Customer Reviews

A Field Guide to Monsters: This Book Could Save Your Life

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I was thrilled to see this book at the local Hastings, being a monster geek and all. However, I think it could have been better:

1. Several entries were inaccurate- they claim the first Frankenstein movie was the James Whale version, which is not true. If I recall correctly, their was a silent version that was made at the very dawn of motion photography.

2. Some were redundant- there's different entries for "Living Dead" and "Zombies", along with the Gorgon and Medusa. In the, er, "real world" (as far as you can say brain-eating, walking corpses apply to it) there might be a difference, but not so much in the "reel world". (Before anyone throws a fit, let me say taht I am aware of the real-life voodoo "zombies". I just think that in movies "zombies" is practically reserved for the brain-eating type, and the Serpent and the Rainbow types should be designated some other way. Voodoo Zombies?)

3. While many obscure movie monsters were covered (Frogs? Vampire Circus? Ape from George of the Jungle?) many notables were excluded. Where's the Xenomorphs from Aliens? The Predator? E.T.? Graboids?

4. The last one might be anal of me, but there were tons of typos.

I would recommend this books for monster movie geeks (duh) but I wouldn't do so heartily.

Like several other reviewers, I noticed a large number of factual errors in this book. The author clearly did not bother to watch many of the movies he used as source material. Having said that, this book is obviously meant as a tongue-in-cheek guide, so I suppose accuracy takes a backseat to humor.

This is a 5 star book in terms of humor and entertainment value. So I'll deduct a star for the errors and call it a day. (Note that I purchased this as a bargain book and paid ~ $5. Given that it's a paperback and <200 pages, I certainly would NOT have paid the cover price of $19.95.)

I am currently reading this book and while it's interesting to look back at same famous movie monsters, I am also, as some other reviewers have noted, a little put off by the amount of errors in both typing and information. Some of the information provided isn't even that interesting, however, I thought the pictures that were included were well-chosen. Going back to the errors, two that stood out to me personally were in the page on the Flying Monkeys from The Wizard of Oz, the author refers to the Wicked Witch of the East as the one who sends the flying monkeys to attack Dorothy. Obviously, that is incorrect information. He also mentions Jurassic Park coming out in 1997, which in actuality is around the time the sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park was released. The first one was released in 1993. Other errors of this nature popped up throughout the book and yet I did still enjoy most of what I was reading. I purchased this book for about $5.00 at Borders, which was just the right price. It really isn't worth the $19.95 price that is on the back cover of the book.

This is a nice book, a visual feast of most of the major horror movies and TV shows from modern and classic eras appearing in colour (and black and white where the film was). As a tongue in cheek survival guide it is not in the league humour or quality wise of better books such as How to Survive a Horror Movie: All the Skills to Dodge the Kills or The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead. As an informative reference guide is probably where if that's the reason you're buying you may be disappointed. One there isn't a great deal of info on each character and two, as pointed out by other reviewers, they get it wrong a fare bit. However a great factor is there is a huge range (not comprehensive by any means but most of your favourites are probably here) of creatures and characters, more than most other books.

I'd recommend getting it from your library first before purchasing. What it is good though is to have on a coffee table for people to pick up which will start your own conversations on the various creatures. I did especially like the Monster Comparison Size chart at the end of the book though.

Like the other reviewers, I have found my share of mistakes in the book. Information is faulty, pictures are mislabeled, and some of the "aside commentary" is lame in the humor department.

Then, why do I give it four stars?

Well, the book is great for the boomer (and older reader) that recalls the great monsters of filmdom past. They are all here in their black and white or Technicolor glory: "The Deadly Mantis," the ants from "Them," James Arness as "The Thing," the various actors donning Dracula's cape, the Frankenstein monster, "Hellraiser," and so many others.

I especially like the page devoted to dragons, featuring the winged serpents from "Dragonslayer," "Dragonheart," and the more recent "Reign of Fire."

And what monster book is not worth its weight in gold profiling "Gorgo."

The monster size comparison chart in the book's appendix, whether completely accurate or not, brings a few smiles at that.

Who knew that Mothra was close to 500 feet tall!!!

I really enjoyed this book. It had a vast array of monsters and nice color pictures. What annoyed me is the humor Dave Elliot and the two co-authors put into this book. Then more than half the beautiful color pictures have arrows pointing to them with stupid captions, again with dumb humor. Next time they plan on revising this book, leave the humor out and the stupid lines pointing to the pictures. If those two were left out it would be five stars all the way.

For 100 years of movies and TV, monsters have been apart of the imagination of many geniuses; from monster animals, to monster men, to manufactured monsters and many more kinds of monsters. King Kong, Frankenstein's Monster, Shrek, the Munsters, Tarantula, Norman Bates, Dracula and Many more. For any one who loves monsters this is the book for you.

Although a monster field guide is a cute idea for a fun stocking stuffer or coffee-table book, this book makes it painfully obvious that the writer fell short in their research. I'm sure there are more inaccuracies but, just by flipping through the book I noticed a few major ones just involving the Buffy universe.

1. The entry labeled The Master, actually, uses a picture of The Gentlemen from the Buffy episode "Hush".

2. The entry for Spike from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" states that Spike has been turned into a human so he is no longer a vampire, which is not true. The author must have mistaked Spike getting his soul back with becoming human.(Very very different!)

3. The entry for Angel from "Buffy and "Angel" states that Angel can "morph" and fly. Angel can do neither and neither do any vampires in the Buffy universe except Dracula.

It is pretty clear that the author has never watched more than one episode of Angel or Buffy or even attempted to research the characters. I know this is just a novelty book but that does not mean research is not necessary and it is amazing to me that this book would get published with so many major factual mistakes.

It is certainly a clever take on the survival-styled guide, using movie monsters, and writing with tongue firmly in cheek. The only drawback I can see is that the authors have erroneously left out Cthulhu and his brethren. How odd. Perhaps they are merely waiting for a proper film adaptation to come along, instead of the tired and inane dreck that occasionally pops up like a three-month old bloated corpse in the water. I must note that the Lethality and Weaknesses sections for each monster are informative and lively, but I would question the inclusion of such innocuous creatures as the Little Vampire and Grandpa Munster, as they are hardly the stuff of nightmares.

Oh, and there appears to be at least one error: a photo of those dastardly and evil Gentlemen from the Hush episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer graces the monster entry for the Master. Oops. The Monster Size Comparison Chart included in the book is clever, but I sincerely doubt the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man could take Godzilla, no matter how much bigger he is. Smores anyone?

It claims that Eddie was Grandpa Munster's nephew. Huh? Eddie was Grandpa's grandson.