Okay, so, I stumbled upon this old book the other day, “A Pictorial History of Horror Movies.” Sounds pretty cool, right? I mean, who doesn’t love a good scare? I flipped it open, and boom, I was hooked. It’s like a time machine but for freaky flicks.
First, I had to get my hands on this thing. It wasn’t exactly sitting on the shelves at the local bookstore. I did some digging and found it’s by this guy, Denis Gifford. Turns out, it was published way back in 1973. I thought that was a long time ago, but then I saw it said the first edition was in January 1, and now I’m like, whoa, that’s ancient!
I had to go on a little online adventure to find a copy. It wasn’t easy, but I finally tracked down a used one from 1977. It’s got a hard cover and everything, feels like a real treasure. It’s packed with pictures, 216 pages of them! I started flipping through, and it’s got all these old-school horror movie stills. You can see how the genre evolved over time, from those silent, creepy films to the more, um, colorful ones we get these days.
The book’s got different editions, I saw. Some are from the ’80s, like, 1984. I guess people really dug this book back then. But mine’s from ’77, and it’s in pretty good shape for its age.
Here’s the thing, though: going through this book, it’s not just about the pictures. It made me think about how much horror movies have changed. They used to be all about suspense and shadows, now it’s more about, you know, jump scares and special effects. It’s cool to see the history of all that in one place. I’m just really interested in this kind of thing.
So, I spent a good chunk of my weekend just going through this book, page by page. It’s like taking a course in horror movie history, but way more fun. I’m planning on watching some of these old movies, the ones I’ve never even heard of. It’s a whole different world of horror, and I’m kind of excited to dive in. I even went and found out the publisher was a company called Hamlyn. They must have known what they were doing, putting out a book like this.
Horror Through the Ages
- Black and White Nightmares: You see these old black and white photos, and they’re creepy in a totally different way than today’s horror.
- Technicolor Terror: Then you get to the color photos, and it’s a whole new ball game. The blood looks redder, the monsters look, well, more monstrous.
- Changing Faces of Fear: It’s not just the tech that changed. The stories changed, too. You can see how what scared people back then is different from what scares us now.
Anyway, that’s my little adventure with this “A Pictorial History of Horror Movies” book. It’s been a trip, and I’m not even done yet. If you’re into horror, or even just the history of movies, you’d probably get a kick out of this. I found that it is a good book to share my interest and I will continue to find similar things.
