The film critiques within represent the author's choices for the cinema's most significant fantasy endeavors.

Fantastic Press strikes again with its second trade paperback offering, this time exploring the ultra-fanciful universe of spaceships, exotic planets, time travel, and extraterrestrials. The "Top 100 Sci-Fi Movies" are reviewed and ranked by fantasy screenwriter/film historian Gary Gerani, who covers everything from early silent groundbreakers like A Trip to the Moon to today's widescreen, computer-generated blockbusters. With over 600 rare visuals, full-color layouts. and an introduction by one of Hollywood's greatest filmmakers, this exciting new pictorial overview is the ideal companion book to 2010's Top 100 Horror Movies.

Taking its cue from the horror film fanzines of yesteryear... Horror and fantasy cinema from around the world with a distinctive retro sensibility, Creeping Flesh focuses on obscure and vilified horror movies, the discovery of "lost" films, BBC telefantasy, and an appreciation of American and British exploitation. Book jacket.

In-depth analyses are presented of 15 superior films, each one representing a subgenre of fantasy cinema--Beauty and the Beast, Conan the Barbarian, The Dark Crystal, Dragonslayer, 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, It's a Wonderful Life, Jason and the Argonauts, King Kong, Lost Horizon, Popeye, Superman, The Thief of Baghdad, Time Bandits, Topper, and The Wizard of Oz. A chapter is devoted to each film, providing a plot summary and detailed information about cast and crew, special effects (stop-motion animation, miniatures, hanging miniatures, optical effects, tricks of perspective, blue screens, matte paintings, glass shots, reverse projection, slow motion, rear and front projection, etc.), and strengths and weaknesses, as well as explorations of the film's relationship to written fantasy, other films, and cultural myths.

The Fantasy Film provides a clear and compelling overview of this revitalized and explosively popular film genre. Includes analyses of a wide range of films, from early classics such as The Wizard of Oz and Harvey to Spiderman and Shrek, and blockbuster series such as The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Harry Potter films Provides in-depth historical and critical overviews of the genre Fully illustrated with screen shots from key films

The warlocks and ghosts of fantasy film haunt our popular culture, but the genre has too long been ignored by critics. This comprehensive critical survey of fantasy cinema demonstrates that the fantasy genre amounts to more than escapism. Through a meticulously researched analysis of more than a century of fantasy pictures--from the seminal work of Georges Melies to Peter Jackson's recent tours of Middle-earth--the work identifies narrative strategies and their recurring components and studies patterns of challenge and return, setting and character. First addressing the difficult task of defining the genre, the work examines fantasy as a cultural force in both film and literature and explores its relation to science fiction, horror, and fairy tales. Fantasy's development is traced from the first days of film, with emphasis on how the evolving genre reflected such events as economic depression and war. Also considered is fantasy's expression of politics, as either the subject of satire or fuel for the fires of propaganda. Discussion ventures into the subgenres, from stories of invented lands inhabited by fantastic creatures to magical adventures set in the familiar world, and addresses clashes between fantasy and faith, such as the religious opposition to the Harry Potter phenomenon. From the money-making classics to little-known arthouse films, this richly illustrated work covers every aspect of fantasy film.

This book discusses the use of scores in horror, science fiction and fantasy films, covering the 1930's to the 1980's, with chapters on Herrmann, Goldsmith, Rózsa, Japanese monster movies, Hammer horror movies, John Williams, electronic music and how classical music has been integrated into these film genres.