Suggested Halloween Reading: Part 3

In one chapter of David Skal's "Death Takes a Holiday" (written up here ), Skal describes the insanely elaborate Halloween decorations of a guy named Bob Burns, perhaps the ultimate movie monster aficionado in the world, especially now that Forrest Ackerman has gone to the great beyond. A former actor (who specialized in playing gorillas), special effects expert, film fan, producer, consultant, archivist and, most of all, collector, Burn has one of the greatest gatherings of science fiction and horror movie memorabilia in the world tucked away in his Los Angeles home.

And thankfully, in his book, "It Came from Bob's Basement," he shares those geektastic treasures with the rest of us.



Original metal armature used to animate the ape in 1933's "King Kong"? Bob's got that, along with pieces of the original dinosaur models, the armature from the other great ape movie, 1949's "Mighty Joe Young" and scrapbooks from Willis O'Brien, the guy who brought Kong to life. Bob also owns original facehuggers from "Alien," the helmet from the schlock classic "Robot Monster," a stretched-out David Naughton body used for the transformation scenes in "An American Werewolf in London," props from the "Terminator" movies, original flying saucers from Ed Wood's "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and so much more. And they're all in this book, lovingly photographed and described in detail by Bob himself.

But that's just the tip of the scale-model iceberg. "Bob's Basement" also acts asan underground history of Hollywood, with pages devoted to special effects man Paul Blaisdell, actor (and Frankstein monster) Glenn Strange, life inside a gorilla suit and Bob's own special effects efforts (include photos of a very young Rick Baker honing his makeup skills). There's also an entire chapter focusing on Bob's Halloween spectacles, so if you read about them in "Death Makes a Holiday" and want to see what they actually look like, you'll want this book on your shelf.

I have hundreds of books that examine the art of film from every conceivable angle, from the basic to the advanced to the aggravatingly esoteric. But few books manage to convey the pure, unadulterated love of movies like this one. If you love monster movies -- or if you ever did -- give this book a chance. It'll be like catching up with an old friend ... who has the greatest collection of cool stuff you could ever imagine.

Up next: And speaking of monster movies ...