Horror Film Directors, 1931–1990

This is an exhaustive study of the major directors of horror films in the six decade period. For each director there is a complete filmography including television work, a career summary, critical assessment, and behind-the-scenes production information. Fifty directors are covered in depth, but there is an additional section on the hopeless, the obscure, the promising, and the up-and-coming.

Dennis Fischer has been writing on films for more than twenty years and has made major contributions to the St. James Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, the Midnight Marquee Actors series, and the Backstory series of books on popular Hollywood screenwriters. A career educator, he lives in Elk Grove, California.

Dennis Fischer
Format: softcover (6 x 9 in 2 vols.)
Pages: 900
Bibliographic Info: 83 photos, filmographies, bibliography, appendix, index
Copyright Date: 2011 [1991]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-6090-8
eISBN: 978-1-4766-0795-5
Imprint: McFarland

Volume 1
Acknowledgments      ix
Introduction      xi
A Brief History of Horror Films      1

I. The Major Directors      9
Dario Argento      11
Roy Ward Baker      37
Mario Bava      61
John Brahm      82
Tod Browning      94
John Carpenter      117
William Castle      143
Bob Clark      172
Jack Clayton      178
Larry Cohen      189
Roger Corman      210
Wes Craven      246
David Cronenberg      268
Sean S. Cunningham      286
Joe D’Amato      293
Joe Dante, Jr.      298
Amando de Ossorio      330
Brian De Palma      335
Terence Fisher      364
Robert Florey      398
Freddie Francis      411
Karl Freund      428
Robert Fuest      443
Lucio Fulci      460

Volume 2
John Gilling      467
William Girdler, Jr.      476
Stuart Gordon      483
Piers Haggard      496
Curtis Harrington      501
Gordon Hessler      516
Seth Holt      522
Inoshiro Honda      526
Tobe Hooper      530
John Hough      553
Erle C. Kenton      559
Harry Kumel      572
Reginald LeBorg      576
Ulli Lommel      585
David Lynch      589
Roman Polanski      597
Michael Reeves      614
Mark Robson      623
George A. Romero      636
Don Sharp      656
Jacques Tourneur      663
Edgar G. Ulmer      680
George Waggner      695
Peter Walker      703
James Whale      710
Robert Wise      736
Jean Yarbrough      750

II. The Hopeless and the Hopeful: Promising Directors, Obscurities, and Horror Hacks      757
Al Adamson      759
Clive Barker      760
Lamberto Bava      762
Larry Buchanan      763
John Carl Buechler      765
Kevin Connor      766
Don Coscarelli      767
Richard E. Cunha      771
Dan Curtis      771
Ray Danton      773
Fred Dekker      773
Abel Ferrara      775
Jesus Franco      776
Richard Franklin      778
William Fruet      782
Sidney Hayers      783
Frank Henenlotter      786
Tom Holland      789
Neil Jordon      791
Frank LaLoggia      792
Jeff Lieberman      794
Herschell Gordon Lewis      795
Armand Mastroianni      797
Ted V. Mikels      798
Andy Milligan      798
Steve Miner      798
Jacinto Molina      800
Philippe Mora      802
Dan O’Bannon      803
Sam Raimi      809
Fred Olen Ray      812
Stephanie Rothman      813
Joseph Ruben      815
Jimmy Sangster      818
Cirio H. Santiago      818
Peter Sasdy      819
David Schmoeller      820
Jim Sharman      821
Gary Sherman      825
Jack Sholder      828
Alfred Sole      829
Ray Dennis Steckler      830
Tibor Takacs      832
Lewis Teague      834
Kevin S. Tenney      835
Fred Walton      837
Edward D. Wood, Jr.      839
Jim Wynorski      843

Appendix: Classic Horror Films by Non-Horror Directors      847
Annotated Bibliography      855
Index      867

“uniformly informative, intelligently and critically written…wide ranging in scope”—Booklist; “exhaustive…astute, witty and generally fun to read”—ARBA; “excellent analysis…essential”—C&RL News; “useful reference work is the volume to cover so much territory on a heretofore uncollated subject”—Cemetery Dance; “the best compilation of its’ kind currently available…highly informative”—Cornerstone Magazine; “At 900 pages, this may be the largest book on horror films. …a tremendous quantity of facts and valuable quotes.”—Neil Barron, Editor of Fantasy and Horror.