Let's Scare 'em!

Let's Scare 'em!
Author: Rick Atkins
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 272
Release: 1997
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN:

Since the sound film appearances of Boris Karloff as Frankensteins monster, Bla Lugosi as the Count, and Lon Chaney as the Wolf Man, audiences have enjoyed horror and fantasy thrillers. This work documents and illustrates the suspension of disbelief and audience manipulation integral to these three decades of horror, fantasy, and monster movies with interviews, with 122 photographs and a filmography of 251 of the best known (and some not so known) releases, beginning with The Cat Creeps (1930) through The Innocents (1961). Leading producers, directors, actors (e.g., Carl Laemmle, Jr., Kenneth Strickfaden, William Castle, John Carradine, and Forrest J Ackerman) discuss the genre, their colleagues, directing styles, business deals and moviemaking secrets. The extensive filmography covers 251 films and gives credits for the original story, screenwriter, camera, and production crew, and cast members and their roles.

Lake Monsters

Lake Monsters
Author: Joseph A. Citro
Publisher: Crossroad Press
Total Pages: 245
Release: 2021-07-08
Genre: Fiction
ISBN:

Downsized from his job and dumped by his girlfriend, Harrison Allen longs for a fresh start. Alone, with no prospects or plans, he relocates to a borrowed house on Friars Island in Lake Champlain to relax, contemplate, and begin redefining his life. Then he hears about the monsters… Creatures—perhaps similar to those of Loch Ness—are said to inhabit the murky waters and fogbound marshes of his new island home. His interest piqued, Harrison becomes preoccupied with finding them. But his innocent questions provoke a surprising response: the islanders won't discuss monsters. After Harrison meets the lovely local schoolteacher, Nancy Wells, events inexplicably turn menacing. He suspects he is being watched; he is warned away from an abandoned monastery; and somehow he wins the wrath of a murderous local bully. Then people begin to disappear…and die. Harrison's harmless monster hunt discloses something dark and disturbing beating in the heart of this tiny Vermont town. Malevolent forces, powerful and primitive, propel the unwary couple into a maelstrom of escalating terror. Suddenly they find themselves targeted by an unstoppable evil never before contemplated and impossible to comprehend. Harrison's "new beginning" is like nothing he'd ever planned. And Lake Monsters ends with a surprise that's shocking, unexpected, and unforgettable.

Let's Improvise

Let's Improvise
Author: Milton E. Polsky
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2000-05-01
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1617748854

Beginning with simple sensory-awareness exercises in a relaxed atmosphere, and moving through pantomime and role playing to longer skits, Let's Improvise emphasises self-discovery through doing. Through hundreds of exercises that encourage personal and social growth you will feel free to create – to transform an ordinary idea into a celebration of life: to “try on” a variety of characters from life and literature: to take creative risks; to test and revise your thoughts, feelings, and values: to lose your inhibitions and build confidence and cooperation through teamwork – and much more.

The Book of Horror

The Book of Horror
Author: Matt Glasby
Publisher: Quarto Publishing Group USA
Total Pages: 179
Release: 2020-09-22
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0711251797

“Glasby anatomizes horror’s scare tactics with keen, lucid clarity across 34 carefully selected main films—classic and pleasingly obscure. 4 Stars.” —Total Film? Horror movies have never been more critically or commercially successful, but there’s only one metric that matters: are they scary? The Book of Horror focuses on the most frightening films of the post-war era—from Psycho (1960) to It Chapter Two (2019)—examining exactly how they scare us across a series of key categories. Each chapter explores a seminal horror film in depth, charting its scariest moments with infographics and identifying the related works you need to see. Including references to more than one hundred classic and contemporary horror films from around the globe, and striking illustrations from Barney Bodoano, this is a rich and compelling guide to the scariest films ever made. “This is the definitive guide to what properly messes us up.” —SFX Magazine The films: Psycho (1960), The Innocents (1961), The Haunting (1963), Don’t Look Now (1973), The Exorcist (1973), The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), Who Can Kill a Child? (1976), Suspiria (1977), Halloween (1978), The Shining (1980), The Entity (1982), Angst (1983), Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1990), Ring (1998), The Blair Witch Project (1999), The Others (2001), The Eye (2002), Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), Shutter (2004), The Descent (2005), Wolf Creek (2005), The Orphanage (2007), [Rec] (2007), The Strangers (2008), Lake Mungo (2008), Martyrs (2008), The Innkeepers (2011), Banshee Chapter (2013), Oculus (2013), The Babadook (2014), It Follows (2015), Terrified (2017), Hereditary (2018), It Chapter Two (2019)

Hammer Complete

Hammer Complete
Author: Howard Maxford
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 993
Release: 2019-11-08
Genre: Performing Arts
ISBN: 1476629145

Think you know everything there is to know about Hammer Films, the fabled "Studio that Dripped Blood?" The lowdown on all the imperishable classics of horror, like The Curse of Frankenstein, Horror of Dracula and The Devil Rides Out? What about the company's less blood-curdling back catalog? What about the musicals, comedies and travelogues, the fantasies and historical epics--not to mention the pirate adventures? This lavishly illustrated encyclopedia covers every Hammer film and television production in thorough detail, including budgets, shooting schedules, publicity and more, along with all the actors, supporting players, writers, directors, producers, composers and technicians. Packed with quotes, behind-the-scenes anecdotes, credit lists and production specifics, this all-inclusive reference work is the last word on this cherished cinematic institution.

Strange Blood

Strange Blood
Author: Vanessa Morgan
Publisher: Independently Published
Total Pages: 336
Release: 2019-04-27
Genre:
ISBN: 9781797494135

This is an overview of the most offbeat and underrated vampire movies spanning nine decades and 23 countries. Strange Blood encompasses well-known hits as well as obscurities that differ from your standard fang fare by turning genre conventions on their head. Here, vampires come in the form of cars, pets, aliens, mechanical objects, gorillas, or floating heads. And when they do look like a demonic monster or an aristocratic Count or Countess, they break the mold in terms of imagery, style, or setting. Leading horror writers, filmmakers, actors, distributors, academics, and programmers present their favorite vampire films through in-depth essays, providing background information, analysis, and trivia regarding the various films. Some of these stories are hilarious, some are terrifying, some are touching, and some are just plain weird. Not all of these movies line up with the critical consensus, yet they have one thing in common: they are unlike anything you've ever seen in the world of vampires. Just when you thought that the children of the night had become a tired trope, it turns out they have quite a diverse inventory after all.

Time to Hunt

Time to Hunt
Author: Stephen Hunter
Publisher: Island Books
Total Pages: 609
Release: 2010-08-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0307762866

“Stephen Hunter is in a class by himself. Time to Hunt is as vivid and haunting as a moving target in the crosshairs of a sniper scope.”—Nelson Demille, author of Mayday He is the most dangerous man alive. He only wants to live in peace with his family, and forget the war that nearly killed him. . . . It's not going to happen. Stephen Hunter's epic national bestsellers, Point of Impact and Black Light, introduced millions of readers to Bob Lee Swagger, called “Bob the Nailer,” a heroic but flawed Vietnam War veteran forced twice to use his skills as a master sniper to defend his life and his honor. Now, in his grandest, most intensely thrilling adventure yet, Bob the Nailer must face his deadliest foe from Vietnam—and his own demons—to save his wife and daughter. During the latter days of the Vietnam War, deep in-country, a young idealistic Marine named Donny Fenn was cut down by a sniper's bullet as he set out on patrol with Swagger, who himself received a grievous wound. Years later Swagger married Donny's widow, Julie, and together they raise their daughter, Nikki, on a ranch in the isolated Sawtooth Mountains in Idaho. Although he struggles with the painful legacy of Vietnam, Swagger's greatest wish—to leave his violent past behind and live quietly with his family—seems to have come true. Then one idyllic day, a man, a woman, and a girl set out from the ranch on horseback. High on a ridge above a mountain pass, a thousand yards distant, a calm, cold-eyed shooter, one of the world's greatest marksmen, peers through a telescopic sight at the three approaching figures. Out of his tortured past, a mortal enemy has once again found Bob the Nailer. Time to Hunt proves anew why so many consider Stephen Hunter to be our best living thriller writer. With a plot that sweeps from the killing fields of Vietnam to the corridors of power in Washington to the shadowy plots of the new world order, Hunter delivers all the complex, stay-up-all-night action his fans demand in a masterful tale of family heartbreak and international intrigue—and shows why, for Bob Lee Swagger, it's once again time to hunt. Praise for Time to Hunt “Stephen Hunter is simply the best writer of action fiction in the world and Time to Hunt proves it.”—Phillip Margolin, author of The Burning Man “The best straight-up thriller writer at work today.”—Rocky Mountain News

Julia

Julia
Author: Peter Straub
Publisher: Anchor
Total Pages: 306
Release: 2014-09-23
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0804172838

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Ghost Story—and the master of American horror—tells the terrifying story of a woman who, in her desperation to flee the past, encounters an inexplicable aura of evil. Julia’s first purchase upon leaving her husband is a large, old-fashioned house in Kensington, where she plans to live by herself, well away from her soon-to-be-ex and the home where their young daughter died. She feels a peculiar affinity for the house right away, a feeling that deepens with each glimpse of a mysterious little girl—blond, like her daughter—in the neighborhood, and even in her dreams But the little girl and the big house have an inexplicable aura of evil. And Julia quickly discovers that escaping her past is not as simple as turning a key.