THE NEW FLESH: 21ST CENTURY HORROR FILMS A-Z VOL. 1
If you’re old enough to remember a time before the Internet, when to find out details of any given film involved trawling through the pages of a Maltin or Halliwell book – then finding that those esteemed tomes didn’t actually feature the obscure ‘70s Spanish film that you needed to know the director of – then this book will bring many memories flooding back.
In this fabulously packed book, Willis (a main contributor to the Sex Gore Mutants website) manages to review and list virtually every major horror film from the past fifteen years, plus a score of lesser known titles. Since the turn of the millennium, horror has had something of a renaissance and has become an even more accessible genre for fledgling filmmakers. As such, the proliferation of low budget films has made it even harder to keep up with the trends.
In this first volume of reviews, we cover such obvious fare as Let the Right One In (2008), Paranormal Activity (2007) and Saw (2004) among others, but it’s the lesser known movies that are of most interest. No matter how much your finger is on the pulse of horror these days, there’s always an indie film that slips through the net (umm… on the net?). So while controversial flicks like Murder-Set-Pieces (2004), August Underground (2001), Scrapbook (2000) and A Serbian Film (2010) – the latter dissected in a refreshingly non-hipster fashion – all have their place, there’s room for completely unknown films such as Empire of the Apes (2013), Fantacide (2007) and Twink (2014) – one of several films by British director Jason Impey included. The entries are quite up-to-date also, with The Babadook, Nurse 3D and Bad Milo! all making the list.
Rather than give ratings for the films, Willis provides concise and often very funny thoughts, in a simple, well-written manner. It’s by no means in-depth, but that isn’t the intention. It’s more a collection of notes and observations on the movies. This makes the book very easy to dip in and out of, but you’re not going to be able to blag your way through any given film’s plot points down the pub from reading it. You will, however, possibly get a few pointers of which movies to seek out and the ones to avoid.
INFO: THE NEW FLESH: 21ST CENTURY HORROR FILMS A-Z VOL. 1 / AUTHOR: STUART WILLIS / PUBLISHER: CREATESPACE INDEPENDENT PUBLISHING PLATFORM / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
