The Art of Death and Horror

Andy Warhol Meets the Monsters

2008-06-01T10:40:00.000-07:00

4 from Jean Rollin

2008-05-09T19:27:00.001-07:00

Four images from Jean Rollin films. French posters for Lips of Blood, Shiver of the Vampires, The Nude Vampire and a German poster for The Grapes of Death. Sadly, my favorite of Rollin's Films, Requiem for a Vampire is not represented.

A note on posting frequency.

2008-05-01T18:45:00.000-07:00

Just a note to let everybody know that I'm not dead. I've just been working alot (up to 15 hours a day) and haven't had much time for anything else really. That should end this week.

Also, if you like this blog and want to see it continue, let me know! Post a reply and let me know that you're out there. I've had some great feedback on the blog but haven't seen much in the way of comments to let me know that you like what you're seeing and want to see more. So please let me know! I have tons of great stuff that still hasn't been posted. Thanks.

Wrapping up..

2008-04-07T14:27:00.000-07:00

Wrapping up, we start off with one of my favorite Mexican horror movies, The Black Pit of Dr. M, followed by Mexican adaptations of The Invisible Man and The Phantom of the Opera.

Next, we get into uncharted territory once again with fabulous, fun artwork for El Camino De Los Espantos, Man and the Beast, Mark of the Dead, Mysteries of Black Magic, and The Skeleton of Mrs. Morales.

Finally, we finish with a Mexican half-sheet for a movie I'd very much like to see, The Vampires of Coyoacan. Vampires and Mexican Wrestlers, and it even stars German Robles!

Karloff's Mexican quartet

2008-03-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

At the end of Boris Karloff's life he shot scenes for 4 Mexican movies that were released after his death. Here are poster images for those movies. They are House of Evil a.k.a. Macabre Serenade (1968), Snake People (1971), Incredible Invasion (1971) and finally Fear Chamber (1972).

Boris Karloff wasn't the only horror movie star to head south of the border. Here we have poster images from a little known vampire movie starring John Carradine called Las Vampiras (1969), and 2 Spanish posters from La Casa del Terror (1960) starring Lon Chaney Jr. Scenes from this movie were later edited into a Jerry Warren hack job called Face of the Screaming Werewolf.

Santo! Santo! Santo!

2008-03-21T16:08:00.001-07:00

Continuing with the theme of Mexican horror, it only makes sense to devote a post to Santo and his movies. Starting off with my personal favorite of his movies, Santo in the Treasure of Dracula. This movie has it all, well, except sex that is. Lets hope that the rumored DVD release of the long lost sex version of the movie El Vampiro y El Sexo materializes one day. Treasure has Santo showing off his scientific skills by building a sort of time machine and sending a woman back to the time of Dracula so that she can find where his rumored treasure is hidden. Next up, Santo vs. the Vampire Women. Though somewhat lacking in the story department, the movie more than makes up for it with incredible gothic atmosphere and sets.

Next, we get into uncharted territory as I've never seen any of the movies listed below. Here we have Mexican and Spanish posters for Santo vs. the Zombies, Santo vs. Baron Brakola, Santo vs. Frankenstein's Daughter, and finally, Santo vs. the Riders of Terror.

Here we have a couple of interesting posters. The poster for Santo in the Hotel of Death has sort of a film noir feel to it with a caped, skull-faced monster wearing a fedora surrounded by sexy women. The poster for Santo and Blue Demon in the Land of the Dead rips off graphic elements from Vincent Price's House of Usher, (note the woman in the coffin). Finally, Santo's pal Blue Demon gets into the action with Invasion of the Dead and Blue Demon vs. the Satanic Power.

Next up: Boris Karloff goes to Mexico to end his film career!

Horror from south of the border

2008-03-12T21:37:00.000-07:00

I love Mexican horror movies. My first real exposure to them were the crappy K. Gordon Murray dubs released on DVD by Beverly Wilshire. Though the quality was awful, there was something about them that I liked. Maybe it was the fact that they felt like lost Universal horrors from the 30's or 40's. My first love when it comes to this sub-genre are the atmospheric vampire movies so we'll begin there.

I don't have a good example of the poster art of El Vampiro (1957) but if you're familiar with Mondo Macabro's excellent Region 2 DVD, you've seen it. Here we have artwork for its sequel The Vampire's Coffin (1957), made in the same year, it makes use of much of the same cast including the leads Abel Salazar and German Robles who plays the vampire. Also shown here, artwork for World of the Vampires (1960). World is definitely the wackiest of the bunch including vampiric slaves that sprout hair more akin to a werewolf, vampire bats that fly around with human heads and a wicked pipe organ made of human bones.

German Robles became something of a horror star in Mexico with the release of El Vampiro and would go on to star in quite a few movies playing vampiric characters. The Nostradamus series had him playing such a role in 4 different films. They were
The Curse of Nostradamus (1960), The Blood of Nostradamus (1961), The Genie of Darkness (1962) and The Monsters Demolisher (1962). Here are poster images from 3 of the 4 films.

Another Mexican vampire movie that produced a sequel was The Bloody Vampire (1962). Here are 2 poster images from it. I've never seen its sequel Invasion of the Vampires (1963), though its high on my list.

Next up: El Santo!

The horror film art of Poland

2008-03-08T18:13:00.000-08:00

Every time I come across a Polish movie poster, I find it interesting because they almost never seem to have anything at all to do with the movie that they're promoting and are always strange and surreal. Here are a few examples. From Top to bottom: Tomb of Ligeia, Christine, The Hunger, Kwaidan, Nosferatu the Vampyre, and Rosemary's Baby.

Next up: Mexican horror!

Famous films about hauntings

2008-03-05T09:40:00.000-08:00

With tonight's premiere of the new season of Ghost Hunters, I thought I would take a look at some movies involving hauntings.

First up, The Uninvited (1944) starring Ray Milland. Here we have US and French posters as well as a US poster from Dead of Night (1945).

Next up, some of the best haunted house movies ever made. A US poster for The Innocents (1961), French artwork for Robert Wise's The Haunting (1963), and US art for The Legend of Hell House (1973) and Burnt Offerings (1976).

Finally, US and Pakistani artwork for The Changeling (1980) with George C. Scott.

And a quick plug.. If you're a fan of Ghost Hunters and haven't done so, I encourage you to take a look at a show called Paranormal State on A&E. They show 2 episodes every monday night and unlike Ghost Hunters which rarely comes up with anything creepy (or all that interesting), Paranormal State succeeds in creeping me out with almost every episode. The show follows Penn State's PRS (Paranormal Research Society) as they get called in on different cases involving ghosts, demons, etc. Unlike Ghost Hunters, they use different methods in their investigating including a device called a Frank's Box that filters or converts sound in order to get clear responses to questions with creepy results. They also make use of psychics, witches and demonologists in their investigations. The first season is hitting DVD on April 29th.

The Incredible Torture Show

2008-03-05T07:13:00.001-08:00

One movie I've been fascinated with for awhile is Joel Reed's Bloodsucking Freaks (1975) I first saw it years ago and was grossed out by it but as time went on, it stuck in my head and sort of grew on me like a fungus. I eventually broke down and bought the DVD and have watched it several more times since. Maybe its the fact that Seamus O'Brien comes across as a sort of Z-grade Vincent Price, or the fact that up until recently with the current trend of 'torture porn' movies, modern horror just seemed so sanitized and bland. Here was a movie that was so gritty, filthy and over the top that you felt like you needed a shower after watching.

Here are 2 posters for the movie. The first is probably familiar to everyone as the cover used for the Troma DVD release. The other, under its alternate title of The Incredible Torture Show, is interesting in that it seems almost too classy for a movie such as this.

Wrapping up..

2008-02-23T09:10:00.000-08:00

Wrapping up the Vincent Price posts, we have Belgian art from Tower of London (1962), French art from Diary of a Madman (1963), the US 1-sheet for Last Man on Earth (1964), a 3-sheet for War-Gods of the Deep (1965) and the US 1-sheet for Scream and Scream Again (1969).

Finally, a couple of gorgeous Italian posters (1 and 2 panels) from The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), which are much better than the US posters. US artwork for Dr. Phibes Rises Again! (1972), US art and an unusually boring Italian locandina for House of the Long Shadows (1983) as well as US art for Bloodbath at the House of Death (1984).

A few more Poes

2008-02-18T10:51:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more Edgar Allan Poe movies that Vincent Price made that weren't directed by Roger Corman but were however released by AIP. Starting off, a US 1-sheet, Italian locandina and a gorgeous Italian 2-folio from The Oblong Box (1969), as well as the US 1-sheet from Cry of the Banshee (1970). The 2 US posters here are actually part of my physical collection.

On a side note, if anyone has any ideas of how to get the images here to post side by side instead of stretching down the page, let me know. It worked in my first few posts and though I haven't done anything differently with the HTML, its suddenly stopped working. Thanks!

Mr. Price meets Mr. Poe, part II

2008-02-18T10:24:00.000-08:00

Finishing up with the Corman directed Edgar Allan Poe movies with Vincent Price, we have The Raven (1963). First up, the US 1-Sheet, followed by what looks like a 6-sheet poster and a German poster from what I believe is an 80's re-release of the movie.

Next, a US insert and Italian locandina from The Haunted Palace (1963), as well as a US 1-sheet from Masque of the Red Death (1964).

Finally, the US 1-sheet from Comedy of Terrors (1964) as well as a US 1-sheet and Italian locandina from Tomb of Ligeia (1965). The latter of which features a nice painting of Vincent Price, typical of Italian poster art.

Mr. Price meets Mr. Poe

2008-02-14T07:17:00.000-08:00

We start off with Vincent Price's first Poe movie for Roger Corman, Fall of the House of Usher (1960), here we have a US half-sheet and German posters.

Next up, The Pit and the Pendulum (1961). Here we have an American insert and half-sheet as well as Italian and Spanish posters, the latter of which features a nice painting of Barbara Steele.

Finally, Tales of Terror (1962). Here we have a wide variety of posters. First up, the Spanish poster which is very similar to the US 1-sheet, only with the addition of bright colors. The Belgian poster re-works the artwork found in both of these posters but makes something fresh and new out of it. Then we have 3 from Italy. First up, what looks like a lobby card with interesting artwork in the border, then we have 2 beautiful and very different posters from Italy.

Next up: The last of Price's Poe movies and the best of the rest of the 60's.

Vincent Price in the 50's

2008-02-12T10:19:00.000-08:00

Continuing on with Vincent Price's remaining output from the 50's we have an insert from The Mad Magician (1954), made in 3D to capitalize on the success of House of Wax released the previous year. 4 years later Price would go on to star in his first movie for William Castle, House on Haunted Hill (1958). Here we have the 1-sheet poster, an Australian 3-sheet with slightly different art (notice the lack of the hanging woman and severed head) as well as a French poster for the movie.

Next up, The Fly (1958) and Return of the Fly (1959). Here we have Spanish and Belgian posters for The Fly and gorgeous British Quads for The Fly and its sequel.

Finally, we close out the 50's with a beautiful Italian 1-panel from Price's other William Castle movie, The Tingler (1959) as well as the US 1-sheet, German and French posters for The Bat (1959).

Next up: Price's 60's output including some beautiful foreign artwork for his Edgar Allan Poe movies made with Roger Corman.

House of Wax (1953)

2008-02-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

One movie that comes to mind as having a large number of different poster designs from many different countries is House of Wax starring Vincent Price. I'm a big Price fan, and since House of Wax is widely thought of as the movie that got him pigeon-holed as a horror star, and one of his earliest horror movie roles, this may be my ticket to posting all of my Price posters.

From top left we have 2 American posters, the 2nd being from a re-release, 2 Italian posters, 1 German, 1 Spanish and 1 Belgian.

Continuing with the Italian gothic posters..

2008-01-24T19:36:00.000-08:00

Continuing with the theme of Italian gothic horror, I present a German poster for The Virgin of Nuremberg (a.k.a. Horror Castle) directed by Antonio Margheriti, as well as another for The Horrible Dr. Hichcock, here paired with The Awful Dr. Orloff. Interestingly enough, the Virgin of Nuremberg poster has art elements from the AIP release of Mario Bava's Baron Blood (see below) released almost 10 years later! I'd be interested in hearing how this came about.

Next up, a trio of Mario Bava images. Italian posters for Black Sunday and Black Sabbath as well as a Pakistani poster for Whip and the Body which uses re-worked art from the Italian 2-panel.

Kicking off the blog Italian-style

2008-01-23T10:14:00.000-08:00

In honor of Tragic Ceremony being released on DVD by Dark Sky on January 29th, I thought I would post an alternate 1-sheet for the movie. This image isn't the best and isn't at all representative of my collection. I attribute this to the rarity of the movie. (Click on the images for a larger version)

Next up, an Italian poster for the movie that is said to have kicked
off the entire Italian gothic genre, Riccardo Freda's I Vampiri.

No post on gothic horror would be complete without some Christopher Lee and Barbara Steele, so next up a couple of Italian locandinas for Blood Demon (also known as The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism) and The Horrible Dr. Hichcock. Also an Italian poster for The Ghost, the follow-up to Terror of Dr. Hichcock, also directed by Riccardo Freda. Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism has gotten a very nice DVD release in Germany under the title Die Schlangengrube und das Pendel, while Hichcock is still sadly MIA. The Ghost has only recieved minor budget releases and a DVD from Retromedia.

I'm trying to compress and keep the filesize down on the large images. Bear with me while I get the hang of the layout.

See you again soon!

Why I'm here.

2008-01-21T09:18:00.000-08:00

So I decided to start a blog because I love horror movies and love talking about them but never really felt like I had much to contribute to the scene. These days, everybody is on the internet, everybody is talking about them and I'm certainly no movie scholar or critic, I'm just an avid fan. I didn't feel like anything I could really say would be new to anyone.

So you may be asking, then why are you starting a blog? I think I found my contribution in the fact that along with loving horror movies, I also love art and have collected over 1,700 high quality scans of movie posters. With a background in art and Photoshop, its become sort of a hobby of mine to clean up and digitally restore my collection, remove watermarks, color correct, etc. I've felt for awhile that alot of these posters don't really get seen enough by fans. Many of which are rare and hard to find (and if you do happen to come across one its probably going to be a small, crappy image). I feel that these images should be seen as they often times contain some really amazing artwork. So I decided to start a blog to try and get these images out there more to the horror-loving public.

If you have any requests, comments or suggestions, please let me know. Thanks.
Jason