13 FAVOURITE HORROR MOVIE REFERENCE BOOKS

As long as I've been a horror movie fan, I've also been a fan of horror movie reference books. Pre-Internet, they were my major source of information about horror flicks (along with Famous Monsters of Filmland, The Monster Times and Fangoria magazines). To this day, images and information from many of these books are branded on my brain.

Here, I'm highlighting 13 titles that are essential from my perspective, but there are many, many more that could have just as easily been included; from Carlos Clarens' incredible "An Illustrated History of the Horror Film" and Alan Ormsby's kid-friendly Scholastic publication "Movie Monsters", right up to a couple of new publications that I feel sure will fit nicely in my library once I've had the chance to read them: Kim Newman's updated "Nightmare Movies: Horror on Screen Since the 1960s", and Jason Zinoman's "Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror".

If any of the titles listed below by publication date sound interesting to you, make sure to pick up a copy. But don't stop there; dust off one of your personal favourites and rediscover what is so fantastic about it, or do some research and see what else is out there waiting for you. As long as there are people reading horror reference books, publishers will continue to unleash them.

HITCHCOCK/TRUFFAUT: THE DEFINITIVE STUDY OF ALFRED HITCHCOCK BY FRANÇOIS TRUFFAUT
by François Truffaut
Publisher: Simon and Schuster (1967)

Not about horror films per se, this back-and-forth between Truffaut and Hitchcock contains a lot of insight into the creative process in terms of filmmaking, and Hitchcock's filmmaking in particular. Hitchcock used the filmic language of suspense which is a key aspect of the horror film, and at least two of his films - Psycho and The Birds - are horror classics in their own right.

WILLIAM PETER BLATTY ON 'THE EXORCIST': FROM NOVEL TO FILM
by William Peter Blatty
Publisher: Bantam Books (1974)

This is a terrific paperback published shortly after the release of the film version of The Exorcist. It begins with background information on the writing of the novel and the route it took to become a film, followed by Blatty's original draft of the screenplay (interrupted by a number of behind the scene photos and screen shots). Following that, we get Blatty's comments on the changes that were made and why. The last section of the book contains a transcript of the version of the screenplay that was filmed. For anyone interested in the filmmaking process from the writing perspective, this book is invaluable.

THE PSYCHOTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM
by Michael Weldon
Publisher: Ballantine Books (1983)

This book made me very happy in the 80's, and it still does today. It's an alphabetical collection of funny, informative and concise cult movie reviews, written from a fan's perspective and with a sense of humour that never patronizes. The Psychotronic Encyclopedia remains influential to a lot of people who write about genre cinema, including myself.

SPLATTER MOVIES: BREAKING THE LAST TABOO OF THE SCREEN
by John McCarty
Publisher: St Martins Press (1984)

To my knowledge, this was the first serious look at Splatter movies, a sub-genre that really came into its own in the 80's. Writing during their heyday, McCarty collected all the key titles and players here, and his opinions accurately reflect a fan's take on splatter at the time. Today, some of these films that were dismissed at the time of their release have been re-evaluated, and it would be interesting to see McCarty do an updated edition.

RE/SEARCH NO. 10: INCREDIBLY STRANGE FILMS
by V. Vale and Andrea Juno
Publisher: Re/Search Publications (1986)

The Re/Search library is a fascinating collection of works that look at subcultures in a number of different genres. Their Incredibly Strange Films volume features interviews with horror filmmakers and other cinema delinquents, including Herschell Gordon Lewis, Frank Henenlotter and Larry Cohen. For many, this was our introduction to the glorious underbelly of cinema.

DEEP RED HORROR HANDBOOK
Edited by Chas Balun
Publisher: Fantaco Enterprises (1989)

Chas Balun was instrumental in introducing all sorts of new material to horror fans. His love of the genre and talent for writing about it in an accessible way made him an essential author for inclusion in any gore hound's library. It was probably Chas as much as anybody who introduced me to extreme Euro-Horror - the work of Fulci, Deodato, Lenzi, et al, and it's all collected here in the Deep Red Horror Handbook, compiled from Chas' Deep Red magazine. Sporting a cover illustration by Chas himself and chapters about Cannibal flicks, Dario Argento, James VanBebber, horror films from around the world and a bloody ton more, there are also reviews of 70's and 80's splatter flicks, each scored on two scales - one rating the flick for its quality as a movie, the other rating its gore effects. As a personal bonus, Dario Argento autographed my copy at the Toronto premiere of Two Evil Eyes.

BLOOD AND BLACK LACE: THE DEFINITIVE GUIDE TO ITALIAN SEX AND HORROR MOVIES
by Adrian Luther Smith
Publisher: Turnaround (2000)

The Italian thriller genre known as giallo is closely related to the North American horror film. The two genres overlap, trading tropes back and forth, influencing each other with reckless abandon. It's a beautiful thing. The definitive guide to the often labyrintine history of these beautifully-titled films is Adrian Luther Smith's Blood and Black Lace, named for one of the genre's landmarks directed by Mario Bava, the man usually credited with originating giallo films. Since the heyday of giallo was from the 1960's through the 1980's, the bulk of the genre's output is found in this essential guide.

DVD DELIRIUM: THE INTERNATIONAL GUIDE TO WEIRD & WONDERFUL FILMS ON DVD (VOLS. 1-4)
Edited by Nathaniel Thompson
Publisher: Fab Press (2002, 2003, 2007 & 2010)

This terrific collection just keeps growing, with redux versions and further editions being published as needed. It will be interesting to see how the next version evolves with the iffy future of DVD and Blu-Ray due to both legal and illegal downloading. In the meantime, each volume fiddles while Rome burns by featuring an alphabetical listing of "weird and wonderful" films, insightful reviews, and perhaps DVD Delirium's most appreciated feature - comparisons of available versions of each film.

SLEAZOID EXPRESS: A MIND-TWISTING TOUR THROUGH THE GRINDHOUSE CINEMA OF TIMES SQUARE
by Michelle Clifford & Bill Landis
Publisher: Fireside (2002)

Yet another book that introduced me to flicks that I might not have known existed otherwise, and might have even passed by if I did. Here, we're talking Fight for Your Life, Olga's House of Shame, the Ginger movies and many of their two-fisted kin. From the creators of the Sleazoid Express 'zine, each chapter of this book is about a particular grindhouse theatre in New York City's much-lamented, pre-Disneyfied Times Square, and the type of film each theatre specialized in: Horror, Women in Prison, Nudies, etc. It's another fun read, a memento of a vanished way of life, and an in-depth look at grindhouse movies.

THEY CAME FROM WITHIN: A HISTORY OF CANADIAN HORROR CINEMA
by Caelum Vatnsdal
Publisher: Arbeiter Ring (2004)

The Mask, Cannibal Girls, Black Christmas, Rituals, My Bloody Valentine, Happy Birthday to Me, the films of David Cronenberg - they're all Canadian, and they're all included in They Came From Within, an exploration of Canuck horror flicks. Though small in comparison to the output of our American neighbours, Canadian horror films have nonetheless made their mark on the world horror scene, and Calem Vatnsdal has included them all in this volume. Named for a Cronenberg flick (though it was called Shivers in Canada), They Came From Within is an impressive look at a much under-explored topic, and at the same time it's the last word in movie horror from the north.

NIGHTMARE USA: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE EXPLOITATION INDEPENDENTS
by Stephen Thrower
Publisher: FAB Press (2007)

Where to start with this outstanding tome? It's massive, it's loaded with information and great photos, it will introduce you to films you should know, and it will leave you wanting more (Volume 2 is forthcoming). Stephen Thrower is an intelligent writer who knows his stuff, and he crams it into all 527 pages of this beautiful monster. Thrower talks with the people who made the American exploitation films included in this book, adding thoughtful reviews to the mix. This book best illustrates a pet belief of mine that the line between art and trash is so thin that it frequently vanishes.

TEENAGE WASTELAND: THE SLASHER MOVIE UNCUT
by J.A. Kerswell
Publisher: New Holland Publishers Ltd (2010)

This beautifully laid out overview of the slasher genre from its inception to the current day is a pleasure to read. Justin Kerswell loves the sub-genre, he knows it inside and out (he's the man behind Hysteria Lives), and he shares his affection and knowledge in equal amounts here. Everything you ever wanted to know about slice-and dice flicks is included, without pandering to readers whose interests lie only in Jason and Freddie. Kerswell's affectionate though by no means rose-tinted look at slasher flicks makes a nice contemporary companion piece to John McCarty's Splatter Movies, with the benefit of having been written with hindsight.

DARK STARS RISING: CONVERSATIONS FROM THE OUTER REALMS
by Shade Rupe
Publisher: Headpress (2011)

Shade Rupe has been interviewing truly interesting personalities for about 25 years now. Forgoing unimaginative questioning for informed conversation with his subjects, Rupe has selected 27 interviews for Dark Stars Rising, including those with Tura Santana, William Lustig, Richard Stanley and Chas Balun. Anyone interested in the provocative side of the arts (film, visual arts, literature, etc.), and anyone bored by the entertainment TV style of non-engaged interview packs, should pick up this book immediately.

ATTACK OF THE ANGRY MOON CATS (Super 8; 1985)

My second flick was a 50's Sci-Fi inspired short called Attack of the Angry Moon Cats. It stars Rob MacDonald as a reporter who sees a UFO landing (it was running low on plutonium) while making out with his girlfriend (Gina Rahman). The two aliens onboard (Glen Boswall and Nick Grant) kidnap Gina, and no one will believe Rob, who then takes it upon himself to defeat the Moon Cats and get his girlfriend back.

In an arty shot that could only have been inspired by the music videos of the day, Rob and Gina's hands are pulled apart as Gina is abducted.

Here, Rob makes his way through the corridors of the alien spacecraft.

And Nick, the alien, shoots his ray gun in response.

GOODBYE COLOMBIA (Super 8; 1984)

Two images from the first flick I ever made, a Scarface inspired short called Goodbye Colombia.

At the film's climax, after the heroine (Chris Ainsley) has stabbed the hero (Sam Shalabi) to death, she answers the door only to be greeted by the villain's (Glen Boswall) handgun.

This was followed by The Attack of the Angry Moon Cats (Super 8; 1985).

KINDER TRAUMA: THE EXORCIST

You know, being a Monster Kid born in the 1960's, the fact that I have a Kinder Trauma involving The Exorcist might not be so unusual. I was 9 at the time the movie was released, and the fact is however, that I consider my initial Exorcist experience a life-changing tale akin to losing my virginity.

As far back as I can remember, I'd loved monsters, and my earliest movie memories all involve a horror movie trauma of one form or another: forcing my folks to leave my very first movie screening - Tom Thumb – because I was convinced the giant’s feet were going to crush me; having to sit up on the back of our sofa during a solo TV viewing of The Deadly Mantis because I was certain an oversized mantis (though smaller than the one featured in the flick I was watching) would grab my leg from its hiding place under the sofa. I went through the era-typical stages of burgeoning horror fandom too: Aurora model kits (up to and including the infamous Aurora Horror Scenes), Famous Monsters of Filmland, Creepy, Eerie, Vampirella, The Monster Times, Universal classics, etc. But nothing had prepared me for the sights and sounds of The Exorcist.

I can’t remember where I first heard about this movie, but it must have been via press stories about the effect it was having on audiences. This was no normal horror movie; people were fainting, throwing up, calling clergy and mental health professionals after seeing it. In those days, pre-Star Wars, it took a while for movies to make their way around the country, and by the time The Exorcist hit my small town, I’d read the Exorcist parodies in Mad, Cracked and Crazy magazines, I’d somehow managed to get my hands on the novel (which I didn’t read until years later) as well as William Peter Blatty on The Exorcist from Novel to Screen, complete with a nerve-wracking centre spread of movie stills. I had the issue of Famous Monsters with its garish Exorcist cover story. I clipped and collected articles and ads for the movie. I somehow ended up with a knock-off album of “contemporary” movie themes on the Pickwick label that included Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells, all NOT performed by the original artists. I tell you all this to give you an idea of the Exorcist frenzy that was building within me. Somehow, it needed release.

Finally, The Exorcist showed up at my local theatre. I begged my father to take me, but being sane, he refused. Instead, he went to a matinee screening of the movie by himself. As my mother and I picked him up at the theatre afterwards, I asked him how it was. Clearly, my father had just sat through something completely different. And NO WAY was he going to take me. The frenzy continued to build.

Three years later, The Exorcist showed up at the drive-in, playing a double bill with John Wayne’s Cahill. After much begging, unbelievably, my father finally agreed to take me!

Despite my eagerness for the main event to get started, we had to make it through the Oater first. Whatever Cahill is about, I can’t tell you; I’m sure the Duke must’ve cleaned up some mess or other in some little two-horse town, but I can’t recall.

Intermission. Then:

The prologue in Iraq was unnerving. I wasn’t sure what some of it was about, but the images and sounds were making me uneasy. Back in the USA, we meet Chris MacNeil, an actress; her director; her staff; her daughter Regan; a troubled priest. I did okay despite the ominous feeling the movie was giving me, until Regan takes a leak on the carpet during her mom’s cocktail party. Oh-oh. The Frankenstein Monster never did that. A little while later, little Reagan, who is just a hair older than me, is suffering from a banging bed, a swelling throat, eyeballs rolling back into her head, and she’s making lewd suggestions to her doctors. By this time, I’m starting to realize that this movie is over my head. In other words: NOT INTENDED FOR CHILDREN. Though I couldn’t formulate the thought in these words, this was my introduction to adult horror, and it was blowing my mind! What was happening on-screen was literally beyond my comprehension. What I did know, however, was that there was a very good chance that I was never going to sleep again, even if we left AT THIS VERY MOMENT! Despite that, I had to make an attempt to save what was left of my sanity. I found my voice and asked my father if we could please go? He asked me if I was sure I wanted to leave. Yes. I was.

My dad starts the car, and we begin to drive away. As we turn from the screen and down the lane that will take us out of this evil place, my father says, “Look at the screen.” Knowing I shouldn’t, but unable to NOT do it, I turn just as this happens:

I was hooked/deflowered/twisted for all time. I can pinpoint the very moment.

Years later, The Exorcist remains one of my favourite movies. Whatever that first half-viewing may have contributed to my development, devolution, or psyche scarring, I’m not absolutely sure. What I do know is that The Exorcist popped my adult horror cherry, and for that, it will always hold a special place in my little black heart. I just wish it would call now and then.

I SAW THE PIXIES AND YOU CAN SEE SOME CLIPS

I saw the Pixies Saturday night. Love them! So much. Folks have been posting clips from the concert, and here they are. Enjoy this mini-virtual Pixies show.

MY FAVOURITE GIALLI

Italian thrillers known singularly as giallo (pronounced as “jah-lo”, and meaning “yellow” as per the primary colour used on the lurid book covers that these flicks are named for) and plurally as gialli, have long been an obsession of mine. Starting back in the early 1980's with my first exposure to whited-out, censored VHS copies of Dario Argento’s classics like Deep Red and The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, I developed a taste for these highly stylized and often nonsensical mysteries highlighted by violent and indelible set pieces.

A problem some people have in engaging with these films is that, unlike a typical blockbuster, they ask something from the viewer. As a burgeoning fan of odd films from around the world, I learned to let go of my preconceived notions of what constitutes story, I learned to look past horrible dubbing, butchered framing and cut prints, and I learned to enjoy the impressionist response that these film elicited from me. Through my eyes, watching a giallo is all about the experience, the feeling. It’s Hitchcock’s theory of “pure cinema” at its most basic. For me, this is extremely rewarding.

Defining giallo is somewhat difficult, but here are some of their prevalent characteristics: Their heyday was from the mid-1960’s to early 80’s. The majority of gialli are from Italy, though Spain and other countries also contributed to the canon. These murder mysteries frequently feature killers clothed in black leather gloves, a raincoat and a fedora, obscuring their identities and sometimes genders; they are highly fetishized. As mentioned previously, the attack scenes are the highlights of each film, giving the director an opportunity to use all of cinema's resources: composition, sound, editing, movement, intense colour or stark black and white. These films are lurid, dealing with drug addiction, backstreet abortions, extreme sexuality, child murder, greed, blackmail, and insanity. Conversation and threats are whispered through closed doors, over the phone, or left playing on reel-to-reel tape recorders. Their musical scores are memorable, created by maestros like Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Riz Ortolani, and in the case of Argento’s Deep Red, Goblin provides an appropriately pounding rock score. In almost every gialli, someone will swig from a bottle of J&B and in many cases, someone will shout “Pronto. Pronto? PRONTO!” into an oversized telephone receiver. The titles of these films are almost poetic, making obscure and evocative use of words; the films themselves are also very much like this, but in a filmic sense. Look for directors with names like Argento, Bava, Martino, Fulci, Dallamano, Margheriti and Lado; actresses Edwige Fenech, Susan Scott, Erica Blanc, Florinda Bolkan, Anita Strindberg, Mimsy Farmer and Daria Nicolodi; actors George Hilton, Fabio Testi, Ray Lovelock, Ivan Rassimov, Franco Nero and Jean Sorel. Don't forget, the revelation of the killer or killers is frequently secondary to the path we take getting there. You've been warned.

Put your understanding of conventional storytelling on hold, pour yourself a Scotch on the rocks, and begin your fall into the underbelly of cinema. There’s just so much out there to discover in this uncharted territory. Here is a list of my most highly recommended gialli:

ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK



AUTOPSY



BAY OF BLOOD



BLOOD AND BLACK LACE



DEATH LAID AN EGG



DEEP RED



DELIRIUM



DON'T TORTURE A DUCKLING



EYEBALL



THE FIFTH CORD



THE FORBIDDEN PHOTOS OF A LADY ABOVE SUSPICION



THE GIRL WHO KNEW TOO MUCH



THE HOUSE WITH LAUGHING WINDOWS



THE KILLER MUST KILL AGAIN



A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN



MY DEAR KILLER



PERFUME OF THE LADY IN BLACK



PERVERSION STORY



THE PSYCHIC



SHORT NIGHT OF GLASS DOLLS



THE STRANGE VICE OF MRS. WARDH



THE STENDHAL SYNDROME



STRIP NUDE FOR YOUR KILLER



TORSO



WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO SOLANGE?



WHO SAW HER DIE?



YOUR VICE IS A LOCKED ROOM AND ONLY I HAVE THE KEY

HOW DELIVERANCE TAUGHT ME NOT TO BE GAY

I've come to terms with the fact that my sexuality was sent down the rapids by director John Boorman's "Deliverance" (1972).

I was ten years old when I caught a showing of the movie on the late show. I grew up in a relatively liberal (i.e. out of control) household, and my father always allowed me to stay up with him far too late on a school night in order to watch the classic Universal monster movies -- the Frankenstein, Dracula, Werewolf and Mummy series -- and others of that type. The screening of Deliverance, however, introduced me to a new species of monster: the hillbilly rapist.

This was the mid-Seventies; the days before videotape, meaning you could catch a movie after its theatrical run only when the networks had scheduled it. In Canada, our main channel is/was the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), a network that rarely censored its broadcasts if the program had "artistic merit", and Deliverance clearly fit that bill.

My father, an artist who was against censorship and who believed in letting people experience things for themselves in order to form their own opinions, had heard that Deliverance was a terrific movie and something about a canoe trip gone wrong. He understood my love of movies and encouraged it, as long it didn't become an obsession; I was the type of kid who easily became preoccupied with things. We settled in to watch this adult action movie, and unbeknownst to my father, my view of gay men started to take shape.

Four friends -- Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox and Burt Reynolds -- leave urban Atlanta for a canoe trip downriver through Georgia hillbilly country. They are out of place here. Cox takes part in a banjo duel with a young in-bred banjo-picker in one of the film's two most oft-mentioned scenes. The men continue downriver, where they become the target of two horny male hillbillies. Telling Voight that he's got a "pretty mouth" and forcing Beatty to "squeal like a pig" in the film's other most-quoted scene, the hillbillies attempt to force a little oral action from Voight and a little butt-play from Beatty.

This scene was both intriguing and shocking to me. The emotive result of this concoction: confusion. Just what was it that this hillbilly was attempting to do with Beatty?! Was it possible that people actually did this? Or was it just something that “river folk” indulged in? Whatever it was, it must be wrong and Deliverance was just about to show me that there was a price to pay for being gay beyond being a toothless hayseed.

As things are about to reach the point of no return between our urbanites and river men, Reynolds, around the time that he did his famous and relatively discreet Cosmopolitan centerfold spread, arrives decked out in leather river gear, a saviour in S&M drag. He and his crossbow put a swift end to the attempted rape.

Though I remained engrossed by the rest of the film, and terrified by the nightmare dream sequence wherein a pale hand emerges from beneath the surface of the river, the rape scene stayed with me even more so. A mishmash of “erotic” imagery and conflicting emotions. Gay sex was bad, punishable by death, the sentence served by the swift bow of a leather man.

A ten-year-old can't make sense of these images and thoughts, but they can lay dormant in the back of his mind until they reach the surface like that pale hand rising out of the Cahulawassee River. Deliverance remains a great film; its iconic moments a part of pop culture history. As an adult, I have a more comprehensive understanding of sexuality and its complexity, of what the film is saying (and not saying), and, I hope, of myself. I've come to a place where I appreciate the journey I took downriver with it, stopped shockingly and unexpectedly like the film's leads by a couple of horny hillbillies that I was also forced to confront without so much as a crossbow to protect me.