VideoHound's Horror Show: 999 Hair-Raising, Hellish and Humorous Movies

As author Mike Mayo points out in his introduction to VideoHound's Horror Show, "We've gone from the darkened movie house to the darkened den and the VCR, but our emotions and expectations of horror have not changed." For the benefit of the den dwellers, Mayo has assembled a lively and functional guide that covers "the scariest, funniest, dopiest, and most unclassifiable" horror films on video. In addition to the obvious classics of the genre, Horror Show covers relatively obscure pictures, as well as foreign, made-for-TV, and cult entries. There are some rather surprising inclusions, such as The Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland, and some equally surprising ratings (Plan 9 from Outer Space gets 3 bones?), but Mayo makes a good case for their presence. Several dozen sidebars profile important performers and directors or trace trends in horror throughout the decades; quotations and black-and-white photos are sprinkled liberally throughout.

Like all the VideoHound books, this one practically bulges with information. In addition to the usual cast and production facts, this volume includes indices of cast members, directors, alternative titles, and categories, as well as "connections"--related books, periodicals, Web sites, and organizations--and guides to video sources and distributors.

Any horror aficionado will want to have this engagingly written and extremely useful reference book within arm's reach of the VCR. --Mary V. Burke