One of the features here on Macabre Republic that will kick off shortly is the ongoing Top 20 Countdown. But for those with a more pressing need for a countdown fix, there's also the (single post, top ten) QuickList. I thought it would be apropos to kick off this latter feature by selecting my ten favorite lists from Amy Wallace, Del Howison, and Scott Bradley's wonderful volume, The Book of Lists: Horror. Here, then, is my list of lists, with brief comments but no spoilers:
10.Ten Horror Cocktails (And How to Make Them) [p. 372]: Authentic drink recipes for a Vampire, a Zombie and Werewolf, amongst others. Just be careful not to mix your monsters at your next Halloween bash.
9.Matteo Molinari's Ten Favorite Horror Movie Bloopers [p. 112]: The eagle-eyed Molinari notes some amusing gaffs, and helpfully provides the precise moment in the movie's runtime when the blooper occurred.
8.Twenty Great Openings in Horror Fiction [p. 218]: The passages that hooked readers into some fantastic works of horror. This list will have you reaching onto your bookshelf for the full text--or scrambling to your local bookstore to make some long overdue purchases.
7.The True Tales of Five Legendary TV Horror Hosts [p. 347]: An entertaining account of some cool ghouls (and if that phrase rings a bell, this is the list for you) from yesteryear, plus info on their post-hosting lives.
6.Don D'Auria's Ten Books That Changed the Horror Genre [p.225]: Reads like an annotated syllabus for a survey course in classic horror.
5.Ed Lee's Ten Best Horror Movies With Gratuitous Nudity [p. 140]: Lee's stroll down mammary lane will send modern-day horndogs sniffing out the back alleys of Netflix. What really makes this list priceless, though, is Lee's snarky commentary on the B-grade movies themselves.
4.Edgar Wright's Top Ten "OUCH! I'm Sorry, But That Has Got to Hurt!" Moments in Horror Films (Plus One Very Honorable Mention [p. 26]: A montage of some of the most memorable scenes of violence ever filmed. You'll cringe while reading as Wright starts your mental projector running.
3.T.E.D. Klein's Twenty-Five Most Familiar Horror Plots [p. 300]: Required reading for all fledgling writers, who can be saved countless wasted hours (and inevitable rejections).
2.Scott Heim's Ten Creepiest Made-for-TV Movies (Or TV Series Episodes) [p. 327]: For many people of a certain age, the first glimpse of the horror genre was (even more shockingly) on network television. This list will help you remember why you had so many sleepless nights growing up.
1.Victor Salva's Ten Things That We Have Learned From Horror Movies [p. 204]: There's plenty of wit on display in The Book of Lists: Horror, but no one outdoes the writer/director Silva for genre-skewering sarcasm. This list is as comical as it is insightful (several of the items had me laughing out loud).
So there you have it--the very first QuickList on Macabre Republic. Of course, this is just one man's opinion, and there are many great entries in The Book of Lists: Horror. Any fan of the horror genre is guaranteed to find something to be entertained by in this 2008 book. It's still in print and available from Amazon.com; don't hesitate to pick up a copy
if you don't already own one.
if you don't already own one.
No comments:
Post a Comment