The Dead That Walk

by Leslie Halliwell

This is an examination of the origin of horror films supplying details of their production and conveys by description and illustration some of the pleasure they still give. The author traces the character development of each myth through the acclaimed Universal Studios treatments of the 1930s and 1940s and the House of Horror remakes of the 50s and 60s. He also examines their literary sources, including such respected figures as Mary Wollstonecraft, Shelley, Lord Byron, Bram Stoker, Edgar Allan Poe and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. This is the first volume in Halliwell's new series, "Halliwell's Moving Pictures".

Genres: Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1986

About the author

Leslie Halliwell was born in Bohon. He buys most of the feature films and series screened by the lTV network and goes twice a year to Hollywood in search of them; he has been an enthusiast for the mediums since childhood. He has managed several Rank Organisation and specialist cinemas and is a member of two National Film Archive committees.

Reviews

[Chris McMillan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wish I could rate this book higher. It has some good information as it traces the literary and cinematic history of Dracula, Frankenstein and the Mummy. The book even includes portions of the script from Bride of Frankenstein, showing the lines deleted from the opening of the film, and a brief scene that was never shot. It also includes the script from a cut opening to the TV miniseries Frankenstein: The True Story. Those bits alone were worth the price of the book to me; the additional details included in the book were bonuses.

The problem with the book is the author’s contempt for the subject matter. Aside from a handful of films, Halliwell’s disgust for most of the movies mentioned in the book (and the horror genre in general) permeates his writing to such an extent that it sours any enjoyment the reader might experience. And by the time he reached the chapter on the Mummy, Halliwell’s obvious delight in condemning the Kharis films made me picture him twirling his mustache and cackling while he wrote it. I’m not saying some criticism isn’t warranted. But so many of Halliwell’s remarks are more contemptuous than critical, which makes the book read more like the latest Golden Turkey Award volume at times, rather than a scholarly work.

Halliwell also tends to use long passages from stories and novels at the beginning of each chapter. But I feels the book would be better served by him spending more time summarizing the work and using shorter passages to emphasize his point. Perhaps he felt such an approach to be an insult to the works he was examining, but after several pages of long passages from Shelley’s Frankenstein, I started wondering if he was simply increasing the word count with them.

Though the book is well researched, it’s a shame the subject matter appears chosen for marketability of the finished product, rather than the author’s desire to explore the legacy of these classic monsters.

[Arthur Chappell · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very disappointing highly opinionated look at zombie, vampire, mummy and Frankenstein movies, that mostly just gives a scene by scene synopsis of the films and lengthy script extracts.

The more recent the film, the more Halliwell hates it, coming over as a tremendous snob, appalled by vampire lesbianism and regarding Christopher Lee as a poor actor.

[bookmaggot · Rating 2 out of 5]

Could have done without all the snarky parenthesis