Writer Chas.Balun is known for his unique opinion of horror films which is one of the reasons why I’ve searched out some of his old books on the subject. Balun died in 2009 and I knew of his writing from when he wrote for Fangoria magazine. Since his death I’ve wanted to know more about his previous work of which “More Gore Score” is but one. Some of the other books of his that I’ve read include “The Connoisseur’s Guide to the Contemporary Horror Film” (1983) and “Lucio Fulci: Beyond the Gates of Hell” (1997).
With “More Gore Score” he uses the same format of cataloguing films like he did in “The Connoisseur’s Guide to the Contemporary Horror Film” or “The Gore Score” (1987) so readers familiar with his other books will have no problem jumping right into this one. Like his previous books there are a plethora of posters, stills, lobby cards and other assorted memorabilia contained within these scant 102 pages. There are plenty of books out there that do what Balun does (and some of them have even done it better) but it is Balun’s unique view on the films that will truly entertain the reader.
Some of Balun’s greatest moments are when he is criticizing mainstream hits like Terminator 2: Judgment Day in which he says, “Hopelessly overblown FX juggernaut never comes close to the lean muscular wonder of its predecessor despite trying so hard it hurts…bad.” Of the film adaptation of Stephen King’s Misery he says, “Mainstream all the way, Reiner shows he can direct genre material, but only after it’s been properly sanitized and de-boogered. Sorta scary…but not really.” These comments make Balun’s writing crisp and interesting not just for the genre fan but for the film connoisseur as well.
Despite the entertaining nature of the book the biggest pratfall is that by the time he got around to releasing this book, he had already reviewed most if not all the great genre films so instead we are left with a lot of sequels and straight to video films with the occasional mainstream genre film thrown in. There are more foreign language films this go around with Balun taking a crack at such films as The Church (1990), Demonia (1988), Santa Sangre (1991), and Tetsuo: The Iron Man (1990), to name a few, and this is about the only reason to really search out for this book.