Hammer, House of Horror: Behind the Screams

Howard Maxford

“In its heyday, Hammer Films was regarded as Britain’s leading purveyor of horror films to the world. From 1955 to 1972, it produced a legacy of frightening classics including Dracula, The Curse of Frankenstein, The Quatermass Experiment, Kiss of the Vampire, The Curse of the Werewolf and The Devil Rides Out. The Hammer stars—all remembered here—include Peter Cushing, Christopher Lee, Oliver Reed, Bette Davis, Ingrid Pitt, Ursula Andress and Raquel Welch. A chronological, film-by-film history of Hammer Films, terrifyingly illustrated in color and black-and-white.”

Publisher: Overlook
Hardback: 192 pages
Illustrated

Hong Kong Action Cinema

Bey Logan

Kick! Bang! Chop! Sock! Enter the Dragon, Deep Thrust, Hardboiled, City on Fire, The Big Heat, Naked Assassins. “All you ever wanted to know about the high-octane world of Far Eastern filmmaking: from the balletic to the ballistic, from the grace of Bruce Lee to the bullet-ridden bloodletting of John Woo, from the comedy stunts of Jackie Chan to the action choreography of Ching Siu Tung, from versatile leading man Chow Yun Fat to fighting females Michelle Khan and Cynthia Rothrock.” GR

Publisher: Overlook
Paperback: 128 pages
Illustrated

Andy Warhol Nudes

Andy Warhol

“This book celebrates his art of a more private nature, and for the first time gathers together in one volume his little-known represenations of the naked human body as paintings, prints and drawings. It includes a group of ‘pretty’ nudes from the ‘50s, where sex organs are depicted as a desirable commodity, not unlike his advertising illustrations for shoes; the ‘Torso Series’ from the ‘70s based on Polaroids; some large drawings from the ‘70s and ‘80s; and a series of prints, ‘Sex Parts,’ from 1978.”

Publisher: Overlook
Hardback: 100 pages
Illustrated

Open All Night

Ken Miller and William T. Vollman

“What makes Ken’s work so remarkable is the sense that these squashed lives are not just isolated bugs on the windshield, but parallel worlds of hermetic secrets… they had an identity and a place; that this was their kingdom with its own rules and stories and lice.”—William T. Vollman, from the introduction.
This is a photo book, somewhat in the tradition of Diane Arbus, where the photographer develops a sense of intimacy and trust with a variety of social outcasts and creates intimate portraits of them. The subjects include skinheads, electroshock patients, prostitutes and addicts. There is something decidedly unsavory about getting this close to these subjects, especially the skinheads, whose ugliest aspects seem self-determined. However, their juxtaposition here with everything that they claim to hate makes for an interesting exercise in contextualization. The life here is just plain low and not “deliciously low.” Each photo is accompanied by text from a Vollman work that either provides a narrative or a counterpoint. SA

Publisher: Overlook
Hardback: 118 pages
Illustrated