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Monday, January 10, 2011

Cool Ass Cinema Book Reviews: Slasher edition!


CRYSTAL LAKE MEMORIES: THE COMPLETE HISTORY OF FRIDAY THE 13TH

By Peter M. Bracke

Hardcover; 321 pages; color & B/W

After posting my own personal 'Best Of' slasher films, I thought I'd take this hefty tome off the shelf and post my thoughts on it considering it correlates to that list in a huge way. There's really not a lot that needs to be said here, but it's a no brainer that if you're a fan of this series, or a fan of horror and enjoy reference books on horror then there's no question this book NEEDS to be in your collection. Bracke has amassed a stunning amount of information and interviewed just about everyone with any connection to the films and included it in this lavishly illustrated compendium covering every film in the controversial and blood soaked series. The book is actually a little bit bigger than the pics show, only my scanner wasn't big enough to fit the whole thing.


CLICK & CLICK AGAIN TO SEE THE BIG PICTURE!

The first edition was released in 2005 (a second publishing in '06) so it covers everything up to FREDDY VS. JASON. If you are fascinated by background stories and behind the scenes information, then, again, this book is an amazing piece of work. It's a veritable arterial spray of anecdotal reminisces from those who starred, directed, or performed various behind the scenes duties on these productions. There's a Foreword by Sean S. Cunningham and even box office stats and how this long running series stacks up with other horror franchises in terms of theatrical receipts. I've never gotten around to reading every single page of this loving tribute, but one need only read a chapter or two to realize this was compiled with a great deal of respect and devotion for the material. Author, Peter Bracke has done an awe inspiring job here. Most definitely one for the shelves.

UNTIL NEXT TIME....


4 comments:

Dr. Sarcofiguy aka "John Dimes" said...

I WANT THIS! I thought Jason Goes To Hell,and Jason X were awesome pics. And I'm really a HORRIBLE audience for slasher films! But I did enjoy them.

Jason X made me wish that there was a crossover with Hellraiser IV, cuz of all the futuristic stuff.

I had heard many zillions of years ago, during all of that charmin' Jason VS Freddy stuff, that they had actually planned to have Pinhead in there.

The usual contractual pitfalls were the result of his "inappearance." Or so I'm to unnerstand.

venoms5 said...

Yeah, it's an awesome book, Doc! Yeah, the Pinhead thing is right and they apparently were going to do a sequel to FVJ with Ash from the EVIL DEAD movies, but I forget what happened with that. They did end up doing a comic series based on it, though.

I Like Horror Movies said...

Lately I have barely been finding the time to watch the special features on any of my fav slashers, so books have pretty much been out, but I have always heard excellent things about CLM

venoms5 said...

I guess the first print run was fairly low. I was a bit surprised that it shot up in price so quickly. Thankfully they printed another run as horror fans would love this book.

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