Product Description

This book will haunt you--until you get the answers right. It is a devilishly delightful collection of 1,814 questions and answers about the best and worst horror films ever made. From the silent movies of the 1920s to the scream queens of the 1990s, the topics range from vampires to werewolves to haunted houses and mad scientists to creature features and giant apes. More than 160 photographs infest the pages of The Amazing, Colossal Book of Horror Trivia, including the greats of horror cinema like Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, Vincent Price, Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Fay Wray, Ingrid Pitt, and Barbara Steele.

In addition to listings of the Top 5 films per subject, Lampley, Beck, and Clark have also noted the highlights from the lives and works of the legendary stars and directors who have made this genre popular across the century. You'll never sleep without a nightlight again.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #104444 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 255 pages

About the Author
Jonathan Malcolm Lampley teaches at Middle Tennessee State University and writes for such magazines as Scarlet Street, Midnight Marquee, and Movie Club. Ken Beck is an editor and writer for the Nashville Tennessean and an author of numerous books on television shows and movies. Jim Clark, who founded the Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club, is a freelance writer and author. All three authors live in Middle Tennessee.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Welcome to the wonderful world of horror films! We're not sure of all the reasons why, but there is just something in most of us that enjoys the good shiver or fright that comes from watching scary movies. It's probably something that goes back to childhood and those original fears of darkness and the unknown, of being left alone or lost, or of being surrounded by things bigger than we are.

Scary movies are like ghost stories around a campfire--only without the mosquitoes (unless they're scheduled to appear in Giant Radioactive Mosquitoes from the Planet Dracular). And don't we all remember the first scary movie we saw? (Confess. You trembled that night under the covers--even with the flashlight turned on--didn't you?)

Maybe horror movies are popular simply because they are so different from any other kind of movie. After much careful research and analysis, some horror scholars have offered their considered opinions that we like horror films because, well, they're cool.

This book is a tribute to the great horror makers of the past century as well as to some who were not so great but at least gave us laughs jumbled with fear. And so, too, we salute those magnificent kings and queens of scream with hundreds and hundreds of trivia questions (and answers) about hundreds of horror films.

We've included short biographies of the greatest names in the fright business and more than a hundred photographs. Together, they are The Amazing, Colossal Book of Horror Trivia.

This collection goes back to the beginning of horror history in America with quizzes on author Edgar Allan Poe and actor Lon Chaney (king of the silent horror film) and brings you right up to date with the teen-scream flicks of the 1990s. That's almost a century of chills and thrills from the greatest horror producers of Hollywood, London, Tokyo, and even a few lost worlds somewhere in between.

Here you'll find a variety of brainteasers on Dracula and vampires, Frankenstein monsters and werewolves, ghosts and haunted houses, witches and warlocks, mad doctors and weird scientists, demons and devils, monkeys and great apes, big bugs and giant reptiles, invisible men and shrunken heads, teen monsters and TV horror, and even comedy in horror films.

There are sidebars on the greatest names in the genre--men like Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, and Vincent Price--and sketches on such horror helping hands and scream queens as Peter Lorre, Barbara Steele, Lionel Atwill, Fay Wray, and John Carradine.

We've designed the quizzes to be fun. But also, by the time you're finished, even if you don't know all of the answers to everything you always wanted to know about horror (but were too scared to ask!), you'll at least feel like you've graduated from Horror 101.

The quizzes are divided into seventeen chapters, but the list easily could have been expanded. While any number of films could have qualified for more than one chapter, we've tried to place them logically. Believe us, trying to sort hundreds of horror films into precise categories would drive any boy or ghoul mad.

But don't worry, the book's not too tidy. There's plenty of mayhem in our methods. And so it is that some films and quizzes have been left just to float among the chapters like so many ghosts--ready to pop and give you a scary challenge when you least expect it.

Enter these pages if you dare and enjoy the surprises of what just might be the most frightfully fun test of knowledge you'll ever encounter. But remember: Once you've removed this book from its shelf (Oops...you've already done that, haven't you? Well, now you've done it!), who knows what evil might befall you if you try to put it back. (What was that? Did something on the shelf just move?)

Whatever you do, don't look back. You never know what might be behind you.

See you at the movies!

Customer Reviews

Both Amazing and Colossal
As an A/V Librarian, many books on film go past my desk. Of late, there has been a glut of books on the Horror film. Some have been great. Some insipid. Some political propaganda masquerading as film books. Some merely esoteric or academic. But a good popular or general book on the subject has been rare. Indeed, since the death of William K. Everson, the form has been almost completely moribund. No longer. With AMAZING COLOSSAL, Mr. Lampley and associates have unleashed a book pretending to be a mere trivia book(and a good one at that)but, once unmasked, stand revealed as an excellent introduction and history of the Horror Film. Besides the quizes-some easy, some hard, all intriquing even to the non-horror fan, the book includes chapters on all of the Important moments and figures of Horror. The book is so well constructed that it becomes a true learning experience-almost a textbook on horror. Want to learn about Lionel Atwell or Richard Matheson? You will. AMAZING COLOSSAL enlightens, ennobles and entertains. A fine book. A fun book. And ladies, if you have a son or husband who loves Horror movies and don't know what to get him for Christmas, this one is a no brainer. An excellent gift. Highly recommended.

SPOOKY FUN FOR ALL!!!
See how much you know about your favorite horror and science fiction films and challenge the experts! This book presents an excellent cross-section of interesting facts, fun tidbits and tons of great photos. These three gentlemen obviously have a great love of thier subject which makes for an excellent read. Expand your knowledge, satisfy your curiosity, and have a great time in the process! With a terrific intro by the Ackermonster, this comes highly recommended. "Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!"

EXCELLENT
I am such a Horror movie buff that I did notice a few of my favorites that were missed but my bother and I had a great time of asking each other questions and I am happy to report we did great........... if you love horror movies this it the book for you................please note that this book contains older movies so you have to be a true fan all the way back to the 1930's...................you will love it.....