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KEEPING UP WITH MR. JONES
For more than 30 years, Alan Jones was the principal reviewer for the British movie magazine Starburst. He pioneered a no-holds-barred critical stance with an authentic fanboy voice filtered through his punk attitude and a keen genre sensibility.
Alan covered every UK fantasy release in his eagerly anticipated monthly column. And now he has collated his entire body of Starburst reviews into one extraordinary volume, without editing the original texts.
Starburst: The Complete Alan Jones Film Reviews 1977-2008
is a record of many of the most influential fantasy and horror movies of all time. It also documents how the genre grew from lowly poor relation to box office powerhouse.
From the rise and fall and rise again of stalk-and-slash, the heyday of practical gore effects, the animation revival and the found footage phenomenon to the science fiction tent-pole, superhero blockbusters, and the CGI revolution, Alan commented on it all while divulging unique facts, film industry gossip, and vital contemporary details.
As Mark Kermode says: “Three decades of thrillingly incisive writing from a true pioneer of horror, science fiction and fantasy film journalism outspoken, opinionated and endlessly readable. Alan Jones led the way the rest of us followed.”
Being a key genre commentator meant Jones played a gratifying role in firing the imaginations of many of today’s top film industry names. Here, directors Edgar Wright (Shaun of the Dead, Last Night in Soho), Neil Marshall (Dog Soldiers, The Descent), Andy Nyman (Ghost Stories, ‘Derren Brown: Infamous’) and writer Jeremy Dyson (The League of Gentlemen, Killing Eve) share their defining memories of Starburst, and how Jones engendered their devotion to the horror fantasy genre.