Don't Want to Watch the Movie?

Hughes, Emily C.  Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too 

        Scared to Watch.  Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2024.  ISBN: 9781683694250

 

Do you like watching horror movies?  If you answered yes, you might want to skip this book.  However, if you answered No, this book may be for you!  Especially if you have friends who like watching horror movies and you are feeling left out.  Emily Hughes in Horror for Weenies offers a guidebook to influential horror movies from the 1960s to 2010s.

 

Emily Hughes opens with a essay on why horror matters and why people enjoy watching horror movies.  She follows that up with a brief history of horror movies before the 1960s before getting into the meat of the book - twenty-five films with short overviews, a plot synopsis, and fun facts to tell at parties.  She starts Horror in Upheaval (The 1960s and 1970s) with Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary's Baby, The Wicker Man, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Carrie, and  ends with Halloween.  In Doom and Boom (The 1980s and 1990s), she includes The Shining, Poltergeist, The Thing, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Fly, Hellraiser, Candyman, Scream, and The Blair Witch Project.  Then in Toward the Unknown (The 2000s and 2010s), she provides The Ring, 28 Days Later, Saw, The Conjuring, The Babadook, It Follows, Get Out, and Hereditary  with their time in the spotlight.  She finishes up with a list of horror resources for the reader.

So if you need a refresher on one of these movies or just want to find out why these movies are important in the horror genre, pick up a copy and read Horror for Weenies!  Just remember to keep the lights on!