VideoHound's Complete Guide to Cult Flicks and Trash Pics (Paperback)

by Carol A. Schwartz (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 666 pages
• Publisher: Visible Ink Press (October 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787606162
• ISBN-13: 978-0787606169
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.5 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #841,520 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An essential part of any bad movie buff's library..., March 29, 1999

By	Adam J. Trembczynski (Merrillville, Indiana United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I can't recommend this book enough. If you're a fan of odd movies or downright terrible ones, this book is for you. While this book is not the most comprehensive one on "cult movies," it is wonderfully written by people with a good sense of what camp value is all about. The sidebars are insightful and the reviews are almost always dead on. It is done alphabetically and has many wonderful indexes so a William Castle fan can look up all of his movies or somebody with a vampire fetish can easily find any films of the genre. The only problems are that some reviews are rather short and uninformative and some very important movies are not included. However, in the foreward of the book they tell you that there might be a sequal and they encourage people to write to them and give their opinions. The book even lists other cult movie publications and websites, along with the distributors so one can track down a specific title. It is an invaluable tool for seeking out obscure films and an all around pleasure to read.

23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but padded and filled with mistakes, May 6, 2003

By	Bryce David (Cyberspace) - See all my reviews

This review is from: VideoHound's Cult Flicks & Trash Pics (Paperback)

I love books on Cult and Trash films. So, naturally, I bought VideoHound's Cult Flicks & Trash Pics. After perusing through it for a while, I thought that the book was good but it's woefully incomplete, padded and many reviews are filled with mistakes. The package is great and the inclusion of movie quotes is a great idea but those things aren't enough to compensate for the bad aspects of this hefty book.

The first obvious mistake is that it's incomplete. For example, there are only 6 William Castle movies listed in the book, such as I SAW WHAT YOU DID or HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL, but it doesn't have HOMICIDAL, Mr SARDONICUS or PROJECT X. A lot of Russ Meyer films are listed but UP! is not. Also, there's a lot of obscure but well-known B-movies that are missing from the book. Titles like TERROR IN THE JUNGLE, SILENT NIGHT BLOODY NIGHT, THE BOOGEYMAN or even VISITING HOURS aren't listed. A major point of these types of Cult movie guides is to list the extremely obscure titles, titles that would never be listed in standard movie guides, so we can track them down with the provided information. And the fact that a wide range of titles that have a cult following, from big studio oddities like XANADU to low-budget obscurities like HORROR HIGH are missing from the bunch makes the book look seriously incomplete.

Second, many of the review I've checked from my first reading contain errors. The review for BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE says that the movie starts with a murder. It doesn't start with a murder but an attempted murder. If you know the movie, this is a significant detail to the story-line. The review for another Dario Argento film, SUSPIRIA, states that Udo Kier plays the blind man when in fact Udo plays a psychiatrist in a brief role. These mistakes are so obvious that I wonder if they actually saw the movies.

In another example of errorneous information, this time about the technical aspect of the film, the book says that ILSA SHE-WOLF OF THE SS is only 45 minutes long. Huh? The book points out that ILSA is available on DVD, which it is (distributed by Anchor Bay) but the version of ILSA on the DVD is 96 minutes long, not 45 minutes.

And third mistake, the 800+ pages book is remarkably padded. 40% of the book is just filled with a series of indexes. That's something like 300+ pages just for indexes. I could have used more reviews of missing titles than having such a voluminous index.

Still, the guide is good and some reviews are well written, even if I don't agree with all of them. It makes for a great starting point for those who are new to Cult movies. But if you want remarkable guides on B-movies and trash films, buy the two Psychotronic guides by Michael Weldon, which are much better and more complete than this and don't contain as many errors.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Book for Midnite Trash, July 1, 2000

By	"eclecticdude" (Texas) - See all my reviews

If your taste in movies run in the vein of the type that crop up during midnight showings at the theater, then this is the book for you. Whether you use it simply as a reference, or, as I did, read it from cover-to-cover, it is witty and interesting. Of course, until there is a revised edition, there will be some more recent offerings that don't show up in here, and I have trouble giving it the full five stars for leaving out "Big Trouble in Little China", but there are plent of entries here. If the movies here fit your tastes, I would venture that you'd be hard-pressed to find your favorites missing. You should take the time to read the sidebars that are interspersed throughout the book, as you will find tidbits of interesting information in them. There are no anime' enties here, curse the luck, but maybe Videohound will put out an anime' guide.