Reel Terror

by Sebastian Wolfe (Editor)

A collection of horror stories that provided the inspiration for films includes Richard Matheson's "Duel," George Langelaan's "The Fly," and Philip K. Dick's "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale"

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories, Fiction, Media Tie In, Film

249 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1992

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

I completely liked the idea of this anthology published in the 1980s. Short stories made into frightening movies. Inside you'll find 12 stories, some of them absolute horror highlight. The fest kicks off with The Duel. Everybody knows the Spielberg movie, here is the tale. The we have While Zombies Walked by Thorp McClusky, classic pulp horror from Weird Tales with some of the nastiest zombies ever. Other highlights are The Fly (you certainly watched Cronenberg's movie with the same title), Lovecraft's Colour Out of Space and Philip K. Dick's We Can Remember it for Your Wholesale (Total Recall). Some superb stories mixed with some not so strong ones too but overall an absolute highlight. Really recommended!

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bought for the story, "It's a Good Life," but I ended up liking quite a few of the other stories as well. Nice little collection. There were a couple I didn't care for, but they were thankfully pretty short. I never knew the real story behind Tod Browning's "Freaks," so that was a revelation! Definitely worth a read.

[Karen Eichler · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really neat idea for a short story collection! As it says on the cover, "The original stories that inspired the great horror movies." It's fascinating to read, whether or not you've seen the movies. Actually, I would have LOVED to have read "The Fly" before knowing what happens. It must have been terrifying for those who didn't see it coming! Stories/movies (if different) in this collection:
Duel
Spurs/Freaks
While Zombies Walked/Revenge of the Zombies
We Can Remember It for You Wholesale/Total Recall
The Fly
The Swimmer
The Beast with Five Fingers
The Company of Wolves
The Golem
Lucy Comes to Stay/Asylum
The Color Out of Space/Die, Monster, Die
It's a Good Life/Twilight Zone, The Movie

Fans of horror will get a great kick out of the excellent variety. I only wish they had put the original story publication date like they did the movie dates.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this many years ago, perhaps in early high school. It's a collection of older stories on which movies were based, and good ones too. "Duel" by Richard Matheson is in here, along with "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale" by Philip K. Dick (on which "Total Recall" is based), "In The Company of Wolves" by Angela Carter (wonderful, wonderful story), "The Fly", "Spurs" by Tod Robbins (made into "Freaks") and "It's A Good Life", which became the section of the "Twilight Zone" movie about the omnipotent little boy. I remember reading this book several times and would love to have another copy.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A Fan's view of the history of horror cinema, it is a movie by movie take on the genre that seems to be more based off the movies he has watched than any research. I don't like horror movies, but I have a hard time turning down any book on the history of films, and I thought it would be a good time learning about something without having to watch the movies. But it seemed to me to be such a selective group that I don't feel like I know any more about a group of movies that I barely knew anything about. The better title of the book might be "the stories behind the videotapes I have in my basement"

[Matthew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of these twelve short stories that formed the basis for some horror films. The standouts for me were "Duel" by Richard Matheson, "The Swimmer" by John Cheever, and "The Colour Out of Space" by H.P. Lovecraft.