Michael Gingold
Paperback, 240 Pages
Monsters have been a part of human culture since we first gained the ability to tell stories. They represent everything from our deepest fears to our feelings of alienation and estrangement. From its beginnings, the cinema has provided a venue to visualize monsters in all their fearsome and sometimes strangely sympathetic glory. They have become some of the movies' most unforgettable, enduring and popular characters. And now the entire spectrum of screen creatures is gathered in one volume.
In The Frightfest Guide to Monster Movies, celebrated writer, editor and critic Michael Gingold starts in the silent era and traces the history of the genre all the way through to the present day. From Universal Studios legends such as Frankenstein's Monster and the Mummy, to the big bugs, atomic mutants and space invaders that terrorized the '50s, to the kaiju of Japan and the ecological nightmares of the '70s and '80s, to the CG creatures and updated favourites of recent years ― they're all here.
200 of the greatest creature features from across the globe are reviewed, with fascinating facts and critical analysis, all illustrated with a ghoulish gallery of remarkable monstrous imagery. Cult-favourite filmmaker Frank Henenlotter, creator of some of the screen's most idiosyncratic and bizarre beings, contributes a foreword, A whole world and grisly galaxy of creatures great and small, spawned from space, the supernatural and strange science, the beginning of time, beneath the sea and beyond imagination, await in this book. Dare you confront the beasts within?
