McCarty, John

The Little Shop of Horrors Book

The Official Splatter Movie Guide

John McCarty writes about splatter movies with some authority, being the man who coined the term. Splatter was born in 1963 with Herschell Gordon Lewis's Blood Feast, and, as McCarty predicted in his 1984 study Splatter Movies: Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen, it has outgrown the confines of the horror world and influenced practically every other film genre.

With The Official Splatter Movie Guide, McCarty (with a team of knowledgeable colleagues) set out to produce a reference book that would "give readers a broad view of the many different routes the genre has taken since its debut." The result is a collection of more than 400 reviews, encompassing the obviously splattery (e.g., the slasher films of the 1980s) as well as mainstream movies with significant splatter elements (e.g., Raiders of the Lost Ark). Each review gives basic cast and production information and a brief plot summary, with comments on notable gore sequences, as well as trivia and related credits. The films do not receive individual quality ratings, but the reviewers comment freely on their merits (or lack thereof) in an informal but literate style. There are also several dozen pages of unusual black-and-white stills and posters.

Readers should be aware that coverage of European movies is limited and of Asian ones nearly nonexistent. Despite this limitation, however, the Guide is an indispensable source for both aficionados and relative newcomers to the genre, ranging as it does from the classics to the obscurities. It's also just plain fun to read.

McCarty went on to produce the equally impressive Official Splatter Movie Guide, Volume II in 1992. --Mary V. Burke

This new book is a dream come true for splatter aficionados: a film-by-film guide to more than four hundred masterworks of blood and gore, arranged in a handy alphabetical format. 16 pages of photos.

John McCarty's Official Splatter Movie Guide: Hundreds More of the Grossest, Goriest, Most Outrageous Movies Ever Made (Official Splatter Movie Guide)

In this followup to The Official Splatter Movie Guide of 1989, John McCarty and his dauntless team of splatter scholars have assembled another 400-odd reviews of the messiest movies ever made. As in the first volume, the films represent every manifestation of the splatter aesthetic, from the abjectly trashy (The Corpse Grinders) to the best of Hollywood (The Silence of the Lambs), including horror, sci-fi, action, thrillers, documentaries, and even a few comedies; McCarty's foreword includes some perceptive remarks on the genre-crossing properties of graphic gore. This volume also boasts some 24 pages of stills (not all of them well chosen) and arresting cover art. Once again, English-language movies predominate: European splatter is represented chiefly by the major Italian directors, and only one Asian entry appears.

This volume improves on its predecessor in a couple of ways. First, there are several appendices, including an index of directors and one called "Carnographic Pleasures," which groups films in categories such as "Simply Putrid," "Yuppies Get Slaughtered," and "You Think Your Family's Dysfunctional?"--a valuable aid in planning video theme evenings. Also, the reviews themselves are more extensive; the writers clearly decided to indulge themselves this time, and their remarks often have decidedly more entertainment value than the films. This is not to say that the book exists primarily as an excuse to lambaste cheesy movies, but McCarty and company do not spare the vitriol when it's called for.

Informative, intelligent, and amusing, this volume and its companion make a valuable resource for any viewer with a taste for the grisly. --Mary V. Burke

The man who coined the term "splatter movie" separates the anemic from the ebullient in this all-new volume presenting hundreds of the goriest, grossest, and most outrageous films ever made. Includes summaries and commentaries on recent films as well as some which were overlooked in Volume I. Essential reading for film buffs, gorehounds, and concerned parents everywhere. 24 pages of black-and-white photographs.

The Modern Horror Film

John McCarty has selected fifty outstanding examples of the modern horror film. Film buffs will relive the terrors they enjoyed on the screen! Each of the fifty films is documented with casts, credits, production notes and reviews.

The Fearmakers: The Screen's Directorial Masters of Suspense and Terror

The Modern Horror Film

Splatter Movies: Breaking the Last Taboo of the Screen

Tell Me When to Look: Modern Horror Films from the Curse of Frankenstein to the Craft

Splatter movies: Breaking the last taboo : a critical survey of the wildly demented sub-genre of the horror film that is changing the face of film realism forever

The Little Shop of Horrors