Shock Value: How a Few Eccentric Outsiders Gave Us Nightmares, Conquered Hollywood, and Invented Modern Horror Paperback – Illustrated, May 29, 2012

An overview of horror movies from "Night of the Living Dead" (1968) and covering most of the main horror movies from the 1960s and 70s. He discusses "Rosemary's Baby", "Carrie", "Texas Chainsaw Massacre", "Last House on the Left", "Halloween" and the directors and writers behind them. This is well-written, VERY entertaining and (at 238 pages)short. Some of the stories I knew but Zinoman tells them in such an entertaining fashion I didn't mind reading them again. What's very interesting is how it chronicles the directors early lives to see what influenced them. It also gets into their fights and accusations against each other. I LOVED reading this.HOWEVER I do have a few minor complaints. He complains about the end of the movie "Psycho" saying we didn't need an explanation. I disagree. He also complains about Hitchcock keeping it in. Hitchcock didn't write "Psycho"--Robert Bloch did. Blame him. I also disagree with his views on "Carrie". While I don't disagree that it's an important movie calling it operatic is a little bit ridiculous. I think that chapter was a little weak. And also, Stephen KIng DOESN'T like the character of Carrie and it comes through loud and clear in the book. Zinoman seems to think he does. Still, these are small complaints. The rest of the book is just great! One last complaint--it was too short! I wanted it to keep going. I'd love to see what Zinoman thinks of the "Scream" films (which he mentions only in passing) and the "Friday the 13th" series (which he doesn't mention at all!). Basically this is a must-read for all horror fans--and all NON-horror fans!

In the Fifties and Sixties, "horror" meant the arch Vincent Price/Roger Corman "Poe adaptations" or silly "creature features" that were focused on a guy in an obvious monster suit. But things were about to change in the film industry when a group of talented outsiders took their film-school dreams and made them a bloody, gory reality over the span of the Seventies and early Eighties. The revolution itself petered out sometime around the third "Friday the 13th" slasher flick, but in the interim a creative renaissance of horror and fright changed the movie industry forever.In "Shock Value," Jason Zinoman (who also penned a great book about David Letterman) looks at the dawn of the the "New Horror" era and its eventual conquering of the cineplex, beginning with some not-obvious choices ("Targets," the first film of Peter Bogdanovich, for instance, gets discussed here because it melds the Old Horror of star Boris Karloff with the motive-less blood lust of the sniper shooting movie patrons through the screen at a drive-in). George Romero got credit as the "auteur" behind "Night of the Living Dead," but the film was more of a collective vision than its narrative would lead you to believe. And a shy English professor named Wes Craven gave the whole world nightmares with disturbing films about typical families beset by very human monsters long before he gave the world Freddy Krueger.Zinoman captures the excitement of the post-Production Code era in Hollywood, when restrictions on what could be shown were suddenly lifted and modified to reflect the post-French New Wave desire to capture life as it's lived. In the rush to be more realistic, some filmmakers gave free reign to their deepest, darkest fears. Dan O'Bannon and John Carpenter used the influences of "Who Goes There" and H.P. Lovecraft to first work together on a horror/comedy hybrid ("Dark Star") and then to strike out on their own with unique visions of monsters both human ("Halloween") and from beyond our realm ("Alien"). William Freidkin helped bring "The Exorcist" to the screen, the most important horror movie of its time, despite fights with William Peter Blatty (author of the original novel) about the motivation of the demon who possesses a twelve-year-old girl. Roman Polanski helmed "Rosemary's Baby" away from being a mere exploitation film to a masterpiece of the New Hollywood, only to have mindless violence visited upon his pregnant wife in the form of Charles Manson a year later. And Brian De Palma proved that we all can take guilty pleasure in the comeuppance delivered by shy, sweet Carrie White upon her high-school tormentors.This is a great book that manages to cover a lot of ground in such a short book length-wise. It makes a compelling argument that the Seventies were just as much a revival for horror (long regarded as "kids stuff" by serious cinema lovers and critics) as it was for the rest of Hollywood. The figures discussed here would have ups and downs over the ensuing decades, but their work would be imitated, ripped off, repurposed, and inspirational for years to come. Whatever your own personal feelings for horror flicks (and I, your humble reviewer, do not consider myself much of a fan of the genre), you'll enjoy this great history of how some upstarts who thought outside the mainstream of what "horror" was managed to remake it in their own bloody image.

Jason Zinoman's Shock Value: (tedious explanatory subtitle) is a fun and illuminating read for those interested in independent or cult film of the 1970's, but moreover is required reading for fans of the horror genre. If you're like me, a film fanatic with a thing for late-twentieth century horror, fantasy, and sci-fi, who tries to temper his obsession with a pragmatic bias towards watching the "best" and leaving the "rest", then you will find Shock Value an indispensable help. Not only is it a film guide for that pivotal point in horror film history, but it clocks all the various indices you would expect from a well-written history; from the funny insider anecdotes, to the ever-changing American psychological landscape, to the collateral social and political unrest of the Vietnam era followed by the neo-50's of the Reagan era. It retraces the genre's steps from the drive-in monster movies Hollywood churned out in the 1950's all the way to the ultra-brutal "New Horror" of today, illustrating how certain key auteurs connected those dots one film at a time... and how we as the film-going public played both cat and mouse in shaping those supply and demand impulses. This is a cool book. I hope Mr. Zinoman is a permanent fixture in the worlds of both film studies and film fanaticism - he seems equally comfortable in both.

This is a well written, "behind-the-scenes" history of the rise of horror cinema.I'll admit that I never really "got" slasher flicks, or even enjoyed them much, until this book provided additional perspective. I'd always been more interested in plot-heavy, suspenseful style horror - but learning the history behind the rise of the genre, and its creators, changed that.If you're a fan of horror films of any time, are a film buff, or enjoy the history of pop-culture/film, I'd recommend the book.

Un livre qui fait un tour complet drs films et créateurs marquants des années 1970.

I took a chance and bought this book due to my love of horror films from the 1970's.This book charts the course of the horror film from Psycho and Rosemary's Baby and how it influenced more modern horror movies made by the likes of Cunningham, Toby Hooper, Wes Craven, John Carpenter, George A Romero, Brian De Palma and others.The author has a fine easy style of writing and I finished the book inside a few hours despite it being of 270 pages long. Anyone who has enjoyed books such as "Easy Rider, Raging Bull" but has a fondness for horror movies should enjoy this book immensely.

Very inciteful. Unexpectedly awakened me to a sense of the political world of the 60s and 70s.

This s a superbly written and researched book about the 1970's great horror movie brats. I have quoted from it in my forthcoming book 'Writing the Horror Movie' (Bloomsbury, July 2013) and that is the finest honour I can bestow on a book which was an absolute delight from start to finish. It is full of insider info, interesting tit bits and all manner of astute analysis - placing all the director(s) works in context. Essential reading for any horror fan.

Great condition.