Horror, the Film Reader (In Focus: Routledge Film Readers)
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Synopsis
This book begins with seminal essays, several dating back to the 1950s, that uncover the roots of the genre and explain its wide-ranging, indestructible appeal. These writings include, among many others, 'The Horror of It All' by Hollis Alpert and Charles Beaumont, 'The Subconscious: From Pleasure Castle to Libido Motel' by Raymond Durgnat and 'Satisfaction: A Most Unpleasant Feeling' by Roman Polanski. The second part of the book, New Perspectives, focuses on such specific films as Tod Browning's Freaks and The Devil Doll, The Haunting, in both its 1963 and 1999 incarnations, and The Devil and Daniel Webster; and on such sequel-driven characters as Frankenstein's monster and Freddy Kruegar and the Candyman. The scope of the collection is thus surprisingly broad considering as it does the horror film genre from different times, different perspectives, different angles. But the book's purpose is unvarying: to increase our understanding of how these movies succeed (or do not) in making our flesh creep, our skin turn pale and our hair stand on end. Indeed, the stills alone -- about 100 of them -- may occasionally do that.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Why we like horror
27 July 2008
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Most of the time, if we like something, we don't question it, we just enjoy it. Plenty of people enjoy horror films, so much so that it has remained a successful genre since the beginning of sound films (with the possible exception of the post WWII years when science fiction took over, albeit with horror trappings). Horror Film Reader tries to explain why we enjoy horror.
Horror Film Reader is an anthology of essays about horror movies edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini, two big writers on genre films (who also occasionally provide DVD commentaries). The first section of the book features "classic" essays on the subject, written from the 1950s to the `70s. The second part has more recent works from around 1980 to 2000.
As might be expected in an anthology of this sort, the articles have a variety of lengths, topics and quality. Some focus on major horror films, others on minor ones or more "trashy" horror, some on single movies, some on whole slews of them. Some have affection for the genre, others are more critical, and some have errors in plot descriptions that undermine their effectiveness.
Overall, however, this is a fun read, but only if you're well-versed in horror movies. If your experience is limited to only recent and very well-known works, you won't get as much out of this. There are, for example chapters on Mario Bava and Jess Franco, neither of whom are very well-known to modern movie-goers, though horror fans are more familiar with them. If you are a fan of the genre and its history, however, this book will provide some interesting insights.
Horror Film Reader is an anthology of essays about horror movies edited by Alain Silver and James Ursini, two big writers on genre films (who also occasionally provide DVD commentaries). The first section of the book features "classic" essays on the subject, written from the 1950s to the `70s. The second part has more recent works from around 1980 to 2000.
As might be expected in an anthology of this sort, the articles have a variety of lengths, topics and quality. Some focus on major horror films, others on minor ones or more "trashy" horror, some on single movies, some on whole slews of them. Some have affection for the genre, others are more critical, and some have errors in plot descriptions that undermine their effectiveness.
Overall, however, this is a fun read, but only if you're well-versed in horror movies. If your experience is limited to only recent and very well-known works, you won't get as much out of this. There are, for example chapters on Mario Bava and Jess Franco, neither of whom are very well-known to modern movie-goers, though horror fans are more familiar with them. If you are a fan of the genre and its history, however, this book will provide some interesting insights.
Scholarly...
15 Aug 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Scholarly reviews of the history of the horror film. Contains multiple stills from classic to modern (A whole chapter on "The Fly"). Question the point in some cases: often the stills don't match the subject matter. The articles are scholarly, but also interesting and intelligent, and a good read for the horror fan. Recommended.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Great buy at a lower price for required reading, but terribly put together book.
25 Nov 2011
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
This book was purchased to fill my TA320 reading requirement. The book is poorly put together with formatted essays that are hard to follow and often uninteresting. It almost felt like I was reading a book written by a high school graduate with no respect for the movies. Miraculously, my instructor had much more informing handouts available than the drivel in this book. The cover is from House on Haunted Hill, which was more psychological thriller than horror.
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