Headpress Books is releasing Corman/Poe Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960–1964 charting the making of Corman’s classic and influential “Poe Cycle” of horror films, featuring a foreword by Corman, himself. We’re giving you a sneak preview of some pages from The Tales of Terror section below before it hits bookstores across the globe.
Written by author and filmmaker (and our former editor-in-chief!) Chris Alexander, Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960–1964 is the only book to take the deep dive into fully examining this important chapter in horror film history. Featuring in-depth conversations with the legendary Roger Corman book-ended by engaging critical analyses of each of the eight films, illustrated with dozens of photographs and stills, many of which have never been published before.
Corman/Poe: Interviews and Essays Exploring the Making of Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe Films, 1960–1964 hits shelves June 6, take a look below for some more details.
Produced on modest budgets for American International Pictures, iconic independent film director Roger Corman’s adaptations of Edgar Allan Poe stories were popular in their time as escapist horror cinema. Most starred horror icon Vincent Price and were written (and “freely adapted”) by the likes of Richard Matheson, Charles Beaumont and Robert Towne. Today the series is recognized as unique and sophisticated, one that delivers decadent Gothic chills while exploring ideas of faith, sexuality, psychology and the supernatural.
Chris Alexander is a Canadian writer, editor, music composer and filmmaker. He is the former editor-in-chief of iconic horror film magazine FANGORIA and editor-in-chief/co-founder of DELIRIUM magazine. He is the writer, director and composer of numerous horror films, including BLOOD FOR IRINA, QUEEN OF BLOOD, FEMALE WEREWOLF, and many others. He has released the albums MUSIC FOR MURDER, BLUE EYES OF THE BROKEN DOLL and BODY DOUBLE. He is a professor of horror film history at Canada’s Sheridan College and the proud father of three wonderful sons.
ROGER CORMANDirector, producer, distributor and mentor Roger Corman, often dubbed “The Pope of Pop Cinema”, is widely recognized as one of the founding fathers of independent genre cinema via his pioneering work in the 1950s and 60s. In the 1970s, Corman found even greater success with his company New World Pictures and in the 1980s became a major player in the direct to video and cable market boom. Along the way he has discovered and nurtured such major talents as Francis Ford Coppola, Jack Nicholson, Dick Miller, Joe Dante, Martin Scorsese, Jonathan Demme, James Cameron and many more.
