Various Authors - A Century Of Horror- A Pictorial History Of Cinefa [Buzzy Krotik Productions - 2019]A Century Of Horror- A Pictorial History Of Cinefantastique is a glossy, poster & film still heavy study of the horror film genre moving from the silent movies, on through the 1930s, ending in the 1990s. It the latest book from the We Belong Dead team, who brought us the books Unsung Horrors & its sequel Son of Unsung Horrors, We’re British Y’ Know!"-A Celebration of Peter Cushing, and of course We Belong Dead Magazine. As with the teams' other books A Century of Horror- comes in the form of a large format paperback- with an epic page count of five hundred & twenty pages. And it’s in glorious & buoyant full-colour through-out.
The books is laid out in decades- with the end of the book featuring two bonus chapters- one on Japanese horror, and one on euro horror- each of these feature effective colour coded strips- so you can easily see where each decade starts/ finishes. Also each of the chapters start off with the great art we’ve come to expect from the team- taking in a selection of key monsters/ actors/ creatures from each( the 1940's one is used for the review index pic for this review).
For each decade/ chapter we first get an around twenty-page write-up about the focused decade. Like the teams' other books, each of these is written by different writers- so you get a nice switch in tone & type of writing from decade-to-decade- some chapters see a general overview- with key & important films, while others group a decades film into the themes, while others go from year-to-year decade rundown, once again discussing key films. Each write-up is most accomplished- with a good balance between facts, decade scope, and of course effective short write-ups about some of the key films.
The main focus of each decade/ chapter is, of course, the stills & rare posters many of which are from other lands- as with all the teams other books I’m in awe of their collections- as it really is staging some of the stuff they have, and many of these I’ve never before. Thorough most of the decades you really do get a great collection of stuff, as we move towards the ’80s & 90’s- we get a lot more familiar pictures- but they are still nicely arranged & you do still get some rare gems.
As with all of the team's titles A Century Of Horror- A Pictorial History Of Cinefantastique is decidedly limited in it’s printing- so it’s really best to purchase directly from the team here, but it can also be found in a few selected specialized shops/sites. All in all, it’s another very classy book, that’s perfect for you or the horror fan in your life!.    Roger Batty
|
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2017. Celebrating 16 years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=com
