Xerox Ferox

    Xerox Ferox is a book about all the self-published and small press magazines (or fanzines, or “zines”) about horror movies. In the book’s introduction we get a lamentation over the horror magazines that are more concerned with worshipping the star actors than having reviews of the actual movies. This book, however, is in the spirit of Bill Landis’ Sleazoid Express; a romp through a notoriously low budget genre, promoted by low budget paper.

    Horror movies have always been a source of quick cash. Roger Corman produced several in a week, and Francis Ford Coppola’s made his debut for Corman, with Dementia 13. It was a badly-photographed, badly-scripted horror movie set in Ireland, and I could hardly see, hear, or tell what the hell was going on. But a small audience liked it, and since it hardly cost anything to make, there wasn’t much to lose. Zombie movies are also a source of quick cash, probably because they feature hordes of unnamed extras, and since zombies don’t usually speak, the actors have no lines and you can pay them reduced rates. The makeup is cheap, the sound effects are stock, and the plot doesn’t have to be Oscar-worthy. In fact, you can recycle plots from other movies; Night of the Living Dead was like High Noon, and the Italian jungle-cannibal movies could be filmed anywhere. It wouldn’t be especially hard to remake Snow White as a horror movie; just make the queen look really ugly, and add creepy sound effects.

    The horror movie zines profiled here are just like the low budget drive-in movies. They’re printed on pulp, have a small, loyal fanbase, and don’t need top quality writing. They can be printed cheaply in black and white, and are cheap to ship. The internet has probably cut into the market for them, because anyone can start a horror movie blog for free. You wouldn’t make much money from it, but then again, most horror movie zines didn’t make much anyway.