The Late Great David J. Skal

If you are a Monster Kid, chances are good that you have heard of David J. Skal. Over the years he wrote a number of books on classic horror movies, including Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen, The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, and, with Elias Savada, Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre, among others. He championed the Spanish version of Dracula, which Universal produced the same time that they were making Tod Browining's Dracula (1931). He also wrote and even directed documentaries on the history of horror movies  Sadly, David J. Skal was killed in an automobile accident on New Year's Day, January 1 2024, at the age of 71.

David J. Skal was born on June 21 1952 in Garfield Heights, Ohio. He studied journalism at Ohio University, where he was a film critic and editor on the school newspaper. While in college he attended the Clarion Writer's Workshop. His short story "Chains" was published in the 1971 Clarion anthology. After graduating from Ohio University, he was an intern with the National Endowment for the Arts. He was also the the publicity director for the Hartford Stage Company. He later worked at  the American Conservatory Theater in San Francisco, and the Theatre Communications Group of New York. David J. Skal wrote three science fiction novels, Scavengers (1980), When We Were Good (1981), and Antibodies (1988).

It as in 1990 that David J. Skal's first work of non-fiction, Hollywood Gothic: The Tangled Web of Dracula from Novel to Stage to Screen, was published. Among other things, the book offered the first detailed analysis of the Spanish version of Dracula (1931). He followed it in 1993 with The Monster Show: A Cultural History of Horror, an in-depth history of horror movies examined through the lens of historical events at the time. With Elias Savada, he co-wrote Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre (1995), the first full-length biography of Tod Browning. He also wrote the books V Is for Vampire: The A to Z Guide to Everything Undead (1996), Screams of Reason: Mad Science and Modern Culture (1998), Death Makes a Holiday: A Cultural History of Halloween (2002), and Claude Rains: An Actor's Voice (2008).

Over the years David J. Skal appeared in several documentaries and TV specials about horror movies, including It's Alive: The True Story of Frankenstein, Universal Horror,  Monsters Madness and Magic, Boris Karloff: The Rest of the Story, and many others. He was also interviewed for various television shows, including 100 Years of Horror, A-Z of Horror, E! Mysteries and Scandals, Biography, 20/20, Ancient Aliens, The UnXplained, History of Horror, and Creature Features. David J. Skal appeared as an actor in The Vampire Hunters Club (2001) and an episode of Great Performances ("All Over").

Mr. Skal also directed several documentaries, including The Road to Dracula, Monster by Moonlight! The Immortal Saga of "The Wolf Man," Mummy Dearest: A Horror Tradition Unearthed, She's Alive! Creating the Bride of Frankenstein, The World of Gods and Monsters: A Journey with James Whale, Now You See Him: The Invisible Man Revealed!, The Opera Ghost: A Phantom Unmasked, Bud Abbott and Lou Costello Meet the Monsters!, The Universe According Universal, Back to the Black Lagoon: A Creature Chronicle, The Frankenstein Files: How Hollywood Made a Monster, Jules Verne & Walt Disney: Explorers of the Imagination, and Carla Laemmle Remembers: An Interview with David J. Skal. He also wrote all of the documentaries he directed, as well episodes of Biography (on Lon Chaney, Bela Lugosi, and Angela Lansbury).

I did not have the honour of knowing David J. Skal or even interacting with him online, but he was friends with many of my close friends. He was a guest three different times on my friend Karie Bible's YouTube series Hollywood Kitchen. Mr. Skal was congenial, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and possessed considerable wit. I think I can speak for my fellow horror movie fans when I say that I could listen to David J. Skal all day.

Of course, David J. Skal left an impressive mark as a cultural historian who chronicled horror movies. His books were always well-researched and detailed. What is more they were always written with considerable wit and good humour. No one could write about the classic Universal horror movies the way David J. Skal did, and he remains one of the best historians of the horror genre ever. Fangoria magazine described him as "the Poet Laureate of Monster Kids," and I have no doubt that he was.