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: The Black Room (1935)

Black Room 1935 poster

It is difficult to find many horror films made within a few years of Frankenstein (1931) where Boris Karloff is not wearing some kind of monstrous makeup. Even in The Black Cat (1934), his character wears a faux widow's peak to suggest a demonic appearance. However, in 1935's The Black Room, Karloff foregoes the heavy greasepaint and prosthetics, stripping his acting to the bare bones of the profession -- vocal inflection, body language, and that light of thought flickering behind the eyes. As a bonus, he gives a bravado double performance, playing both halves of a set of identical twins.(read more...)

Review: Invisible Ghost (1941)

Invisible Ghost poster

Invisible Ghost's advertising material should put an asterisk after the title, one that leads to the following warning: "contains neither ghosts nor invisibility." The misleading title is aptly attached to a movie that drives the viewer around in repetitive circles. Without a restrained performance from star Bela Lugosi and a few atmospheric sequences by director Joseph H. Lewis, Invisible Ghost might be a complete waste of celluloid.(read more...)

Review: The Bird with the Crystal Plumage (1970)

Bird with the Crystal Plumage poster

As directorial debuts go, Dario Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage is quite impressive. Although Argento would perfect his craft in later films, Bird maintains a consistent veil of suspense, mixing in a touch of ultraviolence and a twist of Hitchcock. As such, it is a solid example of the quintessentially Italian giallo film.(read more...)

Review: Mad Love (1935)

Mad Love poster

Mad Love is a curiosity of 1930s Hollywood horror. Rather than a tale of a monster on the loose or of a mad scientist with a lust for glory, Mad Love is about a man at loose ends and a mad man who happens to be a scientist. It isn't that some of the movie's themes are sexual; the film dives head-first into the sea of sexual desire and the destruction that occurs when it is sublimated and perverted.(read more...)

Review: The Ape (1940)

The Ape 1940

Some films are worth 1000+ words of analysis. Some films are worth 750+ words of snark. Some films are not The Ape or any number of other cheapie horror films made by Monogram Pictures in the 1940s. While there may be room for detailed analysis by an eye more discerning than my own, it is perhaps more beneficial to the film and its viewer to simply see the whole experience as an entertaining diversion -- nothing more and nothing less.(read more...)

Review: Sleepaway Camp II (1988)

sleepawaycamp2

Ah, the slasher sequel. So often the bane of the horror reviewer's existence, because, half of the time, the sequel has almost nothing to do with its predecessor. The other half, the sequel is such a perfect carbon copy that you might as well reprint your review of the original, with a few minor tweaks. Of course, every once in a while you get a movie like Sleepaway Camp II, which follows the events of Sleepaway Camp without repeating them. Sadly, however, this does not make the film all that interesting.

Please be warned -- the following review contains a massive spoiler for the first Sleepaway Camp movie. By continuing, you acknowledge that you have seen that film or that just don't give a fig.(read more...)

Review: Little Shop of Horrors (1986)

Little Shop of Horrors 1986

Sometimes there's not much to say about a film that's sat in your heart since you were very short indeed. You can make all the critical arguments for or against it that you like, but the fact remains that no such to or fro will have any effect -- and so it is for me with Frank Oz's horror-musical Little Shop of Horrors.(read more...)

Review: The Exorcist (1973)

Exorcist 1973 poster

I cannot stand listening to either William Friedkin or William Peter Blatty talk about The Exorcist. They have a tendency to speak at great length, not about what they intended, but what the film means to audiences everywhere. How it shakes the foundations of their faith, makes them question their reality, and turns their view of good and evil on its head. It sounds very nice, but even assuming that what Friedken and Blatty say is true, such statements limit the effectiveness of The Exorcist specifically to those people with a strong monotheistic religious bearing. Personally, however, I find it difficult to recommend the film to much of anybody.(read more...)

Review: Blood for Dracula (1974)

Blood for Dracula poster

With all the revolutions in the film industry in the late 1960s and early 1970s, many of the older film monsters were starting to appear cliché, even trite. Dracula, long the enemy of Victorian standards, needed to be updated for a time when such standards had long passed. Leave it to pop artist/film producer Andy Warhol and director Paul Morrissey to do this by flipping the rules around and making Dracula the pathetic victim of permissive social mores.(read more...)

Review: The Mummy (1999)

Mummy 1999 poster

Whenever writer/director Stephen Sommers starts talking about his great love and respect for the classic Universal monster movies, I have to wonder if he's watching the same films as I did growing up. After seeing the The Mummy, The Mummy Returns, and Van Helsing, it's clear that he is more fond of the slightly goofier fare of the 1940s than the thoughtful horrors of the 1930s. Mind you, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, it's just that one wishes that Sommers would be clearer about his intent. Taken as pure summer fare, and not as a direct remake of any sort, Sommers' 1999 version of The Mummy is a complete waste of time -- which is exactly what it strives to be.(read more...)