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Title: The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword by David J Skal ISBN: 0-571-19996-8 Publisher: Faber & Faber Pub. Date: 15 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (6 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Book With One Caveat
Comment: If you're a fan of the classic horror movies, this book makes for fascinating reading. It's full of facts about the movies from the thirties and forties especially.
But sometimes the author over analyzes, perhaps goes too far into the psychology and meaning of it all.
Nonetheless, this book was a good read. Recommended, despite the caveat!
Rating: 5
Summary: Monster Movie Making History
Comment: I have decided to review this book because it needs to be a little clearer about what you are purchasing here. The first half of the book focuses on what is clearly David Skal's expertise-- 30's monster movies. He covers biographies on Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi, James Whale's battles against the censors, the influences of war and the Great Depression, and the move from stage to screen. It was so pleasurable and enlightening to read all about the beginnings of the genre.
After 200 pages on this decade, I soon realized that the following 6 decades could not possibly get the same attention in the second half. Hammer horror from England receives two sentences in the book when it easily deserves at least a lengthy chapter. Italian horror (which has one of the largest cult followings within this genre) is completely unmentioned. To my shock, a film with such powerful cultural relevance as The Stepford Wives also remains completely unmentioned in the book. A chapter that I thought would discuss the cultural emergence and relevance of slasher films ends up covering plastic surgery. Basically the book is greatly unbalanced. There is so much passion in the first half that the second half of the book seems a drought by comparison.
However, if you are even reading this review, then I must say that this book is a must-own. The information is absolutely fascinating (even in the second half). The photos throughout the book are excellent and add so much to the experience of reading it. The information I regretfully did not get is now more accessible to me through the foundations and structure of this book.
Rating: 4
Summary: Doom, Gloom and...Va-Va-Voom?
Comment: Much better cover on this revised edition then the Edward
Gorey illustration on original hardcover.
Simply one of the best cultural reviews of movie horror ever
written. The chapter on Fifties' drive-in horror alone is
worth the cost of the book. Loads of documentary information,
intelligent commentary, trenchant insights. The only drawback,
as others have mentioned, is David J. Skal's habit of leaning
a little too heavily on certain prejudices or opinions in order
to make a theory or speculation of his fit a little more neatly
then it otherwise would have. Mr. Skal, your "post modernist"
academic roots are showing! (Though this stealth editorializing does not intrude too much in The Monster Show, it truly gives
you the creeps while struggling through much of his Screams Of Reason.)
Anyway, this book is a MUST for anyone devoted to American history, horror trivia, cultural pathology --
all that cool stuff and much, much more! Nicely researched and
written, a great reference and resource for the Crypt Keeper-
Monster Mash kiddies out there (like me). If you know what I mean, you ought to own this book.
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Title: The Horror Genre by Paul Wells ISBN: 1903364000 Publisher: Wallflower Press Pub. Date: 15 September, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.50 |
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Title: Horror, The Film Reader (In Focus: Routledge Film Readers) by Mark Jancovich ISBN: 0415235626 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: 29 December, 2001 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: Screams of Reason: Mad Science in Modern Culture by David J. Skal ISBN: 039304582X Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: July, 1998 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film by Gregory A. Waller ISBN: 0252014480 Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr (Pro Ref) Pub. Date: April, 1988 List Price(USD): $17.95 |
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Title: Horror Film Reader by Alain Silver, James Ursini ISBN: 0879102977 Publisher: Limelight Editions Pub. Date: April, 2001 List Price(USD): $22.50 |
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