From the silent-film era to the blockbusters of today, Horror Unmasked is a fun-filled, highly illustrated dive into the past influences and present popularity of the horror film genre. The horror film’s pop-culture importance is undeniable, from its early influences to today’s most significant and exciting developments in the genre. Since 1990, the production of horror films has risen exponentially worldwide, and in 2021, horror films earned an estimated $580 million in ticket sales, not to mention how the genre has expanded into books, fashion, music, and other media throughout the world. Horror has long been the most popular film genre, and more horror movies have been made than any other kind. We need them. We need to be scared, to test ourselves, laugh inappropriately, scream, and flinch. We need to get through them and come out, blinking, still in one piece. This comprehensive guide features: A thorough discussion on monster movies and B-movies (The Thing; It Came from Outer Space; The Blob) The destruction of the American censorship system (Blood Feast; The Night of the Living Dead; The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) International horror, zombies, horror comedies, and horror in the new millennium (Matango; Suspiria; Ghostbusters) A dissection of the critical reception of modern horror (Neon Demon; Pan’s Labyrinth; Funny Games) Stunning movie posters and film stills, plus fan-made tributes to some of the most lauded horror franchises in the world (Aliens; the Evil Dead; The Hills Have Eyes; Scream) A perfect reference and informational book for horror fans and those interested in its cultural influence worldwide, Horror Unmasked provides a general introduction to the genre, serves as a guidebook to its film highlights, and celebrates its practitioners, trends, and stories.

The official Biography of Kane Hodder

Prior to his death in 1993, Vincent Price was collaborating with Mr. Joel Eisner (author of the over 100,000 copy bestselling Official Batman Batbook concerning the ‘60’s Adam West Batman television series) to construct a definitive, official biography of his life and career in films. This is that book. Sanctioned by the Vincent Price Estate and daughter Victoria, THE PRICE OF FEAR is not only told through journalist Eisner’s personal interviews with Price himself but with the cooperation, direct interviews and quotes from many of those with whom Price worked with throughout his illustrious career. Before he passed away, all Vincent saw of this book was his fellow actor Peter Cushing’s heartfelt foreward. Introducing the true story of a man born within a moderately wealthy family of candy manufacturers in 1911 St. Louis, Missouri, whose interest in theatre during the Great Depression led him into eventually becoming, arguably, the most universally iconic personification of the horror genre in the entire encompassment of the 20st Century. That man was Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. What you now hold in your hands is the only authorized, official biography about Vincent Price’s entire life in films ever published in history with his direct participation and approval, in his own words. Never before has the story of Vincent’s life been told, how he rose from dramatic theatre and stage to joining the ranks of the early cultured Hollywood elite fresh from where motion pictures were first spawned to eventually spend his life behind horrifying makeup and horror genre movie roles at the sacrifice of a greater passion for fine art and comedy. For nearly a century, we’ve known the name. We’ve heard the voice. We’ve seen the many faces. At last, with The Price of Fear: The Film Career of Vincent Price, in His Own Words, we can know the man, directly from the legend himself, in this never-before-published highly entertaining and inspirational masterpiece.

Many of the key films in the career of horror icon Vincent Price (1911-1993) contain commentaries both obvious and subtle on the role of women, not only in the context of the times in which the films were created, but also during the historical periods depicted in the storylines. This examination of Price's horror films focuses on how the principal female characters--portrayed by such notable actresses as Barbara Steele, Hazel Court and Diana Rigg, to name but a few--are simultaneously villains, victims and objects of veneration. Also considered are issues of gender and sexuality as addressed in Vincent Price's most memorable movies. Included are dozens of rare production stills and a selected filmography that provides significant background information on the films cited.

Race, while drawn from the visual cues of human diversity, is an idea with a measurable past, an identifiable present, and an uncertain future. The concept of race has been at the center of both triumphs and tragedies in American history and has had a profound effect on the human experience. Race Unmasked revisits the origins of commonly held beliefs about the scientific nature of racial differences, examines the roots of the modern idea of race, and explains why race continues to generate controversy as a tool of classification even in our genomic age. Surveying the work of some of the twentieth century's most notable scientists, Race Unmasked reveals how genetics and related biological disciplines formed and preserved ideas of race and, at times, racism. A gripping history of science and scientists, Race Unmasked elucidates the limitations of a racial worldview and throws the contours of our current and evolving understanding of human diversity into sharp relief.

Featuring rumpled PIs, shyster lawyers, corrupt politicians, double-crossers, femmes fatales, and, of course, losers who find themselves down on their luck yet again, film noir is a perennially popular cinematic genre. This extensive encyclopedia describes movies from noir's earliest days – and even before, looking at some of noir's ancestors in US and European cinema – as well as noir's more recent offshoots, from neonoirs to erotic thrillers. Entries are arranged alphabetically, covering movies from all over the world – from every continent save Antarctica – with briefer details provided for several hundred additional movies within those entries. A copious appendix contains filmographies of prominent directors, actors, and writers. With coverage of blockbusters and program fillers from Going Straight (US 1916) to Broken City (US 2013) via Nora Inu (Japan 1949), O Anthropos tou Trainou (Greece 1958), El Less Wal Kilab (Egypt 1962), Reportaje a la Muerte (Peru 1993), Zift (Bulgaria 2008), and thousands more, A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Film Noir is an engrossing and essential reference work that should be on the shelves of every cinephile.

During 1996 and 1997, T. Marshall Hahn donated a substantial portion of his collection of contemporary folk art to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta. His gift was the first major collection of self-taught art primarily from the South to be given to a general interest American museum. The Hahn Collection comprises more than 140 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures created by more than forty artists and is particularly strong in work by African American self-taught artists. The three essays in this book provide a context for this extraordinary gift. An interview with Hahn by Lynne E. Spriggs, the High's Curator of Folk Art, traces his personal collecting history. An essay by Joanne Cubbs, the High's first curator of folk art, explores conceptual and aesthetic themes common to Southern folk art, and an essay by Lynda Roscoe Hartigan, Chief Curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, presents an overview of the developing awareness of and market for Southern folk art. The catalogue section features color reproductions and short essays on eighty-five of the most significant objects in the Collection.

In the 1930s and '40s an untamed group of Hollywood notables, men most well-known for their talents on the silver screen, frequently met and behaved in a manner that no doubt made them infamous within their community. The group included John Barrymore, Errol Flynn, W. C. Fields, Anthony Quinn, Vincent Price, and the eccentric artist John Decker. Hollywood's Original Rat Pack revisits the lives and times of this free-spirited gang and rekindles the spirit of their excesses. In this lighthearted history, Jordan introduces the members of the Bundy Drive Boys, focuses on the unique personality traits each offered, and brings their lusty stories of carousing and debauchery to life in a manner that pays tribute to their carefree, if admittedly reckless, antics.