Product Description

The best scary movies of all time

This exciting new visual history examines the genre in thematic, historical, and aesthetic terms

Horror is both the most perennially popular and geographically diverse of all film genres; arguably, every country that makes movies makes horror movies of one kind or another. Depicting deep-rooted, even archetypal fears, while at the same time exploiting socially and culturally specific anxieties, cinematic horror is at once timeless and utterly of its time and place. This exciting new visual history, which includes unique images from the David Del Valle archive, examines the genre in thematic, historical, and aesthetic terms, breaking it down into the following fundamental categories: Slashers & Serial Killers; Cannibals, Freaks & Hillbillys; Revenge of Nature & Environmental Horror; Sci-fi Horror; The Living Dead; Ghosts & Haunted Houses; Possession, Demons & Evil Tricksters; Voodoo, Cults & Satanists; Vampires & Werewolves; and The Monstrous-Feminine. Among the many films featured are classics such as Psycho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Alien, The Exorcist, Dracula, and The Wicker Man.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #224291 in Books
• Published on: 2008-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

About the Author
Paul Duncan has seen lots of films and read lots of comics and books. He wanted to share his enthusiasm for these subjects so he published magazines about comics (Ark) and crime fiction (Crime Time) before launching a series of small film guides (Pocket Essentials). He has edited more than 40 film books for TASCHEN, and wrote Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick in the Film Series.

Jonathan Penner has written for movies, television, magazines, and blogs, and has worked extensively as an actor, screenwriter, and producer. His film credits include the cult classic The Last Supper, the Hamlet-inspired Let the Devil Wear Black and the short film for which he was Oscar-nominated, Down on the Waterfront.

Steven Jay Schneider received his MA in Philosophy from Birkbeck College, University of London, and is a Ph.D candidate in Cinema Studies at New York University. He is the author or editor of numerous books on film.

Customer Reviews

Decent, but Not Perfect (Like Horror Movies Themselves)
My main reasons for buying this book were my love for horror movies and the classic image of an over-the-hill Joan Crawford wielding a heavy ax on the back cover (the same picture is also conveniently featured inside the book). In fact, the pictures are, in my opinion, the best thing about the book. The text did not dig too far into any one movie or genre and what was written was too much of a film class-like analysis of each type of horror film that was discussed. I guess I wasn't expecting that and so I let the pictures make up for my boredom and disappointment in what I was reading. Pictures from some of my favorite movies (The Witches, Pet Sematary, Misery and House of 1000 Corpses, to name a few) made it into this book and I really enjoyed that. As far other aspects of the book, not so much. Would I recommend the book? Yes, but for the pictures alone. I don't mind a gory snapshot from one of my favorite movies every now and then.

Great Book for Horror Fans, Excellent Content!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What a great book, just for horror movies fans, if so you definitively shall get it, I found almost every great horror movie on it until its publication. Excellent size of pages, great content, awesome color in pictures, HORROR FANS MUST HAVE!!!!11

Pretty good book on horror cinema
Horror Cinema
Pretty good book on horror films. Needless to say a few too many gory
stills from modern splatter movies. Over all, not bad book with many many images of the classic creepshows.Recommended to fans of horror cinema.