It Came From the Video Aisle!: Inside Charles Band's Full Moon Entertainment Studio

A magnificent piece of research and writing, this book is an absolute must-read for anyone interested in films of the 1990s and beyond. The three authors, with the assistance of several guest contributors, have created a fascinating and well-written account of Charles Band’s middle/later career (having already covered his earlier work in the previous - also excellent - volume, Empire of the B’s).Vast reams of material has been written about films of the 1950s, ‘60s, ‘70s and ‘80s, much of it redundant, and there remains a certain snobbery towards movies of the nineties and noughties, quite on top of the disdain that many people have for Charlie Band’s output, even if they admit to a love of sci-fi or horror. Yet Band has, for decades, been a powerful force not just in film-making but also in distribution – a canny businessman riding each new wave, yet also a dreaming film-kid, making up stories and making them come true.This book is detailed but immensely readable. Importantly the authors don’t shy away from calling out some of Band’s films for the undoubted crap they are, while also praising his many genuine successes, and lamenting the fate of those productions which could have been awesome but fell down in one or more respects (usually budgetary). These guys are fans but not fanboys.The story is told roughly chronologically, grouping films by the various distribution partners which defined the different eras of Full Moon and Band’s other various labels. If the classic series (Puppetmaster, Trancers, Subspecies, erm Evil Bong) seem curiously glossed over, that’s because each franchise is dealt with in its own right in the final section.There are dozens of (frustratingly small) colour images throughout, reproducing scarce promotional artwork (often better than the films) and unseen behind-the-scenes images. A certain basic knowledge of Band’s oeuvre is assumed, but that’s okay because no-one’s going to buy this book who hasn’t watched plenty of Band movies and enjoyed at least some of them.I have watched a lot of these films, and have interviewed Charlie Band himself and many of his cast and crew over the years (full disclosure: some of my interviews are excerpted in the book) but I learned vast amounts of information that I didn’t previously know. More than that, I really ENJOYED reading this book which is serious without ever getting pretentious and enthusiastic without ever getting hagiographic. It Came From the Video Aisle proves that great film writing does not have to be about great films.- MJ Simpson

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A follow up to "Empire of the B's" detailing Bands career after the fall of Empire Pictures. Dealing with the rise and fall of Full Moon pictures and smaller and smaller budgets. Like the last book, the films it deals with may not be up to scratch most of the time, but this book is top quality. Detailed, excellently researched and packed to the gills with behind the scenes stuff. Lots of artwork and posters for unrealised movies as well as those that got made. A worthy successor to the first book.

Brilliant follow up to the authors book regarding the Empire Years.Just as well researched but if I have one gripe its that the pictures that accompany each movie discussed are Very small.