Kitley's Krypt MYSTERY PHOTO #81

Another week, another MYSTERY PHOTO!

Jon Kitley, pillar of the Chicago Horror Community and head honcho over at KITLEY'S KRYPT, wants to challenge your horror knowledge. Week in, week out, he posts a Mystery Photo - sometimes from an obscure horror title, sometimes just an unusual shot from a well-known classic. We figured our faithful Claw readers would enjoy the challenge!

Our last photo was that of poor Dagmar Lassendar on the end of a poker stick in Lucio Fulci's HOUSE BY THE CEMETERY (1981). This off-the-rails shocker about a family moving into an old house with a bizarre history features a who’s who of Italian horror, from cast to crew. Co-written by Dardano Sacchetti (Zombie, City of the Living Dead, The Beyond), cinematography by Sergio Salvati (Zombie, Black Cat, Beyond) and special f/x by goremeister Giannetto De Rossi complement the onscreen work of Catriona MacColl, Paolo Malco, Daniela Doria, Ania Pieronia and little Giovanni Frezza, whose terribly dubbed voice has become infamous among fans. One of Fulci's best.




Let's see how you fare with this week's selection:



Send your guesses, with the subject line "MYSTERY PHOTO", to jon@kitleyskrypt.com

If you provide the correct answer, your name will be announced next week on the Kitley's Krypt website (http://www.kitleyskrypt.com), along with a new photo. Even if you don't know the answer, we welcome any sorta-kinda educated guess! So, send in your emails today and good luck!

As the year winds down...

...Kitley's Army Challenge is also getting near its end, and it has been a wild and wooly journey through sixteen (so far) first-time horror views (FTVs). Jon Kitley, of Kitley's Krypt fame, is running a year-long challenge to watch two FTVs each month, each month having a different theme. From 1930s horror to slashers, Jon's done an outstanding job choosing a wide range of sub-genres, so kudos to him.



June's objective was to watch two films from either (or both) of horror's gore kings, H.G. Lewis and Lucio Fulci. I chose to watch one from each director: A Cat in the Brain for Fulci, and Two Thousand Maniacs! for Lewis. Neither film is what you would call outstanding cinema, but they have their charms. What stood out for me with Maniacs! in particular was the supernatural ending and the tamer tone than his previous offering, Blood Feast; Lewis's other films were more in line with crazy people in the real world hacking and slashing through their victims to some twisted end. The fact that Pleasant Valley was an apparition as well as a (true) local legend puts the film into a different realm. When the sheriff doubts the main characters, it opens the door for us to doubt them as well.

Lewis, like many horror directors, claims that his films have no deeper meaning and should be taken at face value. He was primarily a businessman and considered himself as such. But like Romero's Night of the Living Dead, Maniacs! is completely a product of its time regardless of what the director says, and there is certainly the possibility that on a subconscious level the fears and tensions of the time seeped into the film without the directors' knowledge.

Or perhaps they are just being coy.

I had the chance to watch Maniacs! again, on a bigger screen, tonight at Bowling Green State University's Gish Theatre. It's definitely a film that deserves to be seen with a crowd, like so many other so-bad-they're-good movies. Whatever you make of it, Two Thousand Maniacs! also deserves to be watched, or rewatched as the case may be. Enjoy, and save room for the barbecue.

Kitley's Krypt MYSTERY PHOTO #55

Another week, another MYSTERY PHOTO!

Jon Kitley, pillar of the Chicago Horror Community and head honcho over at KITLEY'S KRYPT, wants to challenge your horror knowledge. Week in, week out, he posts a Mystery Photo - sometimes from an obscure horror title, sometimes just an unusual shot from a well-known classic. We figured our faithful Claw readers would enjoy the challenge!

Our last photo was a stumper. There were quite a few of you out there that thought it was Lamberto Bava's Demons, which was a good guess and from the right country. However, the shot is actually from the in-name only entry to Lucio Fulci's ZOMBI series, ZOMBIE 4: AFTER DEATH (1988). The director behind this wonderful piece of "cinema" is none other than Claudio Fragasso - That's right, the man who gave us Troll 2. And yes, that is an accurate indicator of the quality of Z4:AD.



Let's see how you fare with this week's selection:



If you provide the correct answer, your name will be announced next week on the Kitley's Krypt website (http://www.kitleyskrypt.com), along with a new photo. Even if you don't know the answer, we welcome any sorta-kinda educated guess! So, send in your emails today and good luck!

Kitley's Krypt MYSTERY PHOTO #53

Another week, another MYSTERY PHOTO!

Jon Kitley, pillar of the Chicago Horror Community and head honcho over at KITLEY'S KRYPT, wants to challenge your horror knowledge. Week in, week out, he posts a Mystery Photo - sometimes from an obscure horror title, sometimes just an unusual shot from a well-known classic. We figured our faithful Claw readers would enjoy the challenge!

Our last photo was from Italian gore maestro Lucio Fulci's skeevy little 1982thriller, THE NEW YORK RIPPER. Set in the Big Apple, women of low moral character are falling victim to a killer armed with razor blades, butcher knives, broken bottles and...a Donald Duck voice. Fulci delights in exploring the seamier side of NYC with shots of Times Square and strip clubs so grimy you’ll be itching in your seat after fifteen minutes. Our fowl-mouthed killer isn’t shy about spreading the red stuff around (a stripper’s backstage vodka-bottle surprise is particularly nasty), and Fulci makes sure we see every stomach-wrenching drop. Excellent, lunch-buckling makeup effects, with an ingenious phone call-tracing sequence that delivers both suspense and surprise. Perhaps a little heavy on the red and the herrings, but rarely a dull moment throughout. If you’re sick of the heavy-breathing, hulking slasher and the wise-cracking chatterbox psycho, check this one out.




Let's see how you fare with this week's selection:


Send your guesses to: jon@kitleyskrypt.com

If you provide the correct answer, your name will be announced next week on the Kitley's Krypt website (http://www.kitleyskrypt.com), along with a new photo. Even if you don't know the answer, we welcome any sorta-kinda educated guess! So, send in your emails today and good luck!

Dr. AC's Rec of the Week (B)

Howdy troops,

The Doc is back for another round, tipping you off to some of the "good stuff" that isn't necessarily sitting on the Blockbuster shelves nor running in an endless loop on TNT. No, sometimes the task of a horror fan is to dig just a little deeper to find the gold...and the gold is out there, my friends.

This week, we're serving up a double dip of "B" films:


Beyond, The (1981)
Considered by many to be Italian director Lucio Fulci’s masterpiece, this is an eye-popping good time for those who like their gore dripping and their storylines incoherent. As near as can be determined, the film revolves around an old hotel in New Orleans that has in its basement “the seven doors of evil,” one of which gets opened by a troubleshooting plumber. (Wouldn’t you think it would be harder than that? Guess not.) That’s all the excuse that Fulci needs to open his arsenal and soon, corpses are rising from the dead, eyeballs are pushed, prodded, and poked out of their sockets, faces are melted with acid, and other gross-outs ensue. In one of the most audacious set pieces, a nest of tarantulas make a slow and deliberate feast of an unconscious victim (complete with grimace-inducing munching and crunching noises on the soundtrack). While the film’s narrative is nearly incomprehensible, there is plenty of imaginative camerawork and art direction amid the mayhem, creating an unsettling mood (as if those spiders weren’t unsettling enough). Filled with numerous memorable scenes, including a knockout final sequence.


Black Sheep (2006)
As surely as Peter Jackson drew inspiration from childhood idols Willis O’Brien and Ray Harryhausen, Jonathan King’s admiration for his fellow Kiwi filmmaker’s early madcap horror/comedies is apparent in nearly every scene. Much like Bad Taste and Braindead (aka Dead-Alive), the characters are drawn large and loud, then inhabited by appealing, offbeat actors. Nathan Meister plays Henry, a New Zealand sheep baron’s younger offspring waylaid by a chronic fear of the woolly ones due to childhood trauma at the hands of his sadistic, bullying elder brother. Now grown, Angus (Peter Feeney) has moved into genetically engineering his ovine, the fallout of said experiments resulting in the most ill-tempered baa-baa’s ever to graze a hillside. Of course, the joke of turning the proverbial docile lamb of the field into a homicidal carnivorous beastie is the basis for King’s (who also scripted) black comedy, but thanks to Jackson’s Weta Workshop, audiences are also treated to several half man/half sheep monstrosities and a troughful of off-color intimations that Angus’ contributions to his work may extend beyond just his brainpower. Blessedly free of CGI, directed with verve and performed with "shear" abandon, this may not be a classic for the ages, but it’s bloody fun and one of the best horror/comedies since Shaun of the Dead.