Zombos’ Closet…a vast trove of endearingly cheap thrills, including movie and book reviews, and scans of his collections of cinema pressbooks, goofy paper-cutout Halloween decorations, and his amazing collection of Mexican lobby cards from B-grade films. If you have time to descend into a serious rabbit-hole of marvelous trash-culture nostalgia, visit that site just as soon as you possibly can.” (DangerousMinds.net)
Even if you aren’t a budding horror maestro itching to lens your first indie testament to terror, you will learn a lot about how good movies get made, not just horrors, in Sara Caldwell’s Splatter Flicks: How to Make Low-Budget Horror Films. The reading is smooth as pâté spiced with essential experiences and guidance from pros in the field who worked themselves through and upward in their filmmaking craft.
I have watched quite a few horror movies over the years, beginning with Shock! Theater and the television horror hosts. I was seven when my parents, short of a babysitter, took me to The Terror. I sat between them, barely comprehending the movie (which I found out, years later, no one else did either), and never forgot watching the love interest melting like a wax candle in the arms of Jack Nicholson at the end. With movies like that, you kind of wish this book was available back then.
There are so many elements that go into making a worthwhile, an entertaining, and a good movie, especially one that aims to scare you. Caldwell breaks it down logically and concisely, outlining the functional aspects involved with making a low-budget horror film: the dynamics of the miniscule budget you are working with; what should be in the script and what to keep out; the joys and sorrows of funding your magnum opus on a shoestring; the essential pre-production phase; the often nail-biting production phase, and getting a grip on the whole enterprise from team members, props, catering, permits, insurance, actors, to eventually realizing your inner directing goals through the camera and editing.
Even if the goal is to make a quick buck-or-two sale to a streamer, at least make it watchable. I can’t believe how many movies I channel surf to, start, and within five minutes toss the remote at the screen. Whether due to clumsy direction, an awkward script or a poor actor in the wrong role, the movies were duds.
This book will help keep you from making duds. While not exhaustive—no one book could be—Caldwell provides a complete and essential foundation to be aware of and to build on, especially because of that low budget. More importantly, it is a fun read with important explanations and definitions that will elevate you up a notch from being a pure newbie to a more knowledgeable novice. …
Splatter Flicks:
How to Make Low-Budget Horror Films
Book ReviewRead More »
Happy New Year 2026!
Land sakes! Your old Granny is tired!
Here we are in a new year, and the last one ended in a whirl of activity. The last time we visited, Halloween was upon us. It was a magic time here in Squirrel Hollow with lots of fun and excitement. The kids had a ball. Let me tell you about it.
Everyone went out of their way to ensure that their houses were as creepily decorated as possible, and that treats of all sorts were plentiful for the trick or treaters. Before the night arrived, we heard that a school in an adjacent community was sponsoring a huge “Trunk or Treat” event and they went all out promoting it. That aggravated many of our town’s Halloween fans and we wondered what we could do to offset the draw of this event. Leave it to good old Uncle Oscar, caretaker at Witchwood Cemetery, to come through. After conferring with all the residents, it was decided to hold our first “Crypt or Treat” event ahead of our usual Monster Bash.
All of the crypts, tombs and graves at the cemetery were opened and decorated with all sorts of Halloween fare. The residents really got into it and offered up all kinds of ghoulish and ghastly treats for the visiting, costumed children. We held it starting at 8:30 PM, just after most kids finished terrorizing the neighborhood houses for treats. This allowed them time to visit the cemetery residents and still make it home at a decent hour in time for bed. At midnight, of course, the Monster Bash was held. The feedback was all positive and the kids had a blast, getting treats from the residents and trying to decide who had the scariest costumes, the corpses and decayed bodies or the kids. It was a graveyard smash!
Thanksgiving came and, after dinners with all the families, my great granddaughter, Grizelda, approached me saying her school was having a Christmas fundraiser to help needy families in Squirrel Hollow and surrounding communities. She was out soliciting donations for items to be rummaged off the week before Christmas. She wondered if I would be able to come up with enough of my homemade Witch’s Brew to help her out. I said sure, and asked how much. She said 400 gallons would probably be enough.
When I came to, I asked her if she was certain she needed that much. She said my Brew was known far and wide and was sure to be a bestseller. I told her I would have to get started right away and it would require me working practically day and night. She said she would help. I said OK.
Needless to say, we met the deadline and I was worn out. However, we were able to raise enough money to provide a nice Christmas dinner and toys to one hundred of the most needy families. They were grateful, our community felt good, and the true spirit of giving was nurtured. It was a magnificent Christmas in Squirrel Hollow.
I recovered just enough to see in the New Year with family and friends. We toasted each others’ health and wished for untold blessings to be ours in the coming year.
When things settled down and returned to normal, I began to think of all the blessings 2025 had brought and pondered what new opportunities would arise in 2026. It was then I realized that I had neglected my articles to Zombos’ Closet! I was mortified! It was hard to shift mental gears from holiday activities to radio spots. What would I do?
I fretted and worried. I called up Zombos’ Closet on the computer and, lo and behold, there was my answer. Zombos had featured a pressbook to Dawn of the Dead (1978), courtesy of It Came From Hollywood. That was it! I could offer a great tie-in!
…
ZC Note: I wrote this movie review for It Came From Hollywood Book 6: The Movies From 1984. It Came From Hollywood publishes a series of books that are enjoyable and informative. I write for them, now and then, and aside from getting paid for the piece, I receive no money for telling you their book series is enjoyable and informative to read. You can find that out for yourself. Also, anytime I link to a book on Amazon, I do not monetize it. Just thought you should know because I just think you should read it.
Purana Mandir (The Haunted Temple), a Hindi horror movie. There, I said it. Now it is up to you to turn the page or stay here. I know, I know. Hindi horror? Bollywood? Dancing, singing, slapstick comedy, and bhoots (ghosts) possessing people? Wild, right? But the Ramsay Brothers (taken from their family name, Ramsinghani), all seven of them, were avid horror fans. Heavily influenced by American movies that focused on a powerful supernatural evil being, they moved away from the usual ghostly haunts and created their own monsters instead, bringing a new direction to India’s horror genre.
Beginning with Darwaza in 1978, the Ramsay terror formula mixed a masala of traditional Indian cultural and religious values and symbols with American-styled terrors, along with the requisite comedy interludes and songs, some blood and ghoulish gore, graveyards, zombies, haunted houses, and stylish set pieces garnered from watching Hammer, Universal, and 1970s and 80s American horror fare. Listening to Ajit Singh’s soundtrack in Purana Mandir you will hear scoring that evokes Hammer terrors, surges with prowling Universal monsters, and chills with beckoning devilish vocals reminiscent of The Amityville Horror. Ramsay horror took ancient evil and placed it in a contemporary setting. …
Here’s a pressbook you can’t escape, from Paul over at It Came From Hollywood.
“In 1992, I bought a rather huge clutch of pressbooks from a collector who was getting out of the business. This was a “cold” buy, meaning I had no idea what I was getting for my money. I paid $200 for the collection. A king’s ransom back then, and because I lived the life of a carefree single gent living in the City of Chicago at the time, what I bought and when actually had escaped me over the years. Fast forward to 2021. Thirty years later. I finally (believe it or not) get around to digitizing those pressbooks, and I discover that, slipped into some pretty standard large-sized Paramount pressbooks, was this UFD Dawn of the Dead nugget. I was absolutely floored because I had never run across a Dawn pressbook in my life. I hadn’t even viewed one online.
“In 2023, I published the complete Dawn pressbook in It Came From Hollywood Book Four. I received some positive feedback on it as fans of the movie were, for the first time, ogling the actual pressbook. Now, three years later (and 33 years after I acquired the original book), I am happy to share the Dawn of the Dead-U.S. Pressbook (1979) with visitors to Zombo’s Closet, where it will be archived for generations to come.” (ZC Note: Thanks, Paul! George A. Romero’s DOTD is a classic.)
Tom Keene had a flexible career in cowboy movies, where he appeared as different cowpokes, bucking the trend of a single persona like Tom Mix or Roy Rogers. From cowboys to more upper and lower scale movies, he changed his name to Richard Powers in the 1940s and played Colonel Tom Edwards in Plan 9 From Outer Space, and a major general in Red Planet Mars. He did a lot of television work appearing in Adventures of Superman and Death Valley Days. He even found time to do Broadway in the 1940s. Not one to be pegged to any one role or genre, he eventually retired from acting in the late 1950s and hawked insurance and real estate. Luana Walters also had a busy career, starring in movie serials like Shadow of Chinatown with Bela Lugosi, Superman, and Captain Midnight. She starred with Bela Lugosi again in The Corpse Vanishes as the feisty reporter. Her last movie role was in The She-Creature in 1956.
Tom Keene began his acting career as George Duryea, starring as Abie in one of the touring companies for Abie’s Wild Irish Rose, a Broadway hit in 1922. From there he took the male lead in Cecil B. De Mille’s The Godless Girl from Pathé Studios. He did more features for Pathé and other studios, and in the early 1930s he took the name Tom Keene beginning with RKO’s The Sundown Trail. Seeing success in Westerns, but fearful of being typecast, he left Hollywood for summer stock. When he returned, he took on varied roles in various movies beginning with King Vidor’s Our Daily Bread. His plan to not be typecast worked well, except for the problem of not achieving the notoriety and stardom that a consistent onscreen persona would have given him. So he returned to Westerns for a few years, but then left the silver screen for a stage play that bombed. He moseyed back to Hollywood and continued working with RKO and Republic, eventually turning to television westerns and retiring to the dusty trails of real estate and insurance sales. One important note: Rita Cansino eventually changed her name too: to Rita Hayworth.
(Research: Riders of the Range: The Sagebrush Heroes of the Sound Screen by Kalton C. Lahue and B-Westerns at https://www.b-westerns.com/tkeene.htm.)
One of the last cowboy stars of the silver screen, Rex Bell began riding horses and packing heat in the late 1920s at Fox. When movies switched to sound he shifted into the Bs, both westerns and actioners, with many made for Monogram. Those movies mixed in a more modern (for then) setting along with the cowboys, including gangsters and fast cars (again, for then). He met the It Girl, Clara Bow, when they worked together in the 1930 film True to the Navy. They married in 1931 and settled into their Walking Box Ranch near Searchlight Nevada. Bell’s final film was The Misfits in 1961.
…
Paul at It Came From Hollywood brings you a Shock! memory all monsterkids savor.
“In 2015, I began poring over issues of Broadcasting Magazine. A wonderful database of which is available at worldradiohistory.com. Initially, I was just hunting around for anything related to movie packages for television. I started in the early 1950s, but suddenly decided that I should focus on looking for any ads related to the Screen Gems Shock TV package. Once I found the first ad in 1957, I went headfirst into that rabbit hole and looked over every issue from 1957 to 1959. 156 issues. 100 pages per issue, I now realize I looked at 15,600 pages of this trade magazine just to find a few nuggets. Since this insane research happened a decade ago, I can’t be certain how long it took me, but my wife assures me that it took long enough.
“The result of this bottomless research project was 16 trade ads, all published at the absolute height of Screen Gems Shock package success. Each one is a glimpse into the excitement and astounding draw the package had across the country in every major and minor TV market. It was this specific movie package for television that gave birth to what we know now as the “horror movie host.” But, for adults in 1957, those specifically involved in TV on every level, it was a windfall. It is interesting now to look over these trade ads and realize that this was the birth of movies being sold to TV, something people of my generation (I was born in 1973) simply took for granted because we grew up watching movies on TV before we ever stepped into a theater.
“15 of these ads are Screen Gems SHOCK specific. Including an ad for the follow-up package called Son of Shock. I’ve also included a bonus ad not from Screen Gems, but from A.A.P. for their “Horrors” film package, which was basically 52 films NOT owned by Universal. Interesting to note that A.A.P. was keenly aware that the Screen Gems package was going to draw viewers. The A.A.P. ad appeared on 9-30-1957, one page after Screen Gems’ “Never Before on TV” trade ad. Ahh, the good old days of Television, no good idea ever goes un-stolen!”
…
Zombos Says: Good
In the dark depths of the ocean, the Black Lady settled to the bottom in a cloud of silt and muck. The fish and lobsters, the only living witnesses, hurried out of its way. In the eternal blackness, the spirits of the dead howled with grief and anger. All except two.
“You snore enough to wake the dead.”
I turned over in my sleep. At least I think I was sleeping. It’s always hard to tell when you’re sleeping when you’re half-asleep.
“C’mon with you, I don’t have all night.”
Something small and wispy, like a feather, brushed against my forehead. I turned the other way.
“Juju beans! I don’t have time for this.”
Something large and hard whacked my forehead. I opened my eyes.
“Finally,” said the butterfly-winged elderly woman standing over me. Her long gossamer cloak fluted across my bed. I rubbed my eyes. Thinking of the word fluted hurt my head.
I looked at the Clocky alarm clock on my nightstand. It glared back with a god awfully early hour.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” I said, “you’re either an undigested potato, too much plum sherry, or Tinkerbell’s mom.
“Great, another comedian. Take a whiff.” She leaned in close to me and pulled my head against her bosom.
“Toothpaste?” I sniffed. “And is that a hint of soggy mint floss caught between braces?”
She nodded and waited. I removed a bit of gossamer fuzz from my cheek, looked back at Clocky, looked back at her bosom, and waited to wake up. …
Getting sick while you age seems more challenging — the survival to wellness part, I mean. The last covid vaccine I took was about three years ago. Last year I got the flu, and yup, that was the year I didn’t get the flu vaccine either. My track record is not looking good. That feeling of normal life interrupted, unable to do anything beyond not moving, not eating, and not doing much of anything that you really needed to do, is very annoying and depressing. The only thing left is to make the best of it with what you can.
So in the past week, between chills, sweats, sleep, lack of sleep, and (a definite benefit here) weight loss, I managed to get caught up with the CBS show Tracker — loved seeing Jensen Ackles as Colten Shaw’s brother — and its blend of cases to solve. At first I didn’t like the show, thinking it was yet another addition to the pablum-bloated, scripted fantasy-reality shows that CBS indulges in like NCIS, FBI Blue Bloods, Sheriff Country, Boston Blue, the list goes on. Given the current reality of what’s happening today, the scripting is more a wishful throwback to the good old days, so how anyone can watch that stuff is beyond me. But Elsbeth is a lot of fun and brilliant in many ways — if you haven’t seen the Doll Day Afternoon episode you must, it’s an instant classic.
And then there’s The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and the outrageously awesome South Park. Dissent is what made America. Ironically, it’s also chipping away at our unity and shared sense of purpose when some insist their dissent is the only one that holds value. But Colbert and South Park are hilarious in how they voice dissent in very damning ways with a maliciousness that so easily merges into comedy (satire? parody? the Court Jester making fun of the obtuse King?), that each episode for either of them is a wonder to behold.
I also managed to finally watch Doctor Sleep. What works so well for it is the merging of both the novel and Kubrick’s The Shining to a better degree than Kubrick’s vision alone. I know Stephen King did not like that vision much (I was disappointed too: that Dick Hallorann chest meets axe thing, huh?), enough to write up a multi-part tv series to get the taste out of his mouth, but I’m glad he liked Mike Flanagan’s vision of finally putting a resolution and salvation into Doctor Sleep that was missing in The Shining. It was also a great pleasure to watch a straight-forward horror movie again, riffing on the vampire theme. I love Jordan Peele’s horrors, don’t get me wrong (Nope is my favorite so far), but sometimes, a cigar can just be a cigar, to steal a bit from Freud. Movies like The Substance (2024), The Strays (2023), The First Omen (2024), and the underwhelming The Conjuring: Last Rites (2025) can gain a lot of traction from social, religious, and political commentary wrapped into the core of the horror, but that commentary can also dilute the terror by neon-signing over it.
For a book recommendation I heartily command you to read Splatter Flicks: How to Make Low Budget Horror Flicks by Sarah Caldwell. Even if you aren’t a budding horror maestro, itching to lens your first indie testament to terror, you will learn a lot about how movies get made, not just horrors. The reading is smooth as pâté spiced with essential experiences and guidance from pros in the field who worked themselves through and upward in their filmmaking craft. After watching horrible horrors like The Brain (1988), you kind of wish the book was available back then, too.
I’ll have a full review for Splatter Flicks up soon. That is, assuming I don’t get the flu too. Gotta work on that track record.
Zombos Says: This cult classic is survivable with pizza and alcohol.
We were sitting in Zombos’s study. Outside, the November winds blew the balding tree limbs to and fro. Paul Hollstenwall was visiting and brought along Neon Maniacs. The Hollstenwalls live at 0004 Gravestart Lane, a few minutes’ walk from the mansion. Not far enough, if you ask me. We usually get the League of Reluctant Reviewers to handle his kind of movies, but sometimes he wiggles himself into the mansion, and like an infestation, is hard to eradicate. We usually have to placate him to wiggle him out. But it does take effort and is often exhausting. So, to understate things, it’s always a lively and interesting time when Paul visits us.
And it’s always a dreadful time too. His taste in under and overdone, and quirky, movie-making is boundless, and he always manages to find yet another headscratcher movie that’s worse than the previous one he’s cursed us to watch. I don’t know; maybe it is just me, or maybe there was a Donnie Darko kind of time crimp in the mid-1980s because some pretty weird horror movies came out then. Once you’ve seen Video Dead 1987, Spookies 1986, and this dive bomber, you should be awarded the official Cult Horror Classic (But We Are Not Sure Why) Survivor Award. To be fair, the director had to deal with a four-month shutdown due to financing issues. When the production jolted to life again, changes had to be made with the lesser money allocated, and good, well planned, intentions were shown the door as necessary changes were dealt with.
I poured the coffee and white sambuca, and popped the DVD into the player. Chef Machiavelli had crafted his wonderful pizza diavolo to take the sting out of our ordeal to come. We settled into the cushions as the movie came to life.
When the world is ruled by violence, and the souls of mankind fades, the children’s path shall be darkened by the souls of the neon maniacs,” intones the narrator as the movie starts.
“What does that mean?” asked Zombos.
Paul and I shrugged. Perhaps that art-house blend of words was just too deep for us. “Let’s wait and see if the movie explains it,” I recommended.
“What are those, trading cards?” asked Zombos, leaning closer to the largest smart television commercially available to get a better look. He was weird like that.
“Yeah, cool-looking, aren’t they?” said Paul. “Wouldn’t it be great if they had statistics on the back for each of the neon maniacs, like baseball cards?”
“How do monsters from hell that no one knows about get printed trading cards?” asked Zombos. He stared at Paul and took a big gulp of sambuca. …
Neon Maniacs (1986)
Collectable Trading Card MonstersRead More »
BOO!
Greetings, my children –
It is Halloween time, and your old Granny Creech finds herself in a most reflective mood. It is the time for memories – memories of pumpkins, lighted jack-o-lanterns, ghost stories, scarecrows, monsters, princesses and storybook characters, and things that go bump in the night, as well as parties, good times, cool fall air, and the happy sounds of “Trick or Treat!”
I had the girls over for Brew the other afternoon and the talk turned to Halloweens past, and the memories that the very mention of the word conjures up. We reflected on growing up in anticipation of the day, and how the stores and the weather helped usher in the season. Our school classrooms were cheerfully and scarily decorated with orange and black streamers, skeletons, goblins, witches, paper mâché jack-o-lanterns, pumpkins, black cats and monsters galore. Recollections flowed like the Witch’s Brew we all heartily consumed.
One of the girls, Vespera Howler, remembered the fun she used to have going into the local five and dime store to look at the large Halloween display it had. Gurley candles, masks, Ben Cooper costumes, and decorations by Luhrs, Rosbro, Beistle and other companies crowded the “For Sale” tables and delighted her young eyes. Scary records could be purchased to play on record players. All sorts of yummy candy treats were also on display for purchase to appease the characters that would be making the rounds on that spooky night. All of the other girls shared similar feelings brought on by the displays and the predominance of the colors orange and black.
Winifred Hawthorne remarked how different things are today in regards to timing. She said stores didn’t set out Halloween decorations until sometime in October, whereas today, mid-July seems to be the starting point for many. Classrooms were pretty much holiday-oriented, and when October rolled around, kids knew what would be coming. Often classrooms would be decorated with handmade crafts using plenty of orange and black construction paper as well as by commercially-produced decorations and live pumpkins. It was all wonderful as Fall was a magic time of the year.
The TV and radio helped set the mood with programs and specials all geared toward things scary and spooky. Variety shows on TV usually had Halloween skits to bring in the season, and radio stations played songs such as “The Monster Mash”, “The Thing”, “Haunted House”, “Dinner With Drac”, and “Werewolf” among others. My nephew, Crazy Gary, told me when he was growing up in the big city, one particular radio station would feature a two-hour “Monster Marathon” on Halloween night that included ghost stories and creepy tales accompanied by eerie music. After the kiddies went out and tormented the neighborhood in search of all kinds of treats, they could go home and get scared to death listening to stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Guy de Maupassant, Alfred Hitchcock and others.
Hester Grimple said her most vivid memories were of the sounds and smells of Halloween night. She said that to this day, it only takes the smell of the burning of the carved pumpkin caused by the lighted candle inside to overwhelm her with a great sense of nostalgia. She also remembered the sound of children’s excited voices as they crunched their way from yard to yard over unraked leaves wearing store-bought costumes or handmade ones to fend off the cool, fall air.
Esmeree Grimshaw remembered that Halloween used to be fun back in a simpler time. She said that her Methodist church even had Halloween parties for the church kids and they were a hoot. She remembered the special room where a spooky person would blindfold you and take you into a room where body parts had been saved from the victim of a gruesome car accident. You got to feel a bone, two of his eyes, and a bunch of his veins. You also got to touch his brain that was sitting on a dish, feel some of his organs and put your hand in a bowl of his blood. At the end, you were given a towel to dry your hands off and were escorted out of the horrible room…if you survived! Ha ha! Halloween was a time where what you didn’t see was scarier than what you did see. It was all pretend and in good fun.
“That was before things took a turn for the worse and Halloween became something totally different,” said Elspeth Darkmoor. “That was when The Exorcist hit movie theaters and caused quite a stir. Suddenly the Devil and all things occult became too vivid, too real, and Halloween was caught in the crosshairs between those that saw it as harmless fun and those that saw it as too close to all things Satanic and evil,” she said. “Honestly, the Halloween marketers didn’t help, either. Costumes became too horrible and gory, too demonic, so they kind of shot themselves in the foot. You can thank Hollywood for that, too.”
“Yes, and sadly that was about the time we heard stories about people putting razor blades in apples and kids’ candy at Halloween time,“ Esmeree added. “That only gave the naysayers proof of how wicked and bad Halloween was. Society changed. We still see the repercussions of all that today. “Trunk or Treat” has now replaced going door to door and kids that do go trick or treating are always accompanied by their parents. Things aren’t safe. And it took us forever to convince our neighbors that we weren’t real witches…just six crazy old women who loved Halloween as we remembered it and dressed up in celebration.”
We all sighed and things got quiet for a moment as we each journeyed back in time in our minds, wishing things could be as they were. I broke the silence by saying that it was definitely up to us to make this Halloween a memorable one for our neighborhood kids. It was up to us to keep the old traditions going. I poured the last of my Brew (spicy peach tea, actually) into everyone’s cup and we toasted in the season, vowing to do all we could to ensure that this year would be a safe and fun Halloween to remember.
I later rummaged through my Halloween files and came up with some neat ads and photos from times past to share with you. Hopefully these will trigger some forgotten memories or help you to relive some ever-present ones. Enjoy!
And…Happy Halloween!