The MonsterClub.com Guide to Horror: A Review

Pam Keesey

If you’ve been to Monster Bash, Fright Vision or Cinema Wasteland, chances are you seen the The Monster Club’s free monster movie fanzine Monster News. Each issue is chock full of tasty tidbits: interviews with horror movie stars and the people who make them, horror movie convention listings, articles on monster culture, contests, and more.

The folks at the Monster Club clearly love classic horror films. The Monster Club’s Cheryl Duran, in addition to editing The Monster News and serving as the Web mistress of the Club’s Web site, has just recently published The MonsterClub.com Guide to Horror, a beginner’s guide to monster culture.

Duran has compiled a wonderful collection for the horror neophyte. The Guide serves as a brief introduction to a variety of horror-related movies and memorabilia, including:

monster toys
comics and magazines
movie posters
radio shows
movie hosts
special effects artists
directors
movie stars
television shows
Duran’s top 100 movies
anthology movies

The Guide also features a preface written by the the Black Lagoon’s Gillman himself, Ben Chapman. Duran’s top 100 films include a wide-range of styles and eras, from the 1930s black and white Universal classics, ’50s drive-in movies, parodies such as Repossessed, and ’90s cgi-fests like Jurassic Park.

Duran clearly knows her stuff, and delights in being able to share her love of monster movies with a new generation of fans. While $12.95 seems a bit hefty for a ninety-six-page introductory guide to horror, for those who are just beginning their foray into the world of monster culture, The MonsterClub.com Guide to Horror is just the ticket!

Pam Keesey is well known for her writing on women in horror, including her books Daughters of Darkness, Dark Angels, Women Who Run with the Werewolves, and Vamps: An Illustrated History of the Femme Fatale. She is the editor and publisher of MonsterZine, an online horror movie magazine that, in the words of Dr. Frank C. Baxter of The Mole People (1956), explores the meaning and significance of horror movies in the 21st century. In addition to editing horror fiction and non-fiction about horror, Pam has also worked as a technical editor, a news editor, and as an editor of occult books in Spanish.