The Essential Monster Movie Guide: A Century of Creature Features on Film, TV, and Video [Paperback]

Stephen Graham Jones (Author), Forrest Ackerman (Author), Stephen Jones (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2000

More than 3,500 reviews of the best and the worst creature features of all time fill this largest, most comprehensive volume ever published on the subject-a record of dark fantasy on film to thrill horror and science-fiction fans of all ages. Classics range from Frankenstein, Dracula, and Wolfman films of the 1930s and 1940s to later cheesy horror movies exported from Japan, Mexico, and the Philippines, plus selected episodes from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Trek, and The X-Files. Arranged alphabetically for easy reference, each review includes cast and background information and remake and sequel listings. Brief sketches of key actors and directors are liberally sprinkled throughout this look at a century of the world's greatest fiends, demons, and creatures of the night.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Lists hundreds of "creature features" from film classics such as 1931's Frankenstein and its many spin-offs (Frankenstein General Hospital, Franken stein's Cat, Frankenstein's College Years, etc. ) to The Simpsons Halloween specials. Each entry includes cast and credit information, an evaluative synopsis, remake and sequel listings, and rating of one to five stars. RBB
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Stephen Jones is one of Britain's most acclaimed anthologists of dark fantasy and horror, and the multi-award-winning author of more than fifty books. He lives in London, England. Forrest J Ackerman is the creator of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine and is the author of many books and magazines on the subject. He and his collection of 300,000 pieces of monster memorabilia reside in Hollywood, California.

Product Details

• Paperback: 448 pages
• Publisher: Billboard Books (September 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0823079368
• ISBN-13: 978-0823079360
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,080,892 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Slightly Disappointing Guide, October 13, 2000

By 

Steven W. Hill "Owner of shillpages.com" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Monster Movie Guide: A Century of Creature Features on Film, TV, and Video (Paperback)

This guide book pretty much follows the typical movie guide format - the movie title and year, a description and brief critique, and a rating. The author gets extra points for also including information on any novels or novelisations published in relation to the film, and frequent comments about the film's score composers (a nice extra touch). The entire volume is in alphabetic order, with film titles mixed alongside brief biography entries for genre people, instead of in a separate index.

Where the book falls down, though, is in the lack of a clear set of rules defining what's in the book, and what's not. The best the reader gets is a comment about the book being for "the classic monsters" which I believe might upset some Godzilla fans who won't find any of that Japanese classic monster's movies included, for example.

The book becomes almost schizophrenic in its comprehensiveness: single episodes of television shows are included if they happened to contain a vampire (even standard soap operas and sitcoms), and movies gain entry if they include a clip from a classic (for example, where James Whale's FRANKENSTEIN appears on a monitor screen in a scene in an otherwise non-genre film); yet there are plenty of films one would THINK should certainly fit the book's format, yet no entry is found. The end result is a sometimes frustrating experience for the reader who will simply wonder why a particular title is not included...and without those clearly defined rules, there is no justification.

On the other hand, the book has its own benefits that help it stand comfortably next to other monster-movie genre guides like 'Creature Features'. The introduction and foreward are very entertaining in their own right, and the author includes a section on his own top choice genre selections. He also clearly prefers to form and maintain his own opinions on these films rather than follow popular opinion, which is a practice sometimes found in other guide books. Even so, there are a few entries that are based on hearsay instead of actual viewing experience, a fact that is readily admitted in the introduction. The ratings given are understandably done as a comparison to other genre films because - to paraphrase the author - to compare them to CITIZEN KANE would result in a majority of them getting only one star.

All in all, a worthy purchase as a reference guide and an entertaining read, but beware of the frustration that potentially comes along with it. The buyer may want to consider supplementing it with another guide.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Monsters mashed, sliced, diced and julienned, May 30, 2002

By 

Kevin Cook "Darlin' Boy" (McDonough, Georgia USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Essential Monster Movie Guide: A Century of Creature Features on Film, TV, and Video (Paperback)

Less an "essential" guide than an overly ambitious trifle for browsing through in idle moments, this frustrating book will incense buffs with its blatant omissions of valid monster films in favor of pointless listings for TV shows and even porno flicks with "classic monster" cameos. Misguided and woefully incomplete though it is, the book does contain helpful filmographies of monsterdom's movers and shakers and the photos are topnotch. Its eccentric format will ultimately reward trivia-mongers with enough patience to sift through all the obscurity.

The best thing about the book is Forrest J. Ackerman's sprawling foreword, a `Monster Mosaic' in which the erstwhile editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine recaps his long affinity (nearly 80 years) with monster moviedom. It's classic Ackermonster at his self-satisfied best (worst?), bragging, boasting, dropping famous names and tossing off juvenile puns with glee. Among minor pop culture figures with outsized egos, Ackerman has only one serious rival (Marvel Comics' Stan Lee) for shameless self-promotion. But give Ackerman his due: His gaudily cool magazine was an inspiration to legions of lonely kids (myself among them) who might otherwise have felt ashamed for liking monster flicks.

(Memo from an old monster buff: Two out-of-print books worth searching for are "An Illustrated History of the Horror Film" by Carlos Clarens and "Horror in the Cinema" by Ivan Butler - both scholarly but very entertaining.)

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What were they thinking?, September 9, 2005

By 

Prelati (England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Essential Monster Movie Guide: A Century of Creature Features on Film, TV, and Video (Paperback)

This is a mess. It's difficult to imagine who this is aimed at. There's far too little information to use it as a 'what to watch' guide for the casual viewer. Horror fans will find their blood boiling as cult classics are panned while borderline mainstream dreck enjoys generous appraisal. Many masterpieces simply aren't there while a worryingly large number of nominally horror-based porn and kids cartoon shows take their place. Most of these aren't easily available, I get the impression the author hasn't seen a lot of them, and I can't imagine many horror fans wanting to anyhow. No 'Masque of the Red Death'? Don't worry, here's a few episodes of 'The Flintstones' featuring Count Rockula! Bizarre.

Maybe it started out as an attempt to be definitive, then gave up as deadlines loomed. Who knows? Stephen Jones - at least I assume this is the same author - has penned numerous books and articles on the horror genre, but judging by this, has burnt out on monsters somewhere along the line. Which is fair enough, but expecting those who still relish all things creepy and ghoulish to put up with this limp effort is not. Very poor and faintly insulting to the genre it attempts, and conspicuously fails to cover.