Posts by Nate Yapp

Review: Children of the Night (1991)

Children of the Night poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2003-07-20 00:00

If nothing else, Fangoria Films' Children of the Night serves as a very strong rebuttal to the notion that diehard horror fans are always the very best sources for a good scary movie.It's certainly not the worst vampire movie ever made, but it gets a ribbon for participation. Ridiculous direction, a terrible script, and a passel of actors all vying to win the Shatner Award for Clinical Overacting are just the most basic of problems at hand here.
(read more...)

Review: Ted Bundy (2002)

Ted Bundy poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2003-05-08 00:00

Serial killer aficionados (and most horror fans) probably know the story of Ted Bundy, the most notorious mass murderers in the history of the American common man. The media's portrayed him as the boy next door, one who just happens to smash in the heads of pretty girls when the mood strikes him. Director Matthew Bright (Freeway) and co-screenwriter Stephen Johnston (Ed Gein) try to paint a less sensationalistic portrait, while still making a picture drowned in crimson and icky voyeuristic thrills.(read more...)

Review: Ed Gein (2000)

Ed Gein poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2003-05-07 00:00

Ed Gein is certainly a film with the right idea. One could take the life of a famous serial killer, and turn into nothing but a moribund slasher flick, doused in the crimson blood of so many mangled and uninteresting bodies. However, writer Steve Johnston (with a little nudging from star and executive producer Steve Railsback) instead choice to focus on Gein as a common man who is very, very sick.

It's just a shame it didn't work better.(read more...)

Review: Christine (1983)

Christine poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2003-01-17 01:00

There was a time where you could hardly get away with being a major horror film director without having at least one Stephen King adaptation to your name. Brian De Palma had one. So did Tobe Hooper and David Cronenberg. George Romero had two. So, really, it's no surprise that John Carpenter also weighed in with his attempt at King's maniac car book "Christine." What is a little odd, though, is that, although the film is entertaining enough, it's more than a little muddled.(read more...)

Review: God Told Me To (1976)

God Told Me To (1976) poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2002-11-11 01:00

God is one mean mother... er... father... thing. At least Larry Cohen, the writer/director of God Told Me To (also known as Demon), believes that.

There are few films out there like this. It is at once a gritty New York crime story and a science fiction/horror mystery of such bizarre magnitude that one may have to watch it twice just to check their sanity.

There's been a rash of mass murders in the Big Apple that are seemingly unrelated, except that all of the perpertrators justify their actions in the same way: "God Told Me To." Detective Lt. Peter Nicholas of the NYPD (Tony Lo Bianco) finds himself inexorably drawn to the case, tangled in its enigma more than he's willing to admit.(read more...)

Review: Halloween (1978)

Halloween 1978 poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Thu, 2002-10-31 01:00

It's a dark, autumn night. You're alone in the house, and the wind is playing all sorts of tricks on your mind. You hear a noise. Sitting bolt upright, you check for a presence. Nothing. And then, in the corner of your eye... SOMETHING! If there was nothing there, than it's more than likely that John Carpenter put it there.

Confused? Good. Let's move on.(read more...)

Review: Frankenstein (1931)

Frankenstein 1931 poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2002-10-20 00:00

Few images from the last century are so universal as to be a part of the social unconscious. A flat-top head, a pair of bolts in the neck, and a skin tone ranging from gray to green - show that to anybody, and they'll say "Frankenstein." A little research will show that such a description didn't come from Mary Shelley's novel. Frankenstein (or, more accurately, Frankenstein's Monster) may have started out as a character in a book, but it was in James Whale's 1931 classic (and very loose) adaptation that he achieved cultural godhood - and it's not hard to see why.(read more...)

Review: Scream (1996)

Scream poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Fri, 2002-10-11 00:00

A phone ring. A bizarre phone call. A flirtation. A threat. A quiz. A display of violence. A chase. An end. A discovery. Finally, a scream. And all the while, the Jiffy Pop burns...

Thus begins Scream, possibly the best film in the hit-and-miss oeuvre of Wes Craven. A re-imagining of the stalk 'n' slash genre, which up until that point had been fairly stagnant, it was marked by both a reverence for its predecessors as well as a willingness to make up some of a few of its own rules.(read more...)

Review: Red Dragon (2002)

Red Dragon poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2002-10-02 00:00

Red Dragon makes one appreciate Silence of the Lambs. I don't mean that in a negative way.

It's just that Red Dragon is a much simpler version of 1991 film in many ways. It strips away deeper subtext (Clarice Starling's journey for self-understanding and acceptance, epitomized by the pull that Hannibal Lecter exudes on her), and opts to concentrate on the story proper. In a way, the two films are complimentary of one another.(read more...)

Review: The Black Cat (1934)

The Black Cat 1934 poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Tue, 2002-10-01 00:00

Every great era of horror is marked by at least one film that is so unlike its contemporaries that it is often not given its due importance. This is especially true of Edgar G. Ulmer's The Black Cat, and it's a shame, too, as it is one of the finest genre films made by Universal Pictures.

The Black Cat is also notable in that it pairs Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi for the first time. Although several collaborations would follow, this is the most interesting as it is the only one where each actor has equal importance. Later works would typically see one playing second banana to the other (unless they don't even share a single scene, as in Black Friday).
(read more...)

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