As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer, I start to wonder if I'm not actually a vampire.  Sure, come June, I'll be grateful for warm summer evenings.  But, right now, I'm hiding behind the curtains until it gets dark.  Why am I like this?  Living in Northeast Ohio, I should be grateful for blue skies.  But, I suppose just as hot chocolate feels most appropriate during a blizzard, so to do I find that a cup of nice, warm blood tastes best when it's dark out.  And besides, it's hard to sneak up on people when the sun is shining and they can see me coming.  It could also be, too, that I'm out of practice using sunblock, and like most Americans of Irish ancestry, I burn something fierce.  Granted, my other Irish friends don't smoke and smolder like I do, but I imagine that the flames that suddenly appear on my pale skin when the light hits me are because I'm just so darn sensitive.  Genetics, am I right?  Oh, and let's not forget the time change.  Spring ahead?  Bleah.  Now, the morning alarm comes way too soon.  I wake up with a start each morning, hitting my head on the lid of my coffin, and end up coming to work sleep deprived and with a big goose-egg on my temple.

So, I realize of course, that I'm not really a vampire...Last I checked, I don't have any capes and I certainly lack Bela Lugosi's accent.  True, my teeth are a little pointed, I can't see my reflection in a mirror, and I have the oddest compulsion to count things...but that doesn't mean anything, does it?  And my night vision?  That's only because I listened to my mother as a child and always eat my carrots.  Do you have any theories about it?  Why don't you come on back to the Vault?  Perhaps you'd care to share your thoughts...over a bite?

At our last meeting, we celebrated our 9^th anniversary with the classic chiller, It Came from Beneath the Sea!  For those of you who missed the meeting, let me tell you a little about the film.  This science fiction classic features a group of scientists and military men who discover that there is a giant octopus coming dangerously close to California’s sunny shores.  Due to receiving an extreme dose of radiation, the beast now struggles to catch its usual meals, as the fish can sense the radioactivity in its body.  Therefore, it needs to seek a new food source—humanity.  Will the military be able to stop it?  Or will all be consumed by this starving cephalopod?   No spoilers here but interested parties can check the film out and see for themselves!

It was great to celebrate nine wonderful years with all of you! We had some extra treats and I was able to share a display of all the movie titles that we’ve watched so far (107!).  I won’t be able to include the list here (our newsletter can’t handle that many image files!), but feel free to reach out if you’d like all the titles.

Finally, we had quite a few familiar faces this month!  Starting from the top, we have Kenneth Tobey in his role as Pete Matthews.  Kenneth was also in The Thing from Another World (December 2016).  And Lesley Joyce was played by Faith Domergue, who was also in This Island Earth in a similar role as Dr. Ruth Adams (June 2019).  Donald Curtis was Dr. John Carter, who was Major Huglin in Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (November 2017).  This film actually had several alumnae from Flying Saucers, including Harry Lauter (Bill Nash) as a generator technician; Sol Murgi (Pilot) as a plane passenger; William Woodson (who was a narrator in both films); Charlie Schneer (extra) who was the producer for Earth vs. the Flying Saucers AND this film; and the legendary Ray Harryhausen, who did special effects for both. 

Finally, we have Ian Keith (Burns) who was Dr. Lake in Fog Island (October 2021); Roy Engel (Control Room Officer) who was a detective in The Mad Magician (October 2023); and Herschel Graham (restaurant patron) who was a club member in The Fly (September 2023).  Mike Morelli (crew member) was a training spectator in Abbott and Costello Meet the Invisible Man (December 2023) and Monty O’Grady (restaurant patron) was also a villager in The Wolf Man (March 2015).

I’m not going to lie—I was super excited to share this year’s special raffle prize with all of you: a custom mug created for the Horror Film Club in collaboration with a local artist.  Said artist, who goes by Jessica on her Tumblr page, is the creator of the webcomic No Pizza After Midnight and was an absolute joy to work with.  I had a wonderful time collaborating with her and designing the mug over the last few months.  If you’d like to support Jessica and see more of her artwork, I strongly suggest checking out No Pizza After Midnight (linked above).  As a quick aside, the work she did for the mug was very different from her usual art style, so you might be surprised how cute her comics are in comparision (but of course, no less awesome!)

[Credit to No PIzza After Midnight]

Special congratulations to Anita, who was our big winner this year!  You can now proudly consider yourself twins with your Horror Hostess (since I made myself a mug as well).  And if you’ve got an idea that you’d love to see on a mug, consider setting up an appointment in our Makerspace in order to design your own (that’s what I did!)  These custom-made mugs are dishwasher safe and a lot of fun to make!

Thank you for joining us for another piece of classic horror!  I look forward to seeing you all next time.  In our next film, a young woman buys an old mansion to turn it into a hotel.  She agrees to let the previous owner and his staff stay, not realizing that the sweet old man is actually a mad scientist experimenting on traveling salesmen in the basement.  Will she be able to open the hotel of her dreams or will she find herself the next victim?  You'll have to join us to find out!