The City of the Dead 1960 Ultimate Guide Signed Hardback

Product Description

In production for September 2026 shipping. A signed, casebound collector’s edition with its own exclusive art print – only 30 will ever exist.

Some films deserve to be held, not merely read about. This signed hardback edition of The City of the Dead 1960 Ultimate Guide gives the fog-shrouded chiller – known to American audiences as Horror Hotel – the weighty, hard-bound treatment its reputation deserves. Every copy is autographed by hand by authors Nige Burton and Jamie Jones, and paired with an exclusive art print made specially for this edition, quite separate from the one that accompanies the softback. Between its covers you’ll find the authoritative writing and the trove of painstakingly restored stills that run through all our guides, reproduced throughout in rich full colour. We follow how the film was dreamed up and shot, weigh its standing in the history of British horror, and trace the diabolical pact that drives its story – immortality bought with innocent blood. Far sturdier than any magazine and built for the long haul, it’s the sort of volume you’ll happily keep on display for years: a centrepiece for the serious horror library.

A burning, a bargain – and a town in thrall to witchcraft

The story opens in 1692, as the people of Whitewood, Massachusetts drag a confessed witch named Elizabeth Selwyn to the flames. What they cannot know is that Selwyn and her fellow conspirator, Jethrow Keane, have already sealed a bargain with the Devil, trading their souls for life unending. Three centuries on, an inquisitive student named Nan Barlow arrives in the very same town to study its witch-haunted past – sent there, as it happens, by her own professor – never imagining she has been marked as the coven’s next offering. Though the picture carried the Vulcan Films name, it was the work of New York producers Max J Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky, who had grown fond enough of England to put down roots and keep working in the genre; for that reason it is now generally credited as the film that set Amicus in motion. The guide examines how its churchyard atmosphere and slow-tightening menace helped point the way for the wave of British horror that followed.

Compelling articles that explore the film’s development

Across a run of absorbing, carefully researched articles, this casebound guide unpacks the making of the film from first spark to finished feature. You’ll read about the casting choices and the day-to-day practicalities of the shoot, George Baxt’s screenplay and the Milton Subotsky story it grew from, and the peculiar task of coaxing a largely British cast into convincing American accents. We don’t shy away from the behind-the-scenes detail, either, charting the decisions that shaped this atmospheric oddity before rounding things off with a generous helping of trivia – the kind of knowledge that turns a casual viewing into genuine appreciation.

Meet the cast and crew who created the movie’s dark magic

The people in front of and behind the camera get their due as well. Dedicated profile features shine a light on the careers of Christopher Lee and the commanding Patricia Jessel, on Venetia Stevenson, Betta St John, Dennis Lotis and the gloriously sepulchral Valentine Dyall, and on the talents who steered the production – among them first-time director John Llewellyn Moxey and producers Rosenberg and Subotsky. There’s real pleasure to be had in the stories behind the names, with an unexpected connection or two to savour along the way.

First-class production values in every page

Issued in A4 format (210mm x 297mm), this edition is bound in hard covers wrapped in a tough, scuff-resistant finish that speaks to the care taken over it. Inside, the pages are printed on fine silk stock with a soft sheen that’s gentle on the eye. Like the cold, candlelit lanes of Whitewood itself, the film deals in mood rather than spectacle – mist, shadow and a steadily mounting dread – and our clean, understated layouts answer that restraint, letting words and pictures breathe instead of jostling for attention.

Breathtakingly restored imagery

Imagery is everything to a guide like this, so we’ve gathered only the strongest stills and restored each one until it sits beautifully on the page. Because we print everything in full colour, even the monochrome shots take on a tonal depth and warmth that ordinary black-and-white reproduction can never quite reach – every misty, lamplit moment rendered with real presence.

Night has long since settled over Whitewood, and the candles down in the cellar are burning low. Mrs Newless keeps a watchful eye on her guests, the locals offer little in the way of conversation, and the calendar has crept unnervingly near to Candlemas Eve. Better, perhaps, to draw the bolt and lose yourself in the signed hardback guide to The City of the Dead – though you might keep one ear open for footsteps on the stair, and for the slow toll of a clock that seems oddly determined to reach thirteen…

Complete your folk horror collection

If folk horror and the old, dark religion hold a particular pull for you, these companion Ultimate Guides belong on the very same shelf:

• The Wicker Man 1973 Ultimate Guide
• Blood on Satan’s Claw 1971 Ultimate Guide

Also available in other editions

Would another format suit you better? You’ll also find this guide as:

• Signed softback collector’s edition – hand-numbered out of 250 worldwide, includes free art print
• Regular unsigned softback edition

Specifications:

• Signed, deluxe collector’s edition
• Limited to 30 copies worldwide
• Includes an exclusive art print different to the print accompanying the signed softback
• 40 pages
• A4 (210mm x 297mm)
• Full colour throughout
• Image wrap anti-scuff hardback cover
• Printed on fine silk stock paper