Face of the Screaming Werewolf
Submitted by: Ken Gage
What once was my "little surrealist project" is finally available as a book from Amazon.com:
It's called Face of the Screaming Werewolf, a title many of you may recognize from one of director Jerry Warren's bad film projects. The film is memorable as the last time Lon Chaney (Jr.) donned his Wolf Man make-up for the silver screen! Chaney fans are quick to point out his small screen performance on that 1962 episode of Route 66, where he played the lycanthrope (co-starring horror veterans Peter Lorre and Boris Karloff).
Because Jerry Warren derived most of his footage from two Mexican movies (La Casa del Terror and Momia Azteca), Face of the Screaming Werewolf is noteable for its utter lack of congruency -- which is what made it the ideal inspiration for an even weirder story about alien espionage, sadomasochistic vampires, philosopher robots, the nature of elitism, demons in the Yucatan, and Satan's fall.
The novel also makes a mention of some popular TV horror hosts you'll recognize: Svengoolie, Elvira and Zacherle.
A major theme of Face of the Screaming Werewolf is the conflicting values of elitism and the common man, particularly as exemplified in our Miltonian "hero." Bad films play a large part in this "philosophical horror novel" because of the ability for some people to find the best in the worst of things. And, ultimately, this book with the generic title turns out to be something shockingly deeper than a werewolf tale.
Forgoing literary complexity, the book at least has a great cover, if we must judge a book on that. I wrote it and even I can't get over what a great job these book jacket designers did.
Catch you around,
Ken Gage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Face_of_the_Screaming_Werewolf
[Admin Note: You can read an excerpt at Xlibris.com.]
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