Where did you learn all your useless knowledge?

[RCMerchant]

We all seem to have a lot of useless knowledge about bad flicks.HOW?well, besides tortuing yer family with bad movie pick-ups from garage sales...)Reference BOOKS I mean.
like...the PSYCHOTRONINIC books.
FM and Monster World (I willNEVER give the Ray Ferry version  a chance.)
Classics of the Horror Film by William K. Everson
Castle of FRankenstien mag(circa60's and 70's}
the ILLUSTRATED HISTORY of HORROR MOVIES by DENIS GIFFORD. nothing new here,but a Great  end table book.
HEROS of the HORRORS by Calvin T.Beck-extensive bios on Bela,Boris,Chaney' s father and son,Price and Lorre.
the Science Fiction Movies Encyclopiedia book by Phil Hardy
LUGOSI-by Gary Don Rhodes.
the films of Boris Karloff-Richard Bojarski
History of the Horror Film-Carlos Claren. He considers NOSFERATU a bore,so I question his pompous ass.
whattta you guys read,ya know,kinda,like,eh?

[Doc Daneeka]

I get all my knowledge from... various places, mainly just the TV, which leads me to the IMDB, which leads me to Amazon, which leads me to more B-films than my mind can keep track of, which mainly leads to nothing but heartbreak.

P.S. Nosferatu IS a bore from what I can remember.

[RCMerchant]

How Old are you Mr.BriggsInc.12? 15 tops? Have you ever read a book in your life?Are you just some kinda computer baby?If a movie dont star Bruce Willis and exploding cars,it sucks? Is PBR your favorite beer? Are you a total close minded redneck? I was looking for INTELLIGENT repones, so that I could learn about more cool books.Please respond, to clarify where your mindset is.

[Doc Daneeka]

Heh, sorry if I offended you RC, (yes I am around the age you mentioned, pervert :)), but for the record I have read many books and enjoy all sorts of movies, but I just found Nosferatu a tad boring! But do not label me as a hater of classics, as I should have you know that I sat through, and enjoyed, the much more boring movies "12 Angry Men" and "2001: A Space Odyssey".

As for books, (I didn't know you meant books by the way, just various sources) I try to keep up to date on the Leonard Maltin review books, for the most part I don't read the reviews, I mainly just skim for interesting titles. Another one by which I live my life is "The 1001 Movies you must see before you Die", which is obviously what it says.

But the reason why I use the internet more is because it is easily acessable, constantly updated, and you only need one. Whereas with books you have to wait and then go out and pay for every volume that is released. To explain my comment in my first post, when I see a really good movie on cable I often like to look up the details on the internet, which sometimes makes me curious for DVD details and the like, leading me to Amazon.com. Once I get there I can check the "people who liked this product recommend" section which often leads to many more movie choices that I can't possibly keep track of. (thus the heartbreak :( ). Although books can be a useful source, the internet is more accessable to me and that is why it is my main source for my "useless information".

[Shadowphile]

I've got a relatively photographic memory so I remember little tidbits I pick up here and there.  My knowledge of bad movies comes mainly from nothing other than a passion for inflicting torment on all those around me.  Fortunately, my circle of friends returns the favour.  I've just been loaned Robovampire and the original Phantasm.  It was in return for loaning out Death Race 2000 and Hercules Unchained....

[peter johnson]

Books of Bad:
"The Golden Turkey Awards", by Michael Medved, who we're not supposed to like,  was the first book I ever read that adressed directly the strange fascination I felt for weirdly awful films.  It was the first publication to declare Plan 9 the worst film ever made, and I therefore sought it out.  Boy, am I glad I did!!
"Nightmare of Ecstacy" -- the Ed Wood biography.
I wrote a few things for Psycotronic Magazine, ditto Film Threat magazine, back in the day -- Learned a lot from both sources.
This Website!!
love
peter.

[RCMerchant]

I apoligize if I came of like a snob.In fact,I read alot because i didn't even own a computer,let alone know how to operate one untill last year....hence my large book collection.I feel honored to post with a former writer from Psychotronic! I contributed an old AFTER HOURS mag toPV,which was used in a layout on the prehistory of Famous Monsters(which made me feel Ipretty cool.)I'm a crabby old coot...

[RCMerchant]

I just purshased the Films of Bela Lugosi and the History of Splatter Movies off of ebay,for $1.59 cents! Its quite amazing the books you can buy online for bottom dollar.I have a large collection of old FM's,CoF's,and odd and end 60's monster mags that I bid on at ebay.A source of endless joy and nostalgia.

[LH-C]

My influences - in no particular order -

1) TV - Watching too much PBS, Aaron Spelling, and the Krofft Brothers. Then later The Movie Time Channel came along.

2) Books - Video Movie Guide for starters.

3) Internet sites beginning in 1994.

[The Burgomaster]

Most of my useless knowledge comes form THE PSYCHOTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM and THE PSYCHOTRONIC FILM GUIDE.  I have read both of these books cover-to-cover multiple times.  I read at least a few reviews from them almost every day.  Years ago, I also read quite a few issues of FANGORIA.  Plus, I try to watch DVD extra features that provide useless knowledge.

[peter johnson]

On the topic of books:
Seek ye out "Tall, Dark and Gruesome", the Christopher Lee autobiography --
It's almost completely unreadable as a book -- boy, does that guy need an editor! -- but if you just flip to random sections like a magazine, you can find some great stuff -- His musings on Boris Karloff are particularly good --
peter johnson/denny crane

[trekgeezer]

I grew up in the 60's sitting with my dad watching the late show (when he let me) and Chiller theatre on Saturday afternoon (usually from behing the couch).

I also regularly read Famous Monsters of Hollywood and later on magazines like Starlog and Cinemafantastique.

I'm one of those people who gets interested in a subject and must find out more , something the internet is really made for.

[Yaddo 42]

A litle bit of everything: watching too much TV (movies, documentaries, and series like "The Incredibly Strange Film Show" which introduced me to HK horror, Ted V. Mikels, and Ray Dennis Steckler/Cash Flagg, etc), reading articles and reviews in magazines like "Sight and Sound", nowadays the Internet and sites like this.

Also various books, mostly from libraries, a few on film theory, the "Cult Movies" series, two or three by David J. Skal about horror films, a couple whose titles are lost to me from college dealing with exploitation films and producers like Sam Arkoff and David Friedman. Talking with other fanboys and following up on their recommendations. Lectures at film screenings by the then local newspaper features editor/film critic/amatur film historian until I figured out he didn't "know" anything I couldn't read for myself and that his opinions and prejudices concerning film were more about his ego than honest discussion and evaluation.

The last B-movie book I bought was "Sleazoid Express", I liked their memories of and takes on the seedy Times Square theaters and the films that played in them before crack, urban renewal, and Rudy killed them off and then cleaned them up. But the numerous factual errors concerning films I've seen make me wonder about the parts of the book I know less about.

But the book that started it for me was a big Q&A book with lots of pictures I read lots of times in elementary school called "Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Monster Movies But Were Afraid To Ask". What that book was doing in our Catholic school library, considering how opposed our monster of a librarian was to anything "fun", "frivilous" or "different". She nailed me for checking out a book about the Old West too many times. Surprised she didn't crack down on me for this one. I'd like to find this book again just to stroll down memory lane.

[RCMerchant]

I'll bet anything you could find it on E-Bay! After months of searching,I found a used copy of the original Robert Bloch PSYCHO tie-in paperback (with Janet Leigh screaming on the cover)..."now a major motion picture!"Too cool!

[ulthar]

My interest in horror movies in general started when I was about four or so; I used to watch the old B&W classics with Karloff and others with my Dad.

Long about fourth or fifth grade, I got a book that described how the make-up effects were done in the classics, with a whole section on Lon Chaney (Sr.).  The section on Karloff's Frankenstein was good, too.

My dad was into photography, both still and motion, so I got ahold of his cameras  (and the editing console he had for 8mm) and tried my own "tricks."  The interest in the 'back-end' of horror film making led me to be a regular reader of Fangoria when I was in High School.  Throughout the years, I've watched any "making of" that I could.

(I'm trying to continue the tradition, by the way.  A few months ago, while my daughter was still three, we had rented IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA. She was fascinated by the giant octopus in the picture.  One day, I got out the video camera and she and I made a bunch of animations, each only a few seconds long, of her toys and stuffed animals. A few of them came out pretty good, such as the one where her toy alligator "eats" one of her toy elephants.  She loved doing this, and often asks me if we can make some more animations.)

Now, I like the extras on DVD's - especially the director's comments.  Though I do a little 'Net reading about movies,  I don't read so much about movies anymore (most of my reading these days is history, historical fiction and real-life adventure/autobiographies).

Ultimately, though, this site serves as my primary information source for movies, with quick fact checking provided by IMDB.