From Zombos' Closet

Victimas Del Divorcio (1952) Mexican Lobby Card

IMDb lists this as a comedy/drama. I'm not getting the comedy angle from this fairly intense Mexican lobby card for Victimas Del Divorcio. The face at the top right borders on Satanic (with the usual colors to indicate evil or badness), and the claw-tipped fingers keeping the bride and groom apart are not at all drawn in a humorous way. The inset scene isn't a laugh-getter, either. Beautiful card, great illustration, but only conveys the drama in this movie.

Meet the Horror Bloggers: All Things Horror

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, Mike and Chris from All Things Horror tag team the terror to the delight of their readers.

Mike:

I fell in love with horror around age seven by spending Saturday afternoons in the public library. After soccer games, my Dad would drop me off while he went grocery shopping. For whatever reason, the Dracut library stocked the juvenile section with folklore books. The history of witchcraft, true hauntings, werewolves and vampire mythology were all at my finger tips. These were pretty hardcore-in today’s namby pamby world I can’t imagine there’s much on the kid’s shelves about Vlad Tepes impaling his subjects then dining amongst the carnage, nor stories about ghost that appeared on elevators moments before the cables snapped and the cart plunged, sending everyone to their cruel demise. I gobbled up everyone I could check out. Granted they left me so scared if I woke up in the middle of the night to pee I’d clutch a statue of Virgin Mary in front of me while tiptoeing down the hall, just in case a vampire jumped out of the shadows. Just as fifth grade let out for summer vacation, I finished reading The Amityville Horror. That night I woke up covered in itchy splotches and my skin felt like it was on fire. I was terrified that I’d been turned into some sort of demonic hell spawn. It was the chicken pox.

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal. In this installment, Emily from the Deadly Doll's House of Horror Nonsense explains how Fangoria and Chucky made her childhood.

Like many a child born in the Reagan era, Fangoria and Chucky were as integral to childhood as Crayola and Grover. My love for horror was a pleasant blend of nature and nurture, birthed in the womb courtesy of a lovely pair of parents who still make me jealous with tales of catching Night of the Living Dead at the back-end of a drive-in double feature. Sure, I have the honor of discovering how to kill an extraterrestrial klown at the age of 6, but even someone with taste as bad as mine knows that when it comes to movies, the late '80s were more fun than revolutionary. Oh. And maybe that applies to other aspects of society, but let's maintain our priorities, eh?

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Horror Crypt

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, Bloofer Lady* from Horror Crypt explains the dark shadows that led her to horror.

My mom named me after a witch that appeared on the soap opera Dark Shadows, so I was kind of born into loving all things dark and macabre. My father used to take me to cheap double features when I was a kid and that's how I first saw Xtro, Galaxy Of Terror and Dracula AD 1972. I don't remember a time in which I wasn't allowed to watch horror films. I grew up to be relatively sane and well adjusted so they didn't really do me any harm. Or did they?

I started to get heavily into gothic horror-type films when I was in high school, which was also around the time I became a goth/punk weirdo. They kind of went hand in hand for me. It was much more fun to dress like somebody out of a Hammer film than to be 'normal' after all! Soon after that I started to get into Italian horror. The Church was the first Italian horror film I ever saw and I loved the look and feel of it so much that I was instantly hooked. Soon I was watching any Euro-Horror film I could get my hands on, and over the years that particular horror genre has become my favorite.

I started doing horror movie reviews for a couple of different independent sites five or six years ago, but I wasn't completely happy writing for somebody else all of the time. After quite a few years of thinking 'My goodness, wouldn't it be fun to have my own site!' I finally got the nerve to buy my own domain name back in the beginning of last August and created Horror Crypt. I mainly started it as a venue to post my own horror movie reviews, but I have kind of branched out into other things such as recommending really morbid things that I like to others. One day I would like for it to become a full-fledged site because that would be nifty and peachy-keen!

*Zoc Note: "Bloofer Lady" is what the children called Lucy in Bram Stoker's Dracula. After she turned...

Meet the Horror Bloggers: KinderScares

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, read all about the horror with Colum and Shelagh of KinderScares.

Horror has been an integral part of our family’s life from the very beginning. Our first date was a horror movie. Our wedding favors were spoofs of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre movie poster, and we own a film collection that rivals the inventory of most smaller video stores.

Needless to say, our children were born into a world where Frankenstein's Monster makes a great playmate, a foot-tall Leatherface resides atop the bookshelf, monster lore makes its way into everyday conversation, and the Rue Morgue Festival of Fear is an event to look forward to every summer. But it wasn’t until we stumbled upon Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich (by Adam Rex) when our oldest was a toddler that we realized there was a whole world out there of horror stuff for kids - you just have to look.

We’ve been looking ever since.

Our daughter had a Hallowe’en themed birthday party this past October, and it seemed only natural to display some of our spooky books with the rest of the decorations - and people loved them! The surprised delight of people flipping through our monstrous volumes made us realize we weren’t the only people who were looking for this sort of thing...and that our years of scouring for the fun and creepy tales that would delight little monster lovers might be of use to someone other than ourselves. By November, KinderScares was born!

Writing about horror-themed children’s literature has been a blast so far. It’s like all of our favorite things rolled into one, and well worth the work it takes to post daily (a lengthy and oft-interrupted affair when you have your own pack of little monsters wanting your undivided attention!).

Whether you’re a horror expert who wants to know every far-flung corner of the genre, a parent looking for something different to read to your kids, or a book enthusiast who gets excited by the strange and unusual, we’re here to help you out. Mini monster-lovers and future horror fiends need great books too!

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Gruesome Details

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, NM from Gruesome Details tells us how horror took a little while to embrace her.

Horror has always been a part of my life; however, I never embraced the genre until middle school. My father and my grandmother were the horror fans, enjoying the stories and the gore of the genre without a care in the world. Nothing frightened me more as a child than a scary movie; it was the music that haunted me when I traveled up the stairs to go to bed. My father would watch his weekly episode of Tales from the Crypt or another spine-tingling horror film from the 80s while my mother tucked me in at night. The music was the worst, chilling me to the bone because I knew something terrible was happening or going to happen on the screen in the living room.

After years of anxiety and torment from the horror genre, I made the conscious decision to watch a horror film without my cousins or my father. My cousins had tormented me as a child, tricking me into watching parts of horror films without my knowledge and laughing when I realized what was on the television screen. I embraced the horror genre in that first viewing without regrets or remorse, especially when I realized that I had such a selection of films I had ignored for years. Films have always been prevalent in my life, renting movies with my parents and traveling to the movie theatre sporadically during my childhood. And the horror genre was a new outlet of films I could enjoy.

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Chuck Norris Ate My Baby

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, Matt from Chuck Norris Ate My Baby blames his mom for all the horror.

I think I can blame my mother for indirectly pointing me in the direction of horror films and cult cinema. She wasn't a huge horror fan by any stretch, but she loved movies like Halloween, Jaws, and War of the Worlds etc...and some of my fondest memories are of us watching all of these films and others together on TV. She would wax nostalgic and tell me tales of when she went to see Jaws in the theaters and how there was a line around the block, or how people would freak out around her while viewing The Exorcist when she saw it in theaters. All of that stuff was intriguing to me as was the mystery of scary movies.

Meet the Horror Bloggers: The Horror Effect

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, B-Movie Becky of The Horror Effect explains how horror crept into her life.

Upon the lap of my guffawing father, I was raised on the horror film. Armed with a clunky VHS camcorder, I fell in love with filmmaking at the age of thirteen in my rural hometown of Maple Valley, Washington. Countless short films and bottles of fake blood later, I went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production, with minors in Honors and Legal Studies at Chapman University in Orange, California. After graduation, I married the man I met over a friendly game of Counter-Strike nine years ago. We have since graduated from Counter-Terrorist vs. Terrorists to Infected vs. Survivors. When it comes to filmmaking, we are partners in crime and are constantly working on new projects. I am currently editing a documentary on ecology for a non-profit organization and continuing to build my resume with film experience.

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Draculand

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, Mandra of Draculand illustrates his passion for horror.

Hello everyone, my name is Tony Espinosa (Mandra) and I´m illustrator from Barcelona, Spain.

My addiction to horror and my obsession with the myth of Count Dracula is when being small I read Bram Stoker's Dracula and my love was automatic. Then fell into my hands some Relatos Salvajes of the 70s, published in Spain by Vértice and best known in America for "Monsters of the Movies", where I enjoy among other things, a fantastic adaptation of The Invisible Man (Val Mayerik and Dan Adkins), and the adaptation of The Day of The Triffids, better known in Spain for La Semilla del Espacio.

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Hayes Hudson's House of Horrors

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, Hayes of Hayes Hudson's House of Horrors tells us how PG-13 saved his horror life.

My passion for horror began back in 1988. I was at my local video store. I was 12 years old. The household rule was when I went to get a movie, I could only get a PG or PG-13 rated movie, no R. I would always go straight to the Horror section to see all the great box art and dream of a day when I could view all these movies.

Then I saw it.....most all the stickers on the plastic slip cases were red with an R on them...but this one stuck out. It was an orange sticker with a PG-13 on it! Could this be? The film was EVIL DEAD 2: DEAD BY DAWN and had obviously been put in the wrong slip case. Probably by some teenager working at the video store who didn't watch what he was doing.....or just didn't care!

I had never heard of or saw, of course, the first EVIL DEAD film, but that didn't matter. I showed my mom the sequel had a PG-13 sticker on it so it was fair game. She rented the film for me and I was never the same. It was unlike any film I had ever seen and remains my favorite Horror film to this day. From then on I was hooked on Horror and remain a loyal fan of the genre.

Earlier in the year, I was watching more and more horror films, but didn't have anyone to share the joys of these films with. My wife HATES horror movies, and most of my friends really aren't into them (except a select few), so I decided creating my own horror blog would be a great way to discuss news items and movies I watched...even if it was just to a small group of people. It has been fun to watch the blog steadily grow and I hope it continues to grow and become one of the best horror blogs on the net! I try to update it daily, so there is always a reason to check it often!

I hope you all enjoy it!

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Scared Silly

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, Paul Castiglia from Scared Silly: Classic Hollywood Horror-Comedies tells us why he finds so much humor in all that horror.

The process of me becoming a “monster kid” turned out to be a lifelong affair. There were several factors that led to my love of horror movies in general and horror-comedies in particular, and by the time those influences merged together I became that “monster kid.”

Well, to be more precise, that “monster man-boy.” I’ve never completely grown up, and I don’t plan to, either. I have no middle name, but if I did, it might as well be Pan. That’s not the only caveat. When I say “factors” I really mean TV. And when I say TV, I mean movies, TV shows and cartoons in particular.

I was a child in the 1970s, when movies and TV shows from past decades were routinely rerun, especially in the New York tri-state area. I grew up watching the classic comedians on TV, particularly Laurel & Hardy and Abbott & Costello; and I grew up watching a lot of cartoons.

Initially, I was deathly afraid of the monsters. The intro’s to Chiller Theater, Fright Night, and other monster movie broadcasts were avoided like the plague, and if I did happen to see part of one, or a commercial for a first-run horror movie, that was enough to inspire nightmares through the night for me.

Meet the Horror Bloggers: Dollar Bin Horror

Many fans of horror, amateur and professional alike, have devoted themselves to blogging about the thrills, chills, and no-frills side of the genre as seen in cinema and print. In this ongoing series that highlights the writers behind the blogs, we meet the unique personalities and talents that make the online horror scene so engaging. Up close and personal.

In this installment, Rhonny from Dollar Bin Horror tells us how her dad's cable sports package brought the horror along with it, and the treasure found in the dollar bin.

The first time I watched anything horror was when I was four. My dad got cable for the sports package, but it also came with HBO. I would be up late watching Tales From the Crypt. No one stopped me, so I kept watching. Since then I always liked scary movies, but it didn't become an addiction until I was 14. My dad said he got a new movie and wanted me to watch it with him. At first I thought it was another Denzel Washington movie, but thankfully it wasn’t. It was the first Saw film. After googling some information about it, I was enthralled by the fact that two young film students made it. It changed my whole perspective on horror films and my new life goal was to make them myself.