The Pleasure and Pain of Cult Horror Films

The horror genre harbors a number of films too bold or bizarre to succeed with mainstream audiences, but offering unique, startling and often groundbreaking qualities that have won them an enduring following. Beginning with Victor Sjöström’s The Phantom Carriage in 1921, this book tracks the evolution and influence of underground cult horror over the ensuing decades, closing with William Winckler’s Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove in 2005. It discusses the features that define a cult film, trends and recurring symbols, and changing iconography within the genre through insightful analysis of 88 movies. Included are works by popular directors who got their start with cult horror films, including Oliver Stone, David Cronenberg and Peter Jackson.

Bartłomiej Paszylk is the author of the Polish–language horror film history Leksykon filmowego horroru. His articles, reviews and interviews have been published in popular magazines and websites in both Poland and the United States. He is the editor of the magazine Czachopismo.

Bartłomiej Paszylk

Format: softcover (7 x 10)
Pages: 248
Bibliographic Info: 42 photos, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2020 [2009]
pISBN: 978-1-4766-8178-8
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5327-6
Imprint: McFarland

Introduction      1

PART I: THE ROOT OF ALL HORROR
The Phantom Carriage (Körkarlen) (1921)      6
Between Two Worlds (Der Müde Tod) (1921)      8
Witchcraft Through the Ages (1922)      10
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)      12
Faust (Faust—Eine Deutsche Volkssage) (1926)      16
Vampyr (Vampyr, Der Traum des Allan Grey) (1931)      19
The Old Dark House (1932)      21
Doctor X (1932)      23
Freaks (1932)      26
White Zombie (1932)      29
WereWolf of London (1935)      31
Mad Love (1935)      34
Mark of the Vampire (1935)      37

PART II: MONSTERS AND MADMEN
Dr. Cyclops (1940)      42
The Mad Monster (1942)      43
I Walked with a Zombie (1943)      45
The Body Snatcher (1945)      48
Dead of Night (1945)      49
The Beast with Five Fingers (1946)      51
The Thing from Another World (1951)      53
House of Wax (1953)      56
Tarantula (1955)      58
The Curse of Frankenstein (1957)      60
The Fly (1958)      63
I Bury the Living (1958)      65
Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)      67
A Bucket of Blood (1959)      71
Horrors of the Black Museum (1959)      73
Eyes Without a Face (Les Yeux Sans Visage) (1959)      75

PART III: TO SCARE THE WORLD
Black Sunday (1960)      80
The Blancheville Monster (1963)      82
Blood Feast (1963)      84
At Midnight I’ll Take Your Soul (À Meia-Noite Levarei Sua Alma) (1964)      86
Kwaidan (Kaidan) (1964)      88
The Saragossa Manuscript (Rdkopis Znaleziony w Saragossie) (1965)      91
Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors (1965)      94
The Reptile (1966)      97
The Fearless Vampire Killers (1967)      99
The Sorcerers (1967)      102
Viy (1967)      104
Hour of the Wolf (Vargtimmen) (1968)      106
The Cremator (SpalovaV Mrtvol) (1968)      109
Murder à la Mod (1968)      112
The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (L’Uccello dalle Piume di Cristallo) (1970)      114
Lizard in a Woman’s Skin (Una Lucertola con la Pelle di Donna) (1971)      116
Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971)      119
Vampyros Lesbos (1971)      121
Raw Meat (1972)      123
Flesh for Frankenstein (1973)      125
Scream Blacula Scream (1973)      126
Horror Express (1973)      129
Seizure (1974)      131
Frightmare (1974)      133
Black Christmas (1974)      135
The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)      136
The Beast (La Bête) (1975)      140
Shivers (1975)      142
The House with Laughing Windows (La Casa dalle Finestre Che Ridono) (1976)      144
Eraserhead (1977)      146
Martin (1977)      149
I Spit on Your Grave (1978)      151
The Driller Killer (1979)      153

PART IV: THE NASTY EIGHTIES
Cannibal Holocaust (1980)      158
Hell of the Living Dead (Inferno dei Morti Viventi) (1980)      160
Possession (1981)      162
The Living Dead Girl (La Morte Vivante) (1982)      164
Basket Case (1982)      166
Escape 2000 (1982)      169
Swamp Thing (1982)      170
Q—The Winged Serpent (1982)      173
Sleepaway Camp (1983)      176
The Toxic Avenger (1985)      178
Bad Taste (1987)      180
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)      182
Night of the Demons (1988)      184
Society (1989)      187

PART V: THE NEW WEIRDNESS
Begotten (1991)      190
Benny’s Video (1992)      192
Schramm (1993)      194
Dark Waters (1994)      196
The Day of the Beast (El Día de la Bestia) (1995)      199
The Lost Skeleton of Cadavra (2001)      201
No Such Thing (2001)      204
Bubba Ho-tep (2002)      206
The Stink of Flesh (2004)      208
Calvaire (2004)      210
Lunacy (Sílení) (2005)      212
William Winckler’s Frankenstein vs. the Creature from Blood Cove (2005)      215

Bibliography      219
Index      221

• “Note to horror know-it-alls, do not, I repeat DO NOT make any genre-related bar bets with Bartlomiej Paszylk, because he will slay you. [Paszylk] quotes from seemingly every damn academic article, Interview and notable review related to the movies he covers, and imparts enough factoids about the flicks to make one suspect he’s really just a glowing brain and a set of eyes floating in a jar, absorbing genre-related information all day…. That said, don’t assume this is a stuffy academic tome. Rather, Paszylk has written knowledgeable yet approachable two-page essays on 88 movies, ranging from the silent era to the mid-2000s”—Rue Morgue
• “Paszylk adopts a casual style of writing, yet his work is well researched and scholarly. This does not detract from the book, indeed, it makes it more accessible…wryly entertaining and observant…extremely intelligent but warmly embracing”—Hellnotes
• “I found everything I wanted to know about my cult fave films in this comprehensive volume…brilliant”—The Tomb of Dark Delights