the states, Universal quickly put him under contract, where he would photograph several of their films, including a few horror films like Dracula (1931) and Murders in the Rue Morgue (1932). He would eventually direct a few films, two of them being horror, and both of which have become classics. The first one was The Mummy (1932) starring Boris Karloff, the second one was Mad Love (1935), starring Peter Lorre. This would be his last film as a director.

Freund went back to being a cameraman, because that is what he knew best. He won an Oscar for Best Cinematography for The Good Earth (1937), nominated again for Blossoms in the Dust (1941), and was given an Oscar in 1955 in the Technical Achievement department for the design and development of a direct reading brightness meter. He eventually went to work in television, specifically on the I Love Lucy show, and helped developed the 3-camera system for filming TV shows, which is still being used today. He also developed a new way of lighting the sitcoms, making them look a lot better than what they had been.

So while he was obviously a very talented cameraman, and gave the industry some amazing technical advances, he also gave us horror fans some great movies to watch, which we still continue to do today!

Universal Horrors at the Music Box Theatre

August 17, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Movie Events and tagged Dracula, Face of Frankenstein, Frankenstein, Murders in the Rue Morgue, Music Box Theatre, Remy Bumppo Theatre, The Invisible Man, The Mummy, Universal Horrors, Universal Monsters | Leave a comment

Invisible Man

Because our September and October wasn’t filling up already, the Music Box has decided to screen some of the Universal classics in their Universal Horror: A Matinee Series, starting at 11:30am on each weekend listed below. Plus the fact that these are all being screened from 35mm prints! Now is your chance to see some of these essential titles from our horror history but on the big screen like they were meant to be seen! Here’s the schedule for this series:

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2017 Year End Review Part 5: Best and Worst of

January 4, 2018 by Jon Kitley in Year End Reviews and tagged A Dark Song, Alien: Covenant, Hellraiser: Revelations, Housewife, Tales of Halloween, The Autopsy of Jane Doe, The Canal, The Eyes of My Mother, The Mummy, The Shape of Water, The Void, Winterbeast | 2 Comments

Just to get this out there right away, my Best / Worse lists always consists of films that I watched for the first time in 2017, not necessarily that they came out. Most of the films I watch are from DVD or Blu-Ray and I don’t make it to the theater too often to see them when they first come out. Or they might be an older film that I’m seeing for the first time. So no matter when it actually came out, it still is a new movie to me.

I got through 209 films this year, 77 of them were first-time viewings for me. That is a little lower than normal for us, but I’ve been spending a lot of time working on a side project that will hopefully see the light of day this year. Then I can get back to watching more movies!

So here are the top five that I watched in 2017 that made the most impact on me this year.

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