Our editor-in-chief Nate Yapp is proud to have contributed to the new book Hidden Horror: A Celebration of 101 Underrated and Overlooked Fright Flicks, edited by Aaron Christensen. Another contributors include Anthony Timpone, B.J. Colangelo, Dave Alexander, Classic-Horror.com's own Robert C. Ring and John W. Bowen. Pick up a copy today from Amazon.com!

Nate Yapp

Nate Yapp's picture
Editor-in-Creep

In my life, I've been a newspaper movie reviewer, an amateur video editor, a web designer, a web editor, a radio DJ, a telemarketer, a technical support specialist, a middle manager, a grocery clerk, a convention panelist, a videographer, a poet, a college student, a son, a step-son, a brother, an uncle, a friend, a best friend, a special friend, a boyfriend, a husband, a dog owner, a cat owner, a dreamer, a pessimist, a point of controversy, an embarrassment, a beam of sunshine, a waste of time, a shoulder to lean on, and a pain in the ass. Some of those I'm still doing.

My love of horror comes from my mother, who used to watch the late night movie shows on television growing up. I took that love and, with the help of a little mad science, created the monstrosity known as Classic-Horror.com. I ran it for thirteen years before shutting it down in 2012. It's probably my greatest achievement.

Now that I have more free time, I run a Dungeons and Dragons campaign, make transformative video remixes, and play video games. My DVD/Blu-ray collection is still ridiculously organized.

Other reviews I've written appear on Cinema Blend and The Sci-Fi Block, if you're interested. I also have an essay about Alucarda in Aaron Christensen's compendium Hidden Horror

Follow me on Twitter.
Posts by Nate Yapp

Many Happy Returns: Our Final Post

Tales from the Crypt poster

As announced back in March, today will be the last day that Classic-Horror.com updates. After today, the site will remain online as an archive. It is also the site's thirteenth birthday. Classic horror has been part of me longer than that, though -- far, far longer.

There's a young boy in Iowa in 1991 whose parents just bought him The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu for Christmas, because that's all he really wanted. His mother had introduced him to horror films earlier that year and now the boy is obsessed with all things monstrous. He has a plethora of Universal classics on tape because his best friend's dad (who has cable) taped AMC's Monsterfest for him. He writes a fan letter to Vincent Price and hopes to meet him someday. (read more...)

The Terrorphile: The Song is Over (Farewell/Horror Tribute fanvid)

As the site draws to a close, I thought I would try to put into video form some kind of final farewell. I've worked on this on and off for the last three years (starting in 2009 when I thought I might shut down the site then). The video is kind of hodge-podge of clips from over 200 horror sources, set to The Who's The Song is Over. I think the song reflects some of my feelings about the site and the horror genre in general.

No notes this time. I think I've said everything I need to say in my farewell post.

Review: The Vampire Bat (1933)

Vampire Bat 1933 poster

Genre is cumulative. Successful elements of one film are picked up, refined, and tweaked by the next. Sometimes the result is an improvement or even an advancement, other times it is imitation or homage. In many cases, a film will combine the perceived successes of its predecessors, synthesizing them into something familiar but new. These are the places where genre evolves. Take the case of The Vampire Bat, which borrows two of the stars of Doctor X and Mystery of the Wax Museum, but more importantly, it carries forward some of the themes and genre trappings of Universal's 1931 horror hits, Dracula and Frankenstein. In doing so, the film shows some innovation of its own, resulting in an entertaining, if occasionally slipshod film.(read more...)

The End is Near

The End is Near

This is not the easiest article I've ever had to write. On June 15th, 2012, the site's 13th birthday, Classic-Horror.com will cease updating. We will continue publishing biweekly reviews up until that point (on Fridays instead of our usual Mondays), but after that, the site will remain up only as an archive.

There are a number of reasons for the site coming to a close in three months, but none of them are particularly important. Basically, it's time to move on. Thirteen years is a good run.

I wanted to give a little warning rather than cease out of nowhere, because I want to point out that we will have some incredible reviews from our staff, who are some of the best writers I have ever known. We're going to go out on some of our strongest material.

There will be another post on June 15th, a final farewell post, where I talk about more about the closure. This post is just a friendly notice that the end of the book is drawing near.

The Terrorphile: The Gremlin Show (fanvid)

Gremlins poster

I really have no excuse for this one. Sometimes I have stupid ideas and they won't leave me alone until I execute them. Please forgive me.

(read more...)