My History With the Film:
I love documentaries but am not a huge fan Eli Roth, so I dove into this series with a little apprehension. I didn’t have cable when it originally aired on AMC, but luckily for it was added to Shudder and I was able to enjoy it from there.
What The Film Is About (Non-Spoiler):
Eli Roth interviews horror icons on zombies, slashers, demons, killer creatures, vampires, and ghost stories.
What I Liked About It:
-Each episode is broken down into a specific category such as zombies. The one hour episode then gives a brief overview of some of the biggest movies with this specific sub-genre while having talking head moments from big names like Jamie Lee Curtis, Stephen King, Edgar Wright, etc. It’s polished, flows well, and some great analysis and commentary are offered.
-Most of the episodes discuss the bigger movies of the specific genre they are covering. I feel like the movies that were chosen were fitting and deserving of coverage, although some clearly legendary movies were left out due to time restraints.
What I Didn’t Like About It:
-Honestly, it could have been longer. I’d love to have seen a couple hours dedicated to every single one of these categories, because limiting them to just one hour really did the subgenres a disservice. Still, some of my best horror education came from short 2 hour documentaries so having five hours of content spread across six episodes is not bad at all.
-Too much time dedicated to newer movies/television shows on some of the episodes. For example: Twilight and True Blood are given way too much screen time in the Vampires episode. My guess is the network wanted to make sure the show would reach a more casual fan as well as a horror fan?
Additional Notes:
-In November 2019, AMC renewed History of Horror for a six episode season two focusing on monsters, evil children, witches, body horror, houses of hell and Eli’s Terrifying Twelve.
Rating:
History of Horror is a fantastic introduction for anyone new to horror as well as a refresher for anyone lifelong horror fans. It’ll help remind you of why he love the genre and maybe you’ll learn a new piece of horror trivia or two.
This is a polished, well put together documentary created by horror fans for horror fans. There are so many horror icons interviewed it makes the entire series feel very special. I can’t wait for season two and I highly recommend you check it out. I’d rate History of Horror a four out of five and say its a high priority rental (and to fast-forward through the stuff you don’t like).