The Men who Made the Monsters

Book excerpt: In the Men Who Made the Monsters, Paul Jensen chronicles the careers of five men who made shamelessly scary, enjoyable, and sometimes classic films: James Whale (whose films include Frankenstein, 1931, and The Invisible Man, 1933), Willis O'Brien (King Kong, 1933; Mighty Joe Young, 1949), Ray Harryhausen (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, 1958; Jason and the Argonauts, 1963), Terence Fisher (Dracula, 1958; Frankenstein Must Be Destroyed, 1969), and Freddie Francis (The Skull, 1965; Tales That Witness Madness, 1973). Usually working within tight budgets and short production schedules, these three directors (Whale, Fisher, Francis) and two masters of special effects (O'Brien, Harryhausen) turned out films that proved them to be not only skillful craftsmen but artists. In the inhuman, the unearthly, the monstrous, they found and explored the depths of our most human fears and fascinations.