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throatsprockets's review
It took me a long time to get through this book, as I kept dipping in and out of it. The writer is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic fan of extreme horror with a lot to say, but he's at best a mediocre writer and could really use an editor - or at least a proof reader. Typographical errors, spelling mistakes and missing punctuation are rife. It's not punk rock, it's just sloppy.
The writer's attempts at deep thought are also quite uninteresting. He usually seems more interested in defending our beloved genre from the censorious than in looking into trends, subtext and the way the genre has been shaped (often unconsciously) by social pressures.
I personally think that horror movies are most interesting because they ask the question, "What are people afraid of here and now?" It doesn't matter too much if they are heartfelt or exploitation - indeed I think the unconscious implications of horror made for a quick buck can be more interesting than a hand-on-heart "social message."
The book is most interesting as a catalogue; most horror fans will discover plenty of movies they've never heard of in here. The section on horror movies in the twilight of Franco's Spain was also interesting to me, as I did not know that high-brow art movie directors had been camouflaging their political statements in horror movies.
It's cheap though, at least in ebook format, and if you yearn for the days when Chas Balun's columns passed for decent genre commentary you might find Phil Russell's tome nostalgic.
The writer's attempts at deep thought are also quite uninteresting. He usually seems more interested in defending our beloved genre from the censorious than in looking into trends, subtext and the way the genre has been shaped (often unconsciously) by social pressures.
I personally think that horror movies are most interesting because they ask the question, "What are people afraid of here and now?" It doesn't matter too much if they are heartfelt or exploitation - indeed I think the unconscious implications of horror made for a quick buck can be more interesting than a hand-on-heart "social message."
The book is most interesting as a catalogue; most horror fans will discover plenty of movies they've never heard of in here. The section on horror movies in the twilight of Franco's Spain was also interesting to me, as I did not know that high-brow art movie directors had been camouflaging their political statements in horror movies.
It's cheap though, at least in ebook format, and if you yearn for the days when Chas Balun's columns passed for decent genre commentary you might find Phil Russell's tome nostalgic.
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