Frankenstein: The True Story – THE BOOK!

One of my earliest childhood horror memories is seeing the 2-part mini-series Frankenstein: The True Story when it first aired in 1973. While I had no idea how far from the “true story” it was, as a young, eager horror fan, I just loved it and remains a personal favorite of mine to this day.

Back in 2017, Little Shoppe of Horrors magazine did a huge special issue on the making of this film, with Sam Irving taking on this dream job, since he’d been a fan as well since the original premiere, writing about it and doing several interviews on it in his horror fanzine Bizarre that he put out in the ’70s. The new piece for LSoH was 120 pages, packed with 400 photos, new interviews with the cast and crew, with an amazing cover art by artist Mark Maddox. This would lead to a Blu-ray release of the film by Shout Factory with an incredible commentary as well as interviews with some of the cast.

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Book Review: The Dr. Phibes Companion

Dr Phibes CompanionThe Dr. Phibes Companion
Published by BearManor Media, 2018. 274 pages
By Justin Humphreys

One of the first movies I rented when I bought my very own VCR was one of my all time favorite films, The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971), starring the amazing Vincent Price, and it still remains the same to this day. How could you not love this movie about this evil genius who sets out to get revenge of those who he believes caused the death of his wife, each one in a very creative way? It’s one of my favorite character’s that Price brought to life and is always a treat to watch. So when I first read about the news that there was going to a book dedicated to the Phibes films, I was more than a little excited.

With contributions by Mark Ferelli, Sam Irvin, and David Taylor, and a forward by Phibes co-screenwriter William Goldstein, author Humphreys has compiled so much information about the first Phibes movie, its sequel Dr. Phibes Rises Again (1972), as well as the many proposed sequels that never got off the ground. Humphreys has done an amazing job compiling information about these titles from the original screenplays, letting us know the differences between them and the final product, finding and hiring the director, the art direction, casting, makeup, the score, and just about everything you could want to know about them! As a Phibes Phan, you’ll learn more here than you thought you could.

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