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HORROR 101: THE A-LIST OF HORROR FILMS AND MONSTER MOVIES  VOL 1

FAMOUS QUOTES

"Comparisons would be pointless.  Obviously the technical advances in movie-making since the…30’s give the latter productions|
certain advantages over the originals.  But as films, they should be judged on their own merits."

- Peter Cushing on Hammer’s remake of THE MUMMY -

Welcome to my Krypt.  My name is Jon Kitley, and I am the owner, operator, webmaster, and head corpse at Kitley's Krypt.  Before I talk about this site, let me give you a little background on myself.

I think it started back in 1971, when I used to watch Ghost Story on TV.  Then the following year the program was called Circle of Fear.  I didn't know if then, but I think the tumor of obsession started to develop, even at the young age of 6 years old.  When I was 8, I distinctly remember watching the made-for-TV movie Frankenstein: The True Story over a period of two nights, and being completely enthralled by it.  But while the tumor still grew, it didn't become malignant until the very early 80's.  And by then there was no hope of a cure.  I was too far gone.

Over the years, I've developed a love of many different sub-genres of the horror field, whether it be horrors from south of the borders, the low budget classics from Roger Corman and AIP, Hammer horror, the Universal classics, the films of Paul Naschy, and of course the Italian horror genre, with Bava, Fulci, and Argento leading the way.  I try to be open to anything in the horror genre.  If you limit your tastes, you will miss out some some incredible films that are out there, just waiting to be discovered by someone new.

Back when I started to seriously get into the genre, in the mid-80's, video stores were everywhere.  Being in a pretty big size city, usually if it was on video, I could find it in one of the local shops.  But how did you know what to look for?  Reference books.  Every reference book I would come across, I would add it to the collection.  And then I would go through the book and look for something that sounded interesting.  When I found one, I would add it to the "to find" list.  Or if I seen a movie that I enjoyed, then I would seek out maybe some of the other films that had that same director or actor.  The two books I probably used the most were Michael Weldon's Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film and the Overlook Film Encyclopedia of Film by Phil Hardy.  Not to say that I didn't consult other volumes, but those two were the staples.

It was during this time that I started getting into the dreaded obsession of collecting horror memorabilia.  My friends, this is an evil thing.  Once you get started, there's no turning back, and there's no stopping it.  Many (and I do mean many) years ago, I used to be content with just collecting movies on video tape, dubbing them off on to VHS to save the money from buying them (I told you it was years ago).  Then you start to think how cool the big clamshell boxes that some of the movies came in would look sitting on your bookshelves.  Then you buy a movie poster.  Just one or two for a little decoration.  The next thing you know is that you have enough posters to wallpaper  your entire house...twice.  Then you move into stills, lobby cards, books, and it just goes on and on, sucking every last penny that have you have.  Well, maybe not that bad.  It just depends on how much self-control you have.  So in other words, I collect.  In the beginning, I would collect just about anything.  But over the years, I've learn to curb my tastes and limit myself of what I'm looking for....unless it's cheap enough.  But I still collect posters, reference books (You can never have too many reference books), model kits, movies, and pretty much whatever else I can find that I think might be a nice addition to my collection, within a reasonable price for me.

And now about the website.  I started it back in October of 1998.  Over the years, I have had a few remarks of why I had put my name in the site's title.  That's pretty easy one to explain.  I stand by the opinions on this site.  Unlike some sites, I  don't hide behind a fake name or persona.  What you read is what you get.  We make no apologies for our opinions here.  It's just our opinions.  If you don't agree with us, that's fine.  We have no problem with that.  We love nothing more than 'discussing' different opinions on movies.  Like they say, we don't have to agree on every movie, as long as we agree on the genre as a whole.

While my previous website was more of a movie list for trading purposes, I wanted the Krypt to be something more than that.  It has grown and changed over the years, but my main goals were to 'spread the disease' as they say, in promoting the horror genre.  Since I am slightly obsessive and a complete-ist (those can go hand in hand, by the way), I've always tried to continuingly expand my knowledge of the genre.  And I wanted this site to do the same for others.

So here are our goals, or mission statement as they like to be called.  With this site, I would like to Educate, Expand, and (hopefully) Entertain our readers knowledge of the horror genre, helping them to Discover the Horror.

EDUCATE - So many fans that I've run across over the years seemed to have a limited knowledge of the genre.  This is not to be taken as an insult or trying to sound like we know everything.  We are still learning ourselves.  Yes, most horror fans know who Peter Cushing, Vincent Price, and Boris Karloff is.  Those are the basics.  But what about Bernard Robinson?  Or how about Lionel Atwill?  Or maybe even Ted V. Mikels?  As you increase your knowledge of the genre, you will learn more and more about the people behind these movies.  Whether they are actors, directors, makeup artists, production designers, or even cinematographers, there are some talented people out there that have given the films the look and feel that they have, and are still remembered today.  Whether these movies and/or actors are 100 years old, or 2 years old, it's important to know your history.  It helps you appreciate the past, as well as the present.

EXPAND - Fans know what they like and like what they know.  But what about the movies they don't know about, or maybe never even heard about?  Isn't there a chance that there could be more movies that they'd enjoy out there?  Some fans want to complain about the lack of anything good in the horror genre coming out today, and some times I have to agree with them.  But there is so much out there that they haven't discovered, myself included, that even if all the new stuff is crap, there is still plenty of good stuff out there to see.  So with this site, we'd like to help those viewers find new favorites, and expand their tastes of the genre. 

ENTERTAIN - And lastly, the part that we hope everyone does find, and that is some sort of entertainment here at the Krypt.  We have our Mystery Photo and Trivia contests to throw some fun tests out at you, as well as our rantings, Psycho-Babble, and other opinions, misguided as they might be. 

So here's kind of a breakdown on what our site features:

• NEWS - While we do post some of the news bits that are happening, we tend to post the ones that we feel are important, or that we want to comment on.  There are plenty of other news sites out there that do a great job of doing this.  We didn't want to compete with them, but offer maybe a different twist or at least a maybe a different opinion of what is going on, or at least something that we feel needs to be mentioned.

• CONVENTION REPORT/PHOTOS - We go to about 4 or 5 shows a year, and depending how much time we can sneak out from behind our dealer table, we try to get a bunch of photos of the celebrities at the show.  And we give out little report on how the show was.  That way, if you weren't able to attend the shows, at least you can see some of the guests.

• MOVIE REVIEWS - Like most sites, we do have movie reviews.  Of course, we try to give you our little slant on the film, and why you should run out and get it, or avoid it like the plague.

• SOUNDTRACK REVIEWS - We are a huge fan of creepy sounding music and movie scores.  There's nothing more intense the listening to a movie score and reliving the movie in your head, just from the music.  So like the movie reviews, we try and let you know what is worth adding to your collection.

• BOOK REVIEWS - This isn't a review section for fiction, but for horror reference books.  In this reveiw section, we try to give the viewer an idea of what some of these books are about, and if they are worth adding to your own collection.  With so many titles out there, and some of them being a bit pricey, we try to help the viewer to make a more educated decision on what to get.

• SUB-GENRE GUIDES - This section is there to help guide you into a sub-genre that you might not be that familiar with.  It will give you a great place to start, where you can slowly build up your knowledge of that particular sub-genre.  After seeing the films on these lists, you'll not only be able to hold your own in any discussion about that sub-genre, but will also give you information to continue your education on your own.

• HORROR HISTORY - With each update, we post a little info on someone that we feel made an impact on the genre in one form or another.  Might be an actor, a director, or a production designer.  These are people that we feel fans of the genre should know.

• TRIVIA - I've always been a sucker for trivia games and contests.  We have a few different things going on at the Krypt.  We always have our Mystery Photo.  This is a screen shot from a movie where you have to guest the title.  While there is no prize for this quiz, you did get the great honor of having your name posted on our site....pretty cool, huh?  But we also have contests every now and then, with real prizes!  Of course, that all depends on what the studios want to send out for promos...but you never know.

• POSTER GALLERY - Since we have been a poster collector for quite some time, we have always loved poster art.  Some of the stuff from the 60's and 70's are really works of art.  So we've put together a little gallery of different posters from the different sub-genres for the viewer to see the kind of cool art work used to be used for movie posters...unlike much of today's posters.

• PSYCHO-BABBLE - This little section is where I like to point out some of the stupidest, and most ridiculous 'real meanings' that I've come across over the years.  Stuff like Lon Chaney's Phantom makeup was suppose to represent a deformed penis...enough said.  Check out this section to find out how 'educated historians' can come up with interesting, if not damn funny, theories about horror films.

• INTERVIEWS - Kind of self-explanatory, don't you think?

So....that's it in a nutshell.  We hope that this gives you a better understanding of what we are about and why we do what we do.  Questions?  Comments?  Complaints?  We'd love to hear from you out there.  Just drop us a line at the link below.  Thanks for listening....or reading as the case may be.

Your friendly Krypt-Master & Head Corpse:
Jon Kitley