With all the hype surrounding the new Dan Brown novel, you’d expect to achieve orgasmic bliss upon turning the final page. The plot was deemed mega secret, and by some incredible miracle didn’t get leaked onto the Internet forty seconds after the book was announced (apparently God has forgiven...

Not yet another book on vampires! You may be excused for reacting like this upon seeing this title: vampires have been done to death – in movies, in comics, in fiction, in non-fiction, in criticism… The only trouble is, there’s no real ‘death’ when you’re talking about...

David Cronenberg rose from the gutter of the Canadian backwater exploitation cinema (his “Baron of Blood” phase) to the red carpets of the most prestigious film festivals in the world (his “cultural hero” phase). As he started moving away from the former, almost imperceptibly,...

There’s no denying the hard work. talent and sheer enthusiasm author Mark Cotta Vaz pours into his movie companion books. The Spirit: The Movie Visual Companion is definitely some of his best work, to date. It could be said that Mark’s biggest passion lies with animation. One of his earlier...

The guys of the ‘Cultographies’ series are back at it again, with some new titles! We’ve already presented their first three books on this site: THE ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW, DONNIE DARKO and THIS IS SPINAL TAP. You’ll remember them as the slightly more accessible variety of...

Before there were genres, before there was Hollywood in its full glory, the cinema as art (but also as entertainment) flourished in Europe. The results were nowhere more astounding, groundbreaking nor more influential than in the war-torn Germany in the second and third decades of the XX century. The...

(Book Review by Wes Topher) In celebrating the centennial of literary legend Ian Fleming’s birth, the trustees of the author’s estate appointed one of Britain’s most popular novelists to revisit the world’s most famous secret agent. Their choice is nonetheless exquisite. Sebastian Faulks takes...

This book is another one in the long and precious series ‘Short Cuts’ by Wallflower, made up of short guides to various aspects of cinema. The series includes titles like CRIME FILM: Investigating The Scene, SHAKESPEARE ON FILM: Such Things as Dreams Are Made Of, WAR CINEMA: Hollywood on...

There are so many categories of fans. Take the average sports fan, for example. A sports fan, if he’s dedicated, can quote a plethora of statistics about his favorite team, highlight the strengths and weaknesses of individual players, where they attended college, what teams they’ve played for and...

John Carpenter has been variously labelled a “maverick”, a “horror director”, an “auteur”, even “the last genre filmmaker in America.” Unlike some of his more talkative and self-reflective colleagues like David Cronenberg or George Romero, he has always...

I guess I was subconsciously expecting this book to be a letdown. The first two in the Cultographies series were excellent and very much to the point: so, at least one had to be somewhat behind, right? Rarely does one find a series made up entirely, and with no exception, of excellent books. And yet,...

Ever since 1963, when it was first published, the International Film Guide has enjoyed the unrivalled reputation as the most authoritative and trusted source of information on world cinema. For a good while Variety stood behind it, then Guardian briefly, and now, after one year’s pause (there was...

Here’s another volume in the Wallflower’s Cultographies series of books devoted to cult movies. Of course, the book market is clogged by all kinds of picturebooks and ‘guides’ through the highs and lows of cinema, including the despised (but commercially viable) cult, genre, ‘grindhouse’,...

‘Cultographies’ is a new series of books, devoted (as you might guess) to ”the weird and wonderful world of cult cinema”. In format and approach they are very much reminiscent of the acclaimed British Film Institute’s series ‘BFI’s Modern Classics’. Small...