These 2 books by Carousel with their similiar looking covers are great for the younger readers looking for brief descriptions to some of the famous monsters seen on the silver screeen[Monsters of the movies] or for wanting to turn into a monster for Halloween etc [Horror costumes and disguises]. Both volumes are a little larger than the average paperback but are slim volumes with a page count of just over 100 pages. 'Monsters of the Movies' by Denis Gifford was first published in 1977, the book's contents basically are a whos who of some of the famous and not so famous movie monsters, each monster has a page which tells the reader about that monster in the form of a introduction based on the film in which the monster appears in. The monster introductions are illustrated by a black and white photo of them from the film. There are the more familiar screen monsters here such as The Bride of Frankenstein, Dr.Jekyll and Mr.Hyde, Dracula, Frankenstein, King Kong etc, then there are unusual ones such as The Blood Beast terror, The Electric Man from 'Man made Monster', The Manster, The Raven [Boris Karloff as Bateman from 'The Raven' (1935), Zaroff etc. All in all 46 monsters are covered.
"Making Horror costumes and Disguises' with words and pictures by Malcolm Carrick was first published in 1978 is a fun guide for the child who wants to scare their freinds, neighbours etc with their ghoulish make-up and costume creations. The book simply explains what is needed for your costume or disguise and how to make or create it by easy to understand text and drawings. There are some interesting ideas that can be done by using just ordianary things found in the home. Here the book shows you how to make a false head, wigs, noses, teeth, blood, wrinkles etc, sounds like a do it yourself Dr.Frankenstein guide doesn't it? Character costumes and make-up include Dracula, Skeleton, Freakystein, Ghoul, Mummy, Werewolf, Nasty Gnome, Headless ghost, Rasputin, Zombie etc. Here's a good one... what about Mad Mushroom. Yes the book has it all. There are 2 other books in this Carousel series - Science Experiments and Making Magic both by Malcolm Carrick.
hey i have the "making devil & demon masks" book in the same series
ReplyDeleteIs there any chance that you could send some scans from the book please that I can put on the blog?
ReplyDeletemonsterscud@yahoo.co.uk
Monsters Of The Movies was one of my favourite books as a kid and my first introduction to so many great ( and not so great ) characters. Some of Gifford's choices are unusual ( the Manster? )but there are some great images here - that zombie on the last page still freaks me out!
ReplyDeleteI had the movies book, which my parents bought me from the school book club (it was called Chip Club). I was only about 7 or 8 and it scared the crap out of me, but I also loved it! I can still remember it now.
ReplyDeleteI borrowed the other one from the library.
The local library had a few of Gifford's larger coffee table horror books as well.
Thanks so much for adding these.
'Monsters of the movies' was certainly a great book and great as an introduction to the monsters. Yes I agree cerebus660'Manster' was a strange choice.
ReplyDeleteI too was a member of a school book club, not sure if ours was called 'Chip Club', I remember sending for 'Spooky Stories'#2 and 'Secrets of the Unknown'.
Monsters Of The Movies was what got me interested in horror movies. My goal was to watch every one of the movies listed (still haven't reached that, but I've seen a lot since then)
ReplyDeleteFantastic, its certainly a great book to start with. Not sure if I have seen all the films in the book yet, I know I haven't seen 'The Manster' which is one I was always curious about.
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly, this book is very expensive to replace - Amazon have one for one hundred and ten pounds. I still have mine that I got from the school book club - it cost 45p. I still read it, and I have seen every film in it. 'The film 'The Split' that features 'The Manster', is very weird indeed.
ReplyDeleteI had Monsters of the Movies when I was a kid, I'm sure it was given to me as a birthday present. I remember that I was too scared to look at the last page ... The Zomie. Basically it was just a picture of a guy with "Glasshoppa" type eyes (i.e. a ping pong ball cut in half) with some raggedy clothes on. But it scared the bejeezus outta me.
ReplyDeleteLike Brian Artillery (is that your real name mate?) says, it would be very expensive to replace. The lowest price on Amazon is £78. No way I'd pay that, that's people just taking the mick. Mine will either be in my dad's loft or in mine somewhere. Maybe one day I'll come across it again. But it was good to read some of the comments on here. I liked Adrian reminding me of The Chip Club.
No, it's not my real name, but I have used it for many years. I sometimes think that it would be nice to have a silly name like that for real. By the way, the zombie that freaked you, and others out, was played by Ben Aris. His son plays the now ex police pathologist (whose name escapes me at the moment), in the BBC TV show 'Sherlock'.
ReplyDeleteI bought mine from chip club at school in 1978 .im sure I still have it.it is on fact a colossal pile of crap
ReplyDelete