The Frightfest Guide to Grindhouse Movies by Alan Jones Book Review

The Frightfest Guide to Grindhouse Movies by Alan Jones Book Review

Just when you thought it was safe to stop repeating “It’s only a movie… only a movie… only a movie!” it’s time to take a stroll down the dark and deviant back alleys of the Exploitation film industry. Your host, acclaimed film critic and broadcaster Alan Jones, returns with another mind-boggling trawl through the glittering gutters of cinema to uncover yet more obscure Grindhouse gold.

For this astounding sequel to his acclaimed FrightFest Guide to Exploitation Movies, Jones has chosen the most underrated, alluring or flat-out disastrous sick flicks from the eye-opening epoch that created an obsessed generation of slavering besotted fans. From red light district fleapits to neon-drenched 42nd Street dives and late night Drive-Ins, Jones forensically catalogued everything for posterity, pre-determining cult status even though he didn’t realise it at the time.

With a foreword by Jane Giles, the award-winning author of Scala Cinema 1978-1993, along with a highly personal, informative introduction by Jones, you can now take a walk on the wild side of chronic B-movie adoration, guided by the one person who knows the astonishing, once maligned, now lauded genre better than anyone else.

It’s a little known fact that back in late 2008 I had self-published a book entitled Scenes From Behind the Sofa, don’t look it for it as I’ve long since removed it from the public eye, which detailed fifty horror flicks that I felt everyone should seen along with the film’s sequels, prequels and remakes. At the time I was really pleased with the finished result, although the formatting of it left a lot to be desired, and I truly believed that following my redundancy from a well-known financial institution that I would soon be recognised as a true authority on the genre.

I did everything I could within my meagre financial means to ensure that the book got as much promotion as possible. From having my local paper interview me in relation to the release (I used to write for them so I already had my foot in the door) to having the site I was then writing for (EatMyBrains) run a feature to also contacting the organisers of London’s FrightFest annual event (for whom I also wrote reviews and features) for that extra push. They readily agreed and what followed gave me my first introduction in person to the author of THE FRIGHTFEST GUIDE TO GRINDHOUSE MOVIES – Alan Jones.

Mr Jones interviewed me, as we sat in an empty cinema auditorium in Central London, and I did my best to answer his questions although having seen him leafing through my weighty tome prior to being filmed for their website it kind of dawned on me that I what I wrote was no longer in my amateurish hands but of a respected writer and critic, and one to whom I will never hold a candle. Jump forward thirteen years and it’s now my turn to read through a book of his and offer up my thoughts, the first of which was ‘Wow!’ If it’s possible to fall in love with a book then I throw my hands up, I’m totally guilty on this occasion of love in the first degree.

The book itself is a joy to just look at from its terrific cover art to the quality of the pages and colourful stills that enhance the reading experience. Starting off with a foreword by Jane Giles, the award-winning author of Scala Cinema 1978-1993, before the author himself provides a revealing introduction through the next thirty-six pages, his book (which following the success of the previous four editions: The FrightFest Guide to Exploitation Movies, Monster Movies, Ghost Movies and Werewolf Movies) takes us through a vivid and informative guide through the Grindhouse genre.

Much like the chunky coffee table books I read relating to horror flicks in my younger years this is more of a dip in and dip out of affair, it’s too cumbersome a tome to read on your travels, it’s more one to savour from time to time than read cover-to-cover. That may sound detrimental but that works for me. It’s a solid reference book, crammed full of information on the sleazier end of the genre spectrum and it serves as a personal reminder of the years previous when I would savour his contributions in the likes of Starburst and Film Review magazines.