You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
The women who starred in low-budget cult movies created many memorable experiences for those fans of late night flicks such as Saturday Night Frights, Movie Macabre and Up All Night. Brinke Stevens, who played Linda in The Slumber Party Massacre, recalls, "Suddenly I was riding in limos, flying to foreign countries for film festivals, appearing on dozens of popular talk and entertainment TV shows, and truly feeling like a glamorous movie star." This collection of revealing interviews provides insights into the lives of 20 cult film actresses. They discuss the pros and cons of making these movies and the directions their careers have taken since. Among the films they starred in are Night of the Living Dead, The Slumber Party Massacre, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Halloween, Sleepaway Camp and Elvira's Haunted Hills.
Gay men have a long, complicated history with the horror genre. While working behind-the-scenes to create some of the most iconic terrors on film (James Whale's Frankenstein, Bride of Frankenstein and The Invisible Man), they watched themselves portrayed on screen as sinister villains or as 'the best friend who dies first' victims. But in the last 20 years there has been a significant shift in the horror world courtesy of a growing number of out authors, screenwriters, directors and actors working to scare the crap out of you. Out In the Dark: Interviews with Gay Filmmakers, Actors and Authors introduces you to 31 of these men with interviews and insights into their work and their lives. Fro...
From the beginning, horror has been part of the cinema landscape. Despite some of the earliest genre films with gay directors such as F.W. Murnau (Nosferatu) and James Whale (Frankenstein, The Invisible Man, Bride of Frankenstein), LGBTQIA characters have rarely been portrayed in full view. For decades, filmmakers have included "coded" content in their films with the homosexual experience translated into censor-friendly subtext for consumption by general audiences. Gradually, LGBTQIA characters and themes have moved from the background to the foreground as the horror genre has grown along with its audience's tastes and attitudes. Likewise, more and more LGBTQIA writers and directors have beg...
A celebration of the most obscure, bizarre, and brain-busting movies ever made, this film guide features 250 in-depth reviews that have escaped the radar of people with taste and the tolerance of critics ― Goregasm! I Was a Teenage Serial Killer! Satan Claus!Die Hard Dracula! Curated by the enthusiastic minds behind BleedingSkull.com, this book gets deep into gutter-level, no-budget horror, from shot-on-VHS revelations (Eyes of the Werewolf) to forgotten outsider art hallucinations (Alien Beasts). Jam-packed with rare photographs, advertisements, and VHS sleeves (most of which have never been seen before), Bleeding Skull is an edifying, laugh-out-loud guide to the dusty inventory of the greatest video store that never existed.
Slumber Party Massacre. Pet Sematary. Near Dark. American Psycho... These horror movies have heavily contributed to pop culture and are loved by horror fans everywhere. But so many others have been forgotten by history. From the first silent reels to modern independent films, in this book you’ll discover the creepy, horrible, grotesque, beautiful, wrong, good, and fantastic — and the one thing they share in common. This is the true history of women directing horror movies. Having conducted hundreds of interviews and watched thousands of horror films, Heidi Honeycutt defines the political and cultural forces that shape the way modern horror movies are made by women. The women’s rights a...
Before captivating America as Morticia in The Addams Family, actress Carolyn Jones appeared in 30 movies (including starring roles with Elvis Presley and Frank Sinatra) and had a decade-long marriage to producer Aaron Spelling. But the road to Hollywood from her native Amarillo, Texas, was studded with rejection, typecasting, and unwanted comparisons to an actress who hated her: Bette Davis. Author James Pylant unveils the real Carolyn Jones, with access to her personal correspondence and journal, as well as interviews with her family, friends and fellow actors. What emerges is an intimate portrait of the iconic actress, a consummate professional who created a mystique not only for Morticia but for herself.--Website.
"SOV horror can be as simplistic, challenging, or offensive as any audience perceives it to be. It can also be enlightening, terrifying, and revealing...These are films that compare to no others in existence, and for that reason alone it’s long past time to accord them some measure of serious consideration." Long considered the dead-end of genre cinema, Shot-On-Video (SOV) horror finally gets its due as a serious filmmaking practice. Using classic fanzines, promotional materials, and especially the theories of several important film scholars, Vincent Albarano brings SOV horror into critical focus for the first time in print. Prior to this moment, Video Violence, Twisted Issues, Alien Beast...
In this tender novel set in 1955 Mill Town, Wisconsin, Sandra Kring explores the complicated bond between mothers and daughters, the pressure to conform, and the meaning of friendship and family. Ten-year-old Isabella “Teaspoon” Marlene has been a handful ever since her mother, Catty, dumped her with an old boyfriend and ran off to Hollywood. Teaspoon fights, fibs, never stops singing, and is as unpredictable and fearless as a puppy off its leash. Still, Teddy Favors, a man who has taken his share of kicks, is determined to raise her right. Teaspoon wants to be better for Teddy—even if that means agreeing to take part in a do-gooder mentorship program and being paired up with Brenda Bl...
Too often dismissed as nothing more than 'trash cinema', exploitation films have become both earnestly appreciated cult objects and home video items that are more accessible than ever. In this wide-ranging new study, David Church explores how the history of drive-in theatres and urban grind houses has descended to the home video formats that keep these lurid movies fondly alive today. Arguing for the importance of cultural memory in contemporary fan practices, Church focuses on both the re-release of archival exploitation films on DVD and the recent cycle of 'retrosploitation' films like Grindhouse, Machete, Viva, The Devil's Rejects, and Black Dynamite. At a time when older ideas of subcultural belonging have become increasingly subject to nostalgia, Grindhouse Nostalgia presents an indispensable study of exploitation cinema's continuing allure, and is a bold contribution to our understanding of fandom, taste politics, film distribution, and home video.
George A. Romero's Night of the Living Dead is a cult classic that has resonated with audiences and independent filmmakers ever since its release in 1968. It redefined horror cinema and launched the modern zombie genre that continues with films and series like 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and The Walking Dead. Ben Hervey's illuminating study of the movie traces Night's influences, from Powell and Pressburger to fifties horror comics, and provides the first history of its reception. Hervey argues that the film broke cultural barriers, fêted at New York's Museum of Modern Art while it was still packing 42nd Street grindhouses. Scene-by-scene analysis meshes with detailed historical contexts, showing why Night was a new kind of horror film: the expression of a generation who didn't want their world to return to normal.