Sometimes a book about a film can be a comprehensive and diligent study of the movie. Other times, a book about film is no more than a dumb dare. This is one of those. David Macpherson, writer of obscure old pop culture, got a box set of the Inner Sanctum movies. He decided to watch them and write a book about the process. Just to make it more interesting, he decided to do the whole thing while drinking. Didn't we call this dumb? We weren't lying.

The Inner Sanctum films are six movies made by Universal in the mid-1940s. They all star Lon Chaney, Jr. They all are mysteries with a dash of the macabre. Some of them are good and watchable. Some of them are the longest one-hour films ever made.

David writes with wit, sarcasm and thoughtfulness about these mostly forgotten movies. He delves into issues of plot and the personal history of Lon Chaney. He loses himself and writes tiny little memoirs inspired by the movies spooling out in front of him. He gets through all six and only has this book and a major hangover to show for it.