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Book Description
An enormously entertaining account of the gifted and eccentric directors who gave us the golden age of modern horror in the 1970s, bringing a new brand of politics and gritty realism to the genre.
Much has been written about the storied New Hollywood of the 1970s, but at the same time as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola were making their first classic movies, a parallel universe of directors gave birth to the modern horror film-aggressive, raw, and utterly original. Based on unprecedented access to the genre's major players, The New York Times's critic Jason Zinoman's Shock Value delivers the first definitive account of horror's golden age.
By the late 1960s, horror was stuck in the past, confined mostly to drive-in theaters and exploitation houses, and shunned by critics. Shock Value tells the unlikely story of how the much-disparaged horror film became an ambitious art form while also conquering the multiplex. Directors such as Wes Craven, Roman Polanski, John Carpenter, and Brian De Palma- counterculture types operating largely outside the confines of Hollywood-revolutionized the genre, exploding taboos and bringing a gritty aesthetic, confrontational style, and political edge to horror. Zinoman recounts how these directors produced such classics as Rosemary's Baby, Carrie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween, creating a template for horror that has been imitated relentlessly but whose originality has rarely been matched.
This new kind of film dispensed with the old vampires and werewolves and instead assaulted audiences with portraits of serial killers, the dark side of suburbia, and a brand of nihilistic violence that had never been seen before. Shock Value tells the improbable stories behind the making of these movies, which were often directed by obsessive and insecure young men working on shoestring budgets, were funded by sketchy investors, and starred porn stars. But once The Exorcist became the highest grossing film in America, Hollywood took notice.
The classic horror films of the 1970s have now spawned a billion-dollar industry, but they have also penetrated deep into the American consciousness. Quite literally, Zinoman reveals, these movies have taught us what to be afraid of. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of the most important artists in horror, Shock Value is an enthralling and personality-driven account of an overlooked but hugely influential golden age in American film.
Much has been written about the storied New Hollywood of the 1970s, but at the same time as Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Francis Ford Coppola were making their first classic movies, a parallel universe of directors gave birth to the modern horror film-aggressive, raw, and utterly original. Based on unprecedented access to the genre's major players, The New York Times's critic Jason Zinoman's Shock Value delivers the first definitive account of horror's golden age.
By the late 1960s, horror was stuck in the past, confined mostly to drive-in theaters and exploitation houses, and shunned by critics. Shock Value tells the unlikely story of how the much-disparaged horror film became an ambitious art form while also conquering the multiplex. Directors such as Wes Craven, Roman Polanski, John Carpenter, and Brian De Palma- counterculture types operating largely outside the confines of Hollywood-revolutionized the genre, exploding taboos and bringing a gritty aesthetic, confrontational style, and political edge to horror. Zinoman recounts how these directors produced such classics as Rosemary's Baby, Carrie, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Halloween, creating a template for horror that has been imitated relentlessly but whose originality has rarely been matched.
This new kind of film dispensed with the old vampires and werewolves and instead assaulted audiences with portraits of serial killers, the dark side of suburbia, and a brand of nihilistic violence that had never been seen before. Shock Value tells the improbable stories behind the making of these movies, which were often directed by obsessive and insecure young men working on shoestring budgets, were funded by sketchy investors, and starred porn stars. But once The Exorcist became the highest grossing film in America, Hollywood took notice.
The classic horror films of the 1970s have now spawned a billion-dollar industry, but they have also penetrated deep into the American consciousness. Quite literally, Zinoman reveals, these movies have taught us what to be afraid of. Drawing on interviews with hundreds of the most important artists in horror, Shock Value is an enthralling and personality-driven account of an overlooked but hugely influential golden age in American film.
About the Author
Jason Zinoman is a critic and reporter who covers theater for the New York Times. He has also regularly written about movies, television, books, and sports for publications such as Vanity Fair, The Guardian, The Economist, and Slate. He was the chief theater critic for Time Out New York before leaving to write the "On Stage and Off" column in the Weekend section of the New York Times. Jason grew up in Washington, D.C., and now lives in Brooklyn, New York. Pete Larkin, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, has wide voice-over and on-camera experience and has worked in virtually all media. He was the public address announcer for the New York Mets from 1988 to 1993. He has worked as a disc jockey in Baltimore, Washington, and New York, including as host of WNEW-FM's highly rated "Saturday Morning Sixties" program. An award-winning on-camera host, Pete has worked on many industrial films for many of the country's top companies, corporations, and governmental agencies and has done hundreds of commercials, promos, and narrations. His theater experience includes a variety of dramatic, comedic, and musical roles.
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
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4.1 out of 5 stars (23 customer reviews)
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Essential for horror fans, but I do have a complaint ..., July 24 2011
By Grouchy Editor "grouchy" - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, ConqueredHollywood, and Invented Modern Horror (Hardcover)
If you are a horror-movie fan, and I am certainly one of them, Zinoman's biography of the men behind Hollywood's second "golden age" of horror, the 1970s, is an essential read. "Shock Value" is a nice blend of what makes guys like Wes Craven and George Romero tick - and how those ticks show up in their movies. But I'm sure every fright-flick aficionado will have nitpicks with Zinoman's critique, and so here are two of mine: Zinoman points out that most of these directors flamed out after initial success, but he doesn't offer much of an explanation for why that happened. William Friedkin ("The Exorcist"), Tobe Hooper ("The Texas Chain Saw Massacre"), Romero ("Night of the Living Dead") ... what the hell happened to these guys?My other complaint is more subjective. I happen to believe that Bob Clark's "Black Christmas" was the most terrifying movie of the decade, and that John Carpenter (who, incidentally, comes off as a Grade-A jerk in this book) shamelessly stole concepts and techniques from that movie to use in his blockbuster "Halloween." Zinoman touches on this directorial "borrowing," but inexcusably devotes little text to Clark's woefully underappreciated, eerie masterpiece.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
3.0 out of 5 stars
An interesting, if uneven view of the masters of horror, Sep 4 2011
By Sean May - Published on Amazon.com
This review is from: Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, ConqueredHollywood, and Invented Modern Horror (Hardcover)
Shock Value seeks to take on a lot in a relatively small space. Almost all of the films chronicled in the book could be the subjects of entire books, and Jason Zinoman does a good job at giving the reader a nice sampler of the important films of the genre, while also giving us some interesting insights into the creators behind them, letting us peek into their inner workings, providing good background on why exactly these seemingly normal (in most cases) people could create some of the most stomach-turning, terrifying films ever made.The book does falter, though, in a lot of ways that glare too much to make it completely enjoyable. While the book does feature portraits of horror luminaries such as Wes Craven, Tobe Hooper, Brian DePalma and George Romero, the main narrative of the book focuses on John Carpenter, and does so far too much. The book quickly becomes about Carpenter and his frequent clashes with his collaborator, Dan O'Bannon. The book describes Carpenter and O'Bannon's obsession with HP Lovecraft and their shared obsession with Howard Hawkes' The Thing from Another Planet.
Yet, despite Zinoman's adoration of Carpenter's work, and despite a half dozen mentions of his love of The Thing From Another Planet, the book makes only a slight mention of Carpenter's remake of the film, The Thing, which still stands as one of the most terrifying horror films ever made.
There are a few other quibbles I had with the book, including a number of rather glaring typos and factual errors, and a strangely self-absorbed telling of how a Hollywood producer approached Zinoman during the writing of the book to pitch him a horror film. The pitch is kind of banal, and just seems out of place, seeing that the rest of the book focused solely on the directors of the previously mentioned films, and had nothing to do with Zinoman's personal experiences with the films.
I would say that the book is recommended to anyone who wants a nice overview of the horror genre during the 70s and early 80s, but there are some parts of it that definitely warrant skipping.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Fine writer, excellent subject matter but not enough depth, July 25 2011
By John Kelvie - Published on Amazon.com
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This review is from: Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, ConqueredHollywood, and Invented Modern Horror (Hardcover)
First of all, I will say if you like horror films, I wholeheartedly recommend this book. There is too little written on the subject, and given that, I was delighted to find this book, and overall it did not disappoint.Mr. Zinoman is a good writer, and within the areas that he chooses to focus, he has done a good deal of research and provides the reader with interesting insights.
My main complaint would be that there was not enough. The book covers the initial films of Craven, Carpenter, De Palma, Friedkin, Polanski, Romero and Hooper to a good deal of depth. But he ignores much, if not all, of the later works of these artists. I would have liked to have heard much more about how these directors evolved. In some cases, like Hooper or Romero, where there careers sort of flamed out (I know Romero fans won't agree, but how many zombie moves can one man make?), but many of them remained vital for many years. I was especially disappointed that there was not more coverage of Body Double and the Thing. These are two of the finest thriller/horror movies ever made IMO, and were fairly solidly within the time period covered by the book, yet were basically left out for some reason (I'm guessing time limitations, as the whole book though well done does feel a bit rushed). Maybe part two.
That aside, I did thoroughly enjoy reading this. Hopefully there will be more like it!
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