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Shadows Over Florida

David Goudsward & Scott T. Goudsward


Foreword by
Herschell Gordon Lewis


Shadows Over Florida was mentioned in
 The Best Horror of the Year Volume 3  
Our thanks to Ellen Datlow!

 


“Tourists think of Florida as beaches, sun and fun.  Few know that blood, guts and monsters prospered during the Grindhouse days of Florida film making. Shadows Over Florida vividly captures the history of these films and credits a lot of my crazy friends that gave birth to independent film making. After making over a dozen films in Florida since the late 1950's, I thought I knew film history.  After reading Dave and Scott's book, I feel like a novice. I highly recommend Shadows over Florida.”
-- William Grefé, Writer/Director/Producer
A Florida gardener, his finger pricked by an aggressive hedge, once told me, "down here, dammit, everything bites!" Here's proof that he was right.  He might also have added, everything spooks...and lingers." 

-- Jack Ketchum, author of The Girl Next Door and Off Season
 

"This book is a work of love... certain to connect to the kid in you - the kid who used to watch Chiller Theatre on Saturday nights."
John Boden, Shock Totems

"Being a native Floridian myself, I thought I knew my home-state well. I was wrong and pleasantly surprised. Over and over again." 
Ben Eads, Shroud Magazine

"David Goudsward and Scott Goudsward have once again delivered a fantastic resource for fans and researchers of the fantastic and macabre."
 Bob Freeman, Monster Librarian"

 "If you are a horror fan who lives in Florida or plans to visit it, you have to have this book. If you don’t plan to visit the Gulf Coast, I think you would enjoy it anyway ... I highly recommend it." Kent Allard, Dead in the South

"Shadows Over Florida is detailed and comprehensive, but simultaneously breezy and easy to read."
 Sheila Merritt, Hellnotes


For a brief time at the start of the 20th century, Florida was poised to be the film making Mecca of North America. Jacksonville had suffered a devastating fire and the rebuilt community enjoyed a wealth of architectural styles that allowed films set in exotic locations such as Egypt, Italy or Polynesia - all for the cost of shipping the cast and equipment on the train from wintery New York. But racial tensions, religious concerns and epidemics drove the blossoming film industry into the open arms of Hollywood, California. Florida became the second unit place you filmed if you needed jungles for Tarzan or a more accessible stand-in for an Amazonian Black Lagoon.

 In the 1960s and into the 1970s, if you made films designed for general release, you filmed in Hollywood. If you made grindhouse films, nudie cuties, exploitation extravaganzas or straight to drive-in obscurities, you filmed in Florida. Films shot in Florida range from Blood Feast, the landmark film by Herschell Gordon Lewis that paved the visceral way for Friday the 13th and Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to the less influential but memorable (for all the wrong reasons) Blood Freak with its pro-Christian, anti-drug message starring a mutant turkey vampire motorcyclist.

 Filming aside, the print version of a Floridian horror story reflects an intrinsic Floridian compulsion to bulldoze the past beneath a new shiny future. But beneath that overpriced façade of new construction is the Florida of old, the one the mouse-bound tourists conveniently overlook, a hellish landscape of swamps that range from brackish to fœtid, flora and fauna that range from deadly to carnivorous and locals that range from surly to anthropophagous.
 

 

“So you thought Florida was just orange juice ads? Wrong - Florida's motion picture industry is booming! Not just the big guys either; the independent movie makers are always busy! I moved to Florida in 1972 and had a camera in my hand by the end of the week (a super 8 camera, but a camera all the same). Teamed with my next door neighbor Tim Ritter, we shot a little VHS movie called Twisted Illusions that helped secure investors for our first feature Truth or Dare - A Critical Madness. Almost 30 years later, we still shoot in Florida: the swamps and jungles of Endangered Species, the sunny skies of Screaming for Sanity and so many other great locations for so many movies (I’ve done over 40, mostly here in Florida). So the next time someone says to you "Ahh, they don't do nothing’ in Flori-duh,” tell them to read Shadows Over Florida.”
-- Joel D. Wynkoop, actor, “King of the B Movies”

“Whether you read it from beginning to end or skip around through the fascinating entries, Shadows Over Florida is a wildly entertaining look at horror in the most insane state in the union! Even if you’re scared to visit Florida itself, this book is highly recommended!”
 -- Jeff Strand, author of Pressure and Benjamin’s Parasite

 

The Brothers Goudsward have created yet another hex-cellent travel guide.  First they escorted us through the spooky backroads of Haunted New England.  Now, let them take you by the hand as they guide you into the terrifying realm known as Florida.  The Fountain of Youth, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Skunk Ape, giant leeches and much more await you in this exploration of freaky, famous Floridian places from fiction, film and folklore.
-- Penny Dreadful, Television Horror Hostess


"With their latest book, Shadows Over Florida, Dave and Scott dramatically remind and inform us that Florida's history is filled with a lot more than orange juice and space shuttle launches. The murky side of showbiz sizzles from cover to cover as we learn the true story of the dark underbelly of film making, Florida style."
-- Bill Mumy, Actor, The Twilight Zone