Emily C. Hughes, Andrews McMeel. (272p) ISBN: 9781683694250. Horror Films, read 04/05/26, Paperback ★★★★☆
Horror for Weenies
Another in my journey down the horror rabbit hole, I love reading books that discuss the horror genre (as well as Science Fiction and Fantasy) and expand my knowledge of it.
This time I’ve taken a journey through Emily C. Hughes’ thoughts on a selection of what she believes are some of the most influential horror movies of the 60s up to a few years ago, because as always I’ve had this on the shelf for a couple of years now.
This is broken down into three sections: The 1960s and 1970s, The 1980s and 1990s, and The 2000s and 2010s. Each section has a brief introduction and several films are discussed.
Each film gets a witty brief synopsis, a reason why and a reason why not to watch, then a well written breakdown of the film chock full of spoilers, so if you haven’t watched the film be very careful as there are no holds barred in telling the story of the film.
Then at the end there are some reasons why the film is so important, some pop facts to impress others with and some books to read that are related to the film.
I really enjoyed this from start to finish (thankfully I’ve seen all the films at least once, some much more than that – and yes Hereditary is a hard watch), the tone of the writing hits the right note and treats the reader with respect and doesn’t talk down even though this is allegedly aimed at people who are a bit too sensitive to watch these films.
Hope to read an updated version as there have been so many great new horror films that have refreshed certain themes and would love to hear Emily’s views on these.
