This is a just the facets A to Z guide to 218 franchises and interviews are included. Each entry has basic credits, that is director, screenplaywright, key players without story names, a short synopsis as opposed to a lengthy and detailed Cliff Notes style one, info on whether or not a movie that is not the first in an entry is a true sequel and why it either is or is not, and facts that are marked by diamonds. There are not any opinions or star ratings given. All of the pics are in monochrome.
Now, the author's definition of horror is liberal to an extent.
For example, science fiction movies with significant horrific content are listed, examples are Alien, Predator, Critters, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Watchers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) and it's 1993 sequel, Village of the Damned and it's sequel Children of the Damned, the two different series of The Fly, you get the idea, and while I am at it, technically, the Hammer and Universal Frankenstein series are scientific horror films, too. However, Xtro, The Alien Agenda,Synegor, and others do not have entries.
Also, there is a fine line between the horror and thriller genres, some consider Psycho (1960) to be more of a thriller. Well, it and it's sequels, two of which are TVMs, are in this book. And, yes, movie series that came to labeled slashers, Friday the 13th, Halloween and Scream, just to name a few, are all here.
Other thrillers that the author and others consider to be horror films are Abducted, Basic Instinct, The Hitcher, Mommy, Poison Ivy, Relentless, Single White Female, The Stepfather, and Ten Violent Women.
I can see the chilling elements in a number of the above and in the case of Ten Violent Women, the author includes a note for the seminal one that was made in 1979 but not released until 1982 in which he admits that he did not see it but he included it because one web site had it as "horror" and that is why he opted to include it.
Some have argued that Jaws (1975) is more of an action adventure film. It and it's three sequels are in here two, as are the three in the Deep Blue Sea series.
Select comedic horror franchises are included. In the case of the Universal Monsters, the movies with Abbott and Costello in the sequels to Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Invisible Man are included. Series as diverse as the Killer Tomatoes, Saturday the 14th, the Ghoulies, The Class of Nuke 'Em High, The Toxic Avenger, Beetlejuice, Ghostbusters, are all here. However, the Addams Family, the Munsters and the Munchies are not.
One series gets a side bar. The Amityville franchises started with The Amityville Horror (1979) and 11 official entries get the full treatment, a sidebar lists 35 movies that have Amityville in the title, two of these have a killer scarecrow and one had Bigfoot.
The book's subtitle has it that the franchises covered are mostly American, thus most of the series covered were made in either the USA and Canada, and select UK series such as the Dr. Phibes and the Hammer Frankenstein and Dracula series get the full treatment, the only horror series made in Mexico that get full write ups are the three movie series with the Aztec Mummy, but not the unofficial fourth entry and none of the other series made in that country. Perhaps the author should have specified what of North America is considered to be "American."
Besides Mexico, few other countries where English is not the first language are covered. Franchises with Troll (a very loose series, that), The Blind Dead, Anthropophagus, are a few. Pseudo-series such as Beyond the Door and Mark of the Devil are also in this book. Only the seminal movie in the Godzilla franchise gets the full treatment, a sidebar lists all of the other Toho entries, there are not any entries for Maijin, Gamera and others. In the case of Zombi, the author gives a list of EDDE Entertainment releases that are basically retitlings of unrelated movies. There are not any entries for series with Waldemar Daninsky the Wolf Man and others.
Now, there ARE two German made franchises that are in this book, but I do not think that I can dare repeat their tiles. One series was directed by Jorge Buttgereit and the other by Andreas Schnaas.
I did mention that two TVMS to Pscycho are included, Indeed, this book includes TVMs that were made for either network broadcast channels or cable channels such as USA and Showtime, thus TVM sequels such as Look at What's Happened to Rosemary's Baby (1976) and Omen !V : The Awakening (1991) get full write ups. Franchises that were totally made to air on TV are in this book, V (1983), The Night Stalker (1971), Trilogy of Terror, Sometimes They Come Back, The Savage Bees (1978) and it's sequel Terror Out of the Sky are all here. Among the missing are Fear No Evil (1969) and it's sequel Ritual of Evil (1970).
Select teleserials that are considered by the author to be part of the franchises get an entry but not an episode guide. The few that do get entries are Chucky, Ash vs. the Evil Dead and V, as the latter is a sequel to V and V : The Final Battle. The series versions of Scream and Friday the 13th, to name just two, are not true sequels and thus do not get an entry.
As the author does include direct to home video movies and movies that premiered on TV and streaming devices, this is the first book to cover the entire franchises of Camp Blood, Witchcraft, Mirror Mirror, Deadly Tales, Faces of Death, Traces of Death, 5 Dark Souls, the Killer Shrews, the Puppet Master, Hellraiser, Manos, Don't Look in the Basement, I Spit On Your Grave, the Mutilator, the Necro Files, Necropolis, Psycho Sisters (two different series with the same name, in fact), Rock n' Roll Nightmare, Creepshow, Witchouse (sic), Sorceress, Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama, "Silent Night, Bloody Night" (all 3), Slime City, Splatter Farm, Troll, Truth or Dare, Twisted Tales, 2000 Maniacs, Vampires and Other Stereotypes, Vampires of Sorority Row, Demonic Toys, etc. Oh, a few Print on Demand books cover Witchouse (sic) and a few others but most review books do not really double as reference books, and the books on the Hellraiser and Puppetmaster series are now outdated.
Now, for the rating, I opted to give this four out of five stats mainly because of a few errors that really stood out when one considers who much research he did on the obscure flicks Other reasons are that he gave very little info on the portmanteau movies such as those in the Things and Deadly Tales series. Also, he obsessed with "spoilers" to the extent that he opted to be vague on the methods used to make pseudo-people in the Stepford series, if he gives Spoiler Alerts for when he gives "spoilers" in other entries and interviews, he should have done so for these flicks.
A useful enough book for the four star rating. Just a few too many errors kept me from giving this the top rating.
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- ASIN : B0DDCMTHCG
- Publisher : Independently published
- Publication date : August 15, 2024
- Language : English
- Print length : 688 pages
- ISBN-13 : 979-8334518575
- Item Weight : 3.64 pounds
- Reading age : 12 - 18 years
- Dimensions : 8 x 1.55 x 10 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #1,668,310 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #427 in Horror Movies
- #1,119 in Historical Study Reference (Books)
- #1,236 in History Encyclopedias
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