Review: 'The Filmmaker's Book of the Dead: How to Make Your Own Heart-Racing Horror Movie'

THE FILMMAKER'S BOOK OF THE DEAD: HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN HEART-RACING HORROR MOVIE

Pity the poor horror filmmaker. Despite serving as the economic backbone of the entire movie industry, creators of horror films have received precious little love, or even civility, from critics. And although many good-to-excellent moviemaking guides can be found at your favorite big box bookstore, few of them are concerned with the proper way to create Argento-esque lighting, or explaining the best method to convincingly chop off your lead actor's head without killing him in the process. (After all, he might be needed for reshoots!) Learning to make quality horror movies, it seems, is a cinematic black art, with no teacher in sight.

Well, meet Danny Draven, your cinematic necromancer. A long-time filmmaker whose work has been released by Full Moon Pictures and many other studios, Draven has penned an intriguing guide to the filmmaking process, focused squarely through a prism of the macabre. Newly released from Focal Press, The Filmmaker's Book of the Dead: How to Make Your Own Heart-Racing Horror Movie is an indispensable addition to the library of any gorehound who dreams of picking up a camera and channeling his inner poltergeist.

Organized into different sections based on pre-production, production, and post-production, The Filmmaker's Book of the Dead offers no-nonsense advice that will guide aspiring filmmakers all the way through the process of conceiving, scripting, casting, shooting, editing, and releasing their first horror feature. Writing with a conversational style that feels more like a coffee date with an old friend than a dry professorial lecture, the veteran fillmmaker offers many anecdotes from his own career as he explains the most efficient way to complete a project within its alloted time and budget, the various mistakes he has made in his own projects, and the best ways to avoid getting ripped off by distributors once your opus is complete.

Although much of the information in the guide applies to all genres of filmmaking (how to budget a movie, dealing with actors, the importance of recording good location sound), Draven is at his best when discussing the unique challenges inherent in horror filmmaking, such as achieving good gore on a budget. As a nice bonus, the book reprints a fascinating essay by H.P. Lovecraft on the craft of horror story structure, and Draven never lets the reader forget that a horror movie that doesn't thrill its audience is a wasted opportunity.

A unique aspect of The Filmmaker's Book of the Dead is its accompanying website. Draven has provided an arsenal of digital media to help an aspiring John Carpenter launch his career. Sample contracts and budgets are provided, along with examples of correct script formatting and much more. It's an innovative approach that ensures the information in the book will never grow stale. This type of forward-thinking is typical of the rest of the volume.

Unlike many competing books, for example, The Filmmaker's Book of the Dead understands the post-production workflow for DV and HD video. Draven meticulously chronicles both the challenges and advantages of today's modern digital equipment, and offers advice and guidance on aspects of filmmaking typically ignored in other books, such as color correction, print timing, DVD special features, digital press kits, and more.

And since a great movie is worthless if you can't get anyone to watch it, the book covers the process of submitting your newly completed masterpiece to film festivals, the best way to prepare your movie for a DVD/Blu-Ray release, various on-line distribution options, and (in one of the book's best chapters) a complete overview of international film distribution. You'll be shocked to learn what a distributor may demand in order to distribute your movie overseas, and this chapter alone is worth the book's purchase price.

Only once does Draven misstep: the first chapter's summary of the various horror sub-genres, including vampires, werewolves, and zombies, feel both perfunctory and borderline patronizing. This reviewer finds it hard to believe that anyone wishing to shoot a vampire flick would need an overview on what vampires are and how they behave. Ditto ghosts, mummies, etc. These introductions, running a page or two each, are too simplistic to yield any new information for a real horror fan, and provide little value.

But it's a small flaw, and it won't stop this reviewer from giving a strong recommendation to the book. Featuring interviews with a horde of horror icons, from Nightmare on Elm Street's Robert Englund to filmmaker Stuart Gordon, from Full Moon president Charles Band to visual effects legend Tom Savini, Draven's book (and its accompanying website) serves as a thorough overview of the horror filmmaking process. Just start reading at Chapter 2.

The Filmmaker's Book of the Dead: How to Make Your Own Heart-Racing Horror Movie is now available from Amazon. It can also be obtained locally from the the Dickson City Borders or the Wilkes-Barre Barnes and Noble.

Overall rating: A-

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