THE MONSTER SHOW: A Cultural History of Horror

Frightfully well-done survey of modern horror, eclipsing Stephen King's seminal Danse Macabre (1981) for clarity of writing, if not personableness or depth of idea, and Walter Kendrick's The Thrill of ... Read full review

LibraryThing Review

I purchased this book many years ago. As with many in my library, it sat on my shelf just waiting for the right mood to strike. I wish I'd read it sooner. It provided a wealth of entertainment; the ... Read full review

LibraryThing Review

David J. Skal's The Monster Show manages to strike a balance. It is reasonably interesting and indepth, but it is not so dry that you are wondering about how that paint is doing in the bathroom. So, a ... Read full review

LibraryThing Review

My 2 Cents: I really got into this book while I was doing research for a film list that a friend of mine and I we watching. The thing I liked about it was that a) it took the genre seriously, but not ... Read full review

The monster show: a cultural history of horror

Skal, author of a terrific history of the Dracula subgenre, Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of "Dracula'' from Novel to Stage to Screen ( LJ 9/15/90), offers an incisive analysis of the (mostly ... Read full review

I found this book very insightful and informative. Skal presents "classic horror" film as a cultural expression, most particularly as it relates to psychology and modernism. I remember finding most of his propositions to be quite credible, which served to enhance my appreciation of the genre. It's not a "heady" book by any real means, but the ideal reader will be interested in the more intellectual side of horror.