R Bruce Crelin

R. Bruce Crelin was born in Paterson, New Jersey, the birthplace of Lou Costello, on August 26th, 1959 (twenty-three days before Veronica Carlson’s fifteenth birthday). After several moves, he ended up at age four in northern New Jersey, in suburbia, about thirty miles west of New York City as the crow flies, where he grew up and lived until going off to college.

As a young child he was too afraid to watch horror or monster films (although he did favor skeletons and devils as his Halloween costumes in those days). At the urging of his slightly older cousin, Bobby (a full-fledged, original 1960s “Monster Kid”), he eventually overcame his fears and became a full-fledged monster fan. The first horror film he ever saw was the Castle Films digest of The Creature Walks Among Us, in the living room at Bobby’s house in Connecticut, projected and narrated by Bobby’s father, his Uncle Ed. He remembers seeing Munster Go Home and Mad Monster Party at special Halloween shows for children given at the local movie theater. His first viewing of what might be termed a “real” monster movie was at age ten, when he saw (in the company of his parents) Beneath the Planet of the Apes at a drive-in theater.

Along with his then-best friend, Tim, Bruce became an avid monster fan, beginning with Japanese giant monsters, the classic Universal films and, gradually adding Hammer, Amicus and other more modern films to the mix (he saw Tales from the Crypt in the cinema upon its initial release), as well as silents such as The Phantom of the Opera and Nosferatu, put out in Super-8 versions by Blackhawk Films and borrowed from the local public library (Bruce eventually bought some prints of his own, but they were very expensive for a kid!). He and Tim each bought their own copies of Denis Gifford’s A Pictorial History of Horror Movies, which became their monster movie “Bible,” and spent many Friday and Saturday nights at each other’s houses, staying up late to watch The Twilight Zone, Alfred Hitchcock Presents and whatever horror, monster, or science fiction films the local television stations might be showing (these were the days long before Blu-rays and DVDs, and even long before the now-prehistoric VHS and Betamax video cassette formats, so a Monster Kid was entirely at the mercy of the television programmers).

For a seventh-grade English class project, Tim, Bruce and about a half-dozen of their buddies teamed up to make a Standard-8 film based upon Joseph Payne Brennan’s short story, “Slime.” Bruce played Henry Hossing, a hobo who becomes the Slime’s first human victim, while Tim, hunched beneath a “costume” made from green plastic garbage bags, portrayed the Slime. He and Tim also dabbled in making their own Super-8 films – Bruce was typically the director/cinematographer/special effects man/cameraman, while Tim played various aliens and monsters and also assisted with production duties.

While no longer a kid, Bruce remains a monster fan who, much to the chagrin of his wife, has amassed an extensive collection of monster and horror Blu-rays and DVDs, as well as books and magazines. His lifelong ambition is to play Elisha Cook, Jr.’s role as Sam, the morgue attendant, in the event anyone attempts a remake of Blacula.