VideoHound's Horror Show: 999 Hair-Raising, Hellish and Humorous Movies (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

As author Mike Mayo points out in his introduction to VideoHound's Horror Show, "We've gone from the darkened movie house to the darkened den and the VCR, but our emotions and expectations of horror have not changed." For the benefit of the den dwellers, Mayo has assembled a lively and functional guide that covers "the scariest, funniest, dopiest, and most unclassifiable" horror films on video. In addition to the obvious classics of the genre, Horror Show covers relatively obscure pictures, as well as foreign, made-for-TV, and cult entries. There are some rather surprising inclusions, such as The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland, and some equally surprising ratings (Plan 9 from Outer Space gets 3 bones?), but Mayo makes a good case for their presence. Several dozen sidebars profile important performers and directors or trace trends in horror throughout the decades; quotations and black-and-white photos are sprinkled liberally throughout.

Like all the VideoHound books, this one practically bulges with information. In addition to the usual cast and production facts, this volume includes indices of cast members, directors, alternative titles, and categories, as well as "connections"--related books, periodicals, Web sites, and organizations--and guides to video sources and distributors.

Any horror aficionado will want to have this engagingly written and extremely useful reference book within arm's reach of the VCR. --Mary V. Burke

From Library Journal

Several capsule movie review sources now appear annually, including Halliwell's Film and Video Guide (HarperCollins), Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide (Plume), and the Blockbuster Entertainment Guide to Movies and Videos (Dell). Comparable in scope, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever stands out by dint of its biting attitude. The latest edition adds 1000 reviews, bringing the total to approximately 22,000. Access is via 13 indexes: by cast, director, writer, and so on. Particularly helpful are the alternative title index and the category list, an acerbic grouping of titles under rubrics like "Post Apocalypse: No more convenience stores." Coverage of foreign films is solid, and the extensive cross references are to be applauded. An awards index and a website guide only increase the reference value. VideoHound's Horror Show is more focused, providing 999 paragraph-length reviews of horror films. Encompassing both silent films and 1990s slasher pictures, it is accompanied by a subset of the indexes found in the larger Golden Movie Retriever. The contents are fleshed out by 50 sidebars highlighting topics along the lines of "The 1950s: The Bugs, 3-D, and the Birth of Hammer." A "Horror Connections" section lists websites, magazines and newsletters, organizations, and books, and photographs enhance the text. Unfortunately, this volume suffers from the inclusion of nontraditional horror films like Apocalypse Now and Trainspotting. While these films are indeed chilling, their inclusion casts doubt on Mayo's entire project. Why, for instance, is Full Metal Jacket left out? Public libraries may nevertheless be interested in both volumes.?Neal Baker, Earlham Coll., Richmond, IN
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 525 pages
• Publisher: Visible Ink Press (February 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1578590477
• ISBN-13: 978-1578590476
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #80,167 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A book any horror film fan should be ashamed to be without!!, June 27, 1999

By	Nathaniel Yapp "film geek" (Phoenix, AZ United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I bought this book as a supplement to research on a term paper. Wow, was I surprised!! This is the end-all be-all of horror film books. Mike Mayo is amazingly honest, and though there are some strange entries (The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-up Zombies rates 3 stars), he never becomes defensive. He lists some excellent sources, and as with all Videohound books, cross-indexes everything. Those movies that are not included are not included for good reason. Those movies that are included...well, let's just say this is the ultimate horror book.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars This Just Doesn't Cut It, May 23, 2006

By	Graboidz (Westminster, Maryland) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

I was given "Videohound's Horror Show" as a Christmas present the past year, and just finished working my through it the other day. I have to say I was really disappointed overall. As other reviewers point out so well, why are "Alice in Wonderland", "Platoon" and "Wizard of Oz" included here? There are so many movies that may have horrific elements in them, but they are still not horror films. Even if you take those films out of the mix, the biggest issue I have with Mike Mayo's work, is that he is approaching and reviewing these films with a main-stream sensability. Mayo's approach to most of the films presented in this book are written as if for a non-horror fan audience. Most horror fans know what to expect with a "Halloween" sequel, we aren't looking for quality film making like "Shakespeare in Love". We just need to know if Michael is creepy, what's the body count, and are the special effects worth the ticket price? I was hoping to find some "new" titles here, but to be honest even a casual fan of the genre, will be pretty familiar with the movies listed here.
The one aspect of this book that I did like, was that Mayo was not into giving away spoilers. Rarely does Mayo spill the beans about any twists or shocks pertaining to any of the films he reviews, and that was a breath of fresh air.
As a horror fan I would recommend you check out "Legacy of Blood: a Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies" by Jim Harper instead of VideoHound's offering. "Legacy" doesn't cover nearly as many films, and sticks just to the Slasher genre, but it is well written, and features reviews written for horror fans by a horror fan. Jim Harper "gets" horror, and knows what a horror fan wants.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nearly Indispensible, April 28, 2004

By	Rick Terpstra (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

I bought this book right when it came out oh so many years ago. Since that time I've thumbed through it on countless occasions when I thought I'd seen everything there was to see...or had at least heard about it. This book invariably brought some film to my attention that I had some how missed before. In that regard this book it wonderful.

There are some flaws, though. The first is the authors rather lax definition of the horror genre. This leads to the Wizard of Oz being included along side the Wizard of Gore. Somehow that doesn't quite jive and it makes me wonder sometimes what honest to goodness horror movies got excluded to make room for these selections. Second, the author tends to keep things very mainstream. This gripe was answered some when I looked through the Videohound cult movie guide and saw that many of the more fringe titles I hoped to find in the horror guide were included there. Finally, the author's tastes skew very Anglo-American to the point where I don't think that European productions that aren't from the UK get a raw deal in his reviews. However, this is more of a difference of opinion with the author than an actual problem with the book.

On the whole this is very good pickup for someone new to the genre and a find that will reward even the most seasoned horror enthusiast.