"I Love NOTLD"

Someone I just met (and I hope to get to know better) asked me what my favorite film was and I said THE BEST OF YOUTH and NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD.  Having already heard of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, she was more interested in the film THE BEST OF YOUTH.  This being Cryptshow, I’m sure you all are more interested in what I have to say about George A. Romero’s classic 1968 film NIGHT OF THE LIVING THE DEAD.  Suffice it to say, I’ve already talked long and hard about NOTLD about as much as I want to for the next several years but it got me wondering “why” I liked it so much.

The film NOTLD is the only film of which I watch at least 1-2 times a year and I never get tired of it.  I own several different versions of the film both digitally remastered and not, black & white or color (although I’ve not seen the colorized version yet) and I even own a plethora of documentaries on the making of not only the original film but all of Romero’s original dead trilogy.  The funny thing is that NOTLD is not the best of the Dead films, in fact, this honor goes to Romero’s DAWN OF THE DEAD which is superior to NOTLD on so many levels.  I’ve seen both films more than I can count but whereas I may only put DAWN in and use it as background noise, I always sit down and watch NOTLD (which also happens to be only one of the two films I’ve ever listened the commentary track for).

When I was growing up my only real icon was Sydney Poitier.  He was the only African American whose films we ever saw in school (I remember seeing LILIES OF THE FIELD for the first time at school and I declared that he was my favorite actor of all-time).  I grew up with Cosby and Pryor but they all did comedies whereas Poitier did comedies, drama, action, and generally anything he could get his hands on.  I bring this up because NOTLD presented one of the only films I ever watched as a child that starred an African American who wasn’t a caricature but was stronger than any of the other characters in the film.  The character of Ben is the driving force of the film (and he even slapped a white woman!) and to me that was something I never saw in a horror film.  Poitier did this all the time in his films but race became such a theme in his films that it sometimes over shadowed the overall impact of the film.  In NOTLD Ben was a character that only wanted to survive at any cost and wasn’t going to let anyone, white or black, get in his way.  He was not a character that died within the first ten minutes of the film nor was he someone who was a servant to others.  He was a character that had “balls” and would stand up to anyone who got in his way.

As a child I identified with the Ben character.  I didn’t allow anyone to stand in my way.  I wanted to be like Ben despite the fact that he was killed at the end of the film by “country hillbillies” (which is exactly what I thought of them).   I even remember – when I was younger, getting in trouble for being belligerent to some of my teachers.  If I felt a few “country hillbillies” were standing in my way I would shoot first before they shot me.  My parents were none too happy when I got into trouble at school.

 I took their copy of NOTLD and made it my own.  My parents had bought a cheap VHS copy of NOTLD distributed by Good Times Home Video which was the only film in “My” video collection.  As a fan of not only this film but horror films in general we tend to claim ownership over our films whether they be Box Office sensations or duds that go onto cult status.  NOTLD was this film to me which is why I can watch it over and over again with the glee of a small child as if seeing the film for the very first time.

We all have a similar memory of a film that for one reason or another has touched us.  Has made us a horror fan for life whether it be THE EVIL DEAD, THE EXORCIST, THE SHINING, or SILENCE OF THE LAMBS.  This website Cryptshow is here to celebrate the horror film and fan both big and small.  Whether you think THE EXORCIST is the greatest movie ever made or you think a man by the name of Michael Myers is the greatest screen villain, there is a place on the website for everyone.

So, if there is one thing I hope that you all take away with you each and every time you walk away (or log out) of this website, it is that you are not alone and even if you’re holding onto your copy of John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN refusing to let go know in your heart that there are others out there just like you clutching their copy for dear life as well.  I hope that this site helps you find them and you can enjoy the same film together in harmony…and not kill each other.

100 Favorite Horror Films

100 Favorite Horror Films


As a way to test myself, I am listing my favorite horror films which may not be what many consider “the best” but they are ones that I can (and will continue to) watch over and over again because I just can’t get enough of them. I’m making myself include only films I’ve seen more than two times as to me that is a true indicator that a film has had an impact on when – when I know I can pop it into the DVD player and watch it again and again.

1. THE EXORCIST

2. ROSEMARY’S BABY

3. CARNIVAL OF SOULS (1962)

4. THE HAUNTING (1963)

5. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1968)

6. NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD (1990)

7. DAWN OF THE DEAD (1978)

8. DAY OF THE DEAD (1985)

9. MARTIN (1977)

10. THE DARK HALF

11. SCREAM

12. THE HILLS HAVE EYES (1977)

13. PHANTASM

14. PHANTASM II

15. SUSPIRIA

16. ZOMBIE (1979)

17. NIGHT OF THE CREEPS

18. HOUSE (1986)

19. HOUSE II: THE SECOND STORY

20. THE EVIL DEAD

21. THE EVIL DEAD 2

22. ARMY OF DARKNESS

23. POLTERGEIST

24. LIFEFORCE

25. A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET (1984)

26. A NAIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET 3: THE DREAM WARRIORS

27. WES CRAVEN’S NEW NIGHTMARE

28. HALLOWEEN (1978)

29. HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH

30. HALLOWEEN IV: RETURN OF MICHAEL MYERS

31. SAW

32. JOHN CARPENTER’S PRINCE OF DARKNESS

33. JOHN CARPENTER’S THE FOG (1980)

34. MISERY

35. JOHN CARPENTER’S IN THE MOUTH OF MADNESS

36. NAKED LUNCH

37. DAVID CRONENBERG’S THE FLY (1986)

38. THE FLY II

39. JOHN CARPENTER’S BIG TROUBLE IN LITTLE CHINA

40. THE CROW (1994)

41. RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD PART 3

42. RE-ANIMATOR (1985)

43. BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR

44. CHILD’S PLAY (1988)

45. CHILD’S PLAY 2

46. FRIDAY THE 13TH THE FINAL CHAPTER

47. FRIDAY THE 13TH PART 6: JASON LIVES!

48. KING KONG (1933)

49. THEM!

50. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1956)

51. INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS (1978)

52. BODY SNATCHERS (1993)

53. SLUGS

54. ALIGATOR

55. ARACHNOPHOBIA

56. PSYCHO (1960)

57. PSYCHO 2

58. THE BIRDS (1963)

59. SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

60. SISTERS (1973)

61. CARRIE (1976)

62. DEEP RISING

63. THE MUMMY (1999)

64. PUMPKINHEAD

65. PUMKINHEAD 2: BLOOD WINGS

66. CANDYMAN

67. CANDYMAN: FAREWELL TO THE FLESH

68. HELLRAISER (1987)

69.HELLBOUND: HELLRAISER 2

70. HELLRAISER 3: HELL ON EARTH

71. WATCHERS (1988)

72. NIGHTBREED

73. LORD OF ILLUSSIONS

74. THE BEYOND (1981)

75. FROM BEYOND (1986)

76. BRAINDEAD

77. THE FRIGHTENERS

78. LEVIATHON

79. DEEP STAR SIX

80. CREEPSHOW

81. TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS DEMON KNIGHT

82. DEAD OF NIGHT (1945)

83. CUBE

84. THE HOWLING

85. THE HOWLING III: THE MARSUPIALS

86. AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON

87. WOLFEN

88. JACOB’S LADDER

89. SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT

90. SLEEPAWAY CAMP

91. THE GUARDIAN (1990)

92. THE EXORCIST 3

93. RESIDENT EVIL

94. PITCH BLACK

95. EVENT HORIZON

96. PET SEMETARY

97. VIDEODROME

98. THE PEOPLE UNDER THE STAIRS

99. STEPHEN KING’S IT

100. STEPHEN KING’S THE GRAVEYARD SHIFT (1990)

Now many of the films on this list may be questionable. Some are great films while others are great entertainment but I know that when I put one of them into my DVD player I will be entertained throughout the night.

WHEN I LEARNED TO LOVE FILMMAKING

I’m a writer by trade who started off making short films in college as a lighting designer. I must have worked on maybe three to ten short films in my Junior year at Georgia State University and this was not even part of any class. I happened to help on a friend’s film who was in Filmmaking 1 and he liked my work so much that he mentioned my name to other students in his class and from there I just continued to work on all manner of films. When I eventually made my way into Filmmaking 1 a year later I had already had a lot of lighting experience and again I became known as the go-to guy for lighting (so much so that I never finished my own filmmaking requirements for the class because I was always too busy working on other people’s films. My teacher passed me with a B in the class anyways – I ended up helping him on his film as well).

This is when I loved doing lighting for films. Whether it be on 16mm, 35mm (I actually got to do a short film in this format), video, or eventually digital video, I tried to get my hands dirty on whatever I could. I didn’t really have any influences on how I lit films. It was all trial and error as I discovered that gels changed not only the color of the light but the color temperature and that using scrims and bouncing light was more pleasing then direct light (which some of my fellow students could never grasp).

Although I loved doing the lighting on films it was never something I intended to do for a living. I’m a writer and writing stories and screenplays is where my interests is. I just happened to be good at lighting and enjoyed it more then any other student in my class (they, after all, all wanted to be directors or actors).

The moment when I truly loved being on a film set didn’t come from all those short films I shot during college (nor my feature length documentary on the GSU production of DRACULA, still yet to be edited) but instead came when I was an “accident” actor on a little zombie film called NIGHT OF THE HUNGRY DEAD.

One night during the whole college craziness a good friend of mine by the name of Brent Brooks had a film shoot in which he invited me along not as an actor or a lighting person (in fact, I can’t even remember why I went anyways). All he could tell me about the film was that it was a zombie short that had the potential to be aired on a local television station as part of a Halloween-themed event. Well me being the big zombie-lover that I am I jumped at the opportunity to be on the set in whatever capacity. Of course, Brooks never told me that the film shoot was all the way north in Gainesville, Georgia (a place I only knew as being home to the Ku Klux Klan). He also didn’t tell me that the location was in the middle of nowhere and would be all night long, so I wasn’t exactly in my element.

The film NIGHT OF THE HUNGRY DEAD was directed by a newcomer filmmaker by the name of Ron McLellen whose only other film work was the unseen film MIDDLE OF NOWHERE. McLellen and actor Dave R. Watkins wrote the screenplay as they were filming it. The film concerns the night of the zombie apocalypse (as dictated by events from the ’68 film NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD) as a group of young people get stranded at the home of a serial killer whose house is swarmed by all his past victims whom were buried in the backyard. The film is very much a collection of greatest hits from various zombie films that inspired the two writers. The cast was filled with complete unknowns, some of which were on McLellen’s previous film. I on the other hand had my own camera on hand and started filming “behind-the-scenes” stuff with no means of what was going on (I still plan to put this footage together in a short vignette one of these days).

At some point in the night McLellen realized that he didn’t have enough zombies for the big siege scene so I was thrown in some cover-alls and make up and made to be a farm hand (with an afro since I forgot to cut my hair) zombie. It was a great evening of zombie gut munching zaniness as I’m not an actor but being a zombie was one hell of a great time. What made things even funnier was that Brooks tried to teach us zombies how to walk and act (this is on video) and McLellen had so much screaming in the movie that you’d think we were making a slasher film instead of a zomedy.

Now prior to this experience I had made lots of short films but this was the first horror short that I had done, never mind the fact that NOTHD had a huge cast and lots of action and deaths. And did I mention the fact that we filmed until well into the rising of the sun of the next day? The film was on a deadline in order to compete in the television contest and we were filming like mad to get it done. It was both exhilarating and exhaustive but we lived through it (or at least most of us did. Some left early so the original cut of the film was choppy in parts).

Everything that was missing from those previous film experiences at college were present here which is mostly that I had fun on this film. The films I did in college were all pedestrian in story (as many of the filmmakers were not writers) and the stories were mostly dramas or comedies (that really weren’t that dramatic nor funny) – films that you would watch once and never again (which is why I remember so few of them now). NOTHD was extremely fun and gory and I met a lot of people I would subsequently work with on other productions.

I fast became friends with McLellen and Watkins and we all worked on numerous horror films and crazy productions such as JACK O’LANTERN, HELL’S END, CREATURES OF THE NIGHT, BAD LAND, and SHUDDER, among a plethora of short films for both of their individual production companies. McLellen liked my performance so much as a zombie in NOTHD that I became one of the stars of his next film JACK O’LANTERN (I’m not even an actor and I survive the film) but after that film I realized that my talents were best spent behind the scenes as the guy who helped produce the film and do all the technical “paperwork” on the production so that McLellen could concentrate on the actual production of the film. I was production manager on HELL’S END and CREATURES OF THE NIGHT moving up to producer on BAD LAND and SHUDDER.

I’ve since worked on both horror films and all other manner of genres from teen comedy (Movie Tao’s 6 DEGREES OF DESPERATION), urban film (BREAKING THROUGH), and suspense thriller (my own feature film HOUSE OF SECRETS), among others.

I can honestly say that I may not be in the indie film business if not for Brooks and McLellen and that little zombie film NOTHD. If NOTHD had not happened then I wouldn’t have worked with all the great filmmakers that I’ve become acquainted with since that dark night in Gainesville.

I could have easily become one of those people who went to film school but never did anything with their degree other then work at UPS (which I’ve done) or the neighborhood gas station (which I worked for two separate gas stations in my life). Instead, whether for good or bad I make indie films in Georgia where I get to work with a huge talent pool of people in any and all genres.

I’m currently working on finishing up HOUSE OF SECRETS as well as a short film for a vampire anthology, finishing up the screenplay for my next film which is a love story (A LOVE SONET), filming a documentary on remote viewing, working on a documentary on drag Queens (should be very interesting), and finishing up a script for the reboot of the JACK O’LANTERN franchise tentatively called JACK O’LANTERN REBORN, so I’ve managed to curtail my little experience as a zombie on a no budget short film into an ongoing love affair with filmmaking.

Not bad if I say so myself.
And if you’re wondering NOTHD may not have screened on television but we did go back and shoot additional footage for the official DIRECTOR’S CUT version which is far superior and far bloodier then it probably should be but it has screened in several film festivals and can be seen on You Tube among other places.