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!

Posts by Nate Yapp

Zombie/Reality TV Mash-up "Dead Set" Coming to IFC

Jamie Winstone in Dead Set

In early 2009, one of our British correspondents, Simon Powell, reviewed a fascinating-sounding miniseries called Dead Set. Written by satirist Charlie Brooker, Dead Set mixed a zombie apocalypse with the reality television series Big Brother. Simon gave it a positive review, and I despaired that the show, which made its debut on the UK-based channel E4, would never see make it across the pond to the USA. Well, those worries are now dispelled -- Dead Set is making its American debut on IFC. Starting on October 25th, each of the five parts will air at 12:00AM midnight (Eastern time), with the entire series being shown in a marathon on Halloween night at 8PM Eastern. (read more...)

Roy Ward Baker (1916-2010)

Roy Ward Baker

Roy Ward Baker, who directed several British horror films in the late 1960s and early 1970s, passed away in his sleep on Tuesday, according to Guardian.co.uk. He was 93 years old. Born in 1916, Baker worked his way up the the ranks of the British film industry in the 1930s and 40s, moving from minor jobs to assistant director (he worked with Hitchcock on The Lady Vanishes). In 1947, he made his directorial debut with The October Man, which he made for Two Cities Films in 1947. He directed a number of notable pictures in the 1950s, including Don't Bother to Knock (starring Richard Widmark and Marilyn Monroe) and A Night to Remember (which documented the sinking of the RMS Titanic). As part of his extensive television work in the early 1960s, Baker helmed the episode of The Avengers which introduced Diana Rigg's Emma Peel to the world. (read more...)

Texas Chainsaw Massacre Month (October 2010)

Leatherface in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974)

It began, legend says, at Christmas time. Tobe Hooper, a film director whose only feature credit had been a hippie drama called Eggshells, was standing in a Montgomery Ward, trapped by the bustle of last-minute shoppers. As he contemplated how to get through the mass of consumerism, he found violent inspiration in a display of chainsaws. Thankfully, he didn't act on his carnage-filled fantasy of bloody crowd control. Instead, he channeled the idea into his second feature, a low-budget horror flick about a quintet of young people who are beset by a family of cannibal hicks in the sweltering Texas summer. Although produced with working titles such as Headcheese and Leatherface, it was released in 1974 with the only name it would ever need: The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. This brutal cacophony of terror would go on to spawn three direct sequels, documentaries, a video game, several comic books, an official fan club, and countless pieces of collectible merchandise. Its imitators are innumerable. In 2003, New Line Cinema and Platinum Dunes released a remake which spawned its own prequel, merchandise, and comic books.

The Terrophile: Love Shack of the Evil Dead (Fanvid)

Evil Dead poster

Sometimes when I'm coming up with my fanvids, I think of the movie or television series I want to work with, and then come up with a song. Sometimes I like of a song and try to find a fandom to vid it to. However, with my latest creation, the song and source came at the same time in a burst of inspiration: The B-52's "Love Shack" paired with The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II. In hindsight, it's an obvious pairing. However, the actual editing process was less obvious. From start to finish, this video was a year and a half in the making. I hope you enjoy it.

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Kevin McCarthy (1914-2010)

Kevin McCarthy

Kevin McCarthy, an actor famous for his role in Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956), died Saturday, September 12, 2010, at the age of 96, according to the New York Times. In Invasion, McCarthy perfectly captured the creeping paranoia of his character, Dr. Miles Bennell, as he discovers that his friends and neighbors are being replaced by emotionless pod people. His wild-eyed cries of "They're here! They're here! You're next!" in the film's prologue are today part of the sci-fi geek patois. In 1978, McCarthy appeared in a cameo in the remake of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, yelling the same paranoid warnings. That same year, he appeared in Joe Dante's Piranha, marking the beginning of a fruitful collaboration between the actor and director. McCarthy would eventually appear in seven Dante films, the last being 2003's Looney Tunes: Back in Action.(read more...)

"Slumber Party Massacre Collection" Arriving on DVD in October

Slumber Party Massacre Collection DVD

I wouldn't usually post about another series of low-budget 80s slasher movies arriving on DVD, but the Slumber Party Massacre series (1982-1990) has always piqued my interest. The slasher movie has long been derided as chauvinist at best, misogynistic at worst, so a trilogy of such films written and directed by women bears closer scrutiny, especially when one of the women involved is noted feminist Rita Mae Brown (she wrote the screenplay for the first Slumber Party Massacre film). (read more...)

The Terrorphile: Corman, Price, and Poe -- A Video Tribute

Fall of the House of Usher poster

I grew up on two kinds of horror movies: Universal creature features and Roger Corman's Edgar Allan Poe films. I have very specific memories of watching Vincent Price going mad in Pit and the Pendulum and cheering on the magic duel in The Raven. These are formative experiences in my life as a film aficionado, so when Jose Cruz decided to devote a month of his Cold Reads column to celebrating Poe's short stories, I felt it was the right time to pay tribute to the cinematic triumvirate of Corman, Price, and Poe. 

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Shout! Factory Announces More Gamera Goodness

Gamera Double Features

Man, those folks at Shout! Factory really push the nostalgia buttons, don't they? After their releases of Gamera the Giant Monster and Gamera vs. Barugon in DVD special editions, they're returning to the giant turtle with a pair of double features -- Gamera Vs. Gyaos / Gamera Vs. Viras and Gamera Vs. Guiron / Gamera Vs. Jiger . All four films will be presented in their original Japanese versions. Both double feature DVDs will be released on September 21, 2010 and carry a suggested retail price of $19.93 (you can pre-order them from Amazon.com by clicking the set titles above). Below you'll find the film descriptions from the press release to further whet your appetite for kaiju carnage.(read more...)

Shiverin' 6: Horror from 1960

Shiverin' 6 logo

Another Shiverin' 6, folks, this time focusing on some of the best horror flicks released fifty years ago in 1960. They come from all around the globe and from all sorts of genres, but they're all highly recommended. As always, the Shiverin' 6 represents some of the best from a given category, not necessarily the best. As such, the entries aren't ranked but listed alphabetically. Be sure to let us know in the comments what some of your favorites from 1960 are!(read more...)

Sweet Cthulhu! Guillermo Del Toro's Next Project is "At the Mountains of Madness"

Astounding Stories - At the Mountains of Madness

Guillermo del Toro has been attached to more projects in the past five years than I have fingers, but the one that I've always been most excited to see happen is finally finally coming to pass. Deadline New York reports that del Toro's next movie as director will definitely be an adaptation of H.P. Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness for Universal. James Cameron will be a producer on the film, which should come in handy since it will be shot in 3D. Cameras will start rolling next summer after what I'm sure will be a necessarily lengthy preproduction period.(read more...)