Son of Guilty Pleasures of the Horror Film Book

Son of Guilty Pleasures of the Horror Film Book:

The movie was shot on weekends and after work by a diligent bunch of amateurs trying to prove that a successful B production could be made by talented individuals on a shoestring budget. Leifert, who studied theater in England and appeared in many college productions, always "pooh-poohed" his performance in The Alien Factor simply because he felt he did far better work on the stage.

Today, Leifert teaches English and Drama at the Carver Center, a special high school for the arts in Baltimore County. Several of his students look at Dohler's The Alien Factor as members of our generation look at the Lugosi Monogram Nine: Return of the Ape Man, Invisible Ghost, The Corpse Vanishes, Voodoo Man, etc. In other words, these teenagers realize that The Alien Factor is tremendously flawed and shoddy, yet, without embarrassment, they onsider the film to be something special. These students even published a fanzine singing the film's praises.

Next, we encounter another fan influenced by The Alien Factor, Gene Crowell, a member of the local Horror & Fantasy Film Society, who is a memorabilia collector of props from actual films. Barely beyond his mid-twenties, some of Crowell's favorite props are the ones he acquired from The Alien Factor, one of the first films he saw as a kid that turned him on to the amazing world of science fiction movies and collecting. Meeting Don Leifert was always a special thrill for him. Remember, Don Leifert would rather forget that The Alien Factor had ever existed, but to a younger generation of film fans, the backyard quality of the movie only encouraged the theory that anyone with guts, talent, and imagination could produce his/her own feature-length film, and Don Dohler's films became a beacon in the night for this new generation.

No matter what Don Leifert feels about his work in the Dohler film, that film has lived on for two decades surviving numerous showings on TV and having been eleased to videocassette in several different versions. And for better or worse, this film has prospered and inspired younger fans to dream of doing something just as creative.

I wonder if the stars/producers/directors of the "guilty pleasures" contained within these pages feel any differently about their artistic contributions than Leifert felt about his performance in The Alien Factor? Sometimes what actually occurred during the production of any particular movie, what really came down on the set as the movie was being filmed, isn't as important as the impression it creates for its audience. Sometimes the little movie with all so many flaws still holds a special place in our hearts, even decades after the initial viewing.

In this second volume of cinematic guilty pleasures, our writers again eloquently explain why movies which the majority of viewers consider subpar are so very special as movie experiences to them personally. These movies are not extraordinary in any way, and most of them contain fundamental flaws in craft, yet as filtered through the psyches of the writers involved, these guilty pleasures ultimately become something very special. And thus the reason why this book exists . . . to demonstrate the fact that the pleasures movies give far outweigh any guilt factor involved.

• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Paperback ‏ : ‎ 254 pages
• Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.58 x 9 inches