A History of Shock Film

The Story of Movies that Broke Taboos and Caused Controversies

"A History of Shock Film: The Story of Movies that Broke Taboos and Caused Controversies" covers films that have pushed boundaries in the realms of sex, violence, profanity, sacrilege, controversial messaging, and a few other areas that many cultures find transgressive.

The book shows how what constitutes shocking content has changed over the past century-plus of movies. It starts with an 1895 short of a woman dancing on stage and ends on a 2010 film that had to be edited to get an NC-17 rating. Throughout, these films sparked public controversies. The conflict between freedom of expression and various forms of censorship is central to the narrative of "A History of Shock Film."

While "A History of Shock Film" focuses mainly on the films of the United States, it also covers influential movies from around the world. A grand total of 321 official shock films from 27 countries are chosen as the most important to the story of cinema.

Among the official shock films are well-known classics like "Psycho," "Pink Flamingos," "Blue Velvet," "The Exorcist," "Battleship Potemkin," "Do the Right Thing," "Frankenstein," "Taxi Driver," and "Monty Python's Life of Brian." You'll also learn about more obscure art films and exploitation movies. Important figures range from art-film deity Ingmar Bergman to schlockmeister Herschell Gordon Lewis.

Author Eddie Daniels keeps the tone light and conversational; this is not an academic text. It is full of wild anecdotes about the people who made the movies. Daniels infuses his personality throughout, clearly delineating his own opinions from historical facts. He believes any statement of a film's effectiveness should be couched as a subjective judgement; he often uses phrases like "in my opinion" to emphasize that he's not trying to speak on behalf of all filmgoers.

Eddie Daniels' previous book, "The Baseball Hall of Fame Corrected," was a moderate success by the standards of self-publishing. It was a combination of baseball history and humor book. In "A History of Shock Film," Daniels leaves much of the comedy behind in favor of historical critique.