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

Review: They Only Come Out at Night (2001)

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Modern independent horror film is a weird thing. In order to create something marketable, you either have to have something really bloody and/or nudity-filled (something Full Moon or Troma would release) or you have to be 100% original and scary (The Blair Witch Project comes to mind immediately). Dave Lawler is something of a renegade filmmaker in that he refuses to create either. Instead, he appears to be making movies purely for his own twisted amusement.(read more...)

Review: The Others (2001)

The Others poster

Catharsis is a word I often use to describe why I love horror films. The fear and the tension build up, like an ocean wave, and then recede back from where they came, taking whatever else was laying on the beach of my mind, leaving me relaxed and calm... a blank slate of sand. With all the horror films I see, however, it becomes harder and harder to achieve this state.(read more...)

Review: Murders in the Zoo (1933)

Murders in the Zoo poster

Some days I wish I was old enough to say that I remember the days when melodrama and horror were almost interchangeable terms. I'd point out a few key examples: Secret of the Blue Room, The Vampire Bat, and this little number, Murders in the Zoo. Containing as much drama and suspense as it does horror, it remains one of the more effective unsupernatural terror films of the early 30s.(read more...)

Review: Prom Night (1980)

Prom Night poster

As a horror reviewer, it is often difficult to maintain an objective, passive eye, due to the inherently emotional nature of the genre. Prom Night made my job easy, by being just average enough to be unengaging and just decent enough as to not be a total bore.(read more...)

Review: Kwaidan (1964)

Kwaidan poster

Unless you have a great independent video store, it's going to be difficult to find Japanese masterpiece Kwaidan for rental. Not to worry, though. It is available to buy from many Internet stores, and for a film this grand, purchase is almost necessary. As a film that transcends its cultural barrier to become a horror film for the international community, Kwaidan is a must-have component of a serious collector's cache
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Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street 4: The Dream Master (1988)

Nightmare on Elm Street 4 poster

...and at this point, the Nightmare series has officially gotten too old. Not to say that this is a bad movie, but it is definitely evident that the filmmakers have done as much as they can for the character of Freddy, and are fine with letting him become a joke.(read more...)

Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987)

Nightmare on Elm Street 3 poster

Nightmare on Elm Street 3 starts off on the right foot and virtually ignores everything that happened in number 2. Then, you throw in that Wes Craven, the creator of the series, co-wrote the first draft... Well, that just makes me giddy.

It's funny to think that back when I started Classic Horror, I was dead set against ever allowing Freddy or Jason in. Well, they're both here, and I've found that I've grown attached to Freddy Krueger, in a sick sort of horror fanboy way. Here he stalks the last of the Elm Street kids, who are all in a mental institution for their "mass hysteria" problem. Each one of them is having nightmares involving a hideously burned man in a dirty brown hat, wearing a green and red sweater.(read more...)

Review: A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge (1985)

Nightmare on Elm Street 2 poster

Battles often erupt when two schools of thought get together. One side says that sequels can and are often better than their predecessors. The opposition dismisses sequels out of hand, claiming that they all "suck." Despite the fact that I'm a card-carrying member of the former, I'm afraid that A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge only fuels the arguments of the latter.(read more...)

Review: Planet of the Vampires (1965)

Planet of the Vampires poster

Director Mario Bava's usual mastery is unfortunately hampered by a sub-par script, cheesy dubbing, and bad special effects. A crew of the starship Argos crash themselves on a desolate planet and find themselves at the mercy of a mysterious alien race. Y'see, these non-human "luminous globes" want to get off-planet in a bad way. Lucky for them, they can possess the minds of the unconscious and the bodies of the dead, leaving the Argos crew members in a battle for their own willpower.(read more...)

Review: The Forsaken (2001)

The Forsaken poster

Road movies annoy me, but I think vampire flicks rock. A hybrid of the two should be like the bastard child of Carrot Top and Nicole Kidman; you don't know which way it could go, but you have an aching suspicion that this one's got its daddy's genes.

Not so with The Forsaken, which rewrites vampire lore (I think director/writer J. S. Cardone should get a special prize for being "rethink #1,000,000"), but steals copiously from other vamp films (most notably John Carpenter's Vampires).(read more...)