I've always appreciated references to films in other films.
Not sure what it's called but I call it nesting. I suppose its a form of product placement. My favourite kind is horror, which I've blogged about a number of times.
As its soon the season of the Witch I have been catching up on some classic British horror anthologies by specialists Amicus, namely Vault of Horror and Dr. Terrors House f Horrors.
In Vault of Horror from 1973, during the buried-alive story, the protagonist, one Mr. Maitland [itself a horror trope] sits reading a book. The paperback is one I have myself, the film tie-in to its sister film Tales from the Crypt no less!
In the same scene we see another bigger coffee-table book called Horror Comics, a book I don't know at all. Does anyone recognise it?
In the 1965 anthology Dr. Terror's House of Horrors, Biff Bailey, an ambitious jazz composer, steals a secret voodoo melody, As he's being hunted down he falls over a bin and stands to look at a cinema poster. Its a poster of the very same film, a excellent example of the more unusual self-referencing.
That's it for now. I'm sure there'll be more Horror to pore over this Halloween.
If you like nesting in films or the Maitlands trope then click on the label link below.
Post Mortem:
Reader Steve P. has cracked it! Compare these:
Vault of Horror book [at ninety degrees]
and Steve P's solution, Horror Comics of the 1950's published in 1971! Well done Steve!
Here's its spine - images courtesy of Worthpoint.
Perhaps a new mystery is which books are on the bookshelf behind Maitland in the scene? Alas my laptop is simply not good enough to pick them out.
I always get a chuckle from that scene in VoH especially when he says "there's no money in horror" - Amicus always provided tongue in cheek dark humour amongst the chills
ReplyDeleteFenton
Hi Woodsy, I'm not saying I've solved the problem of identifying the coffee table book, but...
ReplyDeleteIt looks to me like a doctored issue #23 of Tales From the Crypt comic with a different title. The whole thing looks a bit shiny like it's on photographic paper rather that an actual book. Guess it's just an elaborate in-joke.
Correction - the illustration is the cover of #23 of Tales From the Crypt, but it is an actual book, titled EC Horror Comics of the 1950's, published by Nostalgia Press in 1971.
DeleteAce research Steve! I've blogged your solution! Cheers and cheers again!
DeleteAbsolutely Fenton, its a great line! I also love Roy Castle's jokey manner in Dr.Terror's, which sets him and us up for his inevitable downfall. You can't really beat Amicus for anthologies and for a while Tigon also gave Hammer a run for their money with some excellent full-length tales like Blood on Satan's Claw. Do you like them too?
ReplyDeleteIndeed - I'm a fan of British horror in general (and Amicus in particular)
ReplyDeleteFenton