Customer Reviews

"Daily Mirror" Book of Horses and Ponies 1971

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My Monster Madness and The Book that Started it All!
Review: "A Pictorial History of Horror Movies"

In 1973 Denis Gifford, a British author who wrote several books on the culture and genre of horror and SciFi, published "The Pictorial History of Horror Movies"(© 1973/74 - Denis Gifford). I received this book as a gift as a kid less than 10 years old, and for years I carried this around, like a sacred tome, studying every word and picture.
From the original dust jacket picture one might get the mistaken impression that this was a book primarily featuring Universal's Monsters, but further inspection proves it to be far more. Most of those dust covers don't exist any more, like mine, they disintegrated. The copy I recovered from my parents house (over 20 years later), show the incredible wear and tear I put this thing through back then.
While most of the photographs in the book are black and white on cheap paper that easily yellowed, there are a few nice full page color glossies, one, most notably a full page picture from a rare and difficult to find film starring Boris Karloff called "The Sorcerers" (Tigon 1967).
The black and whites are easily every bit as fascinating, offering a good blend of images from many classic films as well as a host of rare and seldom seen images, such as pictures from Georges Melies silent films done at the edge of the 19th century, featuring amazingly well crafted demons, devils, skeletons, and assorted fantastical creatures and events, (including one of the first cinematographic ventures to to the Moon). Also striking were pictures from Terror in the Sun (Ungar 1961), and some of the Asian titles very few outside of Japan were seeing i.e. "The Snake Girl and the Silver Haired Witch" , Living Skeleton (Schochiku 1968), and "Horror of Malformed Men" (Toei 1969).
But beyond the awesome pictorial record, there are tidbits of information and very cool and obscure facts about many of the movies and artists we are all familiar with, as well as the many of the less familiar. From Melies to Poe, from "Fiend Without a Face" to the "Mad Doctor of Blood Island" and from all across the World, Denis Gifford presented an intoxicating look into the heart of the Beast that is the World of Horror and SciFi film-making. To my knowledge, this book is no longer in print, but can still be obtained used (in varying condition and price) via amazon.com

Doc Warlock - Nightmare Sound Lab

I had this book when I was a kid, and after much searching I have found it. not only do I credit this book for my love of horror movies, it also is responsible for my love of reading

When I read this book for the first time, I was amazed. it is the most detailed book on classic horror I have ever read.

This book is great if you're more into B-movies or more obscure horror/sci-fi. I got this book mainly because I wanted more pictures of the horror greats to add to my collection (Lionel Atwill, Peter Lorre, Basil Rathbone, Lon Chaney, etc.). I was disappointed in this respect. However, there is a picture of Lon Chaney trying on a set of teeth in this book that made my purchase worth it. However, if you're not obsessed with Chaney, you might want to avoid.

i loved this book as a kid and it is as wonderful as i rember it.great info and tons of fantastic photos.1 of the best books on the sub.

From the late nineteenth century black and white slide shows of French film maker and sometimes actor Georges Méliès to the Technicolor drive in pictures of the early 1970's, "A Pictorial History Of Horror Movies" is jammed packed with amazing photos of some of the world's most famous and best beloved horror flicks along with rare "lost" silent films and more obscure ones. Denis Gifford presents a pictorial cornucopia of famous horror movie posters, stills of classic actors like Karloff, Lugosi and Chaneys Sr. and Jr in their trademark roles and several of the well known creatures of the atomic age.
But this is more than just another coffee table book of black and white and colored horror movie photos. Gifford's tongue in cheek text tells a fascinating story of the development of the horror film from its primitive beginnings through 7 decades of silents, screams, silver bullets, radioactive horrors and bloody living color.

I've been searching thirty years to replace my original copy and am very pleased to have finally found "A Pictorial History Of Horror Movies" at such a reasonable price.

This book changed my life.I had no interest in Horror movies until I picked this book up many full moons ago.Gifford's fun approach to the subject coupled with his genuine affection for the genre makes for an enjoyable read.Good choice of stills as well.Highly Recommended.

This book is not as in-depth as many others on the same subject , but it IS a lot of fun. Gifford's writing style is somewhat tongue-in-cheek, very much like another publication from that time period: Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. And during the 70s, really serious books on the making of monster/horror/sci-fi films were pretty scarce.

But, as the title suggests, this coffee-table sized book is LOADED with photos (mostly black & white with a scattering of full-color plates) and covers American, British and some of the Japanese films produced in the 20th century. You'll spend more time looking at the pics than reading it--which is fine, since the subject matter has been covered in more depth since then. I got this as a kid and it was a great introduction to the horror/sci-fi/fantasy film genres.