Italian Horror Film Directors

Rating:
Summary: Italian Horror Film Directors
Review: A much-needed study of the subject...but this ain't it. Chapters devoted to the major players (Bava, Fulci, etc.) and sections devoted to the not-so majors. He puts Freda in this category, but anybody who gave Maestro Bava his start AND made The Terror of Dr. Hitchcock is pretty important, in my opinion. And speaking of opinions.... The entries are mainly ______ was born in ______, got started in ________, and then made _______. Not much critical evaluation, and some of the information is glaringly wrong: Dawn of the Dead was made in...Philadelphia??? None of this would matter so much if this wasn't one of those incredibly expensive MacFarland books. For the money, there shouldn't be ANY errors! For completists -- and wealthy ones, at that -- only.

Rating:
Summary: Explore the Id
Review: Because of my preference for psychological horror, I had long resisted the Italian giallo. I've since come to realize my error. It is precisely its vast psychological component that makes the giallo unique. What other art form peers so unflinchingly into the darkest recess of the human psyche? This book helped me form that appreciation. In addition to offering hundreds of plot summaries, the author discusses the films' psychological underpinnings at length; musing as to what makes them tick individually and what makes the genre tick as a whole. There is also a wealth of well-organized reference material, exhaustively researched and detailed, for those who wish to dive deep into the arcana. I turned to the book to find out which Gogol story served as the basis for Bava's "Black Sunday" (since the story's title isn't listed in the film's credits) and found the answer immediately.

On the down side, the author has a preference for the movies' Italian titles, which meant I had to frequently thumb through the book for translations. (Although longtime fans of the genre may not be bothered by this.)



Rating:
Summary: Could have been much better
Review: I agree with the previous reviewer that Louis Pauls's new book comes as a bit of a disppointment. For that price, you would expect beautiful stills on good quality paper; instead what you get is sparse black-and-white photos on poor quality paper. The author's writing style doesn't help either: his bland style coupled with a lack of critical evaluations of the works of the major directors make this book pale in comparison to other much more exciting works, like Hardy's "The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Horror" or Schneider's "Fear Without Frontiers". I am pretty sure "giallo cinema" is much more exciting and colorful than portrayed by the author.

On the positive side, Louis Paul does cover, to my knowledge, almost every major Italian horror movie and director. He covers many more giallos than does Phil Hardy. Also the index is very comprehensive and mentions both people and movies (both the English and Italian names).

All in all: could have been better but still a valuable reference.