The Creature Features Movie Guide

John Stanley – 1981

This is a popular encyclopedia of science fiction, fantasy and horror movies that has had several reprintings over the years.  Stanley was host of a Creature Features show in San Francisco in the 70s; one of many horror hosts on local TV stations around the country who would show (among other things) 50s sci-fi, Hammer horror, Roger Corman and Japanese monster movies on weekend afternoons or late Friday nights; (Elvira was it in my area).  Stanley’s reviews are short and sweet, sometimes incensed, and often hilarious.  At least that was the case in early editions; in later years he added more and more thorough pieces, most likely to compete with the expanding resources online for similar reviews.  Although there are many voices out there now specializing in horror and sci-fi, many of them brilliant, and some of them more well-rounded than Stanley, his books preserve the sensibility of the experienced enthusiast who was immersed in the culture of such movies in the 50s, 60s and 70s; the world of obsessive fandom like Forest J. Ackerman and the sharp wit of Joe Bob Briggs.  On a personal note, Stanley’s casual and accessible writing style is a huge, incalculable influence on my own.  The first paperback edition of The Creature Features Movie Guide was literally my Bible roughly between the ages of 9 and 16.  While absorbing Stanley’s language and skeptical-but-zealous stance, I actually handled the book so much that it eventually came apart at the spine and had to be replaced.  One of my favorite passages, from his review of 1980’s Prom Night: “In a moment of moppets’ malice, four youngsters cause the death of a fifth... Years later, an ax-packing, black-masked killer turns up at the school prom to wreak revenge.  This gore thriller features one harrowing chase through the campus, but is otherwise predictable slasher fare.  You’ll feel stood up.”