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[Book Review] ‘Savini’ Compellingly Encapsulates Horror Legend’s Life

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The book Savini, which is an official biography on the career and life of FX wizard Tom Savini, reveals Savini to be a man of many faces.  Although Savini is famous for his groundbreaking makeup effects work on such classic horror films as Dawn of the Dead and Friday the 13th, Savini also establishes Savini as a real person who came from a real place.

That place is Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where Savini was born and raised and once claimed to have seen a flying saucer hovering over his neighborhood.  As a kid, Savini dreamed of being just like legendary actor and makeup artist Lon Chaney, who became Savini’s lifelong idol.

Although Savini speaks warmly of his childhood and his family unit, which included four older brothers and a sister, Savini also reveals some painful secrets in the book.  When Savini was seven years old, he was kidnapped by a neighborhood predator, who abused Savini before letting him go.  As Savini tells it, this traumatic childhood event had the effect of making him a better, stronger person.

Like most artists, Savini’s work was greatly influenced by the various environments that he encountered.  After enlisting in the United States Army when he was nineteen, Savini was sent to Vietnam, where he served as a combat photographer.  Savini recounts several near-death experiences from his tour in Vietnam and explains how his Vietnam experiences influenced the grisly, raw texture that defined his makeup effects career, which is especially visible in the film Friday the 13th.

Upon returning home from Vietnam, Savini finished his military service at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.   Savini spent several years in North Carolina, where he acted in various regional theatrical productions, playing roles as diverse as Benjamin Franklin and King Arthur, which required Savini to exercise his makeup skills on a daily basis.

A fellowship to Pittsburgh’s Carnegie Mellon University brought Savini home, where Savini eventually began his long creative partnership with filmmaker George A. Romero, whom Savini first met when Savini was in high school.  The enduring collaboration between Romero and Savini, which began with the film Martin (1977), changed the face of horror cinema and launched Savini’s career.

Savini is largely told through Savini’s unique narrative, which is accompanied by approximately 425 color pictures.  While recounting the various phases within his career, Savini is extremely forthright when it comes to his life and work.  Painfully honest at times, Savini is his own toughest critic when examining the choices that he’s made throughout his career and life.

Although Savini will be officially released on November 3, 2019, which is the date of Savini’s seventy-third birthday, the coffee table book can be preordered through the publisher’s website here.  Additionally, the publisher has made available a signed limited edition, which has a limited run of 1,013 copies.

Savini is invaluable both as a biography of an uncompromising creative genius and a document of the iconic films that have cemented Tom Savini’s legacy as one of horror cinema’s most influential and revered vanguards.

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‘Alien’ is Being Made Into a Children’s ABC Book

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Alien Book

That Disney buyout of Fox is making for strange crossovers. Just look at this new children’s book that teaches children the alphabet via the 1979 Alien movie.

From the library of Penguin House’s classic Little Golden Books comes A is for Alien: An ABC Book.

Pre-Order Here

The next few years are going to be big for the space monster. First, just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, we are getting a new franchise film called Alien: Romulus. Then Hulu, also owned by Disney is creating a television series, although they say that might not be ready until 2025.

The book is currently available for pre-order here, and is set to release on July 9, 2024. It might be fun to guess which letter will represent which part of the movie. Such as “J is for Jonesy” or “M is for Mother.”

Romulus will be released in theaters on August 16, 2024. Not since 2017 have we revisited the Alien cinematic universe in Covenant. Apparently, this next entry follows, “Young people from a distant world facing the most terrifying life form in the universe.”

Until then “A is for Anticipation” and “F is for Facehugger.”

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Holland House Ent. Announces New Book “Oh Mother, What Have You Done?”

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Screenwriter and Director Tom Holland is delighting fans with books containing scripts, visual memoirs, continuation of stories, and now behind-the-scenes books on his iconic films. These books offer a fascinating glimpse into the creative process, script revisions, continued stories and the challenges faced during production. Holland’s accounts and personal anecdotes provide a treasure trove of insights for movie enthusiasts, shedding new light on the magic of filmmaking! Check out the press release below on Hollan’s newest fascinating story of the making of his critically acclaimed horror sequel Psycho II in a brand new book!

Horror icon and filmmaker Tom Holland returns to the world he envisioned in 1983’s critically acclaimed feature film Psycho II in the all-new 176-page book Oh Mother, What Have You Done? now available from Holland House Entertainment.

‘Psycho II’ House. “Oh Mother, What Have You Done?”

Authored by Tom Holland and containing unpublished memoirs by late Psycho II director Richard Franklin and conversations with the film’s editor Andrew London, Oh Mother, What Have You Done? offers fans a unique glimpse into the continuation of the beloved Psycho film franchise, which created nightmares for millions of people showering worldwide.

Created using never-before-seen production materials and photos – many from Holland’s own personal archive – Oh Mother, What Have You Done? abounds with rare hand-written development and production notes, early budgets, personal Polaroids and more, all set against fascinating conversations with the film’s writer, director and editor which document the development, filming, and reception of the much-celebrated Psycho II.  

‘Oh Mother, What Have you Done? – The Making of Psycho II

Says author Holland of writing Oh Mother, What Have You Done? (which contains an afterward by Bates Motel producer Anthony Cipriano), I wrote Psycho II, the first sequel that began the Psycho legacy, forty years ago this past summer, and the film was a huge success in the year 1983, but who remembers? To my surprise, apparently, they do, because on the film’s fortieth anniversary love from fans began to pour in, much to my amazement and pleasure. And then (Psycho II director) Richard Franklin’s unpublished memoirs arrived unexpectedly. I’d had no idea he’d written them before he passed in 2007.”

“Reading them,” continues Holland, “was like being transported back in time, and I had to share them, along with my memories and personal archives with the fans of Psycho, the sequels, and the excellent Bates Motel. I hope they enjoy reading the book as much as I did in putting it together. My thanks to Andrew London, who edited, and to Mr. Hitchcock, without whom none of this would have existed.”

“So, step back with me forty years and let’s see how it happened.”

Anthony Perkins – Norman Bates

Oh Mother, What Have You Done? is available now in both hardback and paperback through Amazon and at Terror Time (for copies autographed by Tom Holland)

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Sequel to ‘Cujo’ Just One Offering in New Stephen King Anthology

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It’s been a minute since Stephen King put out a short story anthology. But in 2024 a new one containing some original works is getting published just in time for summer. Even the book title “You Like It Darker,” suggests the author is giving readers something more.

The anthology will also contain a sequel to King’s 1981 novel “Cujo,” about a rabid Saint Bernard that wreaks havoc on a young mother and her child trapped inside a Ford Pinto. Called “Rattlesnakes,” you can read an excerpt from that story on Ew.com.

The website also gives a synopsis of some of the other shorts in the book: “The other tales include ‘Two Talented Bastids,’ which explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills, and ‘Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,’ about a brief and unprecedented psychic flash that upends dozens of lives. In ‘The Dreamers,’ a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored while ‘The Answer Man’ asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.”

Here’s the table of contents from “You Like It Darker,”:

  • “Two Talented Bastids”
  • “The Fifth Step”
  • “Willie the Weirdo”
  • “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream”
  • “Finn”
  • “On Slide Inn Road”
  • “Red Screen”
  • “The Turbulence Expert”
  • “Laurie”
  • “Rattlesnakes”
  • “The Dreamers”
  • “The Answer Man”

Except for “The Outsider” (2018) King has been releasing crime novels and adventure books instead of true horror in the past few years. Known mostly for his terrifying early supernatural novels such as “Pet Sematary,” “It,” “The Shining” and “Christine,” the 76-year-old author has diversified from what made him famous starting with “Carrie” in 1974.

A 1986 article from Time Magazine explained that King planned on quitting horror after he wrote “It.” At the time he said there was too much competition, citing Clive Barker as “better than I am now” and “a lot more energetic.” But that was almost four decades ago. Since then he’s written some horror classics such as “The Dark Half, “Needful Things,” “Gerald’s Game,” and “Bag of Bones.”

Maybe the King of Horror is waxing nostalgic with this latest anthology by revisiting the “Cujo” universe in this latest book. We will have to find out when “You Like It Darker” hits bookshelves and digital platforms starting May 21, 2024.

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