Comic books in 'The Dark Heart of Cinema'

Volume 1 - 1st printing. "Exploitation Movies!"

By Alan Jones.

In the exploitation industry, nothing is taboo and sin, shock and sensation are an art form. Here are 200 hand-picked films in a comprehensive and representative history of exploitation cinema. Covering 1935-1985, the Golden Era. Films here covered include: Maniac, Anatomy of a Psycho, I Spit on Your Grave, The Sexualist, The Jesus Trip, Naked Fist, and Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS.

Softcover, 8-in. x 11-in., 240 pages, full color. Parental Advisory

Cover price $29.95.

Volume 2 - 1st printing. "Monster Movies!"

By Michael Gingold.

The entire spectrum of screen monsters and creatures is gathered in one volume covering 200 films. It starts in the silent era and traces the history of the genre through to the present day. From Universal Studios legends such as Frankenstein's Monster and the Mummy, to the big bugs, atomic mutants and space invaders that terrorized the '50s, to the kaiju of Japan and the ecological nightmares of the '70s and '80s, to the CG creatures and updated favorites of recent years, they're all here.

Softcover, 8-in. x 11-in., 240 pages, full color. Parental Advisory

Cover price $24.95.

Add to cart Near Mint $12.00

Volume 3 - 1st printing. "Ghost Movies!"

By Axelle Carolyn.

Like many, award-winning filmmaker Axelle Carolyn has been obsessed with haunted houses and revenants for as long as she can remember. In this volume, she surveys the last 120 years of the genre and reviews the 200 most memorable titles from across the globe. From timeless classics to recent blockbusters, quirky indies to international sensations, hidden gems to oddities, each of these movies has in some way contributed to the development of the ghost movie as we know it, in all its incarnations and cultural variants.

Softcover, 8-in. x 11-in., 240 pages, full color.

Cover price $24.95.

Volume 4 - 1st printing. "Werewolf Movies!"

By Axelle Carolyn.

The crimson eyes of the werewolf still glare at us from the midnight depths of our ancient roots deep in primordial forest. From the halls of Ancient Greek kings and from Roman horror stories, to medieval law courts and modern crime scenes, the lycanthrope has stalked us across the centuries.

In the contemporary world of the concrete jungle we may feel masters of our bestial ancestry, but the werewolf reminds us that our teeth were evolved to tear living – perhaps even human – flesh, that our place atop the food chain remains precarious. We are now most familiar with the wolfman courtesy of Hollywood. Over the past century, a diverse pack of lycanthropes has manifest on the silver screen – in big-bucks blockbusters and zero-budget B-movies – each revealing a little more of the nature of the beast. Within these colorful pages we will encounter reluctant wolfmen and shapeshifting sadists, Nazi werewolves and werewolf nuns, big bad fairytale wolves and lycanthropic nymphomaniacs.

Your guide is acclaimed author, broadcaster, occult historian – and lifelong werewolf obsessive – Gavin Baddeley. By finding fresh perspectives on established classics, uncovering neglected gems, and even examining a few howlers among the definitive selection of werewolf movies reviewed, Baddeley shows how the myth has adapted and transformed: whereby werewolves become analogies for alcoholism or adolescence, or ciphers for sexual awakening or serial murder. Providing our foreword is the award-winning director, writer and producer Neil Marshall, whose brilliant debut feature DOG SOLDIERS reinvigorated the werewolf movie for the 21st Century.

So, the moon is full, the wolfsbane is in bloom… Time to brave the fogbound moors to find out who – or what – is responsible for that baleful howling… all is revealed in the FrightFest Guide to Werewolf Movies.

Softcover, 8-in. x 11-in., 240 pages, full color.

Cover price $24.95.

Volume 6 - 1st printing. "Vampire Movies!"

By Nathaniel Thompson. Introduction By Alan Jones. Foreword by Kim Newman.

For centuries, mankind has been chilled by tales of vampires. A fixture of literature, art, and folk tales, the vampire was a natural early choice for a movie monster at the dawn of cinema and has remained popular ever since as the screen's most enduring and sexually charged nightmare figure.

Within these bloodstained pages, you'll discover that vampires of the silver screen are far more complex and diverse than variations on Dracula and other staples like Carmilla and the Countess Elizabeth Bathory. All the icons are here, from Bela Lugosi and Max Schreck's pioneering fiends to the heyday of Hammer Films, but that's just a sanguinary taste of what's to come as you explore macabre offerings from Hong Kong, India, Italy, France, Germany, and more.

Cover Design by Harvey Fenton, based on Spanish poster artwork for Salem's Lot (1979) and Japanese poster artwork for Dracula (1958).

Softcover, 240 pages, PC/PB&W.

Cover price $24.95.

Add to cart Near Mint $16.00

Add to cart Near Mint $16.00

Volume 7 - 1st printing. "Mad Doctors Movies!" By Doctor John Llewellyn Probert. Foreword by Tom Six. Mad medics... sinister surgeons... psychopathic psychiatrists. We put our trust in them. They say they want to help, to cure, to relieve pain and soothe suffering. They claim those experiments they've been performing are for the greater good of mankind. But what if they actually want the opposite? What happens when doctors are dead set on researching the strange, the bizarre, the weird? What happens when all that scientific and medical knowledge only results in the creation of unimaginable horror? Ever since the dawn of cinema, filmmakers have been depicting on screen the potential outcomes of medical madness and science gone sick. John Llewellyn Probert takes a detailed look at the history of one of the most enduring archetypes in cinema, with an introductory overview of the genre followed by reviews of over 200 key mad doctor movies. In addition to critical appraisal, the author's own medical background allows him to provide a unique insight into just how well the filmmakers have done their homework. Softcover, 8-in. x 11-in., 240 pages, full color. Parental Advisory Cover price $24.95.