Robert Bloch
1917 - 1994Robert Albert Bloch (April 5, 1917 – September 23, 1994) was a prolific American writer, primarily of crime, horror and science fiction. He is best known as the writer of Psycho, the basis for the film of the same name by Alfred Hitchcock. He was also known as an excellent standup speaker with a wry sense of humour. He many times remarked that he had "the heart of a little boy", quipping "I keep it in a jar on my desk."
Bloch wrote hundreds of short stories and over twenty novels, usually crime fiction, science fiction and, perhaps most influentially, horror fiction (Psycho). He was one of the youngest members of the Lovecraft Circle. H. P. Lovecraft was Bloch's mentor and one of the first to seriously encourage his talent.
Bloch was a contributor to pulp magazines such as Weird Tales in his early career, and was also a prolific screenwriter and a major contributor to science fiction fanzines and fandom in general.
He was the recipient of the Hugo Award (for his story "That Hell-Bound Train"), the Bram Stoker Award, and the World Fantasy Award. He served a term as president of the Mystery Writers of America (1970) and was a member of that organisation and of Science Fiction Writers of America, the Writers' Guild, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the Count Dracula Society.In 2008, The Library of America selected Bloch’s story “The Shambles of Ed Gein” for inclusion in its two-century retrospective of American true crime.
His favourites amongst his own novels were The Kidnapper, The Star Stalker, Psycho, Night-World and Strange Eons.
Description above from the Wikipedia article Robert Bloch, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Battle-Axe: the Making of 'Strait-Jacket'
Jeffrey Schwarz
Diane Baker, Robert Bloch
A look back at the classic 1964 film of horror and suspense starring Joan Crawford as an axe-murderer just released from the mental hospital. Includes footage of the filming and interviews with several of those involved, as well as a look at the movies it was influenced by and those that were in turn influenced by it.
Battle-Axe: the Making of 'Strait-Jacket'
This Is Horror
John Simmons, Rick Marchesano
Stephen King, Henry Strozier
This horror documentary is not the same as the 1986 TV special Stephen King's World of Horror nor the 1988 VHS release of the same name, which runs 45 minutes, was distributed by Front Row Entertainment and is about King himself. Instead, This Is Horror (copyright 1989) was a TV special which ran in four 60 minute increments. This new special used some framing footage from the original 'World of Horror' but is primarily newer interviews and behind-the-scenes footage about what was hot in horror in the late 80s. Here in the U.S., a condensed 90-minute version made its way onto video courtesy of Goodtimes in 1990. Elsewhere, the entire special was released as 2 different tapes running 90 minutes apiece. In the UK these were titled This is Horror: A Video Encyclopedia of Horror (Volumes 1 and 2) and in Germany they were called Best of Stephen King's World of Horror (Parts 1 & 2).
Stephen King's World of Horror
