History of Horror

Quite a good series. Plenty of great banter about some of the greatest horror movies ever made. Big directors, big stars, but I sometimes wished that Eli Roth would let them speak without interruption.

The interviews with leading directors and actors of horror are great.

But having to listen to Eli Roth's insipid non-analysis and self-promotion in between makes it insufferable.

His movies have always been weak at best, so to hear him spout off as if an expert and try to place himself among horror's greats is just a total over-reach.

Lots of great cameos by influential film buffs, such as Tarantino, and actors show up regularly too. Each episode focuses on a different aspect of horror and moves along at a nice pace to fit as many movies in as they can. I can't picture myself watching this more than once but for what it is it's great.

Watched the whole thing through the AMC app and I am seriously impressed. I'm not a big fan of Eli Roth's films, but he definitely knows his horror/thriller history and you can see his love for them and for movies in general. The quality of this series is way above similar efforts, from the camera work on the interviews to the writing and editing -- really slick and fast-moving. Way, way better than James Cameron's Story of Science Fiction, which was slow and boring. There are tons of different experts, most of them big-time filmmakers and actors but also horror scholars who have some really interesting takes on what made these films classics. The segment on The Texas Chain Saw Massacre is particularly great: it puts the shock and gore in context of Vietnam and slaughterhouse workers who lost their jobs to machines. But there's also lots of cool stuff about makeup effects, etc. And plenty from Stephen King and his horror writer son Joe Hill, who along with John Landis and Quentin Tarantino always have something funny or interesting to say.

Your mileage may vary between episodes, but for a horror fan, this series is outstanding. And if you are not a horror fan, it is suggested strongly that you stop reading or watch and turn to something else.

Each episode, Eli Roth focuses on the most classic movies in a specific sub-genre while getting commentary from that movies director/writer/actor or a deep bench of horror/film aficionados such as Stephen King and Quentin TarantinoBe warned, If you are new to horror, or haven't seen all the movies featured, it will spoil everything. It showcases the most famous and/or best scenes of each referenced movie.

For the rest of us horror peeps, its a great hour long recap / analysis of what should be our favorite films.