The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror; Revised Edition with a New Afterword

It sometimes seems that the history of horror films began with Universal's Frankenstein and Dracula, with an occasional nod to some silent film. It doesn't make much research to find out that there is much more to this history, as David Skal illustrates in The Monster Show. In fact, it is till almost the one-third point in the book that these landmark films are really discussed.What happened earlier were such crucial films as Nosteratu, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and The Phantom of the Opera. Skal also relates stories of early figures, including Lon Chaney and Tod Browning and some of the literary and dramatic predecessors to the horror film. Only after laying this foundation does Skal really get into the iconic movies of Dracula and Frankenstein. There were other horror landmark films in this era, including The Mummy, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Island of Lost Souls, and between the early 1930s and 1940s, others would appear as well, most prominently the Wolf Man.These films are quite tame by today's standards, but to many overly sensitive and self-righteous souls of the era, these movies practically heralded the end of civilization, leading to de facto censorship. The genie, however, was out of the bottle, and like any good movie monster, it could never be truly killed.Skal zips from this era to the age of early television, when a new audience got to see these movies (often introduced by figures like Vampira) and the fan base expanded to a new, ardent generation. Then it's on to the era of more modern horror, ushered in by Psycho: not only is horror more gruesome (the result of better special effects and more relaxed ratings standards). As earlier films could be allegories for war or the Depression, newer films could provide symbols for AIDS and birth control. And new or old, sex and religion were always entangled in the themes.This book is subtitled A Cultural History of Horror, but as fascinating as it often is, perhaps it should be a Cultural History of American Horror made by Major Studios. There is a lot that is omitted here that should be found in any reasonable history of cinematic horror. Val Lewton, the influential horror producer of the 1940s, has only one of his movies really described (Cat People) and only gets a couple pages of text. Roger Corman and his Poe movies are hardly mentioned at all. Most glaringly, Hammer Films, which reinvented horror in the 1950s (when American horror was at its nadir), is discussed in little more than a couple of scattered sentences (let alone any non-English films after the initial German movies).Despite these omissions, this is still a pretty decent book, but the flaws keep it from earning more than four stars. If you're a horror movie fan, this is worth reading. Skal is pretty knowledgeable on the subject and can add an extra level of appreciation for this film genre.

If you're a true horror fan and like to think on the deeper meanings reflected in popular horror films of different times, this is for you.

I already own the same paperback edition of this book. I enjoyed it so much that I bought a copy recently as a gift. The copy I received is such a poorer quality than my current copy that I was shocked and disappointed. The book’s cover print quality is blurry and of thinner material. The paper looks and feels almost like newspaper material. The photos printed on this paper look horrible. The paper also looks like it was cut askew in some places. I understand that maybe the publishing company has legitimate reasons for this change and it is lucky I can still get this book in print, but the decrease in quality made me wonder if I accidentally bought a bootleg copy of this book??? I compared my two copies side by side and am almost embarrassed to give the new copy to the recipient. I don’t wish to sway people away from this book because the content is truly fascinating and well written which is why I still gave the book the rating I did.

A very good introduction to Horror films and their evolution in American Cinema with a special nod to German Expressionism. He does a good job of registering Tod Browning's importance as Horror auteur. He explains quite well, within the context of Depression Era America, the attraction to the Horror Film and Bela Lugosi's success (I hadn't realized that Dracula, the novel, was one of the most read paperbacks among GIs during WWII, and that Bela Lugosi was an immediate success on the War Bond circuit during the War). I wish he would have gone into more detail about the Wolf-Man series, but the background history or myth about Wolves was fascinating. For those interested in Camp, he has a wonderful section on Vampira and her relationship with James Dean(catch the photo of Dean in his Frankenstein makeup). His writing is witty, smart, entertaining, and non-academic (no conflating or foregrounding in his prose). This is a welcome addition to anyone's cinematic history collection. Stephen Schicker

I ordered Skal's THE MONSTER SHOW as a required text for a University course, and I have to say, it's one of the few required books I genuinely enjoyed reading and sometimes even looked forward to. David Skal does an excellent job of explaining the history of horror in comparison to the current events occurring at the time of his respective subjects. The prose is informative but hardly dense, and Skal offers his own interesting insight in accompaniment to the facts. A truly great read for horror fans, film buffs, and historians alike.

This book starts out great! It was so interesting to read about the old fashioned horror films and the people who created them. The author made it so easy to read, and I was flying through it all! I could tell that the book was very well researched, and it was nice to see how the author made connections and observations of his own. It is a very good beginner book for anyone interested in historical horror cinema.The second part of the book is ridiculous. It goes on about silly people who think they are vampires, dumb connections that the author just threw in, and the writing starts to get really silly. It is almost as if the author was told to make the book longer, and he stretched it as far as it could possibly go. It wasn't exactly boring, but unresearched and juvenile.I would recommend this book for people who are just starting to read about the history of the horror movie. It was really easy to read, and the first half was great! Although the second half let me down, I still think this book is worth the read. (Maybe from the library, though!)

Couldn’t put it down, very informative and interesting. Had a long movie marathon afterwards 😁

My one star is not because of the content of the book (David Skal is great and I'm a great fan), but because of the quality of the edition. The resolution of the images was extremely bad. The quality of the paper, horrible.For 16 euros, you can expect decent images that don't look like low-quality photocopies, and pages with margins.I would accept this edition for 6 euros, but for 16 is a joke.