One of cinema's most enduring monsters, the zombie has been terrifying audiences around the world for decades. Book of the Dead charts the ghoulish history of zombie cinema, from the creature's origins in Haitian voodoo to its cinematic debut in 1932's White Zombie, George A. Romero's quartet of 'Dead' movies (which includes the two acknowledged classics of the genre, Night of the Living Dead and Dawn of the Dead) and recent blockbuster hits like 28 Days Later, Shaun of the Dead and Land of the Dead FAB Press author interview
Jamie Russell chats with BBC Radio's Adam Walton about Book of the Dead. Also featuring Monster by The Automatic. Click here to download the mp3 file to your desktop, or right-click (MAC users ctrl-click) to save to your hard drive. Covering hundreds of movies from America, Europe and Asia, this exhaustive history chronicles the zombie's on-screen evolution from Caribbean bogeyman to flesh-eating corpse. Along the way, Book of the Dead takes in Bela Lugosi B-movies, Italian gore films, Asian zombies, British zombies, blind monk zombies, shot-on-video backyard epics and the videogame phenomenon of Resident Evil. Spanning seven decades of horror movie history with hundreds of stills - including an incredible 64 pages of blood-drenched full colour photos and rare international poster art - and an exhaustive filmography, Book of the Dead explains why we continue to be so fascinated with these fugitives from the undertaker. Contents:
Introduction. Dead Men Walking
Chapter One. Caribbean Terrors Tracking the Walking Dead The Origins of the Zombie The Zombie in the West
Chapter Two. The Zombie Goes to Hollywood
Horror Hits the Stage Cultural Anxieties: Haiti, the Depression and Race The Zombies Are Revolting
Chapter Three. Down and Out on Poverty Row
Horror Comedy on Black Island The Poverty Row Years Val Lewton: A Touch of Class
Chapter Four. Atomic Interlude
Sci-Fi Horrors Voodoo's Last Gasps The Mass Destruction of Men's Minds
Chapter Five. Bringing It All Back Home
Keeping It in the Family Stiff Upper Lips and the Walking Dead South of the Border Back on American Soil: Night of the Living Dead
Chapter Six. Dawn of the Dead
Romero's Children The Ghouls Can't Help It Destructive Tendencies Sex, Death and Amando de Ossorio's Templars By the Dawn's Early Light
Chapter Seven. Splatter Horror
The Italians Are Coming! The Apocalypse of Narrative: Fulci's Zombie Trilogy The Return to the Caribbean Splatter House of Horrors
Chapter Eight. Twilight of the Dead
Night of the Living Dead Redux Poverty Row for the MTV Generation (Or, Children Shouldn't Play with Camcorders) Of Death, Of Love: An Interlude The Resident Evil Effect Big-Budget Ghouls Rebirth of the Dead
Afterword. Something To Do With Death
Chapter Nine. Zombie Filmography
A comprehensive 80-page A-Z guide to every significant zombie movie ever made."This is the book that zombie fans have been waiting for... enough to keep deadhead enthusiasts happy the world over!" - Eat My Brains website review "Book of the Dead is one of the best genre books of recent memory. Russell's book is magnificently structured... stunningly designed... essential, intelligent and entertaining." - Rumour Machine website review |
