Review by Scott Lefebvre
This book was presented to me for review by Ray from Scars for review.
I had never heard of the author before receiving this book, but the subject matter was definitely of interest to me so I eagerly dove right in.
The book is broken into three parts. Part one, "Creepy Crawls of Horror in Culture and Society". Part Two, "Creepy Crawls of Horror in Literature". And Part Three, "Creepy Crawls of Horror in Film".
Part One, encompassing the first hundred and twenty-seven pages, covers the authors visits to London and Paris to experience the creepier side of their tourism industry and features many of the locations featured in the light books about haunted olde England that I used to read as a child. It has always been a passion of mine to read about supernatural attractions from other countries because I know that I will most likely not be able to see them in person in this lifetime and it is a pleasure to read the author as he attempts to give readers a sense of what it's like to be physically present at and experience the attractions. The author addresses all of the senses in his descriptions, rarely going overboard in his use of descriptive adjectives.
Although I must forewarn that there is a fair amount of stylistic indulgence. The author is fond of using "yours cruelly" for "yours truly" and "of corpse" for "of course". What sometimes seems like mis-spelling reveals itself on second glance to be wordplay, but the author's frequent use of alliteration and stylistic indulgences comes off sounding like a spokes-person (spooks-person?) from the intro of an episode of Tales from the Crypt. Humorous if you're into that kind of thing, and it does lighten the mood of what is essentially a tour/guidebook, but such indulgence also makes for a heavier book overall when you consider all of the unnecessary verbosity.
I knew 'Part Two' would be the test for me, since the proof of the accuracy of this book would be their description of attractions that we had both been to, namely the section addressing the life and work of Howard Philips Lovecraft. I eagerly approached and overcame this section, and was satisfied with the manner in which they attended to Lovecraft. Their descriptions of the locations that I had been to were succinct and accurate and they even managed to include some locations of Lovecraftian interest in the Massachusetts area that I hadn't had the opportunity to explore myself, but you can bet I will now that I have this handy guide in my possession.
Part Three begins with a detailed directory of how to locate the final resting places of some of horror films most notorious personages. The author and his wife seem to have done a sweeping tour while out on the west coast and managed to unearth many of the actors, actresses, and directors that would reasonable be on any horror fan's short list of gravesites to visit.
The remainder of Part Three, and the book, (pages 247-375) address the landmarks of a variety of horror film fundamentals such as the George Romero "...of the Dead" zombie series, The Exorcist, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, John Carpenter's Halloween, The Amityville Horror, and Friday the 13th. The author provides addresses for all of the locations that a horror film enthusiast would most likely want to find if they found themselves in the area. Although I must admit I have been unable to visit most of the locales listed I truly wish I had this guidebook when visiting Pennsylvania and trying to dig up any of the attractions in the Pittsburgh area. My friend's knowledge proved to be much less all-encompassing than he made it out to be and amounted to his pointing to an out of the way graveyard and saying, "They shot a scene from one of them over there." Not exactly the horror experience for which I had hoped.
In summary, once you grow comfortable with the author's stylistic indulgences, this is an excellent guidebook for fans of all things horror in history, literature, and film. Although not all-encompassing, it is unfair to expect any one book to be all-inclusive, and the author presents a very attractive selection of destinations for voyeuristic vacationers. A welcome addition would have been an exploration of the stalking grounds and murder scenes of America's most notorious serial killers, but perhaps another author will come forth to address that section of the meat market.
Everyone I know has a friend of a friend or knows a person that can tell you everything about their local horror movie attractions. One guy really knows the Stephen King stomping grounds in Bangor, Maine. One guy really knows his Lovecraft locations. One guy knows how to find all of the spots where scenes from everyone's favorite horror movies were filmed. This book successfully synthesizes the knowledge from all of these previously diverse sources into one compact, portable, and infinitely useful sourcebook, especially if you're planning on taking off on a Creepy Crawl of your own.
Related Links:
Santa Monica Press: http://www.santamonicapress.com/
The online catalog listing for this book:
http://www.santamonicapress.com/catalog/creepycrawls/index.html
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