Horror Resources - Individual Findings

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/5237134/A-Thing-of-Unspeakable-Horror/Product.html - A
Thing of Unspeakable Horror: The History of Hammer Films by Sinclair McKay (New & Used:
£3.34)

'Hammer Films was in business producing its unique brand of camp Gothic horror films from 1934
until 1979, and struck gold in 1957 with "The Curse of Frankenstein." If the "Carry On" films
established a thoroughly British brand of lewd innuendo and slapstick comedy, Hammer
established an equally British brand of lashings of fake gore, heaving decolletage and plots as
creaky as the sets (the Transylvanian mansion was actually a country house in Berkshire) and.
Hammer made stars out of regulars like Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and it gave early
screen roles to an unlikely crop of thespians from Denis Waterman to Kate O'Mara. In 2007 the
Hammer oeuvre was reissued on DVD - but, as he author makes clear, the true medium for these
trashy gorefests is late night TV after you've got back from the pub.'

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/1825754/The-Monster-Show/Product.html - The Monster

Show: A Cultural History of Horror by David J. Skal (New & Used: £8.34)

'Frightfully well-done survey of modern horror, eclipsing Stephen King's seminal Danse Macabre
(1981) for clarity of writing, if not personableness or depth of idea, and Walter Kendrick's The
Thrill of Fear (1991) for cultural savvy. Where Kendrick found horror literature, film, etc., to be
primarily a way of coping with fear of death, Skal (Hollywood Gothic, 1991, etc.) stands with King
in discerning within the genre responses to myriad contemporary social ills, from economic
stagnation to AIDS. Skal opens with a striking symbol of the symbiosis of horror and societal
unease: Diane Arbus, photographer of outcasts and misfits, sitting in a darkened Manhattan
theater in 1961 watching a rare screening of Tod Browning's notorious horror masterpiece,
Freaks. A rundown of Browning's life and of the nearly parallel career of Brain Stoker's Dracula
and its many offshoots follows (some of the Dracula material is cribbed from Hollywood Gothic),
culminating in the watershed year 1931, when Dracula, Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,
and Freaks burst onto the screen, defining American horror (like King and unlike Kendrick, Skal
avoids extensive discussion of premodern horror). While Skal's text is intensely (sometimes
forcibly) idea-driven (he finds the 1931 films, for instance, revolving "around fantasies of
'alternative' forms of reproduction," responses to the "dust bowl sterility and economic
emasculation" of the time), he never forgets that horror is foremost a mass entertainment, and he
enlivens his narrative with a wealth of enjoyable anecdote and fact (e.g., that Bela Lugosi, who
spoke almost no English, learned his lines phonetically) as he covers every aspect of
contemporary horror - from EC comic books, Aurora plastic models, and Stephen King to oddball
TV horror hosts and the impact of latex makeup. Skal's love and respect for the genre shine
through this impeccably researched, lively chronicle: a top-drawer choice for horror fans. (Kirkus
Reviews)'

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/651167/The-Rough-Guide-to-Horror-Movies/Product.html -
The Rough Guide To Horror Movies by Alan Jones (New & Used: £7.46)

'The Rough Guide to Horror Movies is a comprehensive guide to the world's most terrifying films.
The guide includes all the icons, from Boris Karloff to Wes Craven and Frankenstein to Freddie
Kruger, including classics from Argentina, Pakistan, South Africa and the recent chillers from East
Asia. The canon of fifty essential horror movies features The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and
Switchblade Romance, via Psycho and The Exorcist. Everything you need to know is covered
from festivals, adaptations, magazines and merchandise. The guide tells the stories behind the
movies that have scared us throughout the twentieth century.'

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/1099980/American-Gothic-Sixty-Years-of-Horror-
Cinema/Product.html - American Gothic: Sixty Years of Cinema by Jonathon Rigby (New & Used:
£12.99)
'From the author of the acclaimed English Gothic: A Century of Horror Cinema, American Gothic
presents an in-depth survey of the early years of the American horror film--ranging from the birth
of cinema and the silent era to the mid-1950s. Jonathan Rigby examines a great many of the
seminal films, including Cat People, Creature from the Black Lagoon, Dracula, The Fly,
Frankenstein, Freaks, House of Wax, The Invisible Man, and She. He also looks at the actors and
directors--Lon Chaney, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, and Vincent Price, to name but a few. For fans
and students of the horror classics, American Gothic is an essential work. This is the genre as it
flourished from Univeral's early-thirties cycle and which culminated in Alfred Hitchcock's 1960
masterpiece Psycho, a film which forever changed and expanded the possibilities of horror
cinema.'

http://www.play.com/Books/Books/4-/1892374/On-Writing-Horror/Product.html - On Writing
Horror: A Handbook by The Horror Writers of America (New & Used: £8.24)

'Revised and expanded, the second edition of "On Writing Horror" will appeal to the readers who
made the first edition the standard reference in the field, as well as new writers seeking
authoritative instruction and inspiration on writing and selling horror. Featuring new and classic
advice from some of the best names in the field, this guide covers horror traditions, the art and
craft of writing horror, and where the genre is going next.'