Overview

"This work offers a critical, colorful and informative examination of different types of monster movies, spanning the silent period to today. Each chapter focuses on films that share a specific brand of primary monster. The discussion of films within chapters is chronological, though sequels or directly related films are grouped together regardless of release date. Chapter One focuses on dragons, dinosaurs, and other prehistoric or mythological scaly giants from films like 1953's ""The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms"", an impressive stop-motion production that ushered in a new era of atomic-spawned ""giant monster"" films.Chapter Two examines ""big bug"" flicks, featuring outsized insects and arachnids, beginning with 1954's giant ant - infested Them. Chapter Three focuses on ordinary animals that have grown to improbable proportions through inadvertent scientific tampering or sinister experimentation, such as the huge octopus in 1955's ""It Came from Beneath the Sea"". Chapters Four, Five, and Six look at several types of film in which nature goes berserk, and otherwise innocuous animals threaten mankind as they flock, swarm, hop or run about on a menacingly massive scale, including 1963's ""The Birds"" and 1972's ""Frogs"". Finally, Chapter Seven focuses on films featuring blobs and other beasts that defy easy definition, such as 1958's ""The Blob"" and ""Fiend Without a Face""."

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this work offers a critical, informative review of different types of monster movies, spanning the silent period to today --ARBA; a must-read...Schoell knows his stuff...Schoell has done a superb job in offering a fresh slant on a genre we thought we knew everything about --Monster Memories.

Author Information

William Schoell is the author of many books about the performing arts and pop culture, including The Opera of the Twentieth Century (2006). He lives in New York.

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