Michael Gingold jets us back to the
past once again with Ad Naseam II, a deep dive into Gingold's
personal and extremely extensive collection of horror movie
newsprint notices from the 1990's and 2000's. If you loved his 80's
collection, then you are in for a frightful treat with this nostalgic
follow up.
In Ad Nauseam II, Michael Gingold shows
off his impressive collection of more than 500 ads for the big-budget
films we all know and love, to the ones that we still haven't heard
of. From the early 90's gothic horror, to the rise of the slasher
franchise once again in the mid 90's, to the found footage films that
are still going strong today, to the Americanization of a ton of
Asian horror hits. Gingold doesn't miss a thing! All of this plus,
the unforgettable critic quotes of the time and fantastically fun
facts about films releases, this book rivals it's predecessor in all
avenues.
To me, the horror genre was fairly slow
in the early 90's. We were given big-budget classics such as
Interview with A Vampire and Dracula, but to my recollection, most
releases were in the B category for me. Until, December 26th,
that fateful day, when the epic movie 'Scream' was released, and we
were finally back on the horror track. Originally meant to be a bit
of a parody by Wes Craven on horror films, he put in a enough scares
and gore to make this a legit horror film and horror franchise,
spawning 3 sequels, a TV show on MTV, and a possible 5th
film in the works. Needless to say, the slasher films were back in
business with 'I Know What You Did Last Summer” and countless
versions of 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre”, all well chronicled in
Gingold's vault of cinematic preview horror. He also chronicles the
rise of Asian remakes such as 'The Ring' and 'The Grudge', both
turning into lucrative franchises in their own right. Last but
certainly not least, is the 'found footage' films that all started
with that legendary school project-'The Blair Witch Project'. Leaving
audiences to wonder if the horrific acts that they had just witnessed
were real or fake. This died down until 'Paranormal Activity' hit
theaters in September 2009, and we have been barraged by cheesy but
creepy found footage films ever since. I also need to give a shout
out to putting in Rob Zombie's attempts at writing and directing
horror, starting with 'House of 1000 Corpses', the sequel- 'Devil's
Rejects', 'Lords of Salem', '31', '3 from Hell', and of course his
two Halloween remakes- the only two movies he directed that didn't-
in my opinion-suck. Sorry Rob, stick to music.
We see remakes like Halloween and the
Texas Chainsaw Massacre. We see new franchises such as 'Scream' and
the 'Saw' franchise, as well as hundreds of other fantastic horror
films I have yet to see, but are now on my “to be watched” list.
However, this might just be the end of Michael Gingold's Ad Naseam
work due to technology. When was the last time you looked in the
paper for a movie listing or even caught a trailer on TV. Just ask
Alexa or Suri for dates and showtimes as well as for watching a
trailer of just about any movie you can think of. But, I have to say,
you had an amazing run, Michael Gingold. I look forward to your next
diary or work. I'm sure it will kick ass!
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