Video Watchdog is a bimonthly, digest size

Digest size

Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately 5½ x 8¼ inches, but can also be 5⅜ x 8⅜ inches and 5½ x 7½ inches. These sizes have evolved from the printing press operation end...

 film magazine started in 1990 by publisher/editor

Editing

Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...

 Tim Lucas

Tim Lucas

Tim Lucas is a film critic, biographer, novelist, screenwriter, blogger, and publisher/editor of the video review magazine Video Watchdog.-Biography and early career:...

 and his wife, art director and co-publisher Donna Lucas.

Although devoted chiefly to the horror

Horror film

Horror films seek to elicit a negative emotional reaction from viewers by playing on the audience's most primal fears. They often feature scenes that startle the viewer through the means of macabre and the supernatural, thus frequently overlapping with the fantasy and science fiction genres...

, science fiction

Science fiction film

Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...

, and fantasy

Fantasy film

Fantasy films are films with fantastic themes, usually involving magic, supernatural events, make-believe creatures, or exotic fantasy worlds. The genre is considered to be distinct from science fiction film and horror film, although the genres do overlap...

 genres, the magazine frequently delves beyond these strictures into art film

Art film

An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...

, Hong Kong action cinema

Hong Kong action cinema

Hong Kong action cinema is the principal source of the Hong Kong film industry's global fame. It combines elements from the action film, as codified by Hollywood, with Chinese storytelling and aesthetic traditions, to create a culturally distinctive form that nevertheless has a wide transcultural...

, spaghetti western

Spaghetti Western

Spaghetti Western, also known as Italo-Western, is a nickname for a broad sub-genre of Western films that emerged in the mid-1960s in the wake of Sergio Leone's unique and much copied film-making style and international box-office success, so named by American critics because most were produced and...

, exploitation films, anime

Anime

is the Japanese abbreviated pronunciation of "animation". The definition sometimes changes depending on the context. In English-speaking countries, the term most commonly refers to Japanese animated cartoons....

, and general mainstream cinema

Film

A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...

. In addition to Lucas himself, Video Watchdogs list of regular contributors includes such writers as Kim Newman

Kim Newman

Kim Newman is an English journalist, film critic, and fiction writer. Recurring interests visible in his work include film history and horror fiction—both of which he attributes to seeing Tod Browning's Dracula at the age of eleven—and alternate fictional versions of history...

, Stephen R. Bissette

Stephen R. Bissette

Stephen R. Bissette is an American comics artist, editor, and publisher with a focus on the horror genre. He is best known for working with writer Alan Moore and inker John Totleben on the DC comic Swamp Thing in the 1980s....

, associate editor John Charles, Bill Cooke and Heather Drain. Regular columns include "Ramsey's Rambles" by Ramsey Campbell

Ramsey Campbell

John Ramsey Campbell is an English horror fiction author.Since he first came to prominence in the mid-1960s, critics have cited Campbell as one of the leading writers in his field: T. E. D. Klein has written that "Campbell reigns supreme in the field today", while S. T...

 and in past issues, "Fleapit Flashbacks" by Joe Dante

Joe Dante

Joseph "Joe" Dante, Jr. is an American film director and producer of films generally with humorous and science fiction content....

. Douglas E. Winter contributes a CD/music column, "Audio Watchdog," while books are reviewed in "Biblio Watchdog" by Lucas, Anthony Ambrogio and Brett Taylor.

Publication history

Originally a black-and-white publication, Video Watchdog added full-color covers with its 13th issue, and celebrated its 100th issue in 2003 by adopting a permanent, full-color format. Los Angeles-based artist Charlie Largent has been responsible for most of the cover art since 2002, beginning with #84. As of 2011, two Video Watchdog Special Editions have also been published, as well as two Video Watchdog Signature Editions, the latter featuring unique covers individually signed by child stars Donnie Dunagan

Donnie Dunagan

Donald "Donnie" Roan Dunagan is a semi-retired American former child actor and United States Marine Corps drill instructor. He was a voice actor in the Bambi film, providing the voice of Young Bambi. A 28-page interview, his first after decades as a "lost Hollywood player," can be found in the...

 and Ann Carter.

The magazine's website includes "Round Table" film discussions, free article samples, and a link to Lucas' "Video WatchBlog, launched in October 2005.

Related publications

As a company, Video Watchdog has also published two books written by editor Lucas. The Video Watchdog Book, released September 1992, is a collection of articles, essays, and lists that originated in other magazines, including Film Comment

Film Comment

Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...

 and Fangoria

Fangoria

Fangoria is an American magazine devoted to horror and exploitation films, which has a number of associated brands:* Fangoria Comics* Fangoria Films* Fangoria RadioFangoria may also refer to:* Fangoria , a Spanish electro pop band...

. Mario Bava All the Colors of the Dark, published September 2007, is a copiously illustrated, 1128-page critical biography of Italian director and cinematographer Mario Bava

Mario Bava

Mario Bava was an Italian director, screenwriter, and cinematographer remembered as one of the greatest names from the "golden age" of Italian horror films.-Biography:Mario Bava was born in San Remo, Liguria, Italy...

. It received a Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Award as the Best Book of 2007, as well as an Independent Publishers Award bronze medal and a Saturn Award

Saturn Award

The Saturn Award is an award presented annually by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films to honor the top works in science fiction, fantasy, and horror in film, television, and home video. The Saturn Awards were devised by Dr. Donald A. Reed in 1972, who felt that films within...

 for Special Achievement.

Awards

• Best Magazine - Rondo Classic Horror Award 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.
• Best Website - Rondo Classic Horror Award 2006.
• Best Semi-Prozine -- FanEx Award, 1991