I'm really glad I read this book. I've had it kind of marked, in my mind, as a to read book for several months now. Everytime I've finished a book since like March or April I would want to read this but end up with a reason why I didn't. So, a few days ago I finally decided to read it and I'm really glad I did. It was really, really informative. I learned a lot of things I didn't know before and it made me want to learn an awful lot more.The portraits of the directors were all very well done and very well distributed between different ideas and thought schools. The author's own opinions did kind of bleed through a decent amount, but I imagine that isn't all that big of a deal. This was just scholarly enough, I'd say. It really, really focused in on a particular subject, American horror cinema from the late 1960's to the early 1980's and shows how it got there, what several of the influences were, profiles of the men and women involved as well as the men and women of the past and future of the New Horror movement, the political climate, the intellectual climate, critical responses to the films he was discussing, different stories, fan responses and on and on and on.The writing is top notch, I'd say, for a non fiction book. Like I said, I really learned a lot and am looking forward to learning more. This also made me want to watch a lot more horror films, especially ones I haven't seen before or paid all that much attention to when I did see them back in high school. My biggest disagreements with the author were over about 2.5 things. We both view John Carpenter's Halloween in a few different ways and too, we both view Rob Zombie's remake of Halloween in two different ways.John Carpenter's Halloween has long since been one of my favorite movies and when I saw Rob Zombie's remake I really, really liked it. I still do. I watched it the other night and balled my eyes out because it was so beautiful. And if I am going to tell the 100 percent truth in this review, I am obligated to tell you that watching Rob Zombie's Halloween was one of the most genuine spiritually uplifting experiences I've had in months. Going to Mass doesn't always make me feel close to God, but apparently a 21st century horror film set in down state Illinois really, really does. Go figure, huh?Anyway, the author here, whose name I don't think I've ever really known to begin with, really, really hates Rob Zombie's remake. I can't help disagreeing more. Maybe this is nit-picking, but I'm reviewing a fucking book about horror movies, so why the fuck not?I can't help but feel like he gets John Carpenter's movie totally wrong. Michael Myers was hospitalized in, "Smith's Grove Hospital," which, at least to me, is clearly a Chicago-land reference. And there is a reference I read somewhere that the hospital was actually supposed to be written in as being in Warren County, which is really downstate, centrally speaking, I guess.And that might have been on Wikipedia, so maybe it's some folks in Warren County playing a prank, I don't know, but either way, the author really, really focuses on this being a movie about a calm suburban Illinois town. I just don't agree with that.To me, Haddonfield has always been down state. If Smith's Grove is a Chicago-Land hospital, the trip down state, which if I recall is like 80 or 90 or 100 miles or something, would literally have taken him AT LEAST to like, I dunno, Silvis or La-Salle or...what's that one town off 80 or 88 or whatever...there's a restaurant by a park...I don't think I'm talking about La-Salle but I might be...ROCK FALLS!!!!!Anyway, what I'm saying is that the author really criticized Rob Zombie for re-working Haddonfield to be a more working class town instead of a suburb, but the way downstate Illinois has gone since the late 1970's reflects Rob Zombie's idea perfectly. Or something like that. A lot of working class towns in downstate Illinois were a lot cleaner and more innocent-like in the 1970's. And the working class vision Rob Zombie has of down state Illinois sure matches a lot of what I've seen and experienced living in a working class Central Illinois town for most my life.Anyway, all I'm trying to say, to me it's always been a key part of enjoying Halloween knowing how close to home it hits as a resident of downstate Illinois myself. I guess it's possible Smith's Grove could be a Northern suburb and then that 90 miles south could have made Haddonfield more like Rockford or something like that, or maybe not, I really don't know anything about Chicagoland, all I'm saying, I just didn't like that part of this book. Anyway, besides that, the only other thing that kind of miffed me on this book was the author's defense of the new 21st century, "Torture porn," school of horror. I remember seeing Hostel in the theater when it came out and it was kind of cool, but I just kind of checked out of the horror genre when those movies started coming out, especially the Saw franchise. I've just always kind of really and thoroughly disliked that style. Though he's probably right in that those movies are more about an anti-violence message than the glorification of violence itself. Too, the author does make a good point in how their directors were doing what George Romero and Wes Craven were doing with Night of the Living Dead and Last House of the Left, and I imagine he's right, but either way, I just never really cared for Saw and never even wanted to go near The Human Centipede. Although there are, for the record, a few 21st century horror films I've really enjoyed. The Ring was great and I also really liked The Haunting in Connecticut when I saw it. The Grudge was decent enough and The Rite I actually really kind of liked. Another thing that kind of miffed me about this review was the author's negative-esque look on morality tales. And that's fine, but I mean, I've always loved morality tales. Eric Rohmer is one of my all-time favorite directors. And too, this book really did a great job explaining the whole Exploitation film scene. Reading novels by Arthur Nersesian really made all that a lot more enjoyable to learn about. His novel Suicide Casanova is a really beautiful book and a kind of love letter to 1970's New York sleaze. Reading The Fuck Up by Nersesian too really made those parts really more enjoyable. It's interesting too how he shows the different intellectual influences of the directors, whether art house films from Europe or Italian horror or the Universal Monster pictures or a reaction against Universal Monsters, also the Monster Problem sections were really, really informative, and the different stances on Alfred Hitchcock all really made for very, very interesting reading. He also pays a decent amount of attention to how different literatures have affected horror films. And it's cool how he focuses more on H.P. Lovecraft and early 20th century literature, or even Ira Levin's original novel Rosemary's Baby and William Blatty's original novel of The Exorcist. He really does the original literary influences of these classic films a lot of justice in this book. He even goes out of his way to discuss what particular stories of Lovecraft that John Carpenter liked as well as his other literary influences besides Lovecraft. So often all horror between Poe and Stephen King just gets ignored, so it was really cool to see this author really explore Lovecraft and some other folks in the middle of the 20th century. Too bad he didn't talk a little bit about Shirley Jackson. And the battle for meaning was also fascinating to read about. The debate of what was more basically frightening, knowing or not knowing? Seeing or not seeing? Explaining or not explaining? Motive or no motive?So, all in all I'm really glad I read this book! It was a great pleasure to finally be able to read it! Interesante version alternativa a los escritos de Biskind o lo que es lo mismo sobre un puñado de directores con un par de cojones y mucha inventiva que pusieron patas arriba el moribundo (por menospreciado) cine de terror...Sus huellas aun siguen ahi...Escrito de forma sencilla y amena es ideal para neófitos, los que busquen mas profundidad "Shock Value" servirá mas como elemento de disfrute que como instrumento de documentacion....Eso si para mi gusto me faltan 2 capitulos mas dedicados "A nightmare on Elm Street" y "Evil Dead".....Disfrutable
What do You think about Sesión Sangrienta (2011)?
Like Easy Riders, Raging Bulls but for horror movies. Lots of fun.
—reading
