by Michael J.Weldon

TITAN BOOKS

646 pages : 280 x 210 mm : B&W illustrations
ISBN 1 85286 658 6

First of all, what the hell are "psychotronic videos"? Well this is sort of explained in the book: "That means horror, science fiction, fantasy, and exploitation movies. These are the releases that used to be called 'B' features and were later popular in inner-city grind-houses, at drive-ins, and on local late-night TV." However this is not the whole story.

Although this massive paperback contains over 3000 reviews illustrated by 450 black and white photos, it is by no means comprehensive. It has no review of The Birds, Cat People or Psycho for instance, while it does have Rocky (I to V), The Big Red One and Octopussy, for instance. It seems to be the reviews r. Weldon has on file from his magazine Psychotronic.

However, in amongst this mixture of genre and big budget movies are some strange and wacky films. Flicking through the pages is fun and it is possible that, with the index, you might find that film that you could never quite remember the name of. The entries have the main actors, director and producer as well as a description. In general there is no indication of whether the film is good or not and there is no scoring system. If you want comprehensive lists on a genre and an indication to the films merit you would be far better advised to get a couple of the excellent Steve Jones "Illustrated Encyclopedia..." books (also published by Titan). If you want to delve into murky waters and have one book to cover the majority of low budget horror, sf and fantasy films this may well be it.

If you found your way here directly from a Search Engine KICKSTART the Kimota Home page from here!