Deep Red Volume 7

by Chas Balun

Genres: Horror, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published December 1, 1990

About the author

Chas Balun was without a doubt a horror fan's horror fan. Renowned for his brutally blunt and profane in-your-face wildman writing style, wholehearted and unapologetic love for hardcore gruesome horror splatter cinema, and, most of all, his trademark savagely witty, sardonic, and unconventional iconoclastic perspective, Chas was a true cult figure of horror journalism with a strong and substantial fan following. Born in 1948 in Compton, California, Balun grew up as a hippie in the 1960s in Southern California. He wrote his first book "The Connoissseur's Guide to the Contemporary Horror Film" in 1983. Chas became a regular contributing writer for "Fangoria" magazine in 1987 starting with issue # 62. He achieved his greatest enduring cult fame with his fiercely caustic, outspoken, and opinionated "Piece of Mind" column in the spin-off publication "GoreZone." This column ran from 1988 to 1991 and was one of the most popular and beloved features in the magazine. Balun was the founder of his own self-published magazine "Deep Red" and the author of the novel "Ninth and Hell Street." Among the nonfiction books Chas wrote are "The Gore Score," "More Gore Score," "Horror Holocaust," and "Beyond Horror Holocaust." Besides writing, he was also an underground cartoonist, a graphic designer (he designed the monster for the 1991 Fred Olen Ray horror comedy "Evil Toons"), and a t-shirt designer. Balun lived with his wife Pat in his home in Westminster, California. Chas died from cancer at age 61 on December 18, 2009. Although he's sadly no longer with us, Balun's fiery love and unbridled passion for the horror genre shall continue to bleed on for all eternity in his exceptionally lively, funny, and always entertaining say-it-like-you-see-it writing.

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely bringing back the 80s horror feeling. Face to face with Dario Argento. On your knees in the church, Shaun Hutson feature (!, yeah, still like his books), House on the Edge of the Park, monsters, stalkers, Nekromatic (corpse banging as higher art, LOL), a monsterfolio, Ilsa, Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks, The Blood Splattered Bride. Gosh, what a lot of violent horror shit. Highly recommended!

[Lisa]

Re-reading some of the essays in this collection as a tribute to Chas who passed away recently. he was a controversial figure but I learned an awful lot about extreme side of horror films from his collections of essays mostly written by others.