Rating: 
Summary: Monster Movie Making History
Review: I have decided to review this book because it needs to be a little clearer about what you are purchasing here. The first half of the book focuses on what is clearly David Skal's expertise-- 30's monster movies. He covers biographies on Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi, James Whale's battles against the censors, the influences of war and the Great Depression, and the move from stage to screen. It was so pleasurable and enlightening to read all about the beginnings of the genre.After 200 pages on this decade, I soon realized that the following 6 decades could not possibly get the same attention in the second half. Hammer horror from England receives two sentences in the book when it easily deserves at least a lengthy chapter. Italian horror (which has one of the largest cult followings within this genre) is completely unmentioned. To my shock, a film with such powerful cultural relevance as The Stepford Wives also remains completely unmentioned in the book. A chapter that I thought would discuss the cultural emergence and relevance of slasher films ends up covering plastic surgery. Basically the book is greatly unbalanced. There is so much passion in the first half that the second half of the book seems a drought by comparison. However, if you are even reading this review, then I must say that this book is a must-own. The information is absolutely fascinating (even in the second half). The photos throughout the book are excellent and add so much to the experience of reading it. The information I regretfully did not get is now more accessible to me through the foundations and structure of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Monster Movie Making History
Review: I have decided to review this book because it needs to be a little clearer about what you are purchasing here. The first half of the book focuses on what is clearly David Skal's expertise-- 30's monster movies. He covers biographies on Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi, James Whale's battles against the censors, the influences of war and the Great Depression, and the move from stage to screen. It was so pleasurable and enlightening to read all about the beginnings of the genre. After 200 pages on this decade, I soon realized that the following 6 decades could not possibly get the same attention in the second half. Hammer horror from England receives two sentences in the book when it easily deserves at least a lengthy chapter. Italian horror (which has one of the largest cult followings within this genre) is completely unmentioned. To my shock, a film with such powerful cultural relevance as The Stepford Wives also remains completely unmentioned in the book. A chapter that I thought would discuss the cultural emergence and relevance of slasher films ends up covering plastic surgery. Basically the book is greatly unbalanced. There is so much passion in the first half that the second half of the book seems a drought by comparison. However, if you are even reading this review, then I must say that this book is a must-own. The information is absolutely fascinating (even in the second half). The photos throughout the book are excellent and add so much to the experience of reading it. The information I regretfully did not get is now more accessible to me through the foundations and structure of this book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, interesting, thought provoking.
Review: I really enjoyed this book... I do think you can go overboard using culture to PREDICT the future (1991 being roughly equivilant to 1931), but looking back on it as history, it fits. I do not think it is any coincidence that we got all the evil child, and childlike things during the time of the heated abortion debate in this country. Or that vampires have come more to the front in the age of AIDS. But just as I would be mistaken to say we are now headed into a depression because of all the 30's style clothes I see in the stores in NYC right now, you can't make some of the furture pridictions he makes. We may look back in 70 years and say, hey, look what the fashions predicted, but not now. At any rate, for the cultural evolution of our monsters and a beautiful and loving (?) tribute to Tod Browning, this book is worth its weight in gold. I especially loved the plastic surgery discussion, and the photos of plastic surgery-man himself, Michael Jackson.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful, interesting, thought provoking.
Review: I really enjoyed this book... I do think you can go overboard using culture to PREDICT the future (1991 being roughly equivilant to 1931), but looking back on it as history, it fits. I do not think it is any coincidence that we got all the evil child, and childlike things during the time of the heated abortion debate in this country. Or that vampires have come more to the front in the age of AIDS. But just as I would be mistaken to say we are now headed into a depression because of all the 30's style clothes I see in the stores in NYC right now, you can't make some of the furture pridictions he makes. We may look back in 70 years and say, hey, look what the fashions predicted, but not now. At any rate, for the cultural evolution of our monsters and a beautiful and loving (?) tribute to Tod Browning, this book is worth its weight in gold. I especially loved the plastic surgery discussion, and the photos of plastic surgery-man himself, Michael Jackson.
Rating:
Summary: terrific
Review: I received this book from my little brother - he had used it as a textbook in film school. What a tremendous book. A fascinating and erudite study of horror films. Thirty years ago I was a child with dozens of pictures from the magazine *Famous Monsters of Filmland* plastered all over my bedroom wall. This book has given me a great deal of insight into the genre with which I was once obsessed. The book is fun and the pictures are a hoot as well.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Book With One Caveat
Review: If you're a fan of the classic horror movies, this book makes for fascinating reading. It's full of facts about the movies from the thirties and forties especially. But sometimes the author over analyzes, perhaps goes too far into the psychology and meaning of it all. Nonetheless, this book was a good read. Recommended, despite the caveat!
Rating:
Summary: Good Book With One Caveat
Review: If you're a fan of the classic horror movies, this book makes for fascinating reading. It's full of facts about the movies from the thirties and forties especially. But sometimes the author over analyzes, perhaps goes too far into the psychology and meaning of it all. Nonetheless, this book was a good read. Recommended, despite the caveat!
Rating:
Summary: Doom, Gloom and...Va-Va-Voom?
Review: Much better cover on this revised edition then the Edward
Gorey illustration on original hardcover. Simply one of the best cultural reviews of movie horror ever
written. The chapter on Fifties' drive-in horror alone is
worth the cost of the book. Loads of documentary information,
intelligent commentary, trenchant insights. The only drawback,
as others have mentioned, is David J. Skal's habit of leaning
a little too heavily on certain prejudices or opinions in order
to make a theory or speculation of his fit a little more neatly
then it otherwise would have. Mr. Skal, your "post modernist"
academic roots are showing! (Though this stealth editorializing does not intrude too much in The Monster Show, it truly gives
you the creeps while struggling through much of his Screams Of Reason.) Anyway, this book is a MUST for anyone devoted to American history, horror trivia, cultural pathology --
all that cool stuff and much, much more! Nicely researched and written, a great reference and resource for the Crypt Keeper-
Monster Mash kiddies out there (like me). If you know what I mean, you ought to own this book.
Rating:
Summary: Doom, Gloom and...Va-Va-Voom?
Review: Much better cover on this revised edition then the Edward
Gorey illustration on original hardcover. Simply one of the best cultural reviews of movie horror ever
written. The chapter on Fifties' drive-in horror alone is
worth the cost of the book. Loads of documentary information,
intelligent commentary, trenchant insights. The only drawback,
as others have mentioned, is David J. Skal's habit of leaning
a little too heavily on certain prejudices or opinions in order
to make a theory or speculation of his fit a little more neatly
then it otherwise would have. Mr. Skal, your "post modernist"
academic roots are showing! (Though this stealth editorializing does not intrude too much in The Monster Show, it truly gives
you the creeps while struggling through much of his Screams Of Reason.) Anyway, this book is a MUST for anyone devoted to American history, horror trivia, cultural pathology --
all that cool stuff and much, much more! Nicely researched and written, a great reference and resource for the Crypt Keeper-
Monster Mash kiddies out there (like me). If you know what I mean, you ought to own this book.
Rating: 
Summary: very good material severely compromised
Review: Skal, author of Hollywood Gothic, takes a broader look at the European/American horror entertainment business in the 20th century and its political backdrop, including influences such as world war and depression, Watergate and Vietnam, etc. The main emphasis is on the movies, but he touches on TV, the EC horror comics of the '50's, and Stephen King as well. He is at his most interesting when discussing the personalities involved in this strange business: Tod Browning and Bela Lugosi, Forrest J. Ackerman and Vampira (and her surprising friendship with James Dean!). Unfortunately, he is too often unable to keep his politics out of my entertainment. He compares capitalism to vampirism, wanders into gratuitously inaccurate and insulting revisions of the Reagan years, and finally tries (unsuccessfully) to draw parallels between 1931, when the Depression really kicked off, and 1991, a year of mild recession. Evidently he believes Clinton's party line about how '91-'92 was "the worst economy in fifty years"; as usual, those of us who know better will be offended. Pity; this could've been a 5-star book, since Skal is a thorough researcher and a diligent interviewer, as well as a clever and engaging writer for the most part. The photos and stills are great, many of them rare. Read it anyway, but be prepared to roll your eyes from time to time.
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