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< Friday the 13th 6 [VHS] > < Friday the 13th, Part V - A New Beginning > < Friday the 13th, Part VII - The New Blood > < Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter > < Friday the 13th, Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan > < Friday the 13th, Part 3, 3-D (Deluxe Edition) >

price：~~$189.95~~
Paramount(1994-09-28)

customer 's review
(JASON'S BACK AND HE'S P I S S-ED! 2 1/2 STARS!)

(2 stars out of 4)

(He's Baaaaaaaack!)

(Amen, Jason Lives Again - Let The Slayathon Begin!!)

(Most Campy Camp-Killer In The Series)

I am writing reviews for each of the Friday the 13th, but I own the box set and the older releases of the later two. The reviews are for those editions not the newer deluxe editions.

Jason's back in this enjoyable installment that has the best intro of any of the films! I loved the nod to James Bond films when the camera closes in on Jason's eye! I saw Jason differently from this point forward.

The DVD transfer is very good and there are some interesting extras on the box set.
The Bottom Line:

Slightly less awful than its immediate predecessor and successor, "Jason Lives" manages to avoid a lower rating by not taking itself very seriously; it could never be considered good, but if you like Friday movies you should see this one before V, VIII, and (God forbid) Jason Goes to Hell.
Thank God, this is better than number five (although it would be difficult for it to be much worse!). The first half is REALLY good, and the first death scene was cool and gory and the effects were very good considering it was made in 1986.

The characters are well developed and likeable in this movie - something which some of the lesser sequels lack - and it has a pretty high body count.

However, I think that some of the more interesting characters were killed off too early and the movie has been edited quite a lot, theres not that much gore, so the second half of the movie is dissapointing after the start. I'd give the first 45 mins five stars and the second half three stars.

Tommy and his friend accidently bring Jason Voorhee's back to death and he sets out uopn yet another murderous killing spree at Camp Crystal Lake, which has now been renamed Camp Forest Green, to forget Jason Voorhees (despite dozens of horrific murders, characters in Friday the 13th sequels have rarely heard of Jason Voorhees).

Deffinatly worth a watch for fans of the series, not a bad sequel.
Call me what you want, I don't care, but I love a high body count slasher film. "Jason Lives" royally defines the high body count genre. (Mario Bava created it with "Twitch of the Death Nerve," a.k.a., "Bay of Blood".) Half the fun of watching a Jason Voorhees film is counting the number of kills. We know it's Hollywood. No one actually dies.

Many fans didn't like "Part V - A New Beginning" because Jason wasn't in it. I happened to love it. Nevertheless, we were all happy to see Jason rise from the grave like a vampire emerging from its coffin. Jason's resurrection via a lightning bolt isn't all that unbelievable. Dr. Victor Frankenstein brought his creations to life all the time using the life-giving energy harnessed from lighting bolts.

Now that Jason is alive, he immediately sets out to do what he does best - kill attractive teens who are promiscuous. (Because of Jason, I held onto my virginity as long as I could; having braces and birth control glasses helped.). He begins walking toward Camp Crystal Lake, killing everyone in his path. The triple beheading made movie history. I'd like to see Freddy or Chucky do that. "Jason Lives" had a lot of decapitations. In fact, I read where this film had the highest body count of the series.

I must admit, another reason why I love this movie is the heavy metal soundtrack. My favorite song is Alice Cooper's "He's Back (The Man Behind The Mask)" - a great song for summarizing Jason's career as a serial killer who preys on promiscuous teens. I will definitely be playing it when the "Friday the 13th" remake hits the big screen on Friday, February 13th. Jason returns for a new generation of horror fans to enjoy. Be rest assured . . . when Jason lives . . . everyone around him dies.

Happy Friday the 13th!!!!

This installment was a huge letdown. It tried going back to the roots of what made it great. Tried to follow the same flame that made The Final Chapter great by continuing with the Tommy Jarvis plot. To me it was just the same old thing with bad background music, horrid acting, and so-so effects.

This is my least favorite film in the series. I was tired of that Tommy Jarvis bit from Part 5, and could care less about ANY of the people who got killed. Especially that dork in the beginning from Welcome Back Kotter who (thankfully) gets his annoying heart ripped out. Tommy is so annoying I was hoping Jason would kill him, hoping still that the sheriff would have done his job and kept him locked up.

The ending was okay, in that they wanted to "return him home," so that's where the 2-stars come from. Other than that, this movie is worthy of a rental at best.
Rerations
< Friday the 13th 6 [VHS] > < Friday the 13th, Part V - A New Beginning > < Friday the 13th, Part VII - The New Blood > < Friday the 13th - The Final Chapter > < Friday the 13th, Part VIII - Jason Takes Manhattan > freaks

< Phantom of the Opera [VHS] > < The Phantom of the Opera - The Ultimate Edition (1925 Original Version and 1929 Restored Version) > < The Phantom of the Opera (Widescreen Edition) > < Dr. Jekyll&Mr. Hyde Double Feature (1932/1941) > < The Hunchback of Notre Dame > < The Wolf Man - The Legacy Collection (The Wolf Man / Werewolf of London / Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man / She-Wolf of London) >

price：~~$7.79~~
Universal Studios(1992-03-01)

customer 's review
(A 'must see' Film)

(Fantastic music and acting)

(Phantom Remade)

(The Phantom Rocks)

(The best Silent Film I have seen)

From Australia,
300 years ago when I was a very young boy, I missed school for 3 weeks
to see this film which was screening at the wonderful State Theatre in the City of Melbourne. Sneaking through the theatre's back door I spent my entire days imersing myself in the wonderful music and song by both Susanna Foster and Nelson Eddy, and the fine acting of Claude Rains.There
have been numerious versions of 'Phantom of the Opera' but this is the best by a long streak.The print is excellent, with no artifacts or 'cue
marks'. Certainly not to be missed.
Thomas Knight,
Production Manager
Wintergarden Community Film Services.(Aust)
A great technicolor masterpiece about the crazed monster of the opera. Claude Rains is terrific and the music is impressive. Well done film.
In this remake of the 1925 classic, Claude Rains portrays the masked Phantom with Susanna Foster as Christine and Edgar Barrier as Raoul.

This film is full of vivid color and marvelous opera sequences. This film focuses much more on the opera than the Phantom. The film's style precedes that of Lloyd Webber's musical.

This version takes considerable liberties with Leroux's original story. Some events are still intact, such as the chandelier crash scene and, of course, the unmasking. However, some scenes like the masked ball are not included at all. The Phantom's back story was also completely revised. With all these changes, fans that are looking for and updated, colorized version of the 1925 film may be disappointed. If they had made many more changes, I could hardly call this a Phantom of the Opera movie.

Overall, if you are looking for a different take on the Phantom story, you may like this version.
Phantom of the Opera is one hour and thirty-three minutes long and was released on August 27, 1943. There some major difference from the Lon Chaney (1925) and Claude Rains (1943) versions. The 1925 version is black and white while the 1943 was filmed in Technicolor. Another Lon's charter is Erik a skill musician and a master of Black Magic. Claude's character is a pit violinist named Erique Claudin. As for as we know, Lon Chaney's Phantom was born with that facial feature. Erique Claudin was thrown acid on his face while killing a Pleyel, a music publisher. Also with the 1943 version we have musical and operetta scores. The 1943 version won two Academy Awards; one for Best Art Direction and another for Best Cinematography. The movie, art direction, and music scores are great. Granted Claude Rains Phantom is not as scary as Lon Chaney, but it is an excellent movie to watch.
The Phantom of the Opera, directed by Rupert Julian and starring the Legendary Lon Chaney who is called "The Man of a Thousand Faces", is the first Silent Film that I have ever seen. I was absolutely shocked that I liked it so much. This movie is said to have been his best work and the most bizarre presentation of his thousand faces ever to grace the screen and I have to agree.

Marveled as a horror movie, I would say that it's closer to a mystery with a lot of suspense. The setting is the famous Paris Opera House and The Phantom stalks the caverns and crevices of the playhouse. Obsessed with understudy Christine Daae played by Mary Philbin, The Phantom ensures that she gets her time to shine.

This 1943 version of the horror story is more Technicolor musical than scare piece. Claude Rains plays the unfortunate, masked anti-hero, but he doesn't get the room to showcase a promising and sympathetic performance. Susanna Foster and Nelson Eddy, on the other hand, get plenty of screen time to warble. Well worth a visit just for the look of the film, which won an Oscar for cinematography.--Tom Keogh
Rerations
< Phantom of the Opera [VHS] > < The Phantom of the Opera - The Ultimate Edition (1925 Original Version and 1929 Restored Version) > < The Phantom of the Opera (Widescreen Edition) > < Dr. Jekyll&Mr. Hyde Double Feature (1932/1941) > < The Hunchback of Notre Dame > freaks

< Forbidden Planet (Remastered Edition) [VHS] > < The Day the Earth Stood Still > < The War of the Worlds (Special Collector's Edition) > < This Island Earth > < The Thing from Another World > < When Worlds Collide >

price：~~$14.98~~
DVD)(1996-06-18)

customer 's review
(One of the Greatest Sci-Fi Masterpieces of all Time . . .)

(Great space flick!)

(Forbidden Planet)

(Sci-Fi Classic)

(Dicky-doo)

Until this day it is still impossible to believe that this Gem - a true Milestone for its time - was created in 1956 . This is the Sci-Fi Classic that actually did 'Boldly go where no man had gone before' and long before Star Trek and its decendents . The transfer from film onto DVD is flawless in every way, the color is rich and dreamscapish the sound is crisp and way ahead of its time, a clear departure from the standard of its time . Having not seen Forbidden Planet in quite some time I had forgotten just how far away from placing an emphasis on quality over making a quick buck we have come . A timeless classic that in fact taught everyone else how to make films of this Genre is nicely packaged in a DVD that is truly one of a kind . This is a must-have for every serious film collector .
I saw Forbidden Planet for the first time when I was in grade school. SScared the h*#*#&out of me. I had to sleep in my mothers room for 6 months before I could get the fear of "DEEP BREATHING" out of my bed room. MY mother cursed my dad forever for taking me to see it! I have now watched it at least 30 times. I can't wait for the 2010 version, due out next year! I hope they do a good job on it, and bring it back with 21st century graphics! And can the "WOO WOO WOO" stuff.
Forbidden Planet DVD is excellent. The DVD was received in excellent condition and before scheduled delivery date.
Forbidden Planet is a classic of science fiction. By todays standards the visual effects are antiquated but this movie was made over 50 years ago and with that in mind, the special effects are special. Also a great story of man's intrinsically evil inner self.
Excellent sci-fi! BUT...the DVD holder was created in 1999 and the cheap plastic that holds the disc is brittle and breaks allowing the disc to move freely and become scratched by the broken plastic during shipment. The holders made after 2000 are better quality plastic and more dependable. Recycle the brittle holders and use a holder that protects instead of taking a chance. I'll pay another dime for it.
This 1956 pop adaptation of Shakespeare'sThe Tempestis one of the best, most influential science fiction movies ever made. Its space explorers are the models for the crew ofStar Trek'sEnterprise, and the film's robot is clearly the prototype for Robby inLost in Space. Walter Pidgeon is the Prospero figure, presiding over a paradisiacal world with his lovely young daughter and their servile droid. When the crew of a spaceship lands on the planet, they become aware of a sinister invisible force that threatens to destroy them. Great special effects and a bizarre electronic score help make this movie as fresh, imaginative, and fun as it was when first released.
Rerations
< Forbidden Planet (Remastered Edition) [VHS] > < The Day the Earth Stood Still > < The War of the Worlds (Special Collector's Edition) > < This Island Earth > < The Thing from Another World > freaks

< RiffTrax: Carnival of Souls - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Plan 9 From Outer Space - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < Rifftrax: Night of the Living Dead - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Missile to the Moon - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Reefer Madness - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! >

price：~~$9.95~~
Legend Films(2009-06-16)
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customer 's review
(Carnival of Laughs)

"Carnival of Souls" is one of my favorite low-budget "cult classics"...so much so, I even own the Criterion edition. So I couldn't pass up the chance to get Mike, Kevin, and Bill's take on it.

The movie itself actually looks pretty good in this transfer and can be watched without the commentary. Add the commentary, of course, for the laughs. Things start out slow and I'm not terribly impressed, but the jokes get better as they go along, particularly Kevin's running "Password" gag in the department store scene.

If you're a fan of Carnival of Souls as well as a fan of MST3K, this one's a must have.
Horror! Romance! Spine-tingling suspense!Carnival of Soulswill make you long to be watching a movie that contains any of these things! In fact, you'd probably settle for a movie that contains a discernible plot. Instead you get lead actress Candace Hilligoss, notable for having one eyebrow that is consistently raised higher than the other. Along her journey to Utah (most of which is shown in real time) she meets colorful characters such as "The greasy guy in the boarding house" and "The priest who disapproves of her organ playing." -Carnival of Soulsis grim, unsettling and contains 150% of your daily recommended dose of organ music. Therefore, it is like putty in the hands of master riffers Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett ofRiffTrax.comandMystery Science Theater 3000. Watch as they shape this filmic atrocity into a hilarious lump of comedy, which, from the right angle, kind of resembles an ashtray. Happy Father's Day!
Rerations
< RiffTrax: Carnival of Souls - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Plan 9 From Outer Space - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < Rifftrax: Night of the Living Dead - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Missile to the Moon - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > freaks

< RiffTrax: Little Shop of Horrors - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < Rifftrax: Night of the Living Dead - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Plan 9 From Outer Space - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Missile to the Moon - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Reefer Madness - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! >

price：~~$9.95~~
Legend Films(2009-06-16)
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Studio: Legend Films Inc. Release Date: 06/16/2009
Rerations
< RiffTrax: Little Shop of Horrors - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: House on Haunted Hill - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < Rifftrax: Night of the Living Dead - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Plan 9 From Outer Space - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > < RiffTrax: Missile to the Moon - from the stars of Mystery Science Theater 3000! > freaks

< Deep Blue Sea > < Lake Placid (Widescreen Edition) > < Jaws (30th Anniversary Edition) > < Anaconda > < Jaws 2 > < Jaws 3 > < Deep Blue Sea: Music From The Motion Picture >

price：~~$8.99~~
Warner Home Video(1999-12-07)
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customer 's review
(Deep Blue Sea is a great movie.)

(i love this freaking movie)

(Best Worst Movie EVER)

(One of my favorite movies.)

(GREAT)

I purchased this DVD from Amazon, curious about what the movie would be like. When I watched it, I found it to be very good. The theme of the movie is based on a laboratory located out at sea in a old prison. The workers of the lab find themselves getting in trouble with shark activity.

I won't say any more than this because I don't want to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it yet.

The movie is rated `R' and runs 105 minutes long. The cast of actors include Thomas Jane, LL Cool J, Michael Rapaport, Stellan Skarsgard and Samuel L Jackson. The movie is brought to us by Warner brothers, so you know its good.

I'm glad I added this one to my collection.

Reporter Joseph Toth
Washington Micro Bank BBS
this is def a fav movie of mine first of all its the best shark movie made withi the last 5 years and the graphics are awsome theres a surprise at the end and the whole plot is awsome another plus is that the sharks arnt great whites like you usually see there makos which look like great whites only smaller plus ll cool j is in it and so is the guy from the punisher
the key to watching this movie is to understand its true nature. you might be tempted to watch this as a cautionary tale about the dangers of playing God, perhaps expecting Frankenstein, or Gattaca. you may also be tempted to watch this as a summer popcorn flick: big scary sharks, girl who must undress to kill said sharks, rapper/actor as shark fodder, etc. neither of these approaches is correct. you will be disappointed (thus, the various one-star reviews). you must watch this movie understanding that this is the GREATEST BAD MOVIE YOU WILL EVER WATCH. it's as if Ingmar Bergman undertook to make a porno, but decided to explore the bad qualities of the genre, instead of elevating it (like Spielberg has done for various genres). therefore, this movie is a careful meditation on really bad action films. it's ridiculous. but oh so well-crafted. there is whimsy. there is suspense. it is too clever to actually be this stupid. so you wink along and enjoy it. from the beginning it is perfectly pitched, pretending as if it were in fact a summer action movie. until Samuel L. Jackson's big scene. you know of what i speak. at that point, one is put on clear notice that this is not merely a by-the-numbers summer action movie. this is an absurd farce. but a really clever one. at that point, all bets are off. sharks move up, down, and backwards like fighter jets. helicopters are not safe from these things. the sharks actually have motivation. they are fighting for their freedom, like Che Guevera. Sharke Libre!! as for the poor humans, it is eminently obvious who will survive. but at the end, the film is like PSYCHE, B!T@H&5!! it is, at this juncture, also a pointed commentary about assuming the fate of the black guy. you ponder who the racist summer-shark-movie-watcher might be, and you look in the mirror and realize....it is I.
I find sharks to be fascinating creatures, and this movie showcases many of the things I find interesting about the. Although CG and models, the sharks are so well done that I keep forgetting they are not real! The actors are all superb in their roles--I like the chef the best. The dialogue and plot flow smoothly, and while the ending is rather over-the-top, it still makes sense and works well while you are watching. On a side note, the film really made me think about genetics work and the ethics involved. Very well thought out, and kind of frightening in its real world implications.

Great movie that I watch at least once a month. I love it!
SHARKS AND DINOSAURS ARE MY THING AND THIS IS THE BEST SHARK MOVIE I HAVE. I HAVE WATCHED IT AT OVER AND OVER AND OVER. MAKES JAWS 1-4 LOOK LIKE GUPPY MOVIES.
Researchers ont he undersea lab aquatica have genetically altered the brains of captive sharks to develop a potential cure for alzheimers disease. Theres an unexpected side effect: the critters got smarter and meaner. Studio: Warner Home Video Release Date: 05/31/2005 Starring: Thomas Jane Michael Rapaport Run time: 105 minutes Rating: R Director: Renny Harlin
With a voracious trio of mako sharks wreaking havoc,Deep Blue Seadares to up the ante onJaws, but director Renny Harlin trades the nuanced suspense of Spielberg's 1975 blockbuster for the trickery of the digital age. In other words, why build genuine terror when you can show ill-fated humans getting torn into bloody chunks? The aforementioned makos have been lab rats in an effort to harvest a miracle cure for Alzheimer's disease from the brains of sharks, but the research has an unfortunate side effect: the sharks get smarter, and they're determined to break out of Aquatica, the deep-sea complex where they've been penned.

Model-actress Saffron Burrows plays the researcher; Thomas Jane pulls double-duty as shark expert and action hunk; Samuel L. Jackson's the corporate sponsor who chooses theworsttime for an Aquatica tour; and rapper LL Cool J is nicely cast as Aquatica's cook and comic relief. Michael Rapaport, Jacqueline McKenzie, and Stellan Skarsgård round out the cast, most of whom are turned into shark food as the makos turn Aquatica into a floating junkyard. Harlin takes devilish pleasure in providing sudden, unexpected shocks--no small feat in such a derivative thriller--and as a series of action set-pieces,Deep Blue Seanever disappoints. It's inevitable that Burrows should end up in her underwear like Sigourney Weaver inAlien, but even then the movie offers a credible reason for the strip-down; thatDeep Blue Seacan be simultaneously ridiculous and sensible is just another one of its shlocky charms.--Jeff Shannon
Rerations
< Deep Blue Sea > < Lake Placid (Widescreen Edition) > < Jaws (30th Anniversary Edition) > < Anaconda > < Jaws 2 > freaks

< The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword > < The Horror Film (Inside Film) > < Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen > < The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film (Texas Film and Media Studies Series) > < Horror Film Reader (Softcover) > < Nightmares in Red, White and Blue: The Evolution of the American Horror Film > David J. Skal

price：~~$1.70~~
Faber
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customer 's review
(An Essential Piece of Horror history)

(Thick as a Brick)

(An excellent history of the American horror film)

(First Half is Great! Second Half is Silly.)

(The Madness of Movie Monsters)

David J.Skal's The Monster Show is one of the most important works on the cultural impact of horror ever written.

His book follows the roots of our fascination from the beginning of the twentieth century,through the silent era,Universal pictures in the 30s,World War 2,the 50s,60s and into today.

The symbolic links the genre has to our own history is underlined throughout,and it's amazing how much is uncovered.

Skal does not just provide a history of the growth of human culture throughout the twentieth century,but also alot about the horror film.
His research into the early horror cinmema was groundbreaking and has been imitated greatly ever since.

This recent reprint adds an excellent afterthought by Skal on the meaning of Horror today,taking a quote from the film,"Gods and Monsters" to sum up it's endless appeal to the filmgoer.

If any criticism must be made,it's that Skal does get too "Freudian" sometimes,and seems to lose topic,but his points are made and for the horror intellectual this does indeed,make a very good read.

Reccomended.
David Skal writes like a genie on acid, his mind a stack of tottering file drawers in Bartleby's littered office. His magnum opus, THE MONSTER SHOW, piles on the gore and, in addition, tries harder than Freud to make sense of our need for ritual bloodletting as entertainment. Though it's clear his forte is old Hollywood, particularly the great Universal horrors of the 1930s and 1940s, he knows just about everything on a range of other allied topics. I found his section on the French theatrical phenomenon of Grand Guignol to be the best short account I have ever read of it.

His judgments on individual films and performances are always on the mark; whether or not you agree with his grading system, you must bow to his expertise and the felicity with which he makes his points. He takes his examples not only from mass media but from the fine arts, explaining that the feminist slogan "Your Body is a Battlefield" made famous by Barbara Kruger had its cinematic enactments in any number of 1970s and 1980s child/birth/mutant films from CHILDS PLAY to IT'S ALIVE and DEMON SEED.

I actually think there's not much point discussing Universal's FRANKENSTEIN and DRACULA movies without considering the studio product as a whole, for what kept Deanna Durbin from acting in THE PHANTOM OF THE OPERA, but for Skal, horror is a ghetto into which only rhe big events intrude--the Depression, the fleeing Weimar emigres, the Cold War, the Bomb.Skal doesn't have much of a sense of humor (maybe that's why he has, as so many have noticed, so little stomach for Hammer horror), but he has all the gifts of a born researcher and popularizer. THE MONSTER SHOW is rich and dense as a chocolate cheesecake, and it's a little crazy too, so what more can you ask for?
I felt compelled to write a review to counter some of the complaints by other reviewers that Skal leaves out the work of many influential European directors. This is true, but I think largely misses the point of the book, which is mostly a history of the development of the *American* horror film. The first part of the book is a comprehensive history tracing the roots of the Universal horror films from book to stage to, finally, their classic film versions. Given so much of the book is devoted to the establishment of the earliest film horror, it's inevitable that the other, oh, SEVEN DECADES won't get quite the same amount of attention. Whether or not you agree with Skal's politics or approach to the cultural history of horror, I still think "The Monster Show" is a must-read for any horror fan and a great place to start for the fan who wants to learn more about the history of their favorite genre.
This book starts out great! It was so interesting to read about the old fashioned horror films and the people who created them. The author made it so easy to read, and I was flying through it all! I could tell that the book was very well researched, and it was nice to see how the author made connections and observations of his own. It is a very good beginner book for anyone interested in historical horror cinema.

The second part of the book is ridiculous. It goes on about silly people who think they are vampires, dumb connections that the author just threw in, and the writing starts to get really silly. It is almost as if the author was told to make the book longer, and he stretched it as far as it could possibly go. It wasn't exactly boring, but unresearched and juvenile.

I would recommend this book for people who are just starting to read about the history of the horror movie. It was really easy to read, and the first half was great! Although the second half let me down, I still think this book is worth the read. (Maybe from the library, though!)
It sometimes seems that the history of horror films began with Universal's Frankenstein and Dracula, with an occasional nod to some silent film. It doesn't make much research to find out that there is much more to this history, as David Skal illustrates in The Monster Show. In fact, it is till almost the one-third point in the book that these landmark films are really discussed.

What happened earlier were such crucial films as Nosteratu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Phantom of the Opera. Skal also relates stories of early figures, including Lon Chaney and Tod Browning and some of the literary and dramatic predecessors to the horror film. Only after laying this foundation does Skal really get into the iconic movies of Dracula and Frankenstein. There were other horror landmark films in this era, including The Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Island of Lost Souls, and between the early 1930s and 1940s, others would appear as well, most prominently the Wolf Man.

These films are quite tame by today's standards, but to many overly sensitive and self-righteous souls of the era, these movies practically heralded the end of civilization, leading to de facto censorship. The genie, however, was out of the bottle, and like any good movie monster, it could never be truly killed.

Skal zips from this era to the age of early television, when a new audience got to see these movies (often introduced by figures like Vampira) and the fan base expanded to a new, ardent generation. Then it's on to the era of more modern horror, ushered in by Psycho: not only is horror more gruesome (the result of better special effects and more relaxed ratings standards). As earlier films could be allegories for war or the Depression, newer films could provide symbols for AIDS and birth control. And new or old, sex and religion were always entangled in the themes.

This book is subtitled A Cultural History of Horror, but as fascinating as it often is, perhaps it should be a Cultural History of American Horror made by Major Studios. There is a lot that is omitted here that should be found in any reasonable history of cinematic horror. Val Lewton, the influential horror producer of the 1940s, has only one of his movies really described (Cat People) and only gets a couple pages of text. Roger Corman and his Poe movies are hardly mentioned at all. Most glaringly, Hammer Films, which reinvented horror in the 1950s (when American horror was at its nadir), is discussed in little more than a couple of scattered sentences (let alone any non-English films after the initial German movies).

Despite these omissions, this is still a pretty decent book, but the flaws keep it from earning more than four stars. If you're a horror movie fan, this is worth reading. Skal is pretty knowledgeable on the subject and can add an extra level of appreciation for this film genre.
This study of the visual horror genre from Dr. Caligari to Dr. Hannibal Lecter starts with a discussion of Diane Arbus's photographs of freaks. David Skal then suggests that he will seek to "explain why the images resonated in the culture ... [and] why so much of our imaginative life in the 20th century has been devoted to peeling back the masks and scabs of civilization, to finding, cultivating, and projecting nightmare images of the secret self." Whether or not you agree with his thesis that horror is a symptom of society's ills (war, disease, poverty), you will find much of value in this thorough, highly readable history--especially the detailed accounts of the work of filmmaker Tod Browning, and of howFrankensteinandDraculamade their way from books to plays to films. The book is handsomely designed (hardcover has dust jacket by Edward Gorey), with illustrations, footnotes, and index.
Illuminating the dark side of the American century,The Monster Showuncovers the surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism and other artistic movements.

With penetrating analyses and revealing anecdotes, David J. Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade,The Monster Showis a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

Illuminating the dark side of the American century,The Monster Showuncovers the surprising links between horror entertainment and the great social crises of our time, as well as horror's function as a pop analogue to surrealism and other artistic movements.
With penetrating analyses and revealing anecdotes, David J. Skal chronicles one of our most popular and pervasive modes of cultural expression. He explores the disguised form in which Hollywood's classic horror movies played out the traumas of two world wars and the Depression; the nightmare visions of invasion and mind control catalyzed by the Cold War; the preoccupation with demon children that took hold as thalidomide, birth control, and abortion changed the reproductive landscape; the vogue in visceral, transformative special effects that paralleled the development of the plastic surgery industry; the link between the AIDS epidemic and the current fascination with vampires; and much more. Now with a new Afterword by the author that looks at horror's popular renaissance in the last decade,The Monster Showis a compulsively readable, thought-provoking inquiry into America's obsession with the macabre.

Rerations
< The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword > < The Horror Film (Inside Film) > < Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen > < The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film (Texas Film and Media Studies Series) > < Horror Film Reader (Softcover) > freaks

< A Christmas Carol > < The Night Before Christmas: The Heirloom Edition > < A Christmas Carol (Ultimate Collector's Edition)(B/W&Color) > < A Christmas Carol > < A Christmas Carol > < The Gift of the Magi > Charles Dickens

price：~~$6.40~~
Candlewick(2006-09-12)
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customer 's review
(Great Buy)

(A Christmas Carol)

(Beautiful book!)

(Christmas Carol book)

(The Spirit of Christmas Comes Alive!)

Have been collecting movies based on the Dicken's Christmas Carol for years. Looked for an unabridged copy of the book in hardback and was delighted to find this one. The price was great and service was fast. I am very pleased with this purchase.
This a excellent rendition of the story wonderful illustrations and the text is large and easily read. A heirloom piece...
I, like so many others, love the story "A Christmas Carol", and I love a lot of the movies that have been done on this story, the version with Alastair Sims being my all time favorite. But I've always wanted the buy the book, and I wanted to find one that was as beautiful as the story, and this book is! Beautiful pictures, nice thick pages, nicely bound, and just pretty to look at. And the story is the unabridged version, so its Dickens actual words total and complete, and you can't beat the price! I would totally recommend this version! Buy it, you won't be sorry.
I seemed like it took forever to come but I love it. It was in great condition. The book was well made. I liked the artwork and of course the story.
I read this book in honor of Christmas, and it really put me in the Christmas mood! It's light, fun, sad, and presents an important message about Christmas. During this time of rampant commercialism and long lists to Santa, it's easy to forget that the greatest joys of Christmas come from the giving. This book illustrates the euphoria that Scrooge feels when he finally is able to give gifts, either of time, money, food, or whatever, to other people. Christmas is not about what you can get...it's about what you can give. If you want a story that will remind you of the real meaning of Christmas, this is it! In terms of story-telling, this book has classic Dickensian characters and ample humor and drama, making it a classic in its own right. If I had any criticism, it would be that the story seems to wander a bit and move even a little too fast. But it really doesn't take too much away from the experience.
The celebrated P.J. Lynch captures the spirit of Dickens's beloved tale in a richly illustrated unabridged edition.

The story of Ebenezer Scrooge opens on a Christmas Eve as cold as Scrooge's own heart. That night, he receives three ghostly visitors: the terrifying spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come. Each takes him on a heart-stopping journey, yielding glimpses of Tiny Tim and Bob Cratchit, the horrifying spectres of Want and Ignorance, even Scrooge's painfully hopeful younger self. Will Scrooge's heart be opened? Can he reverse the miserable future he is forced to see? Now in an unabridged edition gloriously illustrated by the award-winning P.J. Lynch, this story's message of love and goodwill, mercy and self-redemption resonates as keenly as ever.
Rerations
< A Christmas Carol > < The Night Before Christmas: The Heirloom Edition > < A Christmas Carol (Ultimate Collector's Edition)(B/W&Color) > < A Christmas Carol > < A Christmas Carol > freaks

< Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film > < The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film (Texas Film and Media Studies Series) > < The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (Popular Fictions Series) > < The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart > < American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film > < Hollywood from Vietnam to Reagan...and Beyond > Carol J. Clover

price：~~$2.90~~
Princeton University Press
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customer 's review
(One of the best books I read last year.)

(No opinion either way.)

(Slumming academics)

(Good in spite of itself)

(One-sex theory? Anal birth?)

This book is so fun! Solid litcrit meets a genre that does not get much mainstream exposure. Clover makes her case well, and also makes it entertaining. Although it was published several years ago, this book is still relevant to the genre, and I recommend it highly!
The book is undeniably well written. Alot of the author's points are valid, and her(?)ideas about the role of gender in horror films are interesting. What really burns me is that I'm not too sure that she actually watched some of the films she mentions. Or if she did, she didn't really pay too much attention.

I think that if one were to write a book about character study, they should probably pay closer attention to the characters they study. Make sense to me.

Overall, reading this book was helpful in the way it describes a relativly small audience....not horror fans, but people who want to pick apart horror movies in order to make sense of horror fans. For the academics, who don't know how to shut their brains off in order to just kick back and enjoy a good old fashoined "Killin' Movie", this book could really come in handy. For those of us who need no help in enjoying the genre, this book might help you speak the language of people who don't. This new ability could be useful when you get dragged into either an argument or a sophist's conversation on the subject. (Sophist being different than sophisticate...sophists only pretend to know what they're talking about when they are around people whom they believe to not know any better.)

All things being equal though...its an allright book.

P.S.

I secretly wonder sometimes, when people talk about how its always women being beaten, tortured and killed in horror films.

99% of these slasher films are about slashers. Duh...ok with that out of the way, let's ask ourselves who these slashers are.
Maniacs, (Almost always male) with some sort of abhorrent social disfunction. Sounds alot like our real life serial killers.

As bad as Jason Voorhese is, he doesn't even compare to the Green River Killer, or Edmund Kemper. As witty and Terrifying Freddy Kruger might be, his evil genius pales in comparison to guys like Carl Panzram or H.H. Holmes. As ruthlessly deranged Michael Meyers seems to be, he can't hold a candle to guys like Richard Speck or Richard Ramierez. Now, what do all these fellas, (real or screen character) have in common? THEY ALL KILLED WOMEN. Point of fact, our onscreen killers are much more equal opportunity than our real life madmen. So, is it any wonder that women are victims in these movies? Also, the women in most of these films tend to get off with just a nasty death. In most instances, the real life killers would do some fairly terrible things to their victims before they killed them.
It's amazing that horror films, of all the genres, have undergone such 'serious' analysis in the academic film studies arena. It tells you a lot--considered to be a kind of low art form, it attracts serious scholars who, rather than applying common sense or rational thinking, literally invent whole vocabularies to disguise their utter lack of knowledge and general cluelessness with regards to these staples of 'pop' culture for the 'little people'.

It's classic academic constructs. It's obvious that Clover, and she's not alone, is either incapable or unwilling to just say what she means. Instead, and in order for a university press to pick these things up, the ideas have to be draped in dense, unreadable, and often laughable language.

Are there interesting ideas here? Yes, certainly. Are they easy to understand? They can be, but not here. You may feel like a moron after reading about your favorite slasher, but don't worry--you haven't been exposed to the careerism and isolation of the cinematic ivory tower yet.

The book can be half as long if they tried to make it accessible to the people who actually WATCH horror films, but it is instead geared toward people who want to study the people who watch horror films, from a detached perspective, armed with a dictionary and a black turtleneck.

I would actually recommend this book for horror fans, but with reservations. It does try to get at what is happening in this genre, and why we watch these movies. But don't feel bad if you laugh at some of it--that's part of the real world.
The author is obviously an academic, and seeks to dignify her pop-culture subject with ludicrous rhetorical tropes borrowed from the grad school version of pop psychoanalysis. She says "gender" when she means sex. She is capable of writing phrases like "the killer's phallic purpose. . ." and sentences like "What -is- clear is that where there is -Wiederholungszwang- there is historical suffering --- suffering that has been more or less sexualized as 'erotogenic masochism.'" Clarity, it seems, ain't what it used to be. Charlatans like Gilles Deleuze and hatemongers like Susan Brownmiller appear in the bibliography, and the book is obviously addressed to an audience that has not yet learned to laugh at them.

Still, the central thesis of the book is in fact a cogent analysis of the ritual of the 1980s variety "slasher" film, and if you overlook the bogus jargon she gets it mostly right. The book convincingly goes through the rituals involved in this highly stereotypical variety of film. Even the vaguely radical academic version of sexual politics has some purpose in this: these slasher films, like all accepted exercises in gore and the temporary suspension of tabooed subjects, attempt to justify their existence by claiming in some obscure way to reinforce social norms. It would be a much better book if it were written in workaday English, but it is nevertheless an interesting read, and insightful almost despite itself.
Really doesn't sound like the beginnings of a discussion of horror films. The language used in this book is so far over my head that I begin to feel stupid, and that what I thought I knew about movies (which is more than most people I know) must certainly not be enough to even be allowed to watch them. What's disappointing is that I want to agree with the theories in the book. Clover's premise is that watching horror movies is not a sadistic act, and that the young men who watch them are really identifying with the female victim-hero, instead of just gawking at boobies. I like the idea that the viewer identifies with the monster and the victim. But I don't think the author can really identify with... humanity! The word 'psychobabble' does come to mind. It makes me wonder what she's hiding from, or who she's trying to impress. I don't think she has any grasp at all of these films or why I watch so many of them.

It just seems to me like this woman has put every word she knows into a theory I think I can sum up in less than fifty pages. Sentences don't need to be that long to get a point across.

To sum up, if you are a horror film fan with an IQ of 160 or less, do not read this book! It was written for high-brow, academic types who are fascinated by the rituals and habits of us lower creatures, but wouldn't be caught dead in a theatre with less than eighteen screens. However, if you are a high-brow, academic type who is fascinated by the rituals and habits of us lower creatures, but wouldn't be caught dead in a theatre with less than eighteen screens, you might like it.
BeforeMen, Women, and Chain Saws, most film critics assumed that horror (especially slasher) films entail a male viewer sadistically watching the plight of a female victim. Carol Clover argues convincingly that both male and female viewers not only identify with the victim, but experience, through the actions of the "final girl," a climactic moment of female power. As theBoston Globewrites,Men, Women, and Chain Saws"challenges simplistic assumptions about the relationship between gender and culture... [Clover] suggests that the 'low tradition' in horror movies possesses positive subversive potential, a space to explore gender ambiguity and transgress traditional boundaries of masculinity and femininity." Be forewarned, though: Clover addresses an academic audience, so her language can be heavy going.

Related title:The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Filmby Barry Keith Grant
Do the pleasures of horror movies really begin and end in sadism? So the public discussion of film assumes, and so film theory claims. Carol Clover argues, however, that these films work mainly to engage the viewer in the plight of the victim-hero, who suffers fright but rises to vanquish the forces of oppression.
Rerations
< Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film > < The Dread of Difference: Gender and the Horror Film (Texas Film and Media Studies Series) > < The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (Popular Fictions Series) > < The Philosophy of Horror: Or, Paradoxes of the Heart > < American Horrors: Essays on the Modern American Horror Film > freaks

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