Tag: Horror Art

In early March, I spent a weekend in Chicago to show my work at the Sci-Fi Spectacular and to meet director Frank Henenlotter. The Spectacular is an annual movie marathon that was 24 hours this year, screening mostly 35mm prints of classic horror and sci-fi movies. These festivals are great for meeting a lot of different people who love this weird stuff and it's always nice to meet fans in person. Not to mention seeing all my Chicago buddies!! I displayed my monster paintings new and old, art prints, shirts, knickknacks, and my new illustrated book.

Firstly, I came to the Portage Theater on Friday night as a fan. Spent time with my wife and friends watching the Basket Case trilogy with an introduction by Frank Henenlotter. How cool is that for a Friday night? Frank's also made some fun body horror flicks like Frankenhooker and Brain Damage!

Frank discussed how he really didn't have plans or ideas for Basket Case 4 until very recently. The ideas seem to be brewing in his head now, so maybe this could very well happen someday. Independent projects are really hard to get off the ground, which is something he's struggled with a lot. Of course, any horror fan will say his work is amazing, disturbingly gross and hilarious all in one, so he's definitely got our support!

On Saturday, Henenlotter was around for quite a while throughout the day meeting fans at the Spectacular and introduced Brain Damage early in the evening with a hilarious Q&A! He stressed how important absurdity in horror is for making you laugh. He uses very loose outlines of scripts and mostly wings it. He's totally into handmade horror, which is hard to do properly without at least a decent-sized budget. His movies are visceral, gross, and wildly comical. He said he got tired and bored when doing stop motion, so he'd just kick the props! But it works for him. I love no matter what he does. It was extremely cool meeting him!

Here's my BASKET CASE painting!

Big news!! I'm excited to announce a new hardbound art book containing ALL of my paintings, including some charcoal drawings. It's got all my work up to date, and I'm proud of how it turned out. Tom Sullivan (Special Effects artist on THE EVIL DEAD, painter, prop maker, etc.!) was kind enough to write a wonderful introduction, and talented musician and author Count Lyle Blackburn (Ghoultown) wrote the foreword. I am very grateful to Tom and Lyle for their contributions and support to help make this first book happen. These are two very talented guys whom I really admire.

Quantities are limited, so I'm currently taking pre-orders. They all come signed, priced at $40 each. If you'd like a drawing on the inside front page, or the “flyleaf” to get technical, there is an option for this in the items listing. The first 10 sold will contain a FREE, numbered ink drawing inside. The rest of the flyleaf drawings ordered with the book will be in pencil and cost $10 extra. This is it. Everything I've done up until now is in this book! Get ’em while they're hot! The book will be available through this site. Here is the link:

http://www.horrorartist.com/shop/in-vivid-red-horror-art-by-chris-kuchta/

Thanks for your support!

Here's the trailer for the book! Spread the word!

Tombs of the Blind Dead Spanish poster art

I absolutely love collecting old movie posters. The illustrations created decades ago were top-notch and really eye-grabbing without having to use floating heads. Well, unless the heads were decapitated! There was a sense of bravery and freedom going on in classic horror posters – a feeling I don't really get from posters put out today. I think the designs have started getting better, now that everyone openly mocks floating head syndrome, but a lot of it still feels too “safe” to me. I like layouts that feel alive and wild. Painted scenes that make me yell, “Hot damn! I want to see that movie!!”

Occasionally, I'm going to post some posters from my own collection here as being “From the Vault” and will try to include an art piece depicting the film's influence on me.

For starters, TOMBS OF THE BLIND DEAD! I've included both my Spanish and Thai posters, as well as my personal tribute to this amazing film. The Spanish art really has a menacing tone going on, something to scare the kiddies. The Thai illustration is a bit more bizarre, not as scary, but has some key scenes which may give an unintended comical effect. Still awesome, though!

Tombs is definitely a series of films that hit a cord with me and a lot of other people.I mean, where else are you gonna get a vampire/mummy/knight kicking ass in a film? another thing about these movies is that you never quite know what to expect. They follow their own rules so no expected weakness can help you!

Tombs of the Blind Dead - Thai poster

My painting of Tombs of the Blind Dead

Being on the road so often for conventions is amazing, but it usually means missing great

movies that people get to tell me was good. I was able to catch a viewing of Exit Humanity

and loved it, so I'd like to spread the word about it. There are a few familiar faces in the

cast, like Bill Moseley, Dee Wallace, and Brian Cox. It didn't have a big budget, but for a

Civil War zombie film, they really outdid themselves. The zombie makeup was great, and

the thing that REALLY stood out for me was the inclusion of animation! How often can

that not end up corny? Everyone behind this film clearly had a passion for it, so their talent

and drive really did it justice. I love that they did such a great job meshing live action with

animation, making it a standout in recent zombie films. It's nice to be inspired by a zombie

film in an age where they are more than a dime a dozen.

Official Trailer HERE.

Another zombie film that recently impressed me was The Dead. It has that bleak, hopeless

and pretty much apocalyptic feel as a classic Fulci flick.

Check out the trailer!

But back to Exit Humanity! I found out a little more about the artist behind the animation,

Snezhan Bodurov, and wanted to share this neat video of animated sequences he did for

the film. These are illustrations of stories told in Edward's journal.

Exit Humanity Animation from Snezhan Bodurov on Vimeo.