The Shrieking Sixties: British Horror Films 1960 to 1969 Horror Book Review

The Shrieking Sixties sets out to document and comment upon the British horror boom of the 1960s.  Edited by Darrell Buxton (U.K. horror expert and critic whose work has appeared in publications including Samhain, Creeping Flesh and Giallo Page) and written by a variety of contributors, including Mike Hodges (Fangoria), Steven West (Is It…Uncut?) and Christopher Wood (British Horror Films website), the book features informative and lively reviews of 150 creepy, macabre and downright scary movies.  Additional appendices cover the short films of the era, borderline titles and a study of how the censors handled an onslaught of on-screen shudders.  From Hammer’s Brides of Dracula and Plague of the Zombies, to cult classics like Witchfinder General and Scream and Scream Again, The Shrieking Sixties runs the gruesome gamut.  Of particular note is the book’s coverage of Lindsay Shonteff’s 1969 shocker Night, After Night, After Night, revealing daring new information about this ahead-of-its-time proto-slasher, and the rarely seen and even more rarely discussed The Return of Dracula, a specialist vampire movie presented in British Sign Language.  In the tradition of recent successful publications such as English Gothic, Fragments of Fear and Ten Years of Terror, The Shrieking Sixties seems set to become a vital, essential addition to any fright film fan’s library