The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film by Michael J. Weldon

One thing that this opening of my horizons showed me was that the kind of thinking responsible for books like The Fifty Worst Films of All Time simply misses the point. Weldon's essential 1983 book The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film - the prefect antidote to The Fifty Worst Films of All Time. Thankfully, my relationship with movies moved on and I developed a deeper and different kind of appreciation for cult films, in part encouraged by the publication of Michael J. Wood Jr., Elvira was a pop culture icon, and the term “B-Movie” became synonymous with “bad movie”, typically referring to the product of an earlier era. Throughout the 1980’s, making fun of movies became a popular pastime – We rediscovered the films of Ed D. After all, home video and the whole “B-Movie” phenomena were just around the corner. It seems to me that the publication of The Fifty Worst Films of All Time coincided with a Zeitgeist that was ready to erode the way we appreciate movies.

Unfortunately, I bought into it wholesale at the time, and I wasn’t alone. Now, as an adult, I can see the smugness and lack of understanding that this book was selling.

It was fun to laugh at movies that either failed or that I didn’t understand. In it, the authors selected 50 films they’d designated as the worst, mocking movies by Alfred Hitchcock, Sam Peckinpah, Alain Resnais, and others.Īt the time of the book’s publication I was 13, and I enjoyed its tone and content. Watch a Psychotronic tour of 42nd Street:īuy: DO YOU BELIEVE IN SWEDISH SIN? SWEDISH EXPLOITATION FILM POSTERS 1951-1984:In 1978, Randy Dreyfuss with Harry Medved and Michael Medved published The Fifty Worst Films of All Time (And How They Got That Way).

Read old issues of Psychotronic Video Magazine: Other topics include Ghoulardi, Roger Corman, hypnotism, Diane Keaton’s HEAVEN, Club 57, Johnny Ramone, cattle call auditions for GHETTO FREAKS, childhood filmmaking efforts, Alfred Sole, research methods, 42nd Street theatres, THE HYPNOTIC EYE and being killed over and over by Dr. Weldon about his many endeavors, from drumming with Cleveland proto-punk act Mirrors and reviewing movies for Cle, to Psychotronic, his photocopied, hand-written fanzine that lead to books like the influential PSYCHOTRONIC ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM, the long-running PSYCHOTRONIC VIDEO magazine, calendars, film festivals and the Psychotronic store he manages today.

Bill speaks to author and magazine publisher/editor Michael J.

The Psychotronic Encyclopedia of Film by Michael J. Weldon