Review by Scott Nicholson

"Let’s Scare ‘Em": Early horror films of the sound era

Written by Rick Atkins
McFarland Books

Many people who consider themselves fans of old horror movies have done little more than catch an Abbott & Costello cheeser on a Sci-Fi Channel matinee.

But Rick Atkins can wear the badge with a certain amount of pride, because he not only started watching and cataloging horror movies at the age of five, he spent 19 years pursuing and rounding up interviews with some of the early horror cinema’s main movers and spent much of his adult life compiling a book about his passion.

The idea for the book came to him as a 14-year-old, when he was secretly tucking "Famous Monsters of Filmland" inside his school textbooks.

Atkins collected his interviews and research in "Let’s Scare ‘Em!," (hc, $48.50, 260 pp) a recent release from specialty publisher McFarland Publishers. Atkins covers films from 1930 to 1961, and his passion for the subject is evident in not only the years spent putting the book together but also in his obvious admiration for the people he features.

While most such books focus on stars such as Vincent Price, Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi, Atkins steps a bit deeper behind the curtain to find producers, directors and supporting cast.

Atkins also has a romanticist’s view of the older films. He credit’s Alfred Hitchcock’s "Psycho" with ushering in the era of splatter movies that even now stand alongside supernatural movies under the same genre label.

"Suggestion works better," Atkins writes. "Mystery entices; explicitness is a bore."

Among the book’s feature subjects are Carl Laemmle, Jr., the force behind Universal Pictures and its famed roster of horror classics; Kenneth Strickfaden, a sound and light technician who had a shocking effect on more than 60 films; William Castle, who states that audience manipulation is the secret to a good movie; Ian Wolfe, a character actor who filled many a half-lit alleyway; producer Val Lewton; make-up artist Jack Pierce; Zita Johann, who was the damsel for many a monster; and Forrest Ackerman, the ultimate horror collector.

"Let's Scare 'Em!" also takes a generous look at some black-and-white B-babes, back before they all had web sites and sold bloody, nude photographs of themselves.

Screenwriter and director Curt Siodmak provides an afterword that describes the lonely late nights of a B-movie writer, who was expected to turn in final drafts on the first try and keep the budget in mind.

Atkins offers an extensive filmography of the first three decades of horror movies with sound, as well as an appendix of the producers, actors, writers and directors who put them together.

From the cover photo of the Bride of Frankenstein to the back mug of the groom itself, the book packs three decades of names, faces, publicity stills, trade secrets and industry deals into a page-turning trip to the land of monsters and mad scientists.

Atkins defends his beloved era against the blockbusters of today: "Gone are the days of the classic screen monsters and the originality of actors and actresses; gone are the behind-the-scenes people who made it all happen. Sadly, the fantasy elements and original movie plots of years past that were so delightfully entertaining may be gone as well."

Though Atkins views the past through a gauze of sentiment, he doesn’t need to work hard to defend the validity of the past.

Even a quick flip through some of the many photographs will send you, as it did me, running for the closest independent video store for such timeless treasures as "I Walked With A Zombie," "Frankenstein Meets The Wolfman" and "The Old Dark House."

On the Web: http://www.mcfarlandpub.com

Scott Nicholson's first novel "The Red Church" was released as a Pinnacle paperback and Doubleday Book Club hardcover. He's sold over 40 stories, some of which appear in the collection "Thank You For The Flowers." His novel "The Harvest" will be published in September 2003. He works as a journalist in the Appalachian Mountains of North Carolina.