Headpress – förlag

Laurel Canyon in the '60s and early '70s was a magical place where musicians gathered to create much of the soundtrack to those times. The Doors, the Beach Boys, Frank Zappa, James Taylor, Carole King, Joni Mitchell and more lived and jammed together here. But the scene had a dark side. Many didn't make it out alive, and many of those deaths remain shrouded in mystery. Far more integrated into the scene than most would like to admit was Charles Manson and his infamous Family. It also seems these colourful characters all coexisted alongside a covert military installation.

August 22, 1972: Two men attempt to rob a bank in Brooklyn. They fail miserably: the money they'd hoped for isn't there, the cops get tipped off immediately, and within 30 minutes they're in a hostage situation with the FBI. Things really get crazy when reporters learn that one of the robbers is gay and married to a trans woman. The crowd of journalists and onlookers grows into the hundreds, desperate for a glimpse of this charismatic live-wire who's robbing the bank not for greed or thrills, but to fund his partner's sexual reassignment surgery. Sound familiar? This is the plot of Dog Day Afternoon, the 1975 film directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Al Pacino, John Cazale, and Chris Sarandon. It remains a high-water mark of New Hollywood, where the best acting talent of the day came together on a film that was truly exceptional. But equally exceptional was the fact that the film was based on a true-life incident. Drawing on extensive archival research, film historian Rachel Walther delves into the film's backstory, tracing how an unbelievable true crime tale of love, bank robbery, and LGBTQI+ activism became a box-office smash and catapulted a group of Brooklyn outsiders into the media spotlight. Name-checked on TV shows from The Simpsons to Drunk History, and now a Broadway play, Dog Day Afternoon's legacy continues to inspire filmmakers, writers, and actors. Walther's deep dive interrogates the film's place in the 1970s zeitgeist, set against a background of antiwar activism and the fight for gay and trans rights, and in doing so shows its continuing relevance today.

Critical opinion on The Beatles (aka the 'White Album') in 1968 varies, the record being seen as something of a comedown after the exhilaration of the group's somewhat over-rated predecessor, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In addition, conventional wisdom holds that The Beatles marks the beginning of the end of the Lennon/McCartney partnership. This book however, exists to argue that The Beatles is not only the finest achievement of the group but can also be considered one of the greatest LP recordings of all time.

Cannibal Error, a revised and reworked edition of See No Evil (2000), is an exhaustive and startling overview of Britain's 'video nasty' panic, the ramifications of which are still felt today.

Marilyn Chambers was the embodiment of the free-spirited Seventies, the world's most famous X-rated star, and an unappreciated talent whose work in adult films hindered her dreams of becoming a serious actress. Raised in an affluent Connecticut suburb, Marilyn catapulted to fame when it was learned that not only had she starred in the groundbreaking X-rated film Behind the Green Door, but was also the model on the box of Ivory Snow laundry detergent (product tagline: '99 44/100% Pure.') Marilyn was the first woman known primarily for her work in adult films to cross over to mainstream entertainment. She sustained a versatile three-decade career in entertainment, including roles in dramatic plays, a Broadway musical revue, her own television show, and the lead role in David Cronenberg's film Rabid. But her success in adult films also proved to be her undoing. Marred by a violent relationship with her abusive husband-manager, Chuck Traynor, she developed the persona of a twenty-four-hour-a-day sex star. In the process, she lost her sense of self and spent much of her life searching for her true identity. With recollections from family and friends, many of whom have never spoken publicly, along with Marilyn's own words, and never-before-published photos, Jared Stearns vividly captures the revolutionary career of one of the twentieth century's most misunderstood icons.

Welcome to the new blood. Since the turn of the millennium, British horror cinema has enjoyed an unprecedented boom with hundreds of movies produced and released, often to little or no fanfare. This comprehensive guide collects together more than 400 British horror features: the good and the bad, the well-known and the undeservedly obscure. From high profile hits like 28 Days Later and Shaun of the Dead to backyard indie films shot for a few hundred pounds, British Horror Films 2000-2019 documents a new breed of extraordinary film-making. In an age when movies do not always play in cinemas, but can be distributed through many channels in numerous territories around the world, tracking down a recommended film can be a Herculean task. This book explores the twenty-first century landscape, not only reviewing each film but also providing accurate credits and production background, as well as release details and availability. For anyone with an interest in horror cinema, British Horror Films 2000-2019 will open up whole new vistas of home-grown horrors: a feast of zombies, vampires, ghosts, werewolves, psychos, creeps, and maniacs stalking contemporary Britain, plus profiles of the key people and companies behind them. These are not the British horror films you know. This book is your guide to a whole new world of fear.

Institutionalised as a child for a gruesome double murder and having undergone experimental psychiatric treatment into adulthood, George Tatum is finally released into society... only to kill again. Of all the slasher films to appear in the 1980s, none were as brutal or would elicit as much controversy as Romano Scavolini's Nightmare. From round-the-clock screenings in New York City to becoming a popular VHS rental, the film was quickly championed by gorehounds thirsting for onscreen blood while alienating many others. Onscreen carnage was only the beginning. Critics found the film offensive and its moral tone ambiguous. The gruesome special effects were subject to fierce debate. The UK distributor served a prison sentence for releasing the film uncut, provocatively retitled as Nightmares in a Damaged Brain. It became one of the most notorious of the so-called 'video nasties'. Author Nick Cato first experienced Nightmare as part of a double feature in 1983. He is not alone in considering it one of the most intense horror films of all time. He is alone in having spent over forty years amassing material on the film, sitting through countless reviews (mostly negative) and magazine articles, attending dozens of theatrical screenings, and conducting many interviews. This book is the result. Dark Dreams - a fan obsessed. Nightmare - a slasher film that refuses to die.

The meteoric rise of video technology in the early 1980s was met with suspicion in some quarters. Pressure groups found certain videocassettes objectionable and 'video nasties' became a catch-all term for undesirable films or films potentially liable for prosecution under the Obscene Publications Act 1959. This book is not a discussion of the video nasties themselves, but instead gives a detailed synopsis of each film, from Absurd to Zombie Flesh Eaters, without criticism or commentary - 75 video nasty plots without dissection. The book may be considered a nostalgic reverie for those fans and collectors who don t have the fortitude to sit through these films again and would like an aide-memoire means of revisiting them. What's more, many of the films are cheap and exploitative, little masterclasses of cutting corners - the brutal logic of their storylines when laid bare make for entertaining reading. The material contained in LAST ORGY BY THE CEMETERY originally appeared in a different form in the authors' See No Evil: Banned Films and Video Controversy, published by Headpress in 2000 and now out of print.