[4] Kathleen Quinn of The New York Times praised Hollywood Gothic, writing, "Skal tracks Transylvania's most popular vampire with dry wit and the skills of a fine detective.

[6] Writing in 2004, David Colton of USA Today noted that the book had "become one of the field's essential reads" and had "[raised] the standards for horror researchers".

[8] Stefan Dziemianowicz of The Washington Post argued that some of Skal's arguments were "pretty far-fetched", but added that, as a whole, the book "offers persuasive evidence that in order to understand a culture, you must know what it fears".

[9] Skal collaborated with Elias Savada to produce 1995's Dark Carnival: The Secret World of Tod Browning, Hollywood's Master of the Macabre.

[11] Steven E. Alford of the Houston Chronicle remarked, "Dark Carnival succeeds in resurrecting the reputation of one of Hollywood's long-buried eccentrics.

Skal also co-edited the 1997 Norton Critical Edition of Bram Stoker's Dracula and compiled the 2001 anthology Vampires: Encounters with the Undead.

[1] On January 1, 2024, Skal and Postawko were involved in a traffic collision in Glendale, California, when a vehicle crossed into their lane and struck their car head-on.