My ebook on exploitation film, Fecund Horror, is now available from Amazon.

Here’s an exciting description:

Terrror! Blood! Torture! Insect sex zombie apocalypse! In Hollywood films the guy gets the girl and the monster is defeated, which is boring and unsatisfying, since who wants Tom Cruise to win, anyway? But in exploitation films, the monster gets the girl, the guy gets torn limb from limb, and the whole project is really more satisfying for everyone. This 49K collection of essays covers horror films, slashers, rape/revenge, women-in-prison and other mean, twisted, exploitation atrocities which chew up your humanity and your gender and spit it out as a staggering chitinous abomination. Freud, feminism, the male gaze, and a hideous ichor from beyond the stars engage in a struggle to the death as the world dissolves in filth and abasement.

Among the films discussed are The Thing, Cronenberg’s Shivers, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Under the Skin, I Spit on Your Grave, The Stendahl Syndrome, The Last House on the Left, Martyrs, Hostel, Halloween, Friday the 13th, Caged, The Big Doll House, Death Proof, and Switchblade Sisters.

“So, while you may not have seen everymovie discussed, his enthusiasm may make you want to. At a minimum, itmakes the essays a delight to read even if they’re not about yourfavorite exploitation sub-genre. — Kate Skow, Splice Today”

Hope some of the regular readers here will feel inspired to read it…and maybe to leave a comment on Amazon if you like it (comments are important for sales, I’m told.)

I’ve published the introduction to the book (about Carpenter’s Halloween) on Patreon for subscribers…so if you want a sneak peek, you can become a patron, and help contribute to more such ebooks in the future too.

 
So, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m going to be publishing a collection of my exploitation film writing on July 11 (if the good lord is willing and the zombies don’t get me.) There’s the cover designed by Vom Marlowe up there at the top.

I tried to do a giveaway contest thing, offering a free preview to anyone who could guess the three new essays in the book…but no one really bothered to try. (There’s a new essay on Halloween, a new one on Under the Skin, and a list of the top ten rape/revenge films…so now you know.)

Anyway, I thought I would try again with a simpler, more straightforward contest. I will give a preview ebook to the first three people who:

1. Leave a comment below saying they want one.

2. promise to write an Amazon review when the book comes out.

Remember, if you promise a review and don’t actually write a review, a gelatinous ichor from the far side of the galaxy will absorb you cell by cell and then write a review in your name. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.

Contest starts…now!

 
I’m putting together a collection of my writing on exploitation film and publishing it as an ebook. Vom Marlowe (who used to write here way back when) designed the really pretty darn awesome cover above. The still is from Night of the Living Dead, which is out of copyright because the filmmakers forgot to put the copyright notice on the print, and it mattered back then.

The book will be out July 11, at least if all goes well and I am not devoured by an evil ichor from outer space.

I thought I’d post the table of contents too. Most of the pieces here have appeared on the web already in one form or another—but not all of them.

Introduction:
Looking Wrong at Halloween

Fecund Horror

The Child Is Father of the Child:
On the Friday the 13th Series

American Torture:
On Hostel and Hostel 2

The Top Ten Rape/Revenge Films

I Spit On Your Quietism

Rape the Children Well:
On The Last House on the Left

Suffering With a Purpose:
On The Virgin Spring

Every Thing In Its Place:
On Irreversible

Patriarchy in You:
On The Stendahl Syndrome

Disgusting Women:
On Under the Skin

Bloody Conventions:
On Martyrs

Men in Women-in-Prison:
Masochism, Feminism, Fetish

Waiting for the Revolution:
On Switchblade Sisters

Embrace the Exploitation:
On Calum Waddell’s Jack Hill

And hey, we can do a promotional contest thingee. First person who can correctly identify the new essays (in comments or on social media) will get a free copy of the ebook! Note some titles have been changed, so googling isn’t going to help you necessarily.

Who is the truest Berlatsky superfan? Do Berlatsky superfans in fact exist? This is our chance to find out.

If contests and/or Berlatsky superfandom makes you spew vile ichor in a flylike manor, you can also get an exciting preview copy if you are a blogging/writing type person and swear on the fishy tentacles of Cthulhu to write a review praising my dextrous prose and awesome insights, and/or taking me to task for lack of same.

The Berlatsky superfandom Thunderdome death duel begins..now!