Recommended reading - Hustling, by Gail Sheehy (1974):

Hustling

By Gail Sheehy.

Filmed as Hustling (1975), directed by Joseph Sargent.

Mass Market Paperback.

Published by Dell.

First published 1974.

ISBN 13: 9780440138006

ISBN 10: 0440138000

ASIN: 0440138000

Description:

Hustling. Hell’s bedrooms. The blindingly real inside story of the netherworld of prostitution, the whole sordid subculture of brutal pimps, Mafia businessmen, profit-mad landlords, venal lawyers – and the women, from ghettos and suburbs, who sell their bodies on the street, at cheap hotels and expensive brothels, in the tawdry whirl of the world’s oldest profession.

“It took guts to write this book … there is a street toughness to the writing that is gripping.” – Newsday.

“A kind of Times Square peep show tour …” – Washington Post.

“realistic … brings the world of the prostitute to life, real life.” – Sacramento Bee.

Recommended reading - The Garden Murder Case (1935):

The Garden Murder Case

By S.S. Van Dine.

# 9 in the Philo Vance mystery series.

Published by Felony & Mayhem Press.

First published 1935.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1631942050

ISBN-13: 9781631942051

Description:

In the ninth novels in the series, "The Garden Murder Case," Philo Vance investigates a murder and other suspicious events connected with the rooftop garden of the Garden’s New York penthouse, where a group friends gather to listen to the result of horse races.

According to one review, Garden runs on “passion, avarice, ambition and horse-racing.” It also runs on pure 1930s octane, because this is a classic house-party murder mystery, that staple of the Golden Age. As befitting a Philo yarn, of course, it’s a very Manhattan house-party, with an actress and a socialite on hand, and a bookie on the telephone. There’s also a losing bet on the ponies, and an ensuing suicide…but Philo, natch, is not sure just who pulled the trigger. A joy, as always, for readers who delight in Philo’s spectacular brand of awfulness – is there anyone snootier’ Snobbier’ More taken with himself’ – but also for fans of the Impossible Crime.

Recommended reading - The Devil Thumbs a Ride, by Robert C. Du Soe (1938):

The Devil Thumbs a Ride

By Robert C. Du Soe.

First published 1938.

Published by Avon Books

ASIN: B00730V9GY

Description:

Screenwriter Du Soe's only novel, about an innocuous fellar name of Steve who gets in a car with the simple, corpulent Furgison. The pair pick up a couple of girls, and only after the bodies pile up does Furgison start to wonder who it is he's riding along with.

Recommended reading - Some Must Watch, by Ethel Lina White (1933):

Some Must Watch

By Ethel Lina White.

Filmed as The Spiral Staircase (1946), directed by Robert Siodmak.

Paperback.

Published by Hinkler Books.

First published 1933.

ISBN 13: 9781743081167

ISBN10: 1743081162

ASIN: 1743081162

Description:

Film director Robert Siodmak took Some Must Watch as the inspiration for his classic, bone-chilling thriller, The Spiral Staircase. In this novel Helen Capel takes the position of lady-help in a remote country house owned by the Warren family. She learns that a murderer is on the loose. All four of his victims were young girls, and the last of these was strangled in a lonely house just five miles away. Helen feels safe inside the house, protected, but the maniac is closer than she fears.

Recommended reading - Shutter Island, by Dennis Lehane (2003):

Shutter Island

By Dennis Lehane.

Published by William Morrow Paperbacks.

First published 2003.

Mass Market Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0062068415

ISBN-13: 978-0062068415

Description:

“Fasten your seat belts for a bumpy, breakneck ride…utterly absorbing… is an express train with no local stops…engrossing.” – Boston Globe.

“The ride this novel provides is as good as entertainment gets.” – Miami Herald.

“Combines the claustrophobia of . . . Agatha Christie . . . with the creepiness of a good Stephen King yarn. . . . Good luck putting this one down. – San Francisco Chronicle Book Review.

“Startlingly original…instantly cinematic… unfolds with increasing urgency until it delivers a visceral shock in its final moments.” – New York Times.

“There is no mystery…about how good this book is; like Mystic River, it’s a tour de force.” – Publishers Weekly.

“A lollapalooza of a corkscrew thriller…sure to be the most talked–about thriller of the year.” – Kirkus Reviews.

“Nightmarish…it’s not a book to start before bedtime. Even if you finish before dawn, Shutter Island will trouble your sleep.” – Orlando Sentinel.

The year is 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, have come to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the Criminally Insane, to investigate the disappearance of a patient. Multiple murderess Rachel Solando is loose somewhere on this remote and barren island, despite having been kept in a locked cell under constant surveillance. As a killer hurricane relentlessly bears down on them, a strange case takes on even darker, more sinister shades – with hints of radical experimentation, horrifying surgeries, and lethal countermoves made in the cause of a covert shadow war. No one is going to escape Shutter Island unscathed, because nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. But then neither is Teddy Daniels.

Recommended reading - The Chase, by Horton Foote, play & novel (1956/1966):

The Chase

By Horton Foote.

Play version:

72 pages.

Paperback.

Published by Dramatists Play Service, Inc.

Published 1956.

ISBN 13: 9780822201984

ISBN 10: 0822201984

ASIN: 0822201984

Novel version:

Mass Market Paperback.

Published 1966.

Published by Signet Book.

ASIN: B0DT36B11R

Description:

Sheriff Hawes, honest and sincere peace officer, wearied with his job and its usual run of irritating problems, such as runaway boys, small robberies and the like, is making plans for his retirement. A local boy, Bubber Reeves, escapes from the penitentiary where he is serving a life term. He heads for his hometown, obsessed with the idea of killing Hawes who has become for him the symbol of all he hates. The town is terrified of Bubber and wants him killed. Hawes is determined to take him alive and send him back to the penitentiary. Eventually Hawes traces Bubber to a cabin, but Bubber does not want to be captured and forces Hawes to kill him. Heartbroken over his failure, Hawes goes back to the jail to resign immediately, but his wife convinces him that he is needed in his job, and he decides to continue.

Recommended reading - The Canary Murder Case, by S.S. Van Dine (1927):

The Canary Murder Case

By S.S. Van Dine.

First published 1927.

Library of Congress Crime Classics.

Paperback.

Edited by Leslie S. Klinger.

Description:

Philo Vance #2.

At the height if his popularity, S.S. Vane Dine pens a locked-room mystery with a lethal dose of sex and sin where infamous actress, "The Canary," is murdered in her cage after a passionate night with her lover.

Margaret Odell, the famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her ransacked apartment, her jewelry stolen. It appears to be a robbery gone wrong, but the police can find no physical evidence to pinpoint a culprit. No one witnessed anyone entering or leaving, and the only unwatched entrance to the apartment building was bolted from the inside.

Who could have killed the Canary in her locked cage? Margaret was seeing a number of men, ranging from high society gentleman to ruthless gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she died.

Recommended reading - The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir, by Foster Hirsch (2008):

The Dark Side of the Screen: Film Noir

By Foster Hirsch.

Published by Da Capo.

2nd edition.

Published 2008.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0306817721

ISBN-13: 978-0306817724

Description:

Foster Hirsch's Dark Side of the Screen is by far the most thorough and entertaining study of the themes, visual motifs, character types, actors, directors, and films in this genre ever published. From Billy Wilder, Douglas Sirk, Robert Aldrich, and Howard Hawkes to Martin Scorsese, Roman Polanski, and Paul Schrader, the noir themes of dread, paranoia, steamy sex, double-crossing women, and menacing cityscapes have held a fascination. The features that make Burt Lancaster, Joan Crawford, Robert Mitchum, and Humphrey Bogart into noir heroes and heroines are carefully detailed here, as well as those camera angles, lighting effects, and story lines that characterize Fritz Lang, Samuel Fuller, and Orson Welles as noir directors.For the current rediscovery of film noir, this comprehensive history with its list of credits to 112 outstanding films and its many illustrations will be a valuable reference and a source of inspiration for further research.

“Wonderfully readable: Hirsch is clear, knowledgeable, and concise….[The Dark Side of the Screen] is a visual as well as literary pleasure.” – Martin Jackson, Cineaste.

“There has been no extended work as good as Foster Hirsch’s The Dark Side of the Screen, a well-written, imaginatively illustrated book that sees the brief, true heyday as between Wilder’s Double Indemnity (1944) and his Sunset Boulevard (1950), but looks at the prelude and the aftermath, and sets the genre in its larger social and cultural context.” – Philip French, The Observer (London).

“An important examination of what film noir is…The 264-page treatise is not a review source; rather, Hirsch’s academic work delves deeply with a scholarly but not dry approach.” – Skyscraper, Spring 2009.

Recommended reading - Gold Coast, by Elmore Leonard (1980):

Gold Coast

By Elmore Leonard.

Published by MarinerBks.

First published 1980.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0062206095

ISBN-13: 978-0062206091

Description:

“Lean, mean, darkly funny.” – Boston Globe.

“A zingy thriller by the master of hard-boiled suspense.” – Dallas Morning News.

Just follow the Grand Master of mystery and suspense to Florida’s Gold Coast and you’ll quickly discover that it’s so. In this classic Elmore Leonard thriller, a beautiful mafia widow stands to lose everything her late mob boss husband left her if she succumbs to her desire for an attractive Detroit ex-con – so the two conspire to outwit the thugs the dead capo assigned to make sure she stays chaste. Superior crime fiction in the vein of John D. MacDonald, Dashiell Hammett, James M. Cain, and Robert Parker – chock full of the eccentric characters, black humor, and razor-sharp dialogue for which the acclaimed creator of U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (of TV’s Justified) is justifiably famous – Gold Coast is gold standard Leonard.

Recommended reading - Crawlspace, by Herbert Lieberman (1971):

Crawlspace

By Herbert Lieberman.

Published by Pocket.

First published 1971.

First Edition.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0671775324

ISBN-13: 978-0671775322

Description:

In this novel of mounting suspense from award-winning author Herbert Lieberman, a terrifying surprise waits beneath a couple’s New England home. Albert and Alice Graves live a normal, if monotonous, domestic life. They never had children; they spend their days tending to their home and enjoying their time together.

One day, when the oil man, Richard, is refilling their furnace, Alice invites him to dinner, never suspecting that a casual act of charity will lead to a horrifying, morbid discovery in the crawlspace underneath their beloved house.

The Graves take Richard into their lives, becoming attached to his presence as though to the son they never had. Their town, though, is not nearly so welcoming. When the locals lash out against the Graves and their strange houseguest, the contented household is irrevocably drawn into a darkness they could not have imagined.

Recommended reading - The Wall (1963):

The Wall

By Marlen Haushofer.

Translated by Shaun Whiteside.

Afterword by Claire Louise-Bennett.

First published 1963.

Published by New Directions.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0811231941

ISBN-13: 978-0811231947

Description:

While vacationing in a hunting lodge in the Austrian mountains, a middle-aged woman awakens one morning to find herself separated from the rest of the world by an invisible wall. With a cat, a dog, and a cow as her sole companions, she learns how to survive and cope with her loneliness.

Allegorical yet deeply personal and absorbing, The Wall is at once a critique of modern civilization, a nuanced and loving portrait of a relationship between a woman and her animals, a thrilling survival story, a Cold War-era dystopian adventure, and a truly singular feminist classic.

"An extraordinarily interesting writer, always underappreciated." – Elfriede Jelinek.

"The Wall is a wonderful novel. It is not often that you can say only a woman could have written this book, but women in particular will understand the heroine's loving devotion to the details of making and keeping life, every day felt as a victory against everything that would like to undermine and destroy. It is as absorbing as Robinson Crusoe." – Doris Lessing.

"Brilliant in its sustainment of dread, in its peeling away of old layers of reality to expose a raw way of seeing and feeling. Doris Lessing once remarked that only a woman could have written this novel, and it's true: I know of no closer study in claustrophobia and liberation, and of an independence whose severity is at once ecstatic and doomed. I’ve read The Wall three times already and am nowhere near finished." – Nicole Krauss.

Marlen Haushofer (1920–1970) was an Austrian author of short stories, novels, radio plays, and children’s books. Her work has had a strong influence on many German-language writers, such as the Nobel Prize–winner Elfriede Jelinek, who dedicated one of her plays to her. The Wall was adapted a film, directed by Julian Pölsler and starring Martina Gedeck.

Recommended reading – The Doomsday Conspiracy, by Sidney Sheldon (1991):

This is my favorite of all Sidney Sheldon’s books. Very different from his other glossy, more mainstream stories, this one surprised me; an entertaining and suspenseful science-fiction thriller. Fans of the movies Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), The Fugitive (1993), and the TV show The X-Files will see similar plot elements in The Doomsday Conspiracy.

– Jack Kost.

----------

The Doomsday Conspiracy

By Sidney Sheldon.

Paperback.

Published 1991.

Published by Warner Books.

ISBN 13: 9780006472087

ISBN 10: 0006472087

ASIN: 0006472087

Sample:

Prologue:

Uetendorf, Switzerland

Sunday, October 14, 1500 Hours

The witnesses standing at the edge of the field were staring in horrified silence, too stunned to speak. The scene that lay before them was grotesque, a primeval nightmare dredged up from some deep, dark depths of primitive man’s collective consciousness. Each witness had a different reaction. One fainted. A second one vomited. A woman was shaking uncontrollably. Another one thought: I’m going to have a heart attack! The elderly priest clutched his beads and crossed himself. Help me, Father. Help us all. Protect us against this evil incarnate. We have finally seen the face of Satan. It is the end of the world. Judgment Day has come.

Armageddon is here. … Armageddon … Armageddon …

Description from cover jacket:

‘The witnesses standing at the edge of the field were staring in horrified silence, too stunned to speak. The scene that lay before them was grotesque, a primeval nightmare…’

So begins The Doomsday Conspiracy, Sidney Sheldon’s eleventh novel and one that has been called his most ingenious and surprising. Navy Commander Robert Bellamy is assigned to investigate the crash of a weather balloon in the Swiss Alps. All witnesses to the accident must be found and questioned. However, for Bellamy it is the beginning of a journey of terror into the incomprehensible.

From Washington to London, Zurich, Rome, and Paris the story unfolds to reveal Bellamy’s past — why the woman he loves most cannot return his love, why his friends become his deadly enemies, and why the world must never learn an incredible secret shielded by an unknown lethal force.

Master of the unexpected. Master of the game. Best-selling author Sidney Sheldon has created The Doomsday Conspiracy, a tightly plotted, breathlessly paced thriller — and compelling love story — that confirms his best-selling status.

Recommended reading - The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023 (2023):

The Best American Mystery and Suspense 2023

By Lisa Unger and Steph Cha.

Published by Mariner Books.

Published 2023.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0063315815

ISBN-13: 978-0063315815

Description:

"In this selection of tales exploring crime-sparking marginalization and thwarted desires, guest editor Alafair Burke and debut series editor Steph Cha have created a powerful vehicle for processing 2020’s volatility...Cha and Burke have curated a magical collection that serves as a master class in suspense writing." – Booklist.

"To Cha’s great credit, along with her guest editor, novelist Alafair Burke, this year’s edition...not only features many women and writers of color, but also pairs household names like Alex Segura, Lisa Unger and Laura Lippman...with top up-and-comers to paint a clear picture of the genre in 2021." – USA Today.

A collection of the year’s best mystery and suspense short fiction selected by New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger and series editor Steph Cha.

“This form has a special kind of magic, the ability to transport you quickly, intensely, to capture character, time, place, and story with immediacy,” writes guest editor Lisa Unger in her introduction. The transporting stories in this year’s The Best American Mystery and Suspense are populated by those who exist on the fringe of our society and want more than what life has dealt them: A haunted veteran turned career criminal is on the run. An injured fighter turned bouncer seeks vengeance for his lost love. An assassin on his last job finds himself questioning his life choices and breaks all the rules to understand his final victim. By turns thrilling and enlightening, each story, according to Unger, “will have you holding your breath, flipping the pages, will leave you thinking about people and why they do the dark, dangerous, frightening things that they do.”

Recommended reading - Dante’s Inferno, poem by Dante Alighieri (1321):

The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso

By Dante Alighieri.

Translated by John Ciardi.

Published by Berkley.

Originally published 1321.

This edition published 2003.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0451208633

ISBN-13: 978-0451208637

Description:

The authoritative translations of The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso – together in one volume.

Belonging in the immortal company of the great works of literature, Dante Alighieri’s poetic masterpiece, The Divine Comedy, is a moving human drama, an unforgettable visionary journey through the infinite torment of Hell, up the arduous slopes of Purgatory, and on to the glorious realm of Paradise – the sphere of universal harmony and eternal salvation.

Now, for the first time, John Ciardi’s brilliant and authoritative translations of Dante’s three soaring canticles – The Inferno, The Purgatorio, and The Paradiso – have been gathered together in a single volume. Crystallizing the power and beauty inherent in the great poet’s immortal conception of the aspiring soul, The Divine Comedy is a dazzling work of sublime truth and mystical intensity.

Dante's Inferno: A Graphic Novel Adaptation

By Dante Alighieri.

Illustrated by Paul Brizzi and Gaëtan Brizzi.

Published by Harry N. Abrams.

Published 2024.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1419776754

ISBN-13: 978-1419776755

Description:

Acclaimed animators Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi adapt Dante’s literary classic Inferno in the sweeping, dramatic style that brought The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Fantasia 2000 to life.

Literary aficionados will appreciate this decadent graphic novel adaptation, which does not seek to sand down the source material. Likewise, adults whose imaginations were fueled by films like Disney’s Hunchback of Notre Dame as children, which the Brizzi brothers animated sequences for, will be swept up in this lushly illustrated adult fable, unfettered by the demands of corporate animation studios.

Paul and Gaëtan Brizzi make this famously dense literary classic accessible without distorting it and betraying the spirit of the Italian genius. They deftly translate it into comics while taking care to preserve the heart of the story: a taste for excess, dramatic tension, and the inevitable darkness of the subject matter.

Guided by the poet Virgil, Dante crosses the nine circles of Hell to find his beloved, Beatrice, in Paradise. Along the way, he must recognize and reject each of the incarnations of sin. In each circle of Hell, Dante confronts both sinners and demons, from Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Paris, whose loves were famously their downfall, to the Greek Furies and Medusa, to heretics like Epicurus, whose teachings claimed that the soul died with the body, now forced to writhe in a flaming tomb for eternity.

Each layer of Hell reveals monsters, gods, historical and mythological kings, philosophers, queens, and hordes of the miserable, faceless damned, all culminating in a confrontation with Lucifer himself.

Recommended reading - The Warriors by Sol Yurick (1965):

The Warriors

By Sol Yurick.

Published by Grove Press.

First published 1965.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0802139922

ISBN-13: 978-0802139924

Description:

Every gang in the city meets on a sweltering July 4 night in a Bronx park for a peace rally. The crowd of miscreants turns violent after a prominent gang leader is killed, and chaos prevails over attempts at order.

The Warriors follows the Dominators as they make their nocturnal journey to their home territory without being killed. The police are prowling the city in search of anyone involved in the mayhem. An exhilarating novel that examines New York City teenagers left behind by society, who form identity and personal strength through their affiliation with their "family," The Warriors weaves together social commentary with ancient legends for a classic coming-of-age tale.

This edition includes a new introduction by the author.

Recommended reading - TCM Underground: 50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema (2022):

TCM Underground

50 Must-See Films from the World of Classic Cult and Late-Night Cinema

By Millie De Chirico & Quatoyiah Murry.

Foreword by Patton Oswalt.

Turner Classic Movies (TCM).

Published by Running Press Adult.

Published 2022.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0762480009

ISBN-13: 978-0762480005

Description:

With knowledge, humor and an appropriately twisted perspective, [the authors] give readers a fuller realization of what late-night cinema offers. With a foreword by Patton Oswalt, this celebration of strangeness is well worth exploring. – Pop Culture Classics.

Based on the Turner Classic Movies series, TCM Underground is the movie-lover's guide to 50 of the most campy, kitschy, shocking, and weirdly wonderful cult films you need to see.

In the pages of this book, you'll explore this unique order of films – primarily from the 1960s, '70s, and '80s – with insightful reviews, behind-the-scenes stories, subgenre sidebars, and full-color and black-and-white photography throughout. Go along for the ride with new takes on crime films, including The Honeymoon Killers and The Harder They Come. Witness one-of-a-kind horror in Bill Gunn's landmark vampire film Ganja and Hess and Nobuhiko Obayashi’s infamous and indescribable Hausu. Absorb the boundary-pushing documentary-style trilogy The Decline of Western Civilization, which throws you into indelible moments in the punk and metal music scenes. And marvel at pure '80s oddities like Mac and Me and The Garbage Pail Kids.

From Possession to Polyester and Beyond the Valley of the Dolls to Xanadu, no two films are alike in this compendium. Just sit back and prepare to be surprised, amused, and entertained by this celebration of the stars, filmmakers, and stories behind fifty of the most beguiling and unforgettable movies ever to hit the screen.

Recommended reading - The Big Bounce by Elmore Leonard (1969):

The Big Bounce

By Elmore Leonard.

Published by Mariner Books.

First published 1969.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 0062184288

ISBN-13: 978-0062184283

Description:

Jack Ryan always wanted to play pro ball. But he couldn't hit a curveball, so he turned his attentions to less legal pursuits. A tough guy who likes walking the razor's edge, he's just met his match – and more – in Nancy. She's a rich man's plaything, seriously into thrills and risk, and together she and Jack are pure heat ready to explode. But when simple housebreaking and burglary give way to the deadly pursuit of a really big score, the stakes suddenly skyrocket. Because violence and double-crosses are the name of this game – and it's going to take every ounce of cunning Jack and Nancy possess to survive . . . each other.

Recommended reading – Fort Apache, the Bronx, by Heywood Gould (1982):

Fort Apache, the Bronx

By Heywood Gould.

Published 1982.
Published by Grand Central Pub.
ISBN-10: 044695618X
ISBN-13: 978-0446956185

Description:

They were only rookies …

Two green cops blown away on the killer walkways of New York. Fort Apache, The Bronx … the 41st Precinct where nobody ever gets a second chance, and most don’t even have a first. Now the Force is on the prowl under a tough new captain who is determined to shape up this last command for losers where life is mean and death is often murder and where the law of the jungle is the only law.

Recommended reading - H.R. Giger's Film Design by H.R. Giger (1996):

H.R. Giger's Film Design

By H.R. Giger.

Introduction by Ridley Scott.

Published by Morpheus International.

Published 1996.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1883398061

ISBN-13: 978-1883398064

Description:

An artist of uncompromising vision who gives free range to his brilliant, often bizarre imagination, H.R. Giger has created some of the most successful marriages of design and film in history. In this collection, Giger takes readers on a tour of his fantastic designs, from genesis through gestation to birth, for such films as Alien, Alien 3, and Species. 200 photos & illustrations.

Recommended reading - Videodrome: Studies in the Horror Film by Tim Lucas (2008):

Videodrome

Studies in the Horror Film

By Tim Lucas.

Published by Centipede Press.

First Edition.

Published 2008.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 1933618280

ISBN-13: 978-1933618289

Description:

Released in 1983, David Cronenberg's Videodrome is one of his most original and provocative works, fusing social commentary with shocking elements of sex and violence. Crossing the boundary between science fiction, horror, and social criticism, Videodrome remains a unique and brilliant work in the oeuvre of cinema's greatest maverick.

Tim Lucas had behind-the-scenes access to every facet of production when Videodrome was filmed in 1981. His unique perspective provides interviews with cast and crew, including exclusive, never-before-published interviews with Cronenberg, commentary and analysis of the film, and over sixty black-and-white and color photographs, many never before seen.

Videodrome is the first in the Studies in the Horror Film series, which aims to present critical and popular discussion of the great horror films in affordable, attractive packages.

Tim Lucas is the editor of Video Watchdog magazine, which specializes in critical discussions of popular and obscure horror, fantasy, and science fiction films. He is also a renowned and astute film critic and award-winning writer.