| The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film |  | Author: Michael Weldon
Publisher: Ballantine Books
Category: Book
List Price: $16.95
Buy Used: $9.99
You Save: $6.96 (41%)
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Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 864025
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1st
Pages: 831
Number Of Items: 1
ISBN: 0345303814
EAN: 9780345303813
ASIN: 0345303814
Publication Date: October 12, 1983
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: book shows alot of use and wear,half of book have seperated from spine(ab)
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Product Description
The Complete Viewers' Guide to the Weirdest Movies of All Time!brbrFrom the slightly offbeat to the outlandishly bizarre...from the no-budget quickie to the multimillion-dollar box-office smash...brbrPsychotronic films range from Attack of the Killer Tomatoes to E.T....from Angel's Wild Women and Hellcats of the Navy to/Dismember Mama and Let Me Die A Woman...from sincere social commentary to utter trash.brbrPsychotronic stars are ex-models, ex-sports heroes, dead rock idols, future presidents, would-be Marilyns, and has-beens of all types.brbrPsychotronic films keep sleepless fans glued to their TVs and lined up outside revival houses in big cities and small towns all over the country.brbrSee these outrageous films through the eyes of Michael Weldon, the world's leading authority on Psychotronic films!brbrArranged from A to Z! brCrammed with rare illustrations!brFeaturing cast, crew, and characters!brUniquely eccentric reviews of over 3,000 movies!brbrWarning: The author of this book has been watching these movies obsessively since the age of 6. He is now unfit for conventional employment. Because of the addictive nature of these films, we the publishers cannot guarantee that your sanity won't be endangered by reading this book.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
Seminal work for gen-x b-movie buffs November 17, 2007
Stephen Cannon (Yokohama, Japan)
Growing up in Iowa in the 70s, we didn't have the grindhouses movie theaters of NY nor did we have the drive-ins of the South. Being a b-movie fan at that time meant combing the TV Guide every week to find oddball movies, although if the title was not eye catching (e.g.-The Devil's Rain, Blue Sunshine), it might be missed. This book came out when I was 15, and although horror movie encyclopedias had been published in the past, this was the first really comprehensive tome on what is generally described now as "exploitation movies," "cult movies," or more recently, "grindhouse movies." br / br /The term the author coined, "Psychotronic," became inclusive of not just horror movies, but also biker, blaxploitation, juvenile delinquency, drug, scare, softcore, and any other type of offbeat movie the author happened to fancy. br / br /It was published at the very cusp of the VHS boom, when not only were video shops sprouting up all over the place, but electronic shops, supermarkets, and even convenience stores had huge video rental operations. Michael Weldon's movie guide gave an entire generation of b-movie buffs who did not live in NYC a glimpse into what was out there. This book became a bible to us given that it was first time in our lives that these movies were available to us thanks to the proliferation of VHS rental tapes. br / br /The book is now 25 years out of date and younger audiences might not find it quite so useful (it doesn't list The Evil Dead-that's how old it is!), but on the plus side, there are many listings for movies from the early 80s and before that have disappeared, so it's difficult to write it off as irrelevant even now.
 Useful in its time, but made obsolete by the internet November 24, 2004
Gagewyn (United States)
4 out of 8 found this review helpful
The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film consists of plot summaries of the kind of movies that come on at 3 am. No not porn - get your mind out of that gutter. Weldon chronicles 50's movies with huge mutant animals from the old nuclear test site, vampires, werewolves and anything with killer androids. br / br /Each movie has a plot summary and many have publicity stills or small news articles about the film culled from Weldons home collection. The introduction includes a section on the psychotronic film zine which Weldon ran. The zine included a listing of which weird movies were on that week and included plot summaries of said movies. What I found entertaining about this section was Weldons description of the difficulties getting his girlfriend to xerox the copies on the office copy machine when no one was looking. This book grew out of that zine. br / br /When it was published in the early 80's this book would have been a great idea for any fans of bad movies. It is still a good source for info about bad movies up through the 70's. (I checked it out of the library and kept it for a semester during which I investigated such classics as Doctor Goldboots and the Go-go Girls and found that it was pretty thorough in the bad movies department.) As Weldon points out it was very difficult to find information about the kinds of films covered here at the time when this was published. However with the internet and sites like badmovies.org and the ever handy Internet Movie Database it is possible to get the information elsewhere. br / br /If you have an internet connection then don't bother with The Psychotronic Encyclodedia. If you like bad movies and don't have internet access then this is a very useful reference for plot summaries and information on bad movies made prior to around 1980 and would be worth buying.
We're all here because we're not all there December 10, 2002
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I am the first to confess that not everyone spends their time wondering if they might like to watch Untamed Women tonight, or have an Ed Wood film festival, but I am one of them. Call me crazy (ahem!), but I like really bad old movies, especially the ones that try to scare/pander you. Perhaps I yearn for the time when showing a bit of cleavage was considered racy. So I nose around the discount rack looking for such gems as Mermaids of Tiburon or The Earth Dies Screaming. I come across a copy of Demonoid. Should I buy it or not? Comes the rescue the Psychotronic guide which safely guides me through these murky dark waters. It and its companion Video guide are essential for those who share my idea of fun, with reviews of 6000 screen gems, such as Curse at Cactus Creek and Robot Monster.pPerhaps my only objection is that the guide makes no pretense at being authoritative. For example, When a Stranger Calls is reivewed (favorably), but its sequel, When a Stranger Calls back, does not appear at all (and is arguably the better movie). There is also a smattering of "legitimate" film, such as Pursuit of the Graf Spee, and Polyester. No matter, all the films reviewed are, at the least, quirky, and there is a pretty good chance, at any rate, that the film you seek is reviewed. If not, you will have great fun just looking for it.pMy only grief is that the concordance is limited to an index. After all, what more important thing could there be than a filmography of Barbara Steele, the geratest actress that ever lived? pThese things aside, I recommend this without hesitation. There are other books listing gore/sleeze/exploitation films, but you will find none better.
If it's out there, it's in here! July 15, 2002
W. Davidson (Melbourne, Australia)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Absolutely indespensible guide to cult, sci-fi, horror and every other offbeat film genre written by people that understand subculture. Never ceases to amaze with the rare titles the Psychotronic folk somehow managed to track down and review years before we mere mortals knew these films existed. I refer to my copy at least once a week which should indicate how valuable a resource book this is to me.
Utterly delightful and essential May 27, 2000
Randall Ivey (USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This tome makes one yearn for the good old days, long gone, of the drive-in movie of the 60's and 70's now replaced by video bins. B movie makers of those days- their names are legion - made an honest attempt to entertain their audiences with meagre resources and often more meagre talent(unlike exploitation film makers of today, whose direct to video releases are lazy and witless). Weldon chronicles this glorious time in a very generous compendium, chocked full of wonderful black and white stills and capsule reviews of the inane and the obscure, thw wild and the wonderful, the unbelievable and the unforgettable. A feast for the fan of offbeat cinema.
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