"Terror on Tape" is a complete, comprehensive guide to over 2,000 horror films from the past 75 years that have been reissued on videotape, from mainstream masterpieces to cheesy exploitation flicks to deservedly unknown bombs.
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A well-written, useful guide to horror on videotape through 1994. It covers a lot of films, yet is small enough to carry to the video store. Each title is listed with plot summary, fun-to-read review, date, distributor, MPAA rating (where applicable), running time, director, cast, and a half-to-four-star rating. Includes mainstream, cult, foreign (but not Asian), and exploitation titles. Has 100 sidebar essays on important actors and directors, and plenty of black-and-white illustrations. For a surprisingly high percentage of the films, this reviewer agreed with the author's even-handed assessments.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Intelligent, Comprehensive, and Concise,
By
This review is from: Terror on Tape: A Complete Guide to Over 2,000 Horror Movies on Video (Billboard Books' Entertaining and Informative) (Paperback)
I had read both positive and negative reviews on this guide and figured I would take a chance. I found this guide to be comprehensive in its coverage of titles with concise yet informative reviews (do keep in mind that this book was published in 1994). James O'Neill comes across as someone who is a horror movie buff yet is objective enough to sort out the bad and the good in a very cliched genre. Since there have been some negative reviews on this page for the book, I present the following short summations as an attempt to answer some of these reviews: 1) This book is titled 'Terror on Tape' and therefore concentrates its focus on horror movies available on tape. It was never represented as a complete coverage of horror movies whether on tape or not. 2) O'Neill is not anti-slasher, just anti-bad movie. Too many horror buffs reviewing movies have a tendency to rate them on their gore, infamy, and nudity content as opposed to whether they are any good (plot, script, direction, etc). 3) The reviews are concise giving a basic plot outline, the particulars (actors, director, year, etc.), alternative titles, and of course his opinion. He accomplishes in his reviews what others have failed to do in longer reviews and does not attempt to spoil the movie. Additionally he does not borrow stock reviews and rewrite them for his guide as is a practice in many video review guides. 4) Since this guide concentrates on horror movies on tape (pre-1994) the coverage is obviously going to be slanted toward available titles on tape (although it would appear obvious, some reviewers apparently missed that point).---Although I do not agree with every review in the guide, I do find more hits than misses. It is additionally notable that it is obvious that O'Neill has seen the movies he has reviewed as compared to some guides I have read which left me wondering if the reviewer had actually seen the movie they reviewed. Unfortunately, that appears to be a common practice for the sake of coverage. You will not find that to be the case with 'Terror on Tape'. A comprehensive yet easy to carry guide.-Bob *[James O'Neill also wrote a companion book called 'Sci-Fi on Tape'. Amazon has it listed as well.]
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Exceptional quick reference guide,
By Brett (Idaho) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Terror on Tape: A Complete Guide to Over 2,000 Horror Movies on Video (Billboard Books' Entertaining and Informative) (Paperback)
I think the negative reviewers may have been seeking something else when they examined this book--this is general reference book that gives the reader a quick, concise synopsis & review of a great number of films. It covers over 2000 films whereas McCarty's (very good) Splatter Guides only cover around 400 movies each. I agree that the reviews are lacking in depth, but the breadth of coverage is what makes this book a fantastic reference. I don't know of any other book that covers so many films. When I encounter a new film or am trying to recall a film, this book provides just the right amount of information. If I wish to get in-depth analyses and do extended reading, I'll go elsewhere, but this is an essential reference book--the one I go to first. I only hope there is plan to keep it updated.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
surprisingly, the best guide to horror films available,
By Brucifer (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Terror on Tape: A Complete Guide to Over 2,000 Horror Movies on Video (Billboard Books' Entertaining and Informative) (Paperback)
I can see how some might be skeptical about purchasing this book when there are so many horror movie guides out there. But this out of print, 1994 guide to horror movies released on obsolete videotape, and published by Billboard books of all publishers is the one to get (along with the Psychotronic guide, of course, and Phil Hardy's encyclopedia). I have probably read through the entirety of this book more that 20 times if you add up all of my skipping around, and I still find myself referring to it constantly. Not only are the reviews extremely well-written, but the book is pretty close to complete in its inclusiveness. The limitation is that only movies once upon a time released on videotape (and up to 1993) are included, but O'Neill gets past much of that limitation by including releases on such "grey market" video labels as Sinister Cinema. O'Neill is a very sharp reviewer, with a sense of humor and a genuine love of the genre. A bonus is the inclusion of brief biographies of key genre actors, directors, producers, etc., though I wish these had been indexed, as the one you're looking for is sometimes hard to find. O'Neill won't like every film that you like (he doesn't rate many giallo films very well, for instance), but if you read the reviews, you get a good rationale, and he points out the good points of otherwise not so good films. And even when he gives them a low star rating, he's got an affection for the enjoyable turkeys like Horror of Party Beach, and that comes across in the reviews. Finally, relevant sci-fi films with horrific elements (e.g., Invasion of the Body Snatchers and The Deadly Spawn, but not Star Wars) are included in here, and that's essential. I'd really love to see an update of this book, one that takes it a step further by not being limited in terms of video format, but for now, I'll just keep going back to this excellent resource.
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