Terry's Reviews
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| Movies | Music | Books |
Book Reviews: |
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Legacy of Blood – A
Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies Written by Jim Harper Critical Vision – 2004 |
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| This book attempts to cover the slasher film from
the first film to the most recent as of the publishing of this book. Jim Harper shares his
enthusiasm for these types of films but isn’t afraid to pull punches at criticizing
the ones that are less than good. Overall this book covers the surprisingly long list of slasher films that have been made. Legacy of Blood is well-organized sporting four sections; 1) history, 2) conventions of genre, 3) reviews and 4) ‘UK video nasties’ list. Harper says that the first slasher films were Alfred Hitchcock’s PSYCHO and Mario Bava’s BLOOD AND BLACK LACE. But the film that really made the slasher craze of the late 70’s early 80’s was John Carpenter’s HALLOWEEN. All of the rules that are the norm, the storyline and plot devices that are most common in a slasher film are discussed. We also hear about the hero/heroine with the usual ‘final-girl’ being the one who fights to save the day. The film locations are also mentioned which are vital to any film, especially the slasher film. One cannot over stress the importance of the small town in HALLOWEEN, the woods of FRIDAY THE 13TH, the high school of PROM NIGHT, the train in TERROR TRAIN or mine in MY BLOODY VALENTINE to name a few. I didn’t agree with all of Jim Harper’s reviews and some of them sound quite similar. I guess when you think if it, because so many slasher films are almost identical stories, this may not have been avoidable. You might be surprised at some of the films the United Kingdom felt were too nasty to be seen by the population. It’s also amazing to see how long it took for the authorities to give to the okay for some of these films to be viewed. After reading this, I can certainly understand anyone trying to go around, over or under the rules to see some of these films. I really enjoyed this book because as I’ve stated before, the fertile period of slasher films right after HALLOWEEN is when I started to learn about filmmaking. I highly recommend Legacy of Blood. |
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