JoeBobBriggs Tagged Articles at Cinematical

400 Screens, 400 Blows is a weekly column that takes an in-depth look at the films playing below the radar, beneath the top ten, and on 400 screens or less.

Lately I've been dreaming of a TV show I'd like to see. Ever since Roger Ebert hired Richard Roeper to be the permanent replacement on his review show, I've dreamed of something a bit edgier and funnier -- you know, like when Ebert used to fight with Gene Siskel. Now the network suits have made things even worse with the two idiots they have on now (I mean, really! Could they be any worse?). Here's my idea: Joe Bob Briggs and John Waters. That's a show I would pay to see each week!

For the uninitiated, Joe Bob Briggs was the world's first and only "drive-in movie critic." He was nationally syndicated from the early 1980s to the late 1990s and he reviewed horror and trash movies, rating them based on gallons of blood, number of "nekkid breasts" and so forth. (His favorite movie is the original The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.) John Waters, of course, is the director of such films as Pink Flamingos (1971), Hairspray (1988) and Cry-Baby (1990), but he is a big movie fan and occasionally writes about movies for magazines like ArtForum. (His favorite movie is Joseph Losey's Boom!) To put it mildly, they each have a slightly off-kilter view of movies that generally has nothing to do with hype; they tend to see through the B.S.

Yes, I loves me some horror cinema, but watching scare flicks isn't enough for me. I also love reading about them, finding out what went into making them, and learning about other movies I should seek out. Sure, there are some great online resources for that (Cinematical, for instance), but I love books, the feel, the smell, the way you can use one to settle an argument either by confirming a fact, refuting an erroneous claim, or by throwing it. I present you now with seven horror movie related books from my personal library, each perfect for reading by the fireplace while an angry storm rages outside and the howl of a distant wolf mingles with the wails of lost souls emanating from that deconsecrated cemetery across the street (you know, the one right next to Burger King). Many of these are out of print, but used copies can easily be found on Amazon or EBay.

The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film by Michael Weldon
Any self-respecting fan of trash cinema should have this 816 page tome. Exactly what constitutes a psychotronic film is a little hard to pin down, but it includes not just horror films, but science fiction, biker flicks, jungle adventure, juvenile delinquents, etc. When the book was published in 1983, home video was just coming into its own, so locating data on the likes of Dr. Orloff's Monster, Goliathon (a.k.a. Mighty Peking Man) and Ed Wood's Orgy of the Dead must have been quite an undertaking. Author Weldon, who for years also published Psychotronic Video magazine, was one of the first to deem this type of grade z movie swill worthy of cataloging. Dated, but still an invaluable resource.