Rating: 
Summary: Makes Ed Wood's life look like a bed of roses!
Review: This is a scorching read. Andy Milligan, as you are all aware, is the no-budget director of such anti-masterpieces as "Torture Dungeon," "Blood thirtsty Butchers" and "Vapors." Milligan was indifferent to such technical niceties as editing, sound and coherency. More than any other schlock director, Milligan used his camera as a blunt tool for exorcising demons with claustrophobic stories involving perversion, murder, mutilation and incest. You probably won't enjoy an Andy Milligan film -- but you will never forget one either.Jimmy McDonough does an excellent job chronicling Milligan's life and times: from sailor thrown out on a "lace discharge," to dress maker, to avant-garde stage director to finally an exploitation fillmmaker, "The Ghastly One" never fails to astound. Milligan was very much like the films he made. Abusive, extreme and awful. The stories on display in this volume are shocking and relevatory. The most naked and telling part of the book is when the author befriends Milligan in his Hollywood phase, while the director was dying from AIDS. Milligan remains cantankerous until his dying breath, with one last prank pulled on the material world. I MUST include two criticisms; 1.) The book is overly reliant on footnotes (one on every page!). The anecdotal information is better left incorporated into the text. 2.) Minor inconsistencies here and there. McDonough says Milligan's "Monstrosity" is best-seen film of Milligan's next to "Fleshpot on 42nd Street" when it is only available on bootleg! Other than that -- this is a must-read volume to all fans of low-budget filmmaking.
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