Horror Cinema (Bibliotheca Universalis)

Very good book, high image quality

Purchased as a gift. Well received.

Horror Cinema-Taschen(2017): I find the'1 Star' review of this book rather surprising. As The number of noteworthy films that could be classed in one of the countless, constantly changing 'horror genres' in over 100 years of cinema can't be covered in around 600 (or 6,000)pages. The 450pg book recently dedicated to 'Folk Horror'(vol 1) being an example.Just under half this book is based around 10 parts:These includes 'Sci-Fi Horror', 'The Living Dead', 'Vampires & Werewolves' etcThe rest has Taschens choice of '50 top horror movies'. Much like S.J.Schneiders '101 Horror Movies' book, this runs chronologically & has a mix of the obvious with some 'surprise choices'. e.g. Jacques Tourneurs 'Cat People' is included ,but also his rather creaky 'I walked with a Zombie' thus leaving out his 'Night of the Demon'(barely mentioned in book) & no inclusion of 'The Haunting' or 'The Innocents' & while the choices are spread out over the years ,to finish in 2001 with 'The Others' makes it look rather over indulgent to some of the older 'Classics' (some of which are name checked more than actually watched?)Before each review ,on the left side is a full page given to Title & release year ,Director & Writer, D.O.P., Cast etc & opposite a full page cinema ad'- many of which are(to me) lesser known, & most look good enough to put in a picture frame.And it's the hundreds of images that really make this a worthwhile purchase.- The 'colour palette' of images is nearly always spot on -from sickly looking- 'Dawn..' & 'The Evil Dead', retina scorching- ' Suspiria' & 'Carrie', dreamlike- 'Company of Wolves' & 'Sixth Sense' ,naturalistic- 'Invasion of the body snatchers' & 'Man bites Dog' to the theatrical 'Faust' & 'Dracula' ,Truly unnerving 'Eyes without a Face' & 'The Vanishing' And equally good- the stylish B&W framing & portraits of the earlier Hollywood studios .Time and thought has clearly gone into the printing of these images .On virtually every page there's something that catches the eye .-The only problem with such well printed work is you wish the images were larger.The striking cover (in English ,not the Italian pictured) is a standard that's kept up throughout . There are occasional slip ups, mistaking images from Tobe Hoopers mid80s follow up to his classic 1974 'Texas Chain Saw Massacre' is an obvious one. While sometimes confusing Promo/Publicity shots with 'Stills' isn't really a problem...I feel the writing is not surprisingly where it lacks ,there could be more on non English language films- & I feel the stream of 'Found Footage' & the very popular Gialli/Italioexploitation could have been sections,while 'Possesion ,Demons &Tricksters' & 'Voodoo,Cults&Satanists' might have been combined..I also feel less of the book(nearly 400pgs) should be dedicated to 'Their Top 50'much of which is covered in the preceding sections .There isn't an index & it has a rather slight 'Chronology of horror films' , but it does contain a brief bibliography + A couple of tempting images & covers of other Taschen books (most available for the price of a large Pizza ).The book is 'easy to navigate' and generally there is a wide range of genres covered in a style that's very readable.Taschens statement of creating affordable books that 'Never bore,always excite!' is hard to argue with here...

I like the coverage of films that span the early days to the present good photos of the actors and make up

very good book covering the subject

Was pleased with item

Being used to Taschen that are real coffee table books I was a little surprised to receive an A5 tome BUT it is a good, relatively deep dive into horror cinema. Some of the categories are moo and there are both curious inclusions and exclusions but you are never going to be all things to all people. Visually it is very well put together, but one star off because it would have been really stunning had the book been a decent size.

My fault , I should have checked the book dimensions, contents pretty decent but I find it hard to enjoy due to the page size