Customer Reviews

Behind the Mask of the Horror Actor

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It's a shame that this book is probably destined to have a very limited cult audience. It's written by Pinhead, and if you don't like the "Hellraiser" series you'd probably tend to just skip it. I wouldn't blame you, but you shouldn't.

If I have one complaint it's that the "history of the mask" portion at the beginning seems sort of tacked on as if Mr. Bradley felt he needed scientific or psychological justification for writing a book. If that is the case, he needn't have worried. This thing is chock full of hilarious behind-the-scenes anecdotes about great horror actors old and new, including Mr. Bradley, written with dry self-deprecating British wit. It's like spending the day with Doug Bradley, and I laughed my way through the entire thing.

I would recommend it to anyone that is curious about how film sets work and how actors cope with prosthetics, or to anyone that just loves movies. Don't worry, there's no torture or hell-raising, and it won't give you nightmares.

And I'm ready for a sequel please, Mr. Bradley. I'm sure there's more where this came from...

I checked this out of the local library a few months ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only does Mr. Bradley fill this enjoyable book with enjoyable anecdotes about his career as Pinhead, he gives a history of make-up in Hollywood during the golden age with innovaters such as Jack Pierce and Lon Chaney. This is a great book for not just fans of the Hellraiser movies, but of the horror genre as a whole and anyone fascinated with the history of make-up and prosthetics in movie. A very interesting and quick read!