FROM the Founder

Halloween is by far my favorite holiday to

celebrate. I’ve always been interested in
mythology and folklores from all cultures
especially from Mexico where the
traditions and elaborate heritage
expresses through a celebration annually
on the first and second day in the month
of November called “Day of the Dead”
which is translated into Spanish “Día de
los Muertos” (see Salma Hayek in Frida).

I can recall numerous times in my youth when I use to be terrified by watching

horror films, a specific film that use to terrify me greatly was the 1973, The
Exorcist; I had seen the film at the age of six. Was I terrified? Absolutely, I was
terrified. I remember when my sister had to write a review on a film and she
chose to watch “The Exorcist” let’s just say she could not sleep for three days.
Four years ago, I had the courage to watch the film by myself. The film was
extremely excellent and under the circumstances that the films is based on
actual events, based on a young boy not a girl in the film’s version. This issue will
contain fewer pages from previous months, but my goal for this issue is to
express the best horror films to date and the subject and history of the 1974
Amityville Massacre which left a family of six dead. I would like to conclude my
message by saying great health to you and your family.

Javier Abraham Serrano

Monte Pictures© was founded by Javier Abraham Serrano in San Diego, California
in the year 2007. In his quest to pursue a career in filmmaking, Mr. Serrano
composed a monthly newsletter to express visually his passion for cinema to all
variety of audiences. In his non-published autobiography, “What a Life,” he stated,
“If I could achieve this dream and goal of mine to open a film studio – Monte
Pictures, then it is obviously possible for anyone to achieve their dreams.”
 Halloween
This film gave me nightmares for years, just look at the mask.

Halloween launched Jamie Lee Curtis to stardom; she is the daughter of Janet Leigh, the
ill-fated guest at the Bates Motel in Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece “Psycho.” On Halloween
night 1963, six-year-old Michael Myers stabs his seventeen-year-old sister Judith Myers to
death at their home in Haddonfield, Illinois. His parents are in the state of shock from their
son’s cruelty behavior, they send him to Smith’s Grove where he is supervised under the care
of child psychiatrist Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasance) .

Eight years of unsuccessful treatment, Dr. Loomis tries to keep Myers locked up in the
sanitarium center where he will be soon prosecuted as an adult. Myers escapes from
Smith Grove, steals a car and returns to Haddonfield. Dr. Loomis knows exactly where Myers
will be heading. Laurie Strode, seventeen, is adopted by a local family in Haddonfield and
changes her last name. Laurie, at school, becomes eerie when a man wearing a white mask
watches over her from across the street.
 The
Shining
The Shining, directed by Stanley Kubrick was adapted from the acclaimed master of
thriller novelist Stephen King, which I find to be his best work to date. Jack
Nicholson in “The Shining” is without questioned his performance in a thriller-
suspense film, he is cited by film critics around the world as one of the top villains,
along side Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Hannibal Lester, in the history of motion picture.

Jack Torrance (Nicholson) arrives at the Overlook Hotel for a job. The hotel manager
Stuart Ullmann (Barry Nelson) warns him that the pervious employer got cabin fever
and killed his family and himself during a long winter in which the hotel is isolated.
Jack’s son Danny (Danny Lloyd) begins to see terrifying things like people and objects
that do not exist. Jack’s wife Wendy (Shelley Duval) pleads to Jack to have the family
leave the hotel. Jack becomes the victim when he begins to feel careless about his
wife and son; Jack goes on a rampage to kill them both.
 Psycho
I find it incredibly impressive on the facts about the famous “Shower scene.” The 44 seconds
of the famous murder scene has been discussed, studied and cited countless of times
questioning why the film is so terrifying. It took seven days, 78 camera angles which include
extreme close-ups shots, and gallons of corn syrup to illuminate the murder scene, which not
one single breast is bared in the film. “Psycho” is regarded Alfred Hitchcock’s best film to
date and cited from numerous film critics and publications as the number one “scariest film
of all time” surpassing “The Exorcist” with a number two spot.

The movie opens in Phoenix, Arizona, where a pair of lovers Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) and
Sam Loomis (John Gavin) want to marry, but cannot because of Sam’s enormous debt that he
needs to pay for a heavy alimony to his ex-wife. Returning back to work the next day,
Marion’s boss has taken responsibility of a large amount of cash from a friend for safe
keeping. Marion than steals the $40,000 in cash and drives to California where Sam lives.
Through a heavy storm and barely keeping her eyes open from the long drive, she agrees to
stop and stay at the next available motel. The Bates Motel comes into view.
 Cannibal Holocaust

Cannibal Holocaust is banned in over 50 countries and is cited as the most gruesome film
ever made.

The film exploits racism towards indigenous people. I must warn you! If you thought “The
Blair Witch Project” was just a simply walk into the woods, you really have no idea. The
making of Cannibal Holocaust which the director violated dozens of felony counts. The
director was jailed because the Italian Supreme Court believed the crews members of the
film actually murdered the actors to make this film, in reality the director paid the actors
not appear in the spotlight of the film’s premiere and other festival activities.

The movie tells the story of four documentarians who journey deep into the jungles of the
Amazon Rainforest to film indigenous tribes. Two months later, a famous anthropologist
Harold Monroe travels to South America on a rescue mission to locate the group. He
discovers cans of film material which he assumes is from the lost group. The film reveals
the ill-fated crew through torture abuse and eating of the flesh. The film inspired the cult-
hit film “The Blair Witch Project” taking movie-making to a whole new length. A remake
of the film is expected to be release in the summer 2009 from the original writer and
director of Cannibal Holocaust.
 The
Amityville
Horror
Far left: a child is visible in
this photograph. It’s been
said that this picture was
taken days after when the
Lutz family fled their home

On November 13, 1974 in Amityville, New York, Ronald De Feo, Jr., 23; shot his entire family
of six to death: Ronald De Feo, Sr., 43; Louise De Feo, 42; and the four children: Dawn, 18;
Allison, 13; Marc, 12; and John Mathew, 9.

It’s been noted by well-known experts from Lutz’s case that the home of the famous
Amityville home may have been haunted. The house dates back to the colonial period when
white Americans came to New England. At the time, white settlers’ oppression dominated
the Native Americans, which both race collided in several wars on American soil leaving
thousands of casualties. The white settlers would hunt down Native Americans which they
would torture, abuse and scalp the head of the Indians. In Native American folklore and
mythology, Indians who were captured and killed by the whites, the Indians would bury the
victim face down in their grave as a symbolic of a curse to leave on the land. Ironically, the
De Feo’s house is located on that land. Another coincidence, in De Feo’s case, all six
members were shot to death while lying face down in their beds. Ronald De Feo, Jr., shot
his family with a .35 caliber from a Marlin rifle, which is pretty loud. Neither any of the De
Feos nor the neighbors heard the gun shots. The home plays a significant role in Amityville
tourism. About 300,000 people visit this memorial landmark to pay tribute to the De Feos;
but the current owners renovated the home and changed the address to not spark any tourism.
Today, Amityville has been a very peaceful town that simply wants to leave the past behind.
 The
Exorcist
For two decades, The Exorcist has been cited as the “scariest film ever made” and the second
“scariest film of all time.” William Peter Blatty, writer and producer of the film, was inspired
to write “The Exorcist” when he researched a case of an exorcism in 1949 about a young
thirteen-year-old boy possessed by the devil. In theology, It is not clear if the existence of
Lucifer is accurate, it is evident that his only appearance on earth is through the literature of
the Bible depicting as the falling angle from heaven.

The film opens when Father Merrin (Max Von Sydow) is on an archaeological dig in the town
of Nineveh, Iraq. He is summoned by a young boy that an object has been recovered from
the dirt. It is a small stone head that is resemblance of an animal-like creature. Merrin
returns to a spot in the dig where he is face to face with a large statute of Pazuzu, a head
similar to the small object he found.

The story revolves around Chris MacNeil (Ellen Burstyn), an actress filming on location in
Georgetown. Days pass when her twelve-year-old daughter Regan (Linda Blair) becomes
aggressively violent and her behavior physically changes though heavy make-up. At the
climax of the movie, Regan is possessed by Pazuzu, an anti-Christ angel who revels himself
to be the devil.