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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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
I’ve been a collector of horror movie posters for more years than I can remember, and have spent more money on them over the years that I want to remember! One of the great things about being a collector is that you start to learn more about not just the movies, but in case of the posters, you start to know who some of these artists were that created some of these incredible images. The real shame is that in the past, some of these talented people weren’t even allowed to sign their paintings, such as Reynold Brown, who created so many incredible poster art from the ’50s.
One of those current artists, Graham Humphreys, has released a book of his horror art, entitled Hung, Drawn and Executed: The Horror Art of Graham Humphreys. My first introduction to his work, without knowing it, was his fantastic piece for the British Quad for Evil Dead 2. Starting out in the collecting world, it was one that I always hope to acquire some day. Then you start to see other pieces of his talent, on not just posters but now on book covers and Blu-ray covers too! Humphreys work is unmistakable and is just incredible how he nails the likenesses of the characters. In fact, at this very moment, I have the recent quad artwork he did for the new Blu-ray release of James Whale’s Old Dark House hanging in my movie room, which you can see below. Once again, just incredible. But just take a second to google his work and I’m sure you’ll recognize quite a few of his pieces. Continue reading
I never thought I would see the day for movie poster art, I mean REAL poster art, make a comeback. Granted, these are not being made for new theatrical releases, but expensive limited edition prints and such. But maybe one day the studios will start to take notice and move in that direction. We can have hope, right?
The reason for this posting is that I came across the recent piece of incredible art that Graham Humphreys posted that he did for an upcoming release of James Whale’s Old Dark House. Just look at the detail in this! Just stunning. I know if they were selling prints of this, I’d be ordering one asap!
And with more and more poster books that keep coming out, maybe this will help as well, when the attention to the actual artwork that this amazing artists created, sometimes even going uncredited, will get the come full circle, giving them their props, as well as maybe starting a new trend. Like I said, we can have hope, right?
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