By Geno McGahee
I am a filmmaker and have been heavily influenced by the slasher sub genre of horror. I grew up watching FRIDAY THE 13TH, HALLOWEEN, MADMAN, THE BURNING, and so many more. I soon became addicted to these sorts of films and have a near complete collection of the slasher films that were released.
Horror fans are a loyal and obsessive breed. No other sort of film will get the strong emotional ties that these films and out of all of the different sub genres, the slasher gets the most attention. Jason Voorhees, Michael Myers and Freddy Krueger are the faces of horror and they all reside in the slasher film.
I just read a book by J.A. Kerswell, titled “THE SLASHER MOVIE BOOK,” and it presents the history of the slasher film as completely as anything that I have seen. In fact, I spent quite a while just looking through the pages at the posters and production stills from the classic to the obscure slasher film.
Kerswell does a great job putting this together, tracing the origins of the slasher to the current status. I quickly read through this as it flowed smoothly, each page bringing back a memory and reinforcing my love of this sort of film. It’s such a great read, but what puts it over the top is the presentation. The book is oversized and the front and back cover fold out, exposing artwork from classic horror films. Page after page, you either relive or discover numerous slasher films.
There was no stone left unturned and no punches pulled. This was a well researched, well written, history of horror book that covers all of the bases, spanning the world, the theatrical releases and straight to video entries. I was very impressed with how great this book really was. I own many books, but this one has certainly made it somewhere near the top of the list of favorites. If you are any sort of horror fan, you NEED to own this book. You will be happy that you bought it. If you are not a horror fan, you will enjoy the history of this sub genre of film. This book is a must own. I give a lot of credit to Kerswell for an outstanding job in the writing, research and presentation. This is an absolute winner.
