Monsters in the Movies: 100 Years of Cinematic Nightmares

About 90% of the book is pictures of scenes in movies or movie posters with small anecdotes underneath. The other 10% is composed of 1-2 pages of text regarding the subject matter of each chapter and some 2 page interviews with the likes of Ray Harryhausen, John Carpenter, Stan Winston, David Cronenberg, Guillermo Del Toro and others. The meat of the book is the interviews, which unfortunately there are not enough of. It's a nice book to serve as an introduction to the genre and for reference to movies that are not necessarily the standard fare, however Landis' "analysis" is very generic and lacks the thought provocation of his movies.

Fantastic book with beautiful color and some b/w pictures of horror movies through the ages. If you are a horror fan you can't go wrong with this book. I loved it. It brought back fantastic memories of some great movies and of ones I had forgotten about. Get your copy today!!!

Review is for the kindle version, and is more of a warning than a review. The art and photography is possibly the biggest selling point for this book, and the product description states that its optimized for large tablets, but it didn't look like that to me. The pictures are tiny postage stamp things, and you can click on them for a slightly larger version, but the overall effect is pretty unimpressive. If I had it to do over again, I'd just pay another 10-20 dollars and get the print version. Landis's knowledge and enthusiasm for the genre do come through here, but this review is really about the print vs kindle version.

I bought this as a gift for my father-in-law. He is a huge horror movie fan, and it's something we've bonded on. This was an easy choice as a gift. I had the opportunity to look through it after I gave it to him. Side note: he absolutely LOVED it. The information inside is quite informative, and it was super cool to see the history behind a lot of well known monsters. If you or someone you know is interested in what happens behind the scenes than this is the book for you!

I have no complaints about this book! It's beyond the best horror book I've ever owned! John Landis did an AMAZING job making this beautiful creation and I hope he makes more! I love how it's so glossy and detailed. Every page is colorful and descriptive. What more do you need? It's all here! 320 pages of pure entertainment and it'll keep you busy for hours! Definitely worth every penny! And I'm the BIGGEST horror monster fan you'll ever know! This book impresses me!

Excellent collection and written history of the monsters of the screen that many of us grew up with. Beautifully designed picture layouts with many full color photographs. Well written by John Landis, who from all information, seems to have grown up as many of us "boomers" did watching and worshipping Frankenstein, Dracula and The Wolfman, not to mention all the other classic creatures from late night fright TV, plus those in modern screen history. A great read and a great source of information behind the scenes of the classics of horror movies. Well worth the price of admission!

This is a great book full of amazing pictures and information about the great monsters in Hollywood history.I bought a book for myself and another as a gift for a friend who loves the genre as much as I do and the reviews are the same: we both love it.Landis shows his passion for the horror films, classic and new. Leave it out on the coffee table or wherever guests sit and you will see them looking through it and commenting on what films they saw, and the memories it brings them. Also you will hear 'oh wow I'd like to see THAT movie' as they catch a glimpse of a creature and read about the film.Great book, sure to be considered one of the classics about horror films.

Since my son is into horror movies and at his request ordered the book for him. He enjoyed the book and some of the horror movies that were included in the book where some he did not recognized.

John Landis cracks me up. I just love the interview (well, chat really) he gives on the special features section of 'AAWIL'. He's also highly amusing on the Forrest Ackerman DVD - and in this book - which reassures me that Ray Harryhausen was possibly slightly grumpy with everyone and not just with me when I asked him a daft (innocent) question just before a showing (in the wrong ratio) of 'Jason'. I particularly like the interview with Joe Dante when they exchange views on the ignorance of the modern movie-watcher - reminds me of our neighbour's kid who flounced out of the room because 'The Wizard Of Oz' 'is in black n'white'!!' (Friends of JLs daughter refused to view Cukor's 'The Women' for the same reason). It's packed with great illustrations and interviews with Dante, Harryhausen, Christopher Lee, John Carpenter and others. Must Have!

John Landis has crafted a spectacular collection of images from just about every monster movie you could care to name. The text in the book is light and casual, there is no attempt to create a comprehensive encyclopedia or academic work. It is, quite literally, a movie fan's scrap book! There are some fascinating interviews with the likes of Rick Baker and Christopher Lee (as well as many others) but overall this is a beautiful volume to just dip into randomly and enjoy the marvelous collection on show. More like a light hearted stroll through a monster fan gallery than any type of study - thoroughly enjoyable, entertaining, and even a bit nostalgic! Oh, and Landis isn't shy of offering his honest opinions on the less-good movies!

This is a well presented book with lots of great monster photos with explanations and comments by John Landis. In his introduction, John Landis, tells that the book is meant to be enjoyed and may not be entirely accurate. He is correct on this score, I really enjoyed the book but there are some obvious mistakes.John Landis' humour and his own experience come through well in the book and he does tell you which films he likes and which ones he does not!There are some short interviews with cinema greats, Christopher Lee, Joe dante, Rick Baker etc. More of these would be nice.Nicely printed and good photos of great and not so great movies!

This was just the book I was looking for. Packed full of photos, in colour & black & white (depending on the topic), from so many horror & monster films. It's a great "coffee table" book which will provide hours of entertaining research & have you spending more money on all those movies you've either never seen or forgotten about.Some of the photos are quite graphic so, beware! Don't leave this book where sensitive souls may roam!If I have to find something negative to say about the book it's that John Landis does tend to reference his own films quite often throughout but, there's a clutch of interviews with some of his fellow director friends that more than make up for the bit of self-praise. That & the fact that the title of the book is a little misleading as there is much more than just monsters within.A book for both the casual & serious horror movie fan.

This is pure and simple a photographic love of creaky creature features and sci-fi schlockers. Landis offers up some small comments on each glorious picture, but this really is about taking in the wonderful craft and design of film makers who could transport us viewers into another realm.Essential for anyone who sat in awe of King Kong and Frankenstein when they were younger, and who then were equally enthralled as Harryhausen and those he inspired moved the art of creature construction through the ages with skill and passion. Spanning all the decades of cinema history, this is a bible for anyone with a kink for the topic to hand.