Frightfest Guide to Ghost Movies!

FAB Press will be releasing another volume in the amazing Frightfest Guide series, this time covering one of my favorite sub-genre of films, Ghost Stories! Award winning filmmaker and author Axelle Carolyn will be delving into the history of this sub-genre, going over the last 120 years, and giving us reviews the 200 most memorable titles from around the world.

Like the first two volumes in this series, The FrightFest Guide to Exploitation Movies and The FrightFest Guide to Monster Movies, this volume will be beautifully laid out and illustrated. FAB always produced amazing quality and fantastic looking books, so I know I will be adding this to the library as soon as it hits the states. It will be making its debut next weekend at the Frightfest convention in the UK. It won’t hit the states until Oct. 26th, priced at $24.95.

Mystery Photo 7-16

It looks like we only got one correct answer in for last week’s photo, which was Troy Howarth. He was the only one to identify the photo from the 1977 Terror of Frankenstein, which is actually a decent adaptation of Shelley’s novel. Not one that gets talked about that often, but actually did get a DVD release years ago. Worth checking out.

Here is this week’s photo, so we’ll see if this is a little easier. Maybe it’s a little too easy. We’ll see.

As usual, please remember not to post your answers here so others can have a chance at it. Just send your guess to us in an email to jon@kitleyskrypt.com. Good luck!

Book Review: Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy

Human Beasts: The Films of Paul Naschy
Published by CreateSpace, 2018. 344 pages
By Troy Howarth

Followers of the Krypt might know of my slight fondness for the work of Spanish writer/director/actor and all around horror fan, Jacinto Molina, better known as Paul Naschy. Besides his own autobiography, Memoirs of a Wolfman or Muchas Gracias Senor Lobo that showcases all these amazing posters, lobby cars, and other material from his movies, there hasn’t been a book out, at least that I know of here in the states, that covers the massive filmography of Naschy. Until now.

Let me say right from the start that Howarth is not only a good friend of mine, but that I also have a very small part in this book, in the Naschy legacy section in the back. Also, that I’m a die-hard Naschy fan that is just thrilled to death that there is finally a book about him and his films. But I would ask you to believe that if I had issues with Troy’s writing, or this book in general, that I would be up front and honest about them here. I don’t mix words when it comes to reviewing, especially books, even more so when they are about a subject that I am very passionate about.

Soundtrack Review: Sensoria

Sensoria  (2015)
Released by Screamworks Records, 2016
15 Tracks with a Total Running Time of 39 min.
Music Composed by Frank Ilfman

I just love it when I stumbled across a soundtrack from a film that I’ve never heard before but just love it. I picked up a copy of Ilfman’s score for Sensoria because it was on sale at one of the online soundtrack places I frequent often. I’ve enjoyed Ilfman’s scores for Big Bad Wolves and Ghost Stories and this was cheap enough so I figured I’d take the chance.

Movie Review: Killer Crocodile (1989)

Killer Crocodile (1989)
Directed by Larry Ludman (Fabrizio De Angelis)
Starring Anthony Crenna, Ann Douglas, Van Johnson, Thomas Moore (Ennio Girolami), Sherrie Rose, Julian Hampton

If anybody watches Killer Crocodile and expects some high-tech, big budgeted film, then they are going to be very disappointed. Come on people, the title alone says it all…pure cheesy entertainment. But even better, this cheese comes from Italy.

Horror History: John Chambers

 John Chambers
Born: Sept. 12, 1923  Died: Aug. 25th, 2001

All horror fans know the names of Dick Smith, Tom Savini, Rick Baker, Rob Bottin, and quite a few others that became famous in the 70’s and 80’s. But what about John Chambers?

Chambers is probably best known for his creation of the makeup effects used to turn Roddy McDowell and other actors into ape-creatures in The Planet of the Apes.  He also worked on horror films like SSSSSSS (1973), Phantom of the Paradise (1974), Island of Dr. Moreau (1977), and even Halloween II (1981). This is the man responsible for creating Spock’s ears for the original TV pilot! He was such a talented and creative artists that he won an honorary Oscar at the Academy Awards in 1969. He was also the first makeup artist to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

But if that wasn’t enough, he also did a few things that shows not only his talent, but his humanity. Even before getting into movies, he worked at the Veteran’s Hospital creating prosthetic limbs for wounded soldiers. He also created other artificial parts, like noses, ears, and some entire faces, to help those soldiers who came back scared or deformed by the horrors of combat.

Plus, there was this little thing he did when he worked with the CIA as a contractor, first helping agents develop their own “disguise kits”, but then later in 1980, he was enlisted by the CIA to help with the rescue of six American embassy personnel who were hiding in the residence of the Canadian ambassador during the Iran hostage crisis. So they set up a fake movie production, with ads in Variety, big Hollywood parties, and everything, to make a science fiction film called Argo. Starting to sound familiar? The rescue was successful and in 2012, the story was made into a film, starring and directed by Ben Affleck. In the film, Chambers is played by John Goodman.

Just goes to show you that there is much more to some of these guys that were creating monsters and creatures for the movies.

Convention Memories: The Bill Rebane Film Festival 2005

Back on our old site, there is probably close to a hundred different convention reports, or film fests, and whatnot. I used to post on those religiously, but after doing so many, it started to become tiresome because a lot of them started to sound the same. As well as some of the shows becoming more and more overpriced autograph shows, it was getting even hard to not be negative all the time. There are a ton of photos posted of many different celebrities that we’ve seen over the years. I thought about bringing them over to the new site, but haven’t completely decided on that just yet. But there are a few that I will be bringing over, such as this one, mainly because this is quite different than most of the conventions and film fests that I’ve been do over the last 20 years. Hope you enjoy!

I don’t remember the exact date, but it was early in 2005, but I remember calling my good friend Eric Ott with some exciting news. I had known Eric for maybe 10 years, and had never known anybody that was a bigger fan of the work on Wisconsin filmmaker Bill Rebane than him. Most notably for making The Giant Spider Invasion (1975), but Rebane had directed about 10 films throughout his career. Eric was always on the lookout for VHS tapes of his movies, as well as posters, and any other material from his work, even scoring some 16mm prints over the years. So when I read online that in Madison, Wisconsin, there was going to be an actual Bill Rebane Film Festival, and that Mr. Rebane himself was going to be there, I quickly called Eric to tell him that no matter what he had planned on May 7th, he was going to have to cancel it. Because we were going to make a road trip up to Madison for this.