Posts by Nate Yapp

Review: Spider Baby (1968)

Spider Baby poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2005-10-05 00:00

From the moment Lon Chaney Jr's craggy voice begins crooning about the maddest story ever told over the opening credits, it's apparent that Spider Baby is going to be something different from your average homicidal-family romp. Filmed in 1964, but stuck in cinematic limbo for four years, director Jack Hill's debut swirls with a peculiarly innocent sense of horror.(read more...)

Review: Cry_Wolf (2005)

Cry_Wolf poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2005-09-21 00:00

In Cry_Wolf, director Jeff Wadlow probes what happens when a lie is taken too far. Unfortunately, in doing so, he crosses the fiction with the film itself, negating the irony required in tackling such a subject. As a result, Cry_Wolf implodes well before it hits the disappointing denouement.

At an elite private high school, the popular kids engage in a game of lies for their own amusement. When fresh-faced Owen (Julian Morris) enters their midst, leader Dodger (Lindy Booth) decides to take the game up a notch. Using a recent murder as a jumping-off point, they spread a rumor that a serial killer is stalking the school. It's all good fun until their killer shows up on campus...(read more...)

Review: Asylum of Satan (1972)

Asylum of Satan poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2005-09-07 00:00

Asylum of Satan poses a critical quandary. How much should directorial intent and fulfillment of that intent affect the rendered opinion? It's hard to argue that Asylum is not a bad film, but it maintains a curious sense of non sequitur horror that pokes through the dreck despite first-time director William Girdler's best efforts.

Lucina (Carla Borelli) wakes up in a strange bed in a strange place. A nurse informs her that she's a patient at Pleasant Hill Hospital, in the care of the sinister Dr. Specter (Charles Kissinger). Haunted by strange encounters and confusing visions, Lucina soon suspects that all is not as it seems in this place. If her lumpy fianceé (Nick Jolley) can't save her, she may become a fresh sacrifice for Satan himself!(read more...)

Review: Dead & Breakfast (2004)

Dead and Breakfast poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Wed, 2005-08-31 10:23

How do you review a film that has "It's like a bad horror movie... only worse" as a tagline? In a calculated move, the makers have silenced critical input. If you don't like the movie, it's not like they didn't warn you...

Dead & Breakfast turns out to be an amusing enough piece of schlock. Inspired by such seminal splatstick works as The Evil Dead, Bad Taste, and Dead Alive, writer/director Matthew Leutwyler tosses together as many wacky-go-lucky gore jokes as he can muster for a weird romp through ghoul-town.(read more...)

Review: Doctor Gore (1973)

doctorgore_0
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2005-08-15 00:00

J.G. "Pat" Patterson, Jr., sometimes magician and friend of cult cinema legends H. G. Lewis and William Girdler, put together a little gore film in the early 1970s -- a take on the Frankenstein legend, but with prettier girls and bloodier parts. He assumed six different roles in the production -- director, producer, writer, actor, makeup, and special effects. Never before has one man given so much of himself to produce so little...(read more...)

Review: The Tomb of Ligeia (1964)

Tomb of Ligeia
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2005-08-01 00:00

As Roger Corman's Tomb of Ligeia opens, one striking difference between this film and Corman's other Edgar Allan Poe films becomes immediately apparent. Shooting on location, in the honest-to-gosh English countryside, the director has unbound Ligeia from the stagy, claustrophobic studio sets that marked the rest of the series. Indeed, the entire first reel takes place outdoors. Unfortunately, the change is merely cosmetic, and the result is a lackluster ending to a classic cycle of horror movies.(read more...)

Review: The Devil's Rejects (2005)

Devil's Rejects poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2005-07-25 02:09

Creating a follow-up to the ghoulish spookshow feature House of 1000 Corpses would be a difficult job by anyone's estimation. While House is not without its own particular charms, it contains little of the depth, if you can call it that, of the 1970s grindhouse flicks it seeks to emulate. Writer/director Rob Zombie, however, has learned some lessons since the release of the first film and crafts an interesting experiment in audience sympathies. Whether that experiment is enough to satisfy the hardcore horror fan remains to be seen.(read more...)

Review: Land of the Dead (2005)

Land of the Dead poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Mon, 2005-06-27 00:00

I'm not a huge rap fan, but the latest slew of zombie flicks (Resident Evil, House of the Dead, the Dawn of the Dead remake) kind of reminds me of that Dr. Dre song "Forgot About Dre." With all the undead brouhaha, seems like Hollywood forgot about the progenitor of the modern zombie film - George A. Romero.

Well, now he's back with a brand-new film in the Dead series, Land of the Dead. The good news: it's a welcome addition to the genre, especially in an era where American horror has become so watered down and unexciting. The less-good news: it's not as successful as I'd hoped.
(read more...)

Review: Fall of the House of Usher (1960)

Fall of the House of Usher poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Sun, 2005-05-08 17:29

In the early 1960s, low-budget filmmaker Roger Corman convinced American International Pictures to give him enough money to fund a movie based on Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher." The film would be entirely in color, a first for AIP, and would also feature something unheard of for such a low budget studio: a star.
(read more...)

Review: Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959)

Plan 9 from Outer Space poster
Submitted by Nate Yapp on Tue, 2005-04-26 22:35

Plan 9 from Outer Space flies in the face of all conventional wisdom. How can a film this incompetently produced feel so good? Edward D. Wood, Jr. gives the world another truly great bad cinematic experience and it must be celebrated.

Flying saucers over Hollywood! People in panic! Yes, dear friends, aliens have rather indiscreetly shown themselves to the public, and they're fighting mad. Humanity is filled with morons and that makes Earth dangerous. In order to stop us from developing sun-exploding superweapons, the aliens reanimate three corpses as part of their ninth plan.(read more...)

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