Shock Masters of the Cinema

SHOCK MASTERS OF THE CINEMA is a collection of 26 interviews conducted mostly by Loris Curci. These interviews are touted on the back cover as interviews with 'The World's Greatest Horror Filmmakers and Celebrities...'. The interviews included in this volume are: Dario Argento, Peter Atkins, Mariano Baino, Kenneth Branagh, Jorg Buttgereit, Ramsey Campbell, John Carpenter, Jeffrey Combs, Don Coscarelli, Wes Craven, Robert Englund, Freddie Francis, Lucio Fulci, Frank Henenlotter, Steve Johnson, Lloyd Kaufman, William Lustig, Bill Malone, Antonio Margheriti, David Price, Jean Rollin, George Romero, Dardano Sacchetti, Angus Scrimm, Sergio Stivaletti, and Anthony Timpone (which I can only imagine Curci's involvement with Fangoria magazine is the only reason Timpone's self-serving interview is included). In order to fit so many interviews within a compact 6x9 paperback, many of the interviews are unfortunately quite short. In order to accomplish this, in some cases, answers have been edited. Sometimes this editing unfortunately results in an incomprehensible mess. Poor spelling, grammar and typesetting further diminishes the value of these interviews, of which some of them are quite entertaining and informative. As a whole, I cannot recommend this book at the new price. If one is available used for a few dollars, it may be worth your while. Quite frankly, better is available in most horror cinema magazines.