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El Espectro Del Estrangulador
Mexican Lobby Card

Here’s an exciting example of luchador action with Santo vs. the Ghost of the Strangler (1966). You have Santo, a bloody handprint, an ominous silhouette, a show girl, and background illustration hinting of musical numbers to be seen. Somewhat of a sequel to Santo vs. El Estrangulador, the villain uses disguises fashioned from the skin of his victims (but no chainsaw, darn). El Santo (Rodolfo Guzman Huerta) got the idea for his silver mask after reading The Man in the Iron Mask by Alexandre Dumas. See CinemaBlend for 6 things to know about El Santo.

Mexican Lobby Card

Undead Movies Radio Spots

Well, it’s 2024 and we’re off to a flying start, as Dracula would say.

2023 was a fantastic year…lots of new friends (some dead, some alive), lots of new radio spots, and the start of Granny Creech’s Radio Spot Crypt. Many thanks go out to Zombos Closet for making this old woman very happy, and for making her dream come true. I’m having a blast, and 2024 already promises to be even greater as many new things are on the horizon for both Zombos and Granny’s Crypt, so stay tuned!

I was just looking over my collection of spots and realized I still have a few “singles” left…individual spots for movies rather than the complete marketing package of three or more per title. So, I thought I’d include them here, linked together under the ‘vampire’ category. The first is Horror of Dracula followed by a combo spot for Horror of Dracula and The Thing That Couldn’t Die. Third is a spot for 1960’s Brides of Dracula, and, lastly, a spot for Curse of the Undead. I hope you enjoy them. It was a real pain in the neck to round them up, but there was a lot at stake, so I feel it was worth it. You can count on me to deliver the best, make no bats about it! (Hee Hee) Until next time….

 

Brides of Dracula Poster Art

 

Curse of the Undead Poster Art

 

Horror of Dracula and The Thing That Couldn’t Die!

 

Horror of Dracula Poster Art

 

 

The Thing That Couldnt Die Movie Scene
You always said you wanted to get ahead in life…so now what? 

Do you have any radio spots you would like to share? Contact Granny at [email protected]

The Sign of Zorro (1960) Pressbook

A big thanks to It Came From Hollywood who have now joined the Gang of Terror from Zombos’ Closet. With a huge archive of both Joe Kane’s (The Phantom of the Movies) movie memorabilia and their own, stretching across decades, you will be seeing a lot of cool stuff in its new home From Zombos’ Closet. Of course, we’ll need a bigger closet…but, to start, here’s The Sign of Zorror pressbook from It Came From Hollywood’s archive. Being a Disney pressbook, it is filled with merchandizing and promotional content galore. Guy Williams (Armando Joseph Catalano) also made a very dashing Zorror, too. His two notable roles were as Zorror and John Robinson (Lost in Space)Click each image to expand it–you will need a BIG screen–or right-click the expanded image to download it.) And you don’t have to read the signs to find more pressbooks, just rummage through our categories.

The Sign of Zorro 1960 Pressbook page

Shadow of the Hawk (1976)
Mexican Lobby Card

With Chief Dan George, Jan-Michael Vincent, and Marilyn Hassett, this is an effective supernatural Canadian entry of the 1970s. While it could use a bit more action and plot-twisting, the story of a Shaman enlisting the aid of his modernized grandson to fight black magic plays like a television movie, but there are some excellent moments where the effects and the action make it a worthwhile watch, especially if you like the 1970s film vibe.

Espectros (The Ghastly Ones) 1968

This is the Mexican lobby card for The Ghastly Ones (1968). Or, as Stephen King states in his book Danse Macabre, “the work of morons with cameras.” I don’t think that would sell as a movie title, but oddly enough, it does fit quite a few horror movies quite well.  I imagine no one would go see The Work of Morons with Cameras unless it was a funny and compelling compilation movie, though, come to think of it, that’s one hell of a midnight movie title. The lobby card, however, does give enough sexy, ghastly, hey-that’s-a-big-knife, and-is-that-a-head-in-a-pot vibe to entice unwary patrons. Which, of course, is not to be confused with pothead, a term many of you, I’m sure, were familiar with back in the 60s.

Espectros Mexican Lobby Card

King Kong vs Godzilla Radio Spots

Twin Drive In Theater marquee showing King Kong vs GodzillaHello, Children…Granny Creech here…

The other day I was stirring up a pot of brew when I received a phone call from my grandson, Big Abner, and he asked, “Granny, you have more radio spots than there are bodies in Witchwood Cemetery. Which one is your favorite?”

Hmmmm….interesting question. I have been collecting spots for longer than I can remember and his question caused a lot of internal retrospection. I love them all, some more than others – kind of like my relatives (heh heh). Which is my favorite and why? And what makes a great radio spot anyway?  Well, it’s kind of like my brew: a lot of good things need to go into the pot to make a satisfying result.
For starters, a good radio spot has to have a quality announcer(s).  He has to embrace the overall mood of the movie, whether it be excitement, fear, or humor. If he can elicit the proper emotion through his voice and colorful words, I can usually get excited to see the movie.

Second, a spot should tell the story of the movie somewhat, and include music and/or sound effects.

Lastly, it should appeal to the mind’s eye as well as to the ears. You should be able to visualize what you are hearing. You should be able to “see it on the radio.”

I thought and thought and eventually came up with two or three titles that would rank as my favorites. I finally came up with a winner. My favorite radio spots of all time (so far) are for the 1963 US release of…..King Kong vs Godzilla!

Citizen Kane (1941) Pressbook

Here is the rare premier release of the Citizen Kane pressbook. There were two pressbooks created for the movie and this is the one that appeared first. After the movie did poorly–what with William Randolph Hearst’s minions bad-mouthing it as much as possible and killing adverts for it–a second pressbook was created with a different slant for advertising as the movie progressed through theaters. Through it all, Citizen Kane is THE movie that should be on your bucket list of must see cinema, no matter what kind of movie fan you are. Orson Welles visionary style, the fluid and timeless social commentary, and the emotional gut-wrenching by the soul-twisting characters, scripted between him and  Herman J. Mankiewicz, are classic all the way. Read online or download these images: Citizen Kane Pressbook

Citizen Kane Pressbook Cover

Husk (2011)
Not All Dried Out

 

Husk_house

Zombos Says: Good

“Stop me if you’ve heard this one, but there’s this movie with an abandoned farm house in the middle of a cornfield and–” I started to say. I was preparing Zombos’ tax information, and my library desk was littered with receipts, scraps of paper notations, vexing forms, and two bone china cups of cold coffee. I decided to take a break.

“–You mean Dead Birds?” interrupted Zombos without looking up from his New York Times newspaper.

“What? No! The cornfield has this smelly, burlap sack-for-a-head decrepit scarecrow–”

Dark Night of the Scarecrow, then? He turned a page.

“No! If you let me finish, it’s a more recent movie. There are these five college people–well, really they’re too old to play college kids unless they just love to hang out there, but for the sake of the movie you’ve got to go with it–traveling down a country road in an SUV and–”

“Oh, Hallowed Ground, then.”

“No way. Their SUV crashes when a flock of crows bury their beaks deep into the windshield and bleed their guts all over the car.”

Kakashi, that Japanese horror movie?”

“Definitely not.”

Scarecrows?”

“Fun movie to watch it’s so bad, but no! Can I finish? All right, then. The movie’s Husk.”

“Oh, one of those After Dark entries.” Zombos turned another page.

“Why aren’t you using the iPad Zimba bought you for Christmas? It’s got the Times on it,” I asked, changing the subject.

Zombos ignored me. Some old people can’t seem to shake the habit of smearing black newsprint ink on their fingertips and crushing pulp paper into awkward folds, I suppose.

“Anyway, getting back to Husk, it’s one of those good After Dark movie entries,” I said. “I mean, if it weren’t for the careless day-for-night lighting used in every supposedly dark scene, I’d even go as far as saying it’s very good.”

Zombos continued to read his newspaper, but he did it with much less crinkling noise and his lips had stopped moving, so I knew he was listening. I continued.

“The crash knocks them all out, but when they wake up,  the jock (Wes Chatham) and the nerd (Devon Graye) go looking for help and their missing friend (Ben Easter) , while the cool guy (C. J. Thomason)–it’s his  SUV that got slammed by the birds–stays by the car and waits. We don’t know much about their missing friend, but the jock’s girlfriend (Tammin Sursok) stays behind, too. She and the cool guy don’t get along. One of those, she’s-getting-all-the-attention-now kind of sticky buddy-buddy situations, you know?”

“I am not sure I would,” said Zombos. “What is a five letter word for ‘corny’ and ‘artificial’?

“Hokey,” I answered. “Leave the Jumble alone for a minute and listen. And there’s no hokey in Husk, by the way, but a few good twists around familiar characters; the nerd doesn’t die first and he actually figures things out; the girl isn’t kept as a screaming foil; the jock actually acts fairly smart and doesn’t wuse out when the terror starts; and cool guy turns out to be not so cool.

“Natalie, the jock’s girlfriend, gets antsy waiting, so she goes for a walk and finds a scarecrow lying on the ground.”

“It does not sound overly taxing in the terror department so far,” said Zombos.

“The scarecrow, when she pulls the burlap sack back, has teeth. That’s pretty much when things perk up. The mystery involves the upstairs room with the foot-pedal sewing machine, dead people walking and sacking up, and flashbacks the nerd, Scott, experiences. Those flashbacks involve the former tenants of the farm house and what happened to them.

“Action kicks in when they try to leave through the cornfield; they can’t; turmoil erupts when the jock won’t leave without his girlfriend, but it’s a moot point, though I won’t spoil it for you by explaining why; and there’s a frantic escape attempt by the formerly cool guy now acting like girly man, which leaves much blood on the ground but a clue as to the limitations of the scarecrow creeps.

“Director and writer Brett Simons, with the help of his actors and production design team, whip up a nifty ghost slash scarecrow monster slash terror-in-the-corn story with a backstory that adds familial, country-gothic depth to the mayhem. The only stretching of credulity comes into play when everyone gets so battered, you wonder how they can keep going with all their blood leaking out like that.”

“So what do the scarecrows do to bloody them up, throw corn husks at them?” asked Zombos, dryly.

“Don’t be silly, of course not. The scarecrows pound long metal nails into each of their fingers, giving them quite a terminal grip.”

Zombos put his newspaper down. “Perhaps we should do a marathon viewing of scarecrow-related horror movies. What do you think? It has been a while since we last saw something in the cinematorium.”

I looked at the pile of papers waiting on my desk and thought about it. I jumped up after a brief moment of reflection. “Definitely! We can start with Husk and go backwards. I’ll have Chef Machiavelli bring the coffee cart. This will be an all-nighter for sure.”

The Watcher in the Woods (1980) Pressbook

One of Disney’s more troubled productions, The Watcher in the Woods hit theaters, was pulled from theaters, was re-edited, reshot, and re-written, and has multiple endings galore; although the 1981 version of the film’s re-release is the official ending. Yet, with Bette Davis, David McCallum, a creepy suspense permeated with a supernatural mood that gives way to science fantasy, it is one of Disney’s more compelling entries and ranks as a good horror movie (at least by this critic). One funny note: Bette Davis, who was pushing past 70 at the time, insisted on playing her younger self instead of another actor. After a lot of makeup and work to make her look younger, the director and Davis watched some test footage. The director told her it wasn’t working. Davis’s response: “You’re goddamn right.” For more Bette Davis-ness, see Dick Cavet’s interviews with her.

Download pressbook images: The Watcher in the Woods Pressbook or click the images to enlarge (but use a BIG screen).

The Black Cauldron (1985) Pressbook

The most expensive animated film at the time, The Black Cauldron falls into Disney’s darker storytelling side for children and adults. After some scenes proved too intense for kids  during a test screening, some removals and additions to soften the animated terrors were made, pushing the film to release a year later than scheduled. The Black Cauldron was the first Disney film to use computer-based animation. The Watcher in the Woods (1980) and Dragonslayer (1981), two live-action Disney films,  also pushed toward the darker sides of fantasy, with both achieving cult status.

Download pressbook images: The Black Cauldron Pressbook

My Short Stories: Tommy Boy

Shadow mastersHere’s my short story, Tommy Boy, which first appeared in Shadow Masters: An Anthology from the Horror Zine, edited by Jeani Rector.

Tommy Boy
by JM Cozzoli

With great effort, Frank hoisted himself off the treehouse floor and up to the glassless window. The sun would be up soon so he had to be ready this time. He had only one chance left and the steady leak of blood from the deep, jagged, rip along his right leg was making him woozy. Duct tape could only go so far.

He knew this time he couldn’t miss and with more light he wouldn’t. He was sure of that.

The pain made him vomit. Again. He wiped his lips as best he could with whatever clean space he could still find on his sleeve, and steadied himself by grabbing the windowsill tight, although the growing numbness in his hands made that difficult. He leaned over the sill, biting his lower lip hard, making it bleed as he concentrated all his remaining strength on getting a long, good look. The cool morning air fanning across the sweat on his face helped clear the nausea growing in his stomach. But only a little. …

The Leopard Man (1943) Pressbook

Produced by Val Lewton and directed by Jacques Tourneur, The Leopard Man‘s initial release into movie theaters didn’t generate much excitement or critical acclaim. Over time, that has changed. The direction, plotting, and relationships are simple and direct, but done with a polish that belies the film’s more sinister aspects of madness, loneliness, and dreams unfulfilled.

Download the pressbook images: The Leopard Man Pressbook