The AckerMonster Chronicles! (DVD) - Forrest J Ackerman

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1. The Biggest Kid, the Greatest Fan

   Posted by James Robert Smith on 23rd Jan 2013

   Some time back Jason and Sunni Brock wrote and produced a wonderful documentary about the writer Charles Beaumont. It was a freshman work that remains one of my favorite documentaries.
   
   So I have been eager to see their follow-up work, THE ACKERMONSTER CHRONICLES, a film about Forrest J Ackerman.
   
   To just about everyone in science-fiction fandom and the related fields, Forrest J Ackerman is one of the most famous personalities the genre produced. He was a classic huckster with a powerful ego who was as instrumental in the promotion of genre literature as Stan Lee has been to the comic book industry.
   
   "Uncle Forry" as he was commonly known was a true character. He was often generous, always friendly, and a natural born promoter.
   
   
   This documentary--as the name implies--chronicles Forry's life. Unlike the Beaumont film, this one contains interviews with Mr. Ackerman, the project having been initiated a couple of years before his death. So we have Ackerman himself dictating a part of the proceedings.
   
   Added to this we are treated to conversations with many of the people with whom he lived, worked, and influenced. And Forry was one hell of an influence to several generations of artists who went on to create much in the world of fantasy, horror, science-fiction, and films. Brock was good enough to give us interviews with many of these people--some well known to most of us, and some more obscure.
   
   If you were a long-time fan of Mr. Ackerman, this documentary will be a pleasure. If you're unfamiliar with his life and works, then you should see the film. As David Schow once said, "All of us are Forrest Ackerman's mutant children."
   
   It couldn't be better said.

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2. AckerMonster review

   Posted by Ken Knight on 19th Jan 2013

   Attention "Uncle Forry" fans! The definitive DVD Documentary on the late great Forrest J. Ackerman and his incredible life is now available thanks to JaSunni, who have once again given the world an awesome documentary on an Entertainment Giant!
   
   Along with the Charles Beaumont documentary, both movies are awesome tributes to gone-but-not-forgotten masters of entertainment: Charles Beaumont and Forrest J. Ackerman.

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3. "An Old Monster Kid's review of the film, 'The AckerMonster Chronicles!'"

   Posted by --William J. Bivens "My Dementia" on 8th Jan 2013

   ~Out here in the territories of Washington State, in the days of yore, before VHS, DVDs, and Cable TV was merely an exotic legend… there were only two places for a Monster Kid to get his monster “fix.” The local late night monster show “Sinister Cinema” and “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine.
   
   I was introduced to my favorite uncle in the pages of FM. Forrest J Ackerman. Uncle Forry, to so many of us. Ohhh… Uncle Forry… I thought I knew ye…
   
   I have seen a number of documentaries about Uncle Forry over the years, but most focused on Ackerman’s famed, extensive and coveted by all Monster Kids, movie memorabilia collection. Some delved into the man himself, but lacked any real substance. They wanted for anything new and undiscovered about our beloved Uncle…
   
   “The AckerMonster Chronicles!” has re-introduced me to Uncle Forry. Through interviews with friends, historians and the man himself, the film has introduced me to a man whom I realized I knew very little about. Not nearly as much as I once might have thought…
   
   For me, the film was parsed into three segments: The Uncle everyone loved, and his collection; the lighter and more personal side (i.e. Uncle Forry’s lesbianism and “porn” collection); and lastly, the Uncle that not everyone necessarily liked (cue Harlan Ellison).
   
   In my viewing of “The AckerMonster Chronicles!,” I was able to get to know Forrest J Ackerman in a way that I never knew I was missing. I got a great sense of who the man was… who the man is. Uncle Forry is no longer with us… but he lives on. “The AckerMonster Chronicles!” honors the man, his legacy and indeed… his memory.~
   
   

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