Videohound's Horror Show: 999 Hair-Raising, Hellish, and Humorous Movies

This book covers films from the silents through the 90's. It includes a wide variety of horror movies, from early suspense films and classic monsters to slashers and a few films that only peripherally link to horror. The reviews are good reading, and include references to other viewing in a number of places. There are several good indexes also. The only down side is that the book is a bit dated, not in content (any movie guide is dated as soon as it is released) but by being written before DVD's and widescreen TV's became the norm. This is a minor flaw, but I would love to see a new version of the book (hint, hint!)

This book is unbelieveable! If you are a serious fan of horror movies, I can't see how you could ever be disappointed in this book. 999 of the most well known, (and some fairly obscure) horror flicks reviewed in concise, one-four paragraph summaries, and rated at the end from a 0-4 star, (WOOF!-Four Bone) rating. It contains cast, filmmakers, screenwriters, distributing companies and ratings for each film. Filled to the brim with pictures, quotes, references, etc. Every couple of pages also has a Videohound Salutes section, where they take half a page to remember and honor certain actors, directors, and decades, and their special contributions to the horror genre. The reviews are helpful, and informative, and I've rented countless movies based on this book's recommendations and have come away very satisfied. I tend to agree with almost everything the author writes about each movie I see, and as soon as I've seen a new horror flick, I make sure I immediately re-read what the book had to say to make comparisons with my own opinion. The horror genre is huge, and so, naturally, in the interest of space, many movies couldn't find a spot on here, but most of those movies are obscure slasher flicks from the seventies and eighties, that nobody should care about anyway, (although, admittedly, I've seen 'em all.) Every significant film in the horror genre is in here, from the 1930's to about 1997. There isn't any way I can possibly recommend this book enough!

I bought this book as a supplement to research on a term paper. Wow, was I surprised!! This is the end-all be-all of horror film books. Mike Mayo is amazingly honest, and though there are some strange entries (The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-up Zombies rates 3 stars), he never becomes defensive. He lists some excellent sources, and as with all Videohound books, cross-indexes everything. Those movies that are not included are not included for good reason. Those movies that are included...well, let's just say this is the ultimate horror book.

One piece of advice: If you're squimish don't buy this book. It has graphic pictures and explistic reviews, all the things a horror film junkie loves. Mike Mayo does the best job at writing this book he rates the movies and will even make fun of the movies he didn't like. I can't spend one day without looking through the book.

This book contains great reviews and bios of famous men and women of horror. It includes bios of everyone from Boris Karloff to Stephen King. The only minor complaint is that it does not have reviews of the Silent Night, Deadly Night movies or the Puppetmaster sequels. Other than that, this is an excellent book.