An interesting book about King's views of horror. I enjoyed the horror fiction section very much. His movie section was OK but as a non-movie person, it didn't appeal to me. ( )

Stephen King's Danse Macabre by Stephen King (1997) ( )

Stephen King must have gotten tired of answering the question ‘Why do you write such horrible stuff (and why do we read it)?’

Danse Macabre is sort of a wildly expanded version of the introduction he wrote for his first short story collection: Night Shift. Here, he discusses his love for the horror genre and explains what he finds valuable about it. This leads him to a survey of horror in the source of novels, films, radio and comics from the 1950's through the '80's.

Reading through the book, it is pretty dated. If you're an oldster like me who can remember the seventies and eighties the book ought to give you a heady dose of nostalgia and maybe remind you of some books and movies that should be checked out again, or some books you wanted to read back then, but have forgotten about.

However, if you are younger and can't remember stuff like Dark Shadows then the book's examples could come off as too unfamiliar for enjoyment. He is mainly focused on the years 1950-80 (with detailed side trips to praise the three horror bedrocks Dracula, Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde) so depending on your age/interest in what the state of horror was at that time, your mileage may vary.

I enjoy the way the book was written, because even in his non-fiction he still has the gift for the gab and I enjoy his writing persona. Other LT reviewers that I respect didn't enjoy that so much, so maybe it depends on how much you like King's style.

You'll also get more horror book and movie recommendations than you can shake a stick at. He gives some interesting analyses of The House Next Door, The Haunting of Hill House, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Ghost Story, Something Wicked This Way Comes, The Doll Who Ate His Mother and The Incredible Shrinking Man.

This book also deserves credit for sparking my interest in Richard Matheson. King is fairly generous in recommending other horror writers and gives clear explanations of why he thinks the good ones are good.

I do wish he would do a companion book. Hey, in 2010 he could cover the 80's, '90's and '00's. That would give him another thirty year block. That would be cool. ( )

Pointers, pointers and more pointers to good sci-fi and horror books. On the other hand, many spoilers, but it is ok. ( )

King's 1981 analysis of horror as both genre and emotion can also be seen as an autobiography and a critique of many films and literature of his chosen field. Fascinating insight into the thinking process of a working writer. ( )