Book Review: How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith

How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

⭐️⭐️⭐️ 1/2

Although I've been shelving Seth Grahame-Smith's books for years now, I never got around to reading Pride and Prejudice and Zombies or Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. However, since I was between books this week, I figured I would give How to Survive a Horror Movie a shot - and I'm glad that I did.

Seth Grahame-Smith has an encyclopedic knowledge of horror history and spooky cinema, and a wit more biting than a vampire's fangs. In How to Survive a Horror Movie, the author lovingly lampoons classics like The Exorcist, The Shining, Dracula, Frankenstein, and Poltergeist; along the twisted trail of this book, he also touches upon a variety of tried-and-true horror franchises, including Halloween, Friday the 13th, Alien, and Scream. With grim gusto, Grahame-Smith puts the "fan" in FANatic and FANtastic: his love for horror bleeds through every page (pun intended). To the great joy of fellow aficionados, there are more eerie Easter eggs here than in any bunny's blood-soaked basket.

However, while Grahame-Smith is clearly a a devotee of this dark genre, he also recognizes the many predictable tropes, pitfalls, and idiosyncrasies of his beloved horror films. As such, much of this irreverent metafiction book is written with tongue planted firmly in cheek. With melodramatic flourish, the author discusses everything from haunted houses to possessed vehicles to killer dolls, ultimately culminating in a chapter about facing off against the Devil himself. The humor does start to wear thin about halfway through this brief book, but the author's clever insight helps circumvent the feeling that he's beating an un-dead horse into tedious oblivion.

In the appendix, Grahame-Smith offers a curated list of recommended horror films, surveying every important horror film of the last sixty years. The list of titles is a great starting point for novice moviegoers who want to dig deep into the graveside soil of cinematic history. This alone makes the book a worthwhile read.

As a horror geek, I was thoroughly delighted and entertained by How to Survive a Horror Movie. Casual horror fans, however, might want to skip this in favor of a book with more substance. While Grahame-Smith's tongue is sharper than Van Helsing's wooden stakes, his litany of attributes discussed in the "Terrorverse" can feel more like Herman Munster than Mary Shelley's monster.

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