Horror films, mostly (Top Ten Music & Film Books)

Member Name: hogsflesh

Product:	Top Ten Music & Film Books
Date:	20/11/01 (218 review reads)
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Well, I've run out of ideas again, so it's time to do another top ten list. Ten books about music and film that are really good. Except that there's only one book about music in here, as I don't tend to read about it much, and most of the others are about horror films.

The Aurum Encyclopaedias
Edited by Phil Hardy.
Bit of a cheat, this one, as it's actually four books. Each book covers one genre, and attempts to list, by year, every single film ever made in that genre. So far they've done The Western (the only one I don't own, although I did get it out of the library once), Science Fiction, Horror and Gangsters. I've no idea if they're still doing them, although the Gangsters volume said that the next one would be Noir (not something I think of as a separate genre, but never mind). It's a pity that they're only doing more commercially viable genres, as I'd like to see a volume on something like Musicals, but never mind. Of course, they get out of date fast - the edition of Sci Fi that I've got only goes as far as Total Recall. This isn't a huge problem for me, as I prefer slightly older movies as a rule, and the books are so huge (and therefore expensive) that I'm not willing to shell out for newer editions.

They go through each year, listing the relevant films, with a pretty good evaluation of each one, and the obvious cast and crew details. Considering that there are quite a few writers involved in each volume, the level of editorial consistency is astounding. Most of the later entries in Sci Fi and Horror are written by Kim Newman, and he's almost always worth reading. The books try to be as inclusive as possible, always meticulously referring to films in their native language titles. I was surprised that the Sci Fi volume includes horror films (with Sci Fi elements) like Frankenstein and Jekyll & Hyde, and also gadget laden spy thrillers (Bond movies etc). There are occasi
onally films that are missed out, which I guess is inevitable in an undertaking of this size, but they're generally pretty obscure. It does seem to have become trendy to poke fun at these books (especially Horror) amongst the more pretentious and "alternative" horror film writers, and Aurum's tastes are very mainstream. On the whole, though, there's nothing available with greater depth and scope than these books (except that I'm not sure they are currently available - they do turn up second hand quite often, though).

Nightmare movies
By Kim Newman
This is probably the book that turned me from a teenager who was vaguely into Hammer horror films into the horror film enthusiast I am today. Don't let that put you off, though, it's really very good. Newman takes the release of Night of the Living Dead in 1968 as the birth of a new type of more cynical and despairing horror film, a reaction against the more old fashioned values of Hammer. The same year also saw the release of Witchfinder General and Rosemary's Baby. He examines the next twenty odd years of horror films in the light of the trends set in motion by George Romero and his zombies. He focuses quite extensively on other key films (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and directors (David Cronenberg, Dario Argento etc), but still manages to be pretty inclusive, mentioning most horror films from America and parts of Europe made during that era. He also stretches the boundaries of the genre by including films like Apocalypse Now and Taxi Driver. And in spite of the fact that this all sounds potentially quite pretentious and annoying, it isn't at all. Kim Newman writes in a very accessible and entertaining way, and this is one of the few books that I enjoyed as a teenager that I still like. It also, of course, gave me a big list of videos to try and persuade my mother to buy for me when I was only about 16 (she was OK about Dawn of the Dead, but wasn't too keen on t
he cover of Blue Velvet, so I had to wait a couple of years for that one).

English Gothic
By Terence Rigby
Already did an opinion of this. I'm including it here anyway. A history of English horror films from the silent era to the present day. Very good if you like English horror movies of the Sixties and Seventies, which I do. If you don't, I suspect you'd be wasting your time reading this. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best book about horror films I've read - the author is obviously passionate about his subject, but is also able to be dispassionate when rating individual films. He also writes very well, which is a big plus when you consider a lot of the horror related film books out there.

Easy Riders Raging Bulls
By Peter Biskind
At last, a book that's not about horror films. The story of Hollywood in the Seventies, and how it briefly became dominated by young idealistic directors like Coppola and Bogdanovich, and how between them they managed to abuse the privileges they'd won and undermine their own achievements. Eventually their geekier friends Lucas and Spielberg invented the blockbuster, leaving these drug-addled visionaries stranded in a world that didn't want them. I must admit, I enjoyed this book mainly for the anecdotes of insane drug fuelled behaviour, screaming arguments and rampant egos. The politics of the studios don't really interest me, and I find some of the films that emerged from this era quite dull (The Deer Hunter, The Exorcist, Apocalypse Now). Ultimately it's very rewarding reading about rampant egomaniacs like William Friedkin going from immense success to immense failure - and generally though their own stupidity. This book is well worth a look, if only for the Dennis Hopper anecdotes.

See No Evil
By David Kerekes and David Slater
More horror films. This book describes the rise of home video and the moral outrage that was whipped up by the t
abloid press and other opportunists over "video nasties", resulting in the Video Recordings Act of 1984. This piece of knee-jerk legislation made it illegal to watch anything on video that hadn't first been approved by the bunch of middle-aged conservatives that is the BBFC. The book goes on to give a detailed synopsis and critique of the 39 films on the list of unacceptable videos drawn up by the DPP (more films later joined the list, some were removed from it. Very few are available uncut in this country). The book goes on to describe the black market that grew up around trading these videos (it's still going on, as a quick look at the horror film section of the UK ebay will tell you). It ends with an evaluation of the evidence for violence on film causing violent behaviour in those who watch it. Unsurprisingly, the authors conclude that there's no link whatsoever, pointing out that many of the most famous cases can be attributed as much to the influence of the tabloid press as to violent films.

The most interesting section is the descriptions of the films. These are films that tend to be ignored or dismissed in most books, and to see them discussed in such depth is welcome. Most of them, as the authors are happy to point out, are absolute rubbish. Evil Dead and (maybe) Cannibal Holocaust are good (to an extent), but the majority are trash like Anthropophagous The Beast. Even films from the list that I've seen (not many) that are generally well regarded by horror fans usually turn out to be boring nonsense (Driller Killer, Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue). The best you can hope for from these films is amusement, either intentional (Andy Warhol's Frankenstein) or unintentional (that one where Isabel Adjani has sex with an octopus). In some of the films that I've actually seen, I disagree with the authors of this book quite strongly (they like I Spit On Your Grave, for instance), although I suspect that they're pro
bably not too far wrong when it comes to stuff like The Toolbox Murders or Cannibal Ferox. In spite of their generally low quality, these films do still exert a powerful fascination, simply because the government has decided that we're not allowed to see them.

Since this book is about films that I'll almost certainly never ever see, at least uncut, it's strange that I like it so much. It's well written and well informed, even if I don't always agree with the standpoint it takes. It could have taken an exploitative and jokey approach to its material, but doesn't, which is a big point in its favour.

Rat Pack Confidential
By Shawn Levy
Hmm. Wrote too much about the last book. Must try and be a bit more concise from now on. This is the only music book in here, and it isn't really about music very much anyway. I'm not putting biographies in here, but this kind of is one. It's the story of the Rat Pack, Frank Sinatra and his buddies, who were hugely popular in the early Sixties. So you get potted biographies of Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr, Peter Lawford and Joey Bishop. Taking a cynical and irreverent approach to their silly showbiz antics while acknowledging their individual greatness as performers (well, Sinatra and Davis Jr, anyway), this book reads a lot like a James Ellroy novel, especially where the mob are involved, and Sinatra's relationship with JFK. Except that it's all true. As with Easy Riders Raging Bulls, this is really a great excuse to read about famous people behaving badly.

Hollywood Babylon
By Kenneth Anger
The definitive Hollywood gossip book, written by everyone's favourite cuddly satanist. Most of the truly great stars of yesteryear seem to have had some filthy skeletons lurking in their closets, and Anger sets out to expose them all. No idea how much of it is true, I suspect it doesn't really matter. The stars themselves were legendary, and it'
;s appropriate that their misdemeanours should match their stature, whether true or not. Written in the style of Hollywood gossip columnists, this is another book that strongly reminds me of James Ellroy. It's lavishly illustrated with pictures that range from the hilarious to the downright unpleasant. There is a second volume, too, although I didn't find that quite as interesting - probably Anger used up his best stories in the first volume. There are persistent rumours about a third volume, but that seems increasingly unlikely.

Mondo Macabro
By Pete Tombs
The sequel to a book called Immoral Tales (co-written by Cathal Tohill), this is far more interesting. Immoral Tales was a look at the weird sex- and horror-movies that came out of Europe in the Sixties and Seventies. While interesting, I don't really like the directors featured enough to particularly want to read it again (Jesus Franco, for God's sake). Mondo Macabro, however, casts its net a lot wider. It devotes a chapter each to various Asian and South American countries, and gives a little potted history of each one's film industries. And many of them seem really weird, at least to English and American viewers. There is currently a series based on this book on Channel 4 at some ungodly hour of Saturday nights. There are documentaries, that cover roughly the same ground as the book, and then they show a film. This is extremely cool, as the only problem I had with this book was that the films it talks about are almost impossible to get hold of. Weird Brazilian horror stars, cheap Turkish imitations of famous Western film franchises and Mexican wrestling movies - it's all here. Catch the series before it ends.

The Monster Show
By David J Skal
Oh yeah, more horror movies. This is a great cultural history of horror (not just movies, in fact, but mostly movies) from the Silent era to the Eighties. It's written from an American point of view, so the chap
ters about the Fifties and early Sixties get a bit too bogged down with the author's childhood (EC Comics, Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, The Munsters etc), but its always enjoyable and intelligent. Skal's especially good when talking about the early horror film icons and classic movies. His stuff about Universal's Dracula and Tod Browning is as good as anything I've read about them. Skal's written quite a few other books, including a very good one about mad scientists in popular culture, called Screams of Reason.

The Parade's Gone By
By Kevin Brownlow
No horror movies here. This is a history of Hollywood's Silent Era, as told by the people who were involved in it. Written in the late Sixties, Brownlow took the opportunity to interview as many silent film folk as he could find. The story they tell is amazing, as people gradually pieced together the system and method of making films that is still with us today. While there's undeniably a certain amount of looking back through rose tinted glasses from some of the subjects, this doesn't detract from what is a fascinating book about a fascinating era of film history. And not a horror film in sight.

There you are. My ten favourite books about films (at the moment, at least). Sorry that most of them are about horror films, those just tend to be the films that I enjoy watching and reading about at the moment.

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