By Geno McGahee
HORROR FILMS FAQ by John Kenneth Muir is a must have for any horror fan and a good introduction to the genre for any moviegoer that has not experienced a true scary movie. Muir does a great job in covering the entire genre and all of its sub-genres, looking deep into the movie, the formula, and messages sent out by the productions.
All of the films and franchises that you know and love are covered in this, such as NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, FRIDAY THE 13TH, A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET, HALLOWEEN and more. Muir does a great job turning back time and discussing the goings on that made the particular movie important and popular. The younger fans of the genre will be educated as to the bumps and bruises that the genre took from the media, most notably Roger Ebert and some of the bored housewives of America that desperately wanted to control what films were released to the public. It was nice to relive that time and it was nice to know that horror won and survived.
Muir goes deep into the past, beginning with the 1910 FRANKENSTEIN and brings it right to the present, including great coverage of the found footage craze. This book is one of those “must have” books if you are a horror fan and it’s a great and interesting read. Muir is obviously a huge horror fan and it shows. You can always tell when somebody’s heart is in something and this book is written with a lot of heart and plenty of research.
HORROR FILMS FAQ is listed, by the publisher, as: “All that’s left to know about slashers, vampires, zombies, aliens and more” and it couldn’t have been said better. This is just a really neat book. I highly recommend it to any horror film fan, but also to any fan of film, period. It gives you much more information in an entertaining way than any other book similar to this one. John Kenneth Muir knocked it out of the park.
Rating: 10/10