Help Us To Preserve Cinematic History
With Deluxe Dual Format BluRay/DVD Of
"Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster"
Note from Thomas Hamilton - Dec 8th 2021
I've received a number of reports of UK based would-be pledgers being unable to make their contributions due to Indiegogo refusing their card payments.
If you or anyone you know experiences this issue please contact myself directly and I will arrange an alternative means for you to contribute (with the same rewards)
OVERVIEW
"Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster" is a new documentary film on the life and career of horror legend Boris Karloff from London-based writer/director Thomas Hamilton (“Leslie Howard: The Man Who Gave a Damn” 2017) and US-based writer/producer Ron MacCloskey.
"The Man Behind The Monster" was released September 17, 2021 to great critical acclaim and favorable audience response and currently is available on Digital + On Demand and in select theaters. Now it's time for you to own your personal DVD! By pre-ordering from our Indiegogo campaign, you'll get special access to exclusive perks only available here while supplies last! Don't forget to check out our official website: www.themanbehindthemonster.com/
“WE'VE SEEN NO BETTER WAY TO SHARPEN YOUR TEETH FOR HIGH-QUALITY HORROR THAN WITH THIS LOVING AND INFORMATIVE DOCUMENTARY ABOUT THE GENRE’S GREATEST ACTOR."
– BOB STRAUSS, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
BASICS
Produced with the cooperation and support of Sara Karloff, our film took 3 years to complete and has been a labor of love for Ron and I. Now we want to make it available to you—the fans and collectors! Our limited budget went into making the film, so now we're facing the costs of DVD production. The best solution we saw is to offer the DVDs for pre-order, so here we are!
Our goal is to raise +/-$7,000 by the end of November so we can have the final product, plus the perks, to you by December of this year — just in time for Christmas! (NB - due to circumstances beyond our control delivery will now be in January 2022)
Since we're doing the graphics, editing, authoring, etc. ourselves, all funds will go into professionally manufacturing DVDs of the film. So the more pre-orders we receive, the more copies we can produce, and the more accessible this film will be to Boris Karloff fans. For us, there's nothing more important!
“AN ADORING APPRECIATION OF A SCREEN ICON… A CULTURED MAN WHO MADE HIS GOOD NAME SCARING GENERATIONS HALF TO DEATH. FILM BUFFS CANNOT AFFORD TO MISS ‘BORIS KARLOFF: THE MAN BEHIND THE MONSTER.’”
– ROGER MOORE, MOVIE NATION
WHAT YOU'LL GET
We have a ton of cool perks to offer our pre-order contributors, including postcards of original artwork featured in the film. These extras are only available for the pre-order campaign while supplies last, so please check bonus perks list on the right of this page and contribute now!
DUAL FORMAT BLURAY/DVD PACKAGE
$22.00 (approximate)/£16.00 (+shipping)
In return for your pledge (which is $5.00/£4.00 less than anticipated sales price) you'll receive a deluxe edition of the documentary in a Dual Bluray/DVD package with a wealth of extras totalling over 120 minutes of video and audio, including:
- sequences we cut from the film (including Hollywood's race to emulate Universal's success with Dracula and Frankenstein, the partnership of Boris Karloff & Bela Lugosi, first hand recollections of filming Son of Frankenstein from Donnie Dunagen & The Body Snatcher with Sharyn Moffett, an in depth exploration of Karloff's Broadway career with Christopher Plummer, Lee Grant, Nehemiah Persoff and others)
- long excerpts from a never-before-heard interview with Boris Karloff by Oscar winning film-historian Kevin Brownlow
- exclusive video of a Q&A with Sara Karloff
- a 16 page illustrated booklet
- gallery of artworks for the film by Joe Liotta
- and more to be confirmed
"PRODUCER’S ACCESS" DVD SET
$33.00/£24.00 (+shipping)
Those who really want to delve into the Karloff Family archive will receive the Deluxe DVD/BLU-RAY package of Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster as detailed above, PLUS:
• Nearly 4 hours of exclusive video and audio including:
• Guided tour of Karloff’s early and later homes as they are now
• Additional cut sequences covering lost TV shows, his late 50’s comeback and a longer look at the Mexican films
• Complete audio of Kevin Brownlow’s 2 hour conversation with Boris (people have described it as like being in a room with Boris)
• Alternate opening to “Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster” (Dec 2020)
• March 2021 version of the Opening – this was what convinced Shout! to back us.
• Interview with Tony Bilbow who conducted BK’s last TV interview in 1968.
Note that THE PRODUCERS’ ACCESS REWARD is only available via this campaign, is a DVD only presentation, and will be discontinued after the campaign.
“COMPELLINGLY EXPLORES THE LIFE AND LEGACY OF A CINEMA LEGEND... RECOMMENDED TO NOT ONLY HORROR FANS BUT ANYONE SEEKING AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE EVOLUTION OF CINEMA ITSELF.”
– MOVIES AND MANIA
THE IMPACT
Our dual BluRay/DVD of "Boris Karloff: The Man Behind the Monster" is sure to be a treasured item in the collections of Boris Karloff fans as well as horror film enthusiasts, and the bonus material will be a valued resource of information and first-hand testimony in the years ahead.
Many of our interviewees are at very advanced ages, the oldest (Nehemiah Persoff) was 99, and three have sadly left us since (R.I.P. Dick Miller, Orson Bean & Christopher Plummer).
Making this film has helped to keep Boris Karloff’s legacy and these direct memories of him alive for many years to come. Being able to release this in a deluxe BluRay/DVD version means it can be watched and rewatched in the comfort of your own home. While streaming may be convenient, it allows you to see only the film, not any extras or behind the scenes material.
Having decided to produce THE definitive film on Boris Karloff's life, we had initially planned a four hour epic and interviewed 50+ colleagues, friends, fans and family members. In editing for cinematic release, we cut 25 interviewees and covered fewer films. Now we feel fans should have more than a 98-minute version, and the DVD format allows us to include many interviews which didn't make the final cut, as well as rare footage and audio not available anywhere else.
Critical reaction and audience response to our finished film has been tremendously supportive and incredibly positive. We're hoping to have similar support for this DVD pre-order campaign!
“A WARM LOVE LETTER TO THIS TALENTED ACTOR WHO IS STILL GAINING NEW FANS AS NEW GENERATIONS DISCOVER HIS VAST BODY OF WORK. EVEN THOUGH I WAS ALREADY A FAN OF KARLOFF, I CAME AWAY WITH A GREATER APPRECIATION OF THIS DEDICATED ARTIST WHO LOVED HIS CRAFT.”
– DARCY STANIFORTH, CINEMA SENTRIES
OTHER WAYS YOU CAN HELP