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Necronomicon Book One: The Journal of Horror and Erotic Cinema
Necronomicon book one continues the singular, thought-provoking exploration of transgressive cinema begun by the much-respected and acclaimed magazine of the same name. The transition to annual book format has allowed for even greater depth and diversity within the journal's trademarks of progressive critique and striking photographic content.
Includes:
Jean Rollin: The surreal and the sapphic
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Exploitation or modern fairytale?
Barbara Steele: Icon of S/M horror
Frightmare: Peter Walker's psycho-delirium classic
Marco Ferreri: Sadean cinema of excess
Deep Throat: Pornography as primitive spectacle
Dario Argento: Tortured looks and visual displeasure
Last Tango in Paris: Circles of sex and death
H. P. Lovecraft: Visions of crawling chaos
Witchfinder General: Michael Reeves' classic of visceral violence
Herschell G. Lewis: Compulsive tales and cannibal feasts
Evil Dead: From slapstick to splatshtick
and much more
"Intelligent, glossy... a must for anyone interested in blood, bondage and B-movies." -Little Picture Show
Includes:
Jean Rollin: The surreal and the sapphic
Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Exploitation or modern fairytale?
Barbara Steele: Icon of S/M horror
Frightmare: Peter Walker's psycho-delirium classic
Marco Ferreri: Sadean cinema of excess
Deep Throat: Pornography as primitive spectacle
Dario Argento: Tortured looks and visual displeasure
Last Tango in Paris: Circles of sex and death
H. P. Lovecraft: Visions of crawling chaos
Witchfinder General: Michael Reeves' classic of visceral violence
Herschell G. Lewis: Compulsive tales and cannibal feasts
Evil Dead: From slapstick to splatshtick
and much more
"Intelligent, glossy... a must for anyone interested in blood, bondage and B-movies." -Little Picture Show
- GenresFilmNonfiction
192 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1996
1 person is currently reading
61 people want to read
About the author
Andy Black
9 books1 followerEditor of the Necronomicon book series and the Necronomicon presents book series, author of The Dead Walk (Noir Publishing), Ten Top Films of Leonardo DiCaprio and Ten Top Films of Oliver Reed (Glitter Books). Freelance contributor to Terrorizer, Shivers, Marquis, Men Only & Club International.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
November 30, 2021
the texas chainsaw essay & the first jean rollin essay are good, as are the carol jenks pieces (her daughters of darkness one in particular). the rest of this is either tryhard academia or grossly dehumanizing transphobic film theory nonsense about “hermaphrodites” (i.e. trans women who are deadnamed & misgendered in the text). lemme give a special “fuck you” to this xavier mendik clown whose essay on argento/giallo is monstrous shit***. then he has the temerity to come back in with a piece on ms. 45 like i don’t think so bitch!!!! thana would blow your head off !!!!
***ahem - “This recodification of the primal scene [[of course!!!]], takes account of the symbolic positioning of woman as a site of ‘lack’, but is still premised on the male subject’s inability to extricate themselves from the humiliated, degraded body.”
ok so first off this is in reference to the scene in tenebre where eva robbins slides her stilletto into anthony franciosa’s mouth. eva robbins is trans; in the film this is not remarked on (idr if she even has any lines) which has led plenty of enterprising theorists to read her casting as a kind of joke played on the audience or a knowing subversion of giallo’s already tortured relationship with gender. WHATEVER you think, mendik is talking total bullshit here in calling her “him” (“robbins’s forcing of the heel of his shoe” although he doesn’t say robbins) and reading her body as an inescapable freakish prison doomed to maleness forever. straight up transmisogyny and while this is a particularly egregious example, i find this attitude to run through most freudian/gaze-focused film theory which essentializes gender and audience to make its dusty-ass points. even laura mulvey revised her position, but a lot of the people citing her are stuck in 1975.
***ahem - “This recodification of the primal scene [[of course!!!]], takes account of the symbolic positioning of woman as a site of ‘lack’, but is still premised on the male subject’s inability to extricate themselves from the humiliated, degraded body.”
ok so first off this is in reference to the scene in tenebre where eva robbins slides her stilletto into anthony franciosa’s mouth. eva robbins is trans; in the film this is not remarked on (idr if she even has any lines) which has led plenty of enterprising theorists to read her casting as a kind of joke played on the audience or a knowing subversion of giallo’s already tortured relationship with gender. WHATEVER you think, mendik is talking total bullshit here in calling her “him” (“robbins’s forcing of the heel of his shoe” although he doesn’t say robbins) and reading her body as an inescapable freakish prison doomed to maleness forever. straight up transmisogyny and while this is a particularly egregious example, i find this attitude to run through most freudian/gaze-focused film theory which essentializes gender and audience to make its dusty-ass points. even laura mulvey revised her position, but a lot of the people citing her are stuck in 1975.
August 25, 2023
Black, Andy (editor) - Necronomicon I: The Journal of Horror and Erotic Cinema
Early publication from the now disreputable Creation Press.
Series of erudite essays about several Horror films, with emphasis on the less traveled.
Multiple authors, some insightful, some enjoyable, some pretentious.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, equating it with classic fairy tales, was a colossal bore.
Book presupposes the reader will have more than passing familiarity with Jean Rollin, Jess Franco, adaptations of Lovecraft, Italian cinema (Argento, Fulca ... ). Hammer barely mentioned - separate book for them.
Definitely worth a look for hardcore Horror fans, if you can track down an affordable copy.
Early publication from the now disreputable Creation Press.
Series of erudite essays about several Horror films, with emphasis on the less traveled.
Multiple authors, some insightful, some enjoyable, some pretentious.
Texas Chainsaw Massacre, equating it with classic fairy tales, was a colossal bore.
Book presupposes the reader will have more than passing familiarity with Jean Rollin, Jess Franco, adaptations of Lovecraft, Italian cinema (Argento, Fulca ... ). Hammer barely mentioned - separate book for them.
Definitely worth a look for hardcore Horror fans, if you can track down an affordable copy.
April 18, 2008
Necronomicon is billed as The Journal of Horror and Erotic Cinema. I believe there have been book-length collections so far. Book One contains eighteen essays, covering such disparate movies as The Evil Dead, Daughters of Darkness, Witchfinder General, Last Tango in Paris, The Bride of Frankenstein and Hitchcock’s Psycho, and directors from Herschell Gordon Lewis to Dario Argento. There are two excellent essays on Jean Rollin, and a good survey of adaptations of the work of H. P. Lovecraft. Some contributors are a bit heavy on the film theory jargon and the psychoanalytical interpretations, but on the whole it’s still a reasonably stimulating selection of articles. It’s not like there’s a surplus of books on this subject, so if you have an interest in these types of movies, especially the exploitation horror of the 60s and 70s, then it’s probably worth trying to find a copy.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews