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The Ultimate Guide To Strange Cinema Book Review

“The Ultimate Guide To Strange Cinema” will appeal to adventurous film fans.

Author and Horror film/weird movie enthusiast Michael Vaughn takes readers on a “strange” journey with the aptly named “The Ultimate Guide To Strange Cinema.” The book is organized alphabetically by genre with each title also listed alphabetically within each genre. Genres that are covered here are Action/Adventure, Cars, Trucks and Choppers, Comedy, Crime/Thrillers, Drama, Fantasy, Horror (which is divided into releases by countries), and Sci-Fi. Each film listed is accompanied by credits and a blurb by Vaughn that describes the plot, the weirdness, and his opinion on the film. Sometimes trivia and recommended similar titles are also included. Readers can also expect to find interviews by Joe Flood and Alex Essoe as well as Tim Bartell’s thoughts on “Society” and Larry Cohen’s comments on “Q” and “The Stuff.” The book closes out with a handy index.

If you love gore, cult cinema, art films, gross film, trash cinema, or foreign film oddities, “The Ultimate Guide To Strange Cinema” is for you. The film book covers a wide variety of cinema such as kung-fu flicks like “Riki-Oh,” obscure works like “Burst City,” goofy horror like “Death Spa,” as well as works by acclaimed cult filmmakers such as David Cronenberg, John Waters, Ed Wood, the Coen Brothers, Takashi Miike, David Lynch, Dario Argento and Peter Jackson (his early work).

Obviously, not every title included here will appeal to everyone. I happen to think there’s a lot of BAD no-budget cinema here. With that said, however, I still appreciate that it is included as those types of films are for someone out there. The book is inclusive in that way. Personally, I was happy to see a number of underrated films like “Swiss Army Man,” “Tokyo Tribe,” “Sleep Tight,” “Excision,” “Neon Maniacs,” and “Timecrimes” included within these pages.

If there’s a downside to the book I would say that Vaughn’s writing isn’t the greatest. He tends to overuse a lot of the same words in his reviews/descriptions. It gets a little stale after awhile.

Overall Thoughts: There’s so much content in “The Ultimate Guide To Strange Cinema” to absorb. Not only would I recommend it to fans of strange cinema, but I’d also say it’s worth picking up for film lovers who are looking to watch new things or experiment with different genres. After all, cinema is all about art and viewpoints. Sometimes it’s good to try new things even if it’s ultimately not for you.

April 10, 2018 - Posted by nicklyons1 | Book review | Coen Brothers, cult films, Dario Argento, David Lynch, Horror Films, John Waters, The Ultimate Guide To Strange Cinema Book Review, Trash Cinema