Customer Reviews

The Overlook Film Encyclopedia: Horror

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
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The fact that this encyclopedia has not been updated since its last reprinting in 1995 borders on the offensive. That's because it is simply the best reference of the genre I've ever encountered. The book is filled with short to medium length reviews of horror films from every period in film history (up to 1992) and every nation which dabbles in the genre.

The fact that the encyclopedia is that complete is not necessarily its biggest asset. The reviews which compose the book do not simply provide summary, a quick line or two of evaluation, and a useless star rating a la Leonard Martin. Instead, each review examines its subject in relation to other similar works by subject, studio, director, actor, etc. It refuses to provide star ratings, favoring a more detailed explanation of a film's strengths and weaknesses. Also, and this pleases me the most, many films are examined through a critical lense, looking at how the film explores gender, culture, politics, economics, etc.

Combine these strengths with the inclusion of just about every horror film ever made and you have a book horror fans will leave by their bedside.

This encyclopedia treats the horror film genre as it should be treated, an important and vital field of art with a history and voice to be heard. Any causal or serious student of horror films must own this book. It will deepen and enlive their enjoyment of horror, from the absurd and esoteric, to the classic and mainstream.

This book has it's flaws, there is no doubt about that, various films are missing, the writing is overly politically correct, almost every film is considered either racist or homophobic and every time a women is killed it is because the director either hates or fears women. Did they ever think that maybe the reason there are beautiful women in these movies is so that there is something to hold the viewers interest between killings rather than having them nod off because of the inane dialogue. Then there are the racist cannibal films. Most of these films are little more than a chance to show some extreme gore and nothing more should be read into them than that. I must say that I am surprised that they missed the right wing political views that are rife in ZOMBIE. They also give away the ending to half the films.

Still, it's a great book, and I'm not beiing sarcastic. As a reference guide for the horror fanatic it's second to none. I have certainly never read anything with as much information on each individual film as this, as I mentioned before there is sometimes too much information, ruining twist endings and giving away key plot elements before you have had a chance to discover them for yourself, but you just have to be careful how you read it. I've owned this book for a few years now, and have read it through about twenty times and I am still picking it up often and going over old ground and discovering new information. Any horror fan must own this, no two ways about it.

Phil Hardy's Overlook Encyclopedia of Horror is an essential part of any horror-film aficionado's library. Though it is clear that the editors are fans of the genre, they are intelligent fans. This book consists of a year-by-year listing of horror films from around the world. For each film, the book provides a thorough review in which the editors freely praise or criticize the film according to its merits or the lack of merit. The reviews are comparable in length to those of Roger Ebert though without the personal confessions and revelations.

The great strength of this tome is that it is so thorough, covering films from Japan, Italy, and other countries that one would not find even mentioned in Leonard Maltin's video guide. The reviews, moreover, do well to identify conventions and movements within the genre and its subgenres (as in cannibal films or vampire films). With more and more non-English-language films emerging on video, Hardy's guide may prove the only source for the discerning (or non-discerning) horror viewer.

There are two major drawbacks to this book, though. The first is that it lacks the indices that it should have. For example, finding a film by a particular director can be particularly frustrating. Though Hardy includes many alternate titles, the book is not complete in this respect, and it is quite possible to find a video tape with a title that Hardy's book does not credit. The book may have the film, but finding it can be a chore. A director index would significantly cut search time. The other major flaw is that the video revolution seems to be leaving Hardy behind. Too many films are being released (largely due to the economics behind making inexpensive films with ready-made markets), and the book is by no means even close to comprehensive for films of the late '80s and '90s. Despite these flaws, there is nothing that I have seen that comes close to comparing to the Overlook horror encyclopedia, and it is still a must-have book for the serious viewer of horror films.

An attractive and indispensable guide to practically every horror film ever made, from the 1910's to the 1990's. It probably contains more out-of-print and foreign titles than most other guides. It is truly a massive book with hundreds of beautiful photos. However, the film reviews are a little awkward, and those photos would have looked a lot nicer in color.

I bought the first edition of this book back in 1985 and although I've bought a lot of other book on cinema and horror since then, this has to be the most valuable of them all.

Every - E-V-E-R-Y - horror film ever made - no matter where - is discussed. And in a way that shows that the authors really have seen it. There is so much to explore and so much to see - I still get excited about some strange little movie from a strange little country I've not heard of before.

Films like the Shogun-Assassin-Series or those of Coffin Joe would have been long forgotten if not this book had brought them to a broader public. The writing is very good. Research is excellent. The Photos are fine (if a bit sparse) and there is a short overview of each decade. The ideal research tool for every serious cinema-buff.

I find this a very useful and thorough book. However, any horror movie reviewer who puts down the Robert Wise film The Haunting is, in my not at all humble opinion, off target. I consider this the finest horror movie ever made. A lot of people agree including those who are remaking it this year (what a waste of dough when the first version was perfect and there are so many other great stories waiting to be filmed). The reviewer's complaint is that the film is anti-lesbian. Well excuse me! Isn't it realistic and natural for a prudish, sexually frustrated female character in 1963 (when the story was filmed not necessarily when it was set by the way) to be uneasy, perhaps repulsed by a blatant lesbian who is obviously attracted to her? Seems to me one could have interpreted her behavior as weird for being so uptight around a lesbian. However, her behavior might also be viewed as normal for 1963. The reviewer should forgo his or her political biases for focus on the point of horror movies. This is one of the scariest (and most interesting because of the sexual overtones and undertones) movies ever made. Sadly, this one review renders the whole book suspect. The book would also have been more valuable if it included a recommended movies list. However, based on my argument above, I would not have trusted such a list if it was included.

In terms of exhaustiveness, this book is probably second to none. Not only does it survey almost every American horror movie ever made, it contains a good lot on international films, especially italian giallos. A new edition of this 1994 book would be most welcome.

However, the authors of this book make the serious mistake of revealing key plot details of most movies, thus ruining the viewing experience of the unwary viewer. This is not how reviews ought to be written. So please do not read the review from this book before viewing the movie, it will ruin it for you!!!

I am still waiting for a perfect horror reference guide and this one comes pretty close. It is still missing dozens of titles that are elusive, but not THAT elusive! Most of the missing titles are still available on video at most video outlets! For anyone mildly interested in the genre, this should make you a hardcore addict! For those already hardcore addicts, you will probably cringe at some of the films missing but enjoy the extensive research put into the films. Yes, some pictures would look better in color, but the book's already a fortune, why have the price raised? Don't let the price discourage you, this is the best guide I've seen in the past few years (besides Michael Weldon's exhaustive PSYCHOTRONIC books). If you're still wary about buying it, look at the measurements of the book and how many pages it has. Nuff said.

This book is the most thorough any encyclopedia has ever dared to be, chronologically assorting horror movies starting way back with George Melies' short film; Le Manoir Du Diable (1896, Fr.). I just wished it had included everything including the either lost, forgotten, or never released horror films that are only in their original languages from the Philippines, Italy, Japan, and Mexico. I really want to know more about Japan's "Moken no himitsu" from 1924, I believe it is Japan's true first ever horror film (according to the internet movie database website). The amount of Mexican, Hong Kong, and Japanese horror films from 1960 and on with incomplete credits are tremendous.

This encyclopedia also helped me discover one title from my youth I thought I would never find, "Something Wicked This Way Comes." The book most heavily exhausts Christopher Lee's and Vincent Price's filmographies which delights me greatly. Everyone who cares about horror movies should look for and buy this encyclopedia. And I really wish it would get an updated release spanning horror films up to 2010. Let's get the ball rolling for this, I saw in previous reviews that other owners want the same thing. Trying to fit it all in one book would be too much, it would exceed 2000 pages. How about a Volume 2? Also the encyclopedia contains knowledge of many lost films that seem to have disappeared in recent years in other horror encyclopedias. The writer really did his research. Holding the book for me is holding horror movie history, and for the legion of younger horror fans that is growing rapidly these last few years, they should know about the silent horror film years and not just say "A Nightmare on Elm Street" is the greatest horror movie ever. George Melies "Le Manoir Du Diable" (1896), "The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari" (1920), and Bela Lugosi's "Dracula" (1931) are arguably the best horror movies ever because they changed the landscape of the entire horror and monster genres. I can't stand encyclopedias that are all in alphabetical order. What if I wanted to know all horror movies made in the year 1955?

tHIS IS AN OUTSTANDING OVERVIEW OF THE HORROR FILM FROM ITS HUMBLE BEGINNINGS TO THE PRESENT. NOTHING IS OVERLOOKED. IT IS INTELLIGENT WITHOUT BEING OVERLY ANALYTICAL AND ACADEMIC. IT IS A JOY TO READ. I FIND MYSELF CONSULTING HARDY'S BOOKS EVERY TIME I WATCH THOSE LATE NIGHT FEATURES. BUY IT. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED.