Tuesday, July 15, 2008

'HORROR MOVIES' & 'MONSTERS AND VAMPIRES' - Alan Frank





Here we have 2 wonderful horror film books by Alan Frank, the first one 'HORROR MOVIES - Tales of terror in the cinema' (1974), the second 'MONSTERS AND VAMPIRES - Spinechilling creatures of the cinema' (1976), and both published by Octopus books. Both books come with book jackets, 'Horror Movies' front cover has a scene from 'Dr.Terror's House of Horror' and the back is Christopher Lee from 'The Satanic rites of Dracula'. The 'Monsters and Vampires' front cover shows Christopher Lee as dracula and the back is from 'Frankenstein and the monster from hell'. The book themselves both have a black and white image from a film on the front and repeated on the back [see above]. Both books were later reprinted in softcover and had different cover photos.

These 2 horror film books are wonderfully written and informative as well as both illustrated with fantastic stills in colour and black and white. They are certainly up there with Denis Gifford's 'Pictorial history of horror films' has books that are a joy to read and browse through.

The 'Horror Movies' book chapters are as follows:


Introduction

The Baron

The Count

Back from the dead

Metamorphoses and Masquerades

Meet the Ladies!

Madmen, Demented Doctors and Psychopath Scientists

All creatures great and small


Then there is Acknowlegments, Index of film titles, and General index.


The 'Monsters and Vampires' chapters are as follows:


Introduction

The First Vampires

Dracula is born: Bela Lugosi

The Prince of Darkness: Christopher Lee

A Variety of Vampires

How to make a Monster

The Beauty and the Beast

Monstrous Changes

Terror from another world


And index. The chapter titles speak for themselves.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

how many pages are each book?

Paul said...

Sorry for the delay.
Both books are 160 pages each.

Anonymous said...

any idea what film the skeletons on the horses are from.i have this book but it doesn't say anywhere on it ??

Paul said...

The skeletons on horses on the book is from a film called 'Captain Clegg' a.k.a.'Night Creatures' starring Peter Cushing.

Mark Hodgson said...

I've only just discovered your wonderful resource!

The colour photos in Alan Frank's books were an early taste of vivid horror and, as a young teenager, I liked it!

I attempted to remember my other earliest horror books in this post here...

http://blackholereviews.blogspot.com/2010/04/my-first-horror-movie-books-early-looks.html

Stievaulx said...

Just thought I'd post this because it relates to old horror film books

I was wondering if anyone remembers the 1982 Starburst Annual "Classics of the Horror Film". The text is a bit opinionated in places but it provides a wealth of great stills for such a slim volume.

It's the visual side of the book which ties in with Frank and Gifford (which was their main draw for many of us) that made me post it here. Sorry if it's a bit off topic.

Anyway, Starburst have posted an excellent free PDF edition on their site which can be accessed with the greatest of ease by going here:

http://www.starburstmagazine.com/the-vault/418-starburst-annual-1982-classics-of-the-horror-film

It's well worth a look. Hope you enjoy it.