"Twice the Thrills! Twice the Chills!": Horror and Science Fiction Double Features, 1955-1974

by Bryan Senn

In the mid-1950s, to combat declining theater attendance, film distributors began releasing pre-packaged genre double-bills--including many horror and science fiction double features. Though many of these films were low-budget and low-end, others, such as Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Horror of Dracula and The Fly, became bona fide classics. Beginning with Universal-International's 1955 pairing of Revenge of the Creature and Cult of the Cobra, 147 officially sanctioned horror and sci-fi double-bills were released over a 20-year period. This book presents these double features year-by-year, and includes production details, historical notes, and critical commentary for each film.

433 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 2, 2020

About the author

Bryan Senn's work has appeared in Filmfax, Cult Movies, Shivers, Midnight Marquee Press and Monsters from the Vault. The author of numerous books on the history of cinema, he lives in Montana.

Reviews

[Mhorg · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decent if not remarkable.

The best part of this book is the digging the author did to discover all of these double features. Otherwise, the information about many could have come out of an issue of Famous Monsters. For the record, the only DF contained in the book I actually saw at the movies was Sssss and The Boy Who Cried Werewolf.